Midterm

I read The Cluetrain Manifesto. It's a very interesting read that has a lot of principles of Web 2.0 where the web is a conversation., that is the most valuable point that the book makes. I also felt that it had a lot of shortcomings. It feels as if the authors got super excited about the principles of the web and its vision and weren't realistic. I think the major oversight is that they assume everyone will get on board with the internet, which still hasn't happened. While culture is trending that way, I'm not sure we'll ever be a culture where everything is digital. Also, they made some points that aren't true, for example they said that consumers are immune to advertising. If anything the internet has expanded how advertising works and companies that can't figure out how to advertise via the internet are falling behind the times. If we were immune to advertising it wouldn't have spread to the internet.

For my fiction work I read V for Vendetta. I salivated slightly at all the possibilities this book presented when it comes to digital culture: the comic book medium itself, hacktivism, decentralized authority, but the one that stuck out to me most was the control of the internet. In the novel V has complete access to everyone because he hacked the government's computer system and is thereby able to topple an entire government. Hacktivists have taken that theme and run with it, they view themselves as a self appointed check and balance (I doubt they would use that description however) for the internet against large companies and the government.

I've had an epiphany of sorts this semester: I am a member of a digital culture and I approve of it. I don't often sit around and surf the internet, in fact the only time I do that is at work. However, when we learned about the 3 C's, it bugged me because I thought I simply consumed. When I thought about it though, I realized that I do create and am learning to connect. I realized that I had created and connected by helping with the Johnny Cash Project, rating movies on IMDB, and when I found out about Goodreads I fell in love with it and have been using it. 

I also realized that it's important that if I use the internet, I help to moderate it. I have seen several errors in Wikipedia but have never corrected them. I have started correcting them when I see them. With my mom having cancer I realized how wonderful it was for her to post her diagnosis on the internet and receive instant support from those that couldn't be near. She also started a blog to update everyone which has been great because she receives a lot of support from it, but it also means that as a family we don't have to make tons of phone calls to update everyone on how she's doing. (Here is her blog: http://howisbrooke.blogspot.com/). With my fiance being gone I have started using Apple's Facetime to connect and talk with her.

Another thing I learned is how to use social proof both to bounce ideas and to search. For example, I wanted to take my family rappelling earlier in the semester so I found videos of people rappelling up American Fork Canyon, I then was able to tweet them to ask where they went rappelling.

I've also become more aware of "the long tail." While I've been reading V for Vendetta, I've become curious who V is in the novel. When I went online I found other communities and individuals that wonder the same thing, so it's been great to realize that even for small niche interests there are others interested in the same thing.

Being in the Digital Sweet Home group has been great, it's something that we are all passionate about (I'm a recent convert). It has been great for all of us to work together because we can pool all our strengths and be stronger as a whole than an individual. I've also realized that others are having the same experiences I am. Because I've realized that the internet can be a huge blessing for my mom, I've wanted to share that with others. Those in my group are also interested in sharing how the internet and digital culture can be a blessing, so it's been wonderful to work on a project to share this with others.