Wednesday 11 October 2006

New light through old windows

Started a new gig. Very exciting! I'm doing ten weeks with a group of third year undergrads at LCC and we're talking about new media. For those who don't know about "new media" this includes - blogging. I suppose I'm slightly surprised because I'm an old bloke who blogs yet I think the web (and the net) is "old" media as I've lived here for so long.

Anyways. I found a piece about Internet censorship and I thought you guys may be interested. It's written by a bloke who is an associate professor of such things in the Department of Economics at the University of Texas at Arlington. So I guess we should take some notice but I'm afraid it simply supported what I already thought:
It is found that those with kids, who are married, who are older, who use the internet for religious content, who work in the public sector, and who think pornography or privacy are the predominant issue concerning the Internet tend to favor Internet censorship. On the other hand, those who are male, live in urban environs, use the Internet for political content, have more Internet experience, are more comfortable on the Internet, work in information industries, and who feel government regulation or censorship is the most important issue concerning the Internet tend to be against Internet censorship.
I'm a bloke and I use the Internet and I've worked in the information industries and I'm not at all comfortable with the bunch of numpties we elected last time round.............

Serious point - "What the net will become is still, in large part, up to us" - that's the last line in "The Virtual Community" (2000) by Howard
Rheingold

Monday 2 October 2006

Flat

Weird.

Final work has gone (ECA to those who know) and the courses I work on start this week and next but I feel flat. I'm cool, I'm not looking for sympathy but wondering if anyone else feels like this after the final bit of a course? I've felt exhausted after exam but this is different, first electronically submitted paper - the others were real paper with all the physical exertion and finality of printing and delivering but this feels somehow incomplete.


Weird!