Tuesday Night @ Rowan

Hey guys,

Is anyone going to the Darfur Awareness thing tomorrow night at Rowan? I unfortunately can’t but I wish I could. I did a presentation last semester for a class project on Darfur and the unfortunate genocide that is going on there.

I don’t want to say I am a spokesperson for the awareness of the genocide going on there, but I really hope you guys attend if you can. I think it’s important to spread the knowledge.

~Meg

Napster and Worries for Teachers

The Devoss and Porter article on Napster talks about the controversies with file sharing. On the bottom of the second page, it states:

“Napster should matter to writing teachers because it represents a paradigm shift: from an older view of writing as alphabetic text on paper, intended for print distribution, to an emergent and ill-understood view of writing as weaving digital media for distribution across networked spaces for various audiences engaged in different types of reading. Writing is no longer just alphabetic text—writing is also audio and video. And writing is also hypertext and the delivery of multimedia content via the Internet and the Web. And writing is chunks of tagged text and data floating within databases and underneath the Internet in P2P spaces.”

As a future teacher, I feel like there are so many things for teachers to worry about. It’s hard enough to determine plagiarism, but now they are adding the twist of online text and that makes it even more difficult. How are teachers supposed to determine plagiarism in students’ writing?

The article also talks about the “death” of Napster. I’ll admit I used to have Napster and engaged in illegal file downloading/sharing but there are still programs such as Limewire out there for people to download illegally. So when are they going to require users to pay for Limewire? It seems like an impossible task to accomplish.

Later on in the document, the authors talk about the “value added” to buying a CD versus file sharing. They say:

“The value-added that is missing in digital filesharing is, in part, nostalgic—the
feel of the CD case and the opening of a Brand New Product. The value-added, however, is
also tangible—the artwork and inserts that come with a purchased CD.”

I personally buy CDs just for that reason. For certain artists, I will intentionally go out and buy the CD for the artwork. It’s a sort of authenticity about having the actual CD in my hands that makes me appreciate the CD more.

Are people looking too much into this copyright and plagiarism thing? Just like the other article, “Understanding Internet Plagiarism” by Rebecca Moore Howard, it is believed that plagiarism is becoming increasingly harder to deal with. Howard states:

“In all its forms, new media constitutes yet another revolution in access to text, and one of
its controversies is the anxiety of authenticity. With so much text universally accessible (at least potentially), readers are suddenly detecting far more plagiarism than ever before. “Are today’s students more unethical than in years past?” asked Brian Hansen, the Congressional Quarterly researcher who interviewed me in 2003. My answer is, “How would we know? On what basis could comparisons be made?”

This right here shows how complex the situation has become. This is the beginning of a whole new textual universe. Howard goes onto say,

“The very fact that the question arises, though, indicates a cultural fear that indeed this might be the case. This fear arises from a belief in widespread plagiarism—plagiarism that, because of boundless access to text, cannot be controlled. And that belief arises from the availability of text online not just to writers but to readers. It is readers’ access to copious text that makes them believe in writers’ plagiarism.”

So the fact is, the most text there is to have access to, the more chances and reasons to believe that students are plagiarizing. Is there any way to fix this situation?

~Meg

Rowan Tragedy

It is with deepest regret I am writing to inform my fellow Rowan classmates that one of our own has died this weekend. Donald Farrell was brutally beaten Saturday night a little after 9:00pm. He was approached by a group of people asking where the homecoming parties were and they preceded to assault him taking his cell phone and wallet.

Donald died Sunday afternoon around 1:30 from his injuries. He was only 19.

My heart goes out to his family and friends. My thoughts and prayers are with them at this time. I hope that everyone on our campus takes extra precautions when walking on campus at night.

To read the rest of the story, go here.

~Meg

Scary movie poll

Hey guys,

Just thought I’d ask this question in the spirit of Halloween… Do you prefer the old scary movies like Psycho and The Exorist or do you like the new gore fest films? Or how about a movie like the Ring? I think the old movies are good and have a creepy vibe to them without totally grossing me out (i.e. Saw III making me pass out after the first ten minutes).

Has anyone seen the Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween? I wanted to see that but never did. If so, was it any good?

~Meg

Video blogging, “A Rape in Cyberspace…”

So we all know Lonelygirl15 is a fake and I am sure there are others that follow suit, but I can’t believe people are actually mad at about it. We all know reality TV isn’t real, so why are people so upset about staged video blogs?

As for the article, “A Rape in Cyberspace” I just thought the whole article was bizarre. The problem with the whole situation is that “rape” is considered a societal crime. It is unacceptable in real life for a person to rape somebody. So I can see why so many people got upset. Then again, it is not a REAL life situation and people take online life waaaay too seriously. I can understand if the person found the woman in real life and raped her, but the fact that is it was online and it was just a bunch of words. If these people want to rid of him, they need to have a set of rules to back up their reasoning for wanting to get rid of him.

Either way, I still think the whole thing was ridiculous.

As for the whole “facebook” and “myspace”, I don’t get the craze. I had a myspace about 2-3 years ago only because everyone was telling me how fun it was. I kept it for a short time and then I deleted it. I don’t hate these sites, I just like my own privacy. I guess it all depends on how much you put on there. Plus, I don’t have enough time to spend on it. I hardly have enough time posting on here and now figuring out Netvibes.

But that’s just me and I don’t condone people who have a facebook or myspace. It’s just not for me =)

~Meg

The Office

Did anyone happen to watch The Office tonight? It’s my FAVORITE show and I never miss it but it was weird because tonight they showed the one character Dwight on Second Life. I have NEVER heard of this stupid second life thing before this week and now it’s showing up on my favorite show. How strange is that?

Oh well, just thought I’d share.

~Meg

Post Secrets

Hey Guys,

All of this virtual stuff is really starting to annoy me.  I read a dozen or so of these confessions and thought most of them were mainly people trying to be clever.  There’s a video and an audio section, too.  The audio section seemed to be a little more genuine.  I don’t see the benefit of posting an anonymous secret in a fashion like this.  Anybody disagree?

Steven

Every Predator’s Paradise

The article “A Rape in Cyberspace….” by Julian Dibbell was really interesting and forced you to think about these underworld cyber societies and the ethic responsibilities, if any, expected from its members.  It is difficult to say how this situation should be handled considering you are entering an environment with only assumed rules and regulation, but you must be prepared for weird events to occur at anytime.  Obviously I don’t agree with what this man did,  nor do I even understand how he was able to perform such an act, but when someone decides to enter an underground world like this one, be prepared to engage with some real wacko people.

My perception of these underworld websites is a place for individuals to escape their everyday lives and experience a way of living they cannot have in their own, whether is just for fun or living out some kind of fantasy.  Therefore, if you are going to ‘enter beyond the walls’ be prepared to deal with the impact of what may come your way.  These types of communities can never be regulated.  The community can banish someone for their lewd acts and the next day this same person can reinvent themselves into another character committing the same type of acts – it’s every predator’s paradise.

Cheers

Lucinda

Your Own Digital Homepage

The video on “creating a reading page” is exactly what I need in my life.  Currently, I have a column on the left side of my computer screen with all my favorite websites which I regularly visit.  But it’s unattractive and confusing because I have so many websites to view at one time.  The ideal situation would be to open the internet and have your homepage appear with all your frequently used websites loaded and ready to visit.   For example, your email, blogs, and websites of interested could be right there in front of you ready to explore.  I created a Netvibe account I thought would provide these features; however, I don’t have the knowledge to create the ideal webpage yet.  It’s a great concept!

Cheers

Lucinda

Barney Gets Down