The Pirate Mentality

Based on: Matt Mason, “The Tao of Pirates” (The Pirate’s Dilemma, Ch. 2 and Outro)

The concept of Pirates for the People presented in The Pirate's Dilemma relates to ‘pirates’ invading our media. Industries consider a pirate anyone who has burned a song without paying, photocopied a page from a book, downloaded a torrent or downloaded anything without paying.

Pirate mentality and pirate culture have helped shape our fashion, our music and our attitude by bringing audiences what they want, going against the norm and bringing an entire underground world and underground artists to the people.

An early example of the pirate mentality is the legend DJ Fezzy. DJ Fezzy was a talk radio host who did not have a licence. DJ Fezzy took advantage of radio and broadcasted music live for the first time in 1906 (Page 40).  Though radio was never intended for entertainment nor was it accepted as an entertainment medium at first;  Fezzy started a trend and was followed onto airwaves by radio nerds across the U.S. Pirates exist where demand is. Pirate mentality is everywhere. The case of DJ Fezzy is only one example of the pirate mentality.  We see the pirate mentality in people who take advantage Web 2.0 using it to become whatever they please be it a porn star or a journalist.

The concept of thinking like a pirate can take you places abiding by every rule, regulation and stipulation can't. As long as there is an audience for your concept, you have the power. That’s what makes the force of this new pirate culture challenging to go against.

Do big corporations and companies go against the pirates or join attempting to gain and compete? This is the pirate's dilemma. On one side of the argument you see the pirate culture as depleting profits for these big companies and damaging huge industries such as the film and music industry. On the other side pirates broadcast and pay attention to things often times ‘mainstream’ neglects such as unique music genres, art and fashion.
The pirate mentality is spreading with the advancement of the web offering users things like thepiratebay.org or surfthechannel.com; sites where users can access software, videos and entertainment for free with little to no inturuption. The spread of pirated material could potentially become so powerful that laws simply aren’t big enough to stop the rise of the pirates.

A side note... Web 2.0 inherits the pirate mentality in its way of breaking the mold and going against the norm, giving users the control rather the companies.

Web 2.0 becomes Search 2.0: The Ups and Downs

Based on article: Zimmer, Michael. "The Externalities of Search 2.0: The Emerging Privacy Threats when the Drive for the Perfect Search Engine meets Web 2.0" First Monday [Onling], Volume 13 Number 3 (2 March 2008)

Abundance of personal information is growing thanks to the nature of the online world. Internet users have the ability to track and gain personal information thanks to the social sites making up the world of Web 2.0.  Web and site developers have began creating sites that will only allow you membership given you provide them with your information.  We are all guilty of being more lax with providing our information then we should be; that’s the changing nature of the online world. Occasionally I find myself attracted to the ads on the side panel of my Facebook; I feel almost crazy falling for them knowing that they are strategically placed there to pull me in.

With the flow of personal information on our Web 2.0 applications we must begin to recognize the connection of our release of personal information and where it ends up. Search 2.0 is the concept of combining the personal information that your Web 2.0 accounts have stored and the power of search engines.

As we all know, our social network sites track our online lives and now with the power or search engines these sites cache pages and make them available on search engines. Search 2.0 enables the use of collected personal information for purposes beyond your will. Remember to always ensure you keep strong privacy settings on your Web 2.0 platforms and one little box unchecked leaves you unsure of when your online world will come to affect ‘real life.’

Zimmer, Michael. "The Externalities of Search 2.0: The Emerging Privacy Threats when the Drive for the Perfect Search Engine meets Web 2.0" First Monday [Onling], Volume 13 Number 3 (2 March 2008)

"Eternal" Frienship

Based on a reading by: Albrechtslund, Anders. "Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance" First Monday [Online], Volume 13 Number 3 (2 March 2008)

In this digital era one must take into account that everything said online remains available indefinitely.  The things people choose to blog about, post, tweet or communicate online could easily come back to haunt them. Danah Boyd believes social networking is a mediated public and can be categorized by four properties:  persistency, search ability-, replicability and invisible audiences (Albrechtslund, Anders. 2008).

Persistency: Online social networking is persistent in the fact that what is said online is documented. The content you publish online is and will be available indefinitely and one must take this into account.  Having information stored ads to the paranoia of our online past haunting us in our futures.

Search ability:  With the online world growing and the amount of information available online, search ability is something that allows people to find information on us with a few simple key words. A searcher has access to any information you have not protected properly.

Replicability:  The fact that so many people are so apt to publishing personal information, photos and things regarding their private lives makes information replicable. Communication on the online world comes with the chance of things being remade, taken out of context, or changed.

Invisible Audience: When people communicate online they generally have a specific group that they communicate to. Although communication is usually intended for a specific audience or group it is potentially available to anyone who has access to a computer with internet.

Boyd claims that, “together these four properties make friendships ‘eternal’- or at least existing beyond the control of the involved persons (Albrechtslund, Anders. 2008).” We must be aware of what we say while communicating online because these four factors could potentially make our online life surface in our real lives and haunt us at any point in time.

Albrechtslund, Anders. "Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance" First Monday [Online], Volume 13 Number 3 (2 March 2008)

Participation to Expoitation

Based on Dr. Ian Reilly’s Lecture Winter 2011, Week 9

For years television has filled out the gaps of free time in our day. Now with the World Wide Web we have entertainment, information, social interaction and work all at our finger tips. Our free time is becoming more dominantly spent in front of our computers. Having an online world so easily accessible we have come together and created a virtual world that has now become a tool we use to keep us up to date and down to earth.

Social interaction, technological appeal and the users experience while online creates a world of value inviting capitalism to piggy back along the ride making money off of user-generated content. By posting a picture or blog online and making it accessible to the world you open the doors for your content to flow smoothly through platforms potentially creating value for both the users and producers.

Social networking sites offer users the ability to create their own online communities. Each social networking site offers users different functions giving the us the option to enter online communities that best suit their lifestyle and our interests. The differences between Facebook and Twitter are obvious and for that reason appeal to different users. There are now so many social networks offering users fast passed social updates or an in-depth looks at other members recent activity. The amount of online interaction one can have in their free time is what keeps these online networks alive, they make communicating and accessing information easy. User generated content and communal projects online have become a better way for us to “pass time” as we feel we are contributing to something rather then spending ours on facebook "lurking" our "friends."

Check out the video below of Clay Shirky for more on how cognitive surplus will change the world.

The Invasion of Web

Based on: Scholz, Trebor. "Market Ideology and the Myths of Web 2.0" First Monday [Online], Volume 13 Number 3 (2 March 2008)

With our private information rolling off our finger tips and into the hands of businesses and marketers everywhere, industries are ready to gather your information and sell, sell, sell. Today, marketers have the ability to learn about us through the information we put online. With the web becoming a norm in day to day life, people, particularly youth have dropped their guards and become more and more willing to share their private information. Our openness has given marketers and agencies the ability to take control.

Even with a pirate mentality Web 2.0 may lose the battle against capitalism. Huge corporations have hopped on the band wagon and began collecting our data and invading these channels by filling them with media and ads. With the rapid expansion of the web, soon un-marketed space will be unheard of...even from those sites that promised to stay ad free such as thepiratebay.org. Aside from the fact that the web will eventually turn to a massive advertisement as television did, another example of companies hoping on the band wagon and utilizing the web is the new concept of user generate content or crowd sourcing. Crowd sourcing enables companies to outsource work and have a large group of people collaborate on finishing it for generally no compensation. This concept is no longer only online.

Examples of this concept can be seen thought our every day life. Throwing your cup out at a fast food restaurant, self check outs and information kiosks are all examples of technologies and methods saving companies time and money by not having staff complete certain jobs. This leads up to the idea and question; is it possible that we have become so consumed in technology that the technology is using us?

We will come back to this another day. In the mean time check out this though provoking video:

Scholz, Trebor. "Market Ideology and the Myths of Web 2.0" First Monday [Online], Volume 13 Number 3 (2 March 2008)

Use the Internet, Don't Let it Use You

The internet has enabled the world to come together and communicate on a global level instantly. The advanced capabilities of the internet have created a society better informed on global issues and a population that can share information globally at the click of a button. Gordon Brown discusses the idea of harnessing the Web and using it for the greater good of society. After watching the video below we begin to acknowledge further uses for internet that could potentially better the world.

We are well aware of the common uses of the Internet, for example social networking, *, business and research. As a population that makes thousands of clicks daily on the World Wide Web we must begin to analyze other purposes the web can be used for. Gordon Brown highlights the ways in which the internet has been used to spread important messages that need to be addressed globally. An example is the photograph of Tiananmen Square, a man standing before three tanks became a picture known to the whole world showcasing resistance. Using the internet to raise awareness of problems going on around the world invokes action.

As a technologically savvy generation, we must look at far past the advantages of using the internet as a business tool and actually begin to think how we can use it as a tool to educate the public on what is going on around the world. We must use our communication skills, our intellect and our ability to broadcast messages throughout various platforms on the Internet. We must use our knowledge of the internet for the greater good of society.

New Technology, New Media: More Opportunity

Starting as a text based tool and evolving into the World Wide Web with a mass user base leveraging the social platform it has become, the Internet is one technological innovation that has grown into a necessity.

The Internet was developed to safeguard military knowledge; nobody could have predicted the technological development that the Internet would go through. From a tool funded by the US Department of Defence to a technology used worldwide, the creation of the web and the amount it has advanced is dumbfounding. Since the Internet is a relatively new technology, which has not even been fully explored it is amazing to think of the further advancements it will undergo. Rather than focusing on the media itself, I would like to focus on the issues new technologies raise or don’t raise.

The Internet has changed our culture, our relationships, and our communities affecting the way we interact and socialize. With such a drastic effects on our lives, this technology poses threats but must be looked at optimistically.

With our privacy becoming less and less important, and a culture that fiends for social interaction the changes that this new technology has implemented is becoming more and more apparent. It is said that these changes lead to anxiety. On a side note, I believe any form of change leads to anxiety be it technological advancements, change in government or even something as simple as moving. In researching change management it becomes obvious that people don’t adapt well to change. To say the least, I strongly feel if anything our society is adapting quite well, its proved by the millions of social networks being accessed everyday and a population now willing to tell the entire world just about anything.

I feel that social interaction on the Internet is not such a bad thing; though huge corporations are uneasy at the fact the today’s youth could be considered pirates adding and taking from the web jeopardizing revenue. Social interaction is simply a new gateway for companies to better target their audience. As said before with a culture whose less concerned with sharing private information this is a huge opportunity for companies take advantage of the technology and target specific markets on specific platforms.

Though new technologies come with new issues and new boundaries, I strongly feel people must embrace the change. By embracing change we are able to see the huge advantages that these technologies have to corporations, individuals and intellectuals.