Topic 3

Lecture: Alphaville and New Wave Cinema
Alphaville is a film which was directed by Jean-Luc Godard in 1965, right in the middle of the french new wave era. It is unconventional (both now and when it was released); a strange combination of science fiction and film noir (no special effects were used) and set in the future on a distant planet which ironically looks exactly like 1965 Paris. This is precisely the reason why it is considered an important contribution to french new wave cinema. Although it didn't appeal to me or keep me entertained, I can see why it works and how it was groundbreaking for it's time.

Tutorial: My Experience with Communication Technologies
During this week's tutorial we were asked to make a link list of other people's blogs on our own blog. We were also asked to make a post about how we use new communication technologies to communicate with friends and family. For me, I use myspace daily to communicate with the majority of my friends and I use email occasionally to write to my uncle whom I rarely see. I also use my mobile to talk to a few of my friends, although it is usually through text messaging. Even at work, if I need to contact my boss or someone that I work with it is almost always through text messages.

Reading: Alphaville and New Wave Cinema
We had numerous readings which were required of us this week, including various essays on french new wave cinema, Jean-Luc Godard and Alphaville. The readings were given to us to assist in our understanding of the film Alphaville which was viewed in this week's lecture. They all highlighted the fact that the film was distinctly groundbreaking and impressive for it's time. I feel in reading these essays I have obtained a better understanding of this particular genre of film and without reading them I think I would have had a much more difficult time understanding what was going on in Alphaville.

Topic 2

Lecture: Is email dead?
The general consensus is in fact no. The second lecture of the semester revealed the results of a survey that was posted at the beginning of the week and completed by everyone in New Communication Tech. 0% of people in the course said they never use email while 65% answered that email has it's place. The remaining answers were divided, some using email occasionally, others referring to email as "god". Personally, I use email often and next to myspace it is my preferred method of communicating with people online. Other discussion points of the lecture included spam and phishing of email accounts.

Tutorial: Creating a Weblog
The second tutorial began by refreshing our minds of the lecture the day previous, and a discussion of the first assessment task. We then moved onto creating out blogs, which turned out to be a much easier task than I anticipated, blogger.com obviously being the blogging tool of choice. The site is easy to navigate and layout customization seems simple enough. I think the summarizing and analysis of our lectures, screenings, tutorials and readings will be helpful to us throughout the semester.

Reading: Handbook for Bloggers

The first three parts of the "Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents" was the required reading for this week, and included a glossary of technical blogging jargon which I think will be useful in the coming weeks whilst continuing this blog. The introduction quoted blogging as a “powerful tool of freedom of expression” which I think is most definitely true; particularly in countries where censorship in the media is still an issue. The handbook also gives plenty of technical advice about how to set up a good blog by maintaining your anonymity, avoiding filters and most importantly getting an audience. If you aren’t being read, what's the point?

Topic 1

Lecture: Second Life
After a brief introduction to the course, the first lecture was centered around a documentary screening about Second Life; an internet-based virtual world which enables it's users to interact with each other, buy and sell land, goods and services amongst other things. Being someone who has never had any involvement with Second Life I cannot give an objective opinion on it, but it seems to me that using the internet to create a universe complete with a thriving economy is a huge technological leap but would have obvious downfalls. The ability to create relationships with like minded people would be a positive aspect for some, but would encourage the anti-social to become even more anti-social. The need to exist and function normally in their "first life" diminishing.