Lives Online: CyberCultural Studies

Second Life has updated their client programs once again, and that means that you’ll need to update the program you use to access it. (Which you must do because we’ll be spending class on Monday in Second Life, and part of the final exam will be in Second Life.)

If you’re running Second Life on your own computer, log in and when it tells you to update the client, do so. You shouldn’t have any problems. I just did it and it’s relatively quick and painless.

If you don’t have access to a computer that will allow you to install things onto it (for instance, if you use the University’s computers), you’ll need to go to the WebCT page and download the files I’ve posted. I’ve already uploaded the Mac client to our WebCT page, and will upload the PC client tonight.

Both clients have been archived as “zip” files. Once you’ve downloaded the client for your computer, you’ll need to unzip the archive and then COPY the entire folder to your thumb drive or burn it to a CD-ROM. To do this, right-click on the unzipped folder and select COPY. Then go to your thumb drive or CD-ROM, right-click and select PASTE. Make sure you’re not just creating a shortcut to the folder (as drag-and-drop sometimes does)!

If your computer doesn’t already have a program on it to unzip archives, ExtractNow is a solid (and free) utility for PCs, and StuffIt is a solid (and free) utility for Macs that will do this for you.

Also, connecting to our recent discussion of the integration of toys and the online world, Mattel has just announced that Barbie is getting a whole new web site! Be sure to check Barbie Girls out. The site appears to be down temporarily, but I’m sure that as soon as they get Barbie changed into her Dream Web Designer outfit, the site will be back up in no time. And you never know, Barbie Girls or the BarbieGirls MP3 players shown below (could Barbie be the iPod killer?) may be on the final.

In class on Friday we’ll be discussing virtual worlds (VWs) other than Second Life.

Here’s a list of VWs to explore:

Chat-type VWs:

• Dubit
• Kaneva
• There
• Virtual Zones
• Furcadia

Game-type VWs:

• Achaea
• Entropia
• Kingdom of Loathing
• Meridian 59
• Neopets/Neotopia
• Ryzom

Most require a downloaded client to run, but Kingdom of Loathing and Neopets/Neotopia are browser-based, which means that you can run either from any computer anywhere.

Before you come to class, please explore all of these sites. Pick one from each group (one chat-type and one game-type) and answer the following questions for each:

Based on the materials on each of your chosen VWs’ web site:
1) What is the setting (the virtual world)?
2) How long has this VW been online?
3) What is your role in the world?
4) How would you describe the character/avatar customization options?
5) What is the main (at most give 3) selling feature of this VW?

If you can’t answer any of these questions, write that down. It’s probably noteworthy that the site doesn’t mention it.

I have heard the cries of pain, the howls of despair, and I understand. Not everyone thrives in conditions of extreme open-ended-ness.

If you’re flourishing in the freedom afforded by the current format of the meditations, read no further. Go forth and frolic in your liberation.

If, on the other hand, you’re having a tough time of it, here’s a different model to follow. I hope that this one will provide you with concrete goals to meet, and a set format, and that these strictures will allow you to rise to the occasion admirably.

OPTION B: MEDITATIONS AS CASE STUDIES

As before, each meditation is to be about the cultural (on- and off-line) implications of a single cybercultural focus. However, the Option B format will make your meditations appear more like “case studies,” which may be more familiar.

Begin each meditation/case study with a brief (1 paragraph) prose description of a single, well-defined moment or instance of your chosen cybercultural focus. (If you want to write about eBay, for instance, focus on the time you got ripped off by a scammer “selling” a bogus AlienWare laptop, rather than trying to summarize all of eBay.)

List 3 significant, non-obvious observations about your focus. These observations should arise from your analysis and examination of your focus. (These may be bullet-points.)

The next (and last) two sections are brief explanations of at least 2 points you see as being significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for on-line and off-line culture and social practice. One section should explore, briefly (1-2 paragraphs), the significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for on-line culture and social practice. The last sections should do the same for off-line culture and social practice.

So, your meditations/case studies should look like this:

• SUMMARY: 1 paragraph description of your specific instance/example of your cybercultural focus
• ANALYSIS: 3 significant, non-obvious observations about your focus (can be bulleted)
• IMPLICATIONS - ON-LINE: 1-2 paragraph discussion of at least 2 significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for on-line culture and social practice
• IMPLICATIONS - OFF-LINE: 1-2 paragraph discussion of at least 2 significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for off-line culture and social practice

I’ve updated the Course Calendar for the readings/assignments for April 9th through the 16th, so check that out.

For Monday April 9th, make sure you’ve read Louis Althusser’s “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” in the orange (second) edition of the Media and Cultural Studies. If you’ve got the first (blue) edition of the MCS, I’ve scanned the article and posted it to the WebCT page, so get it from there.

And read it. Hint. Hint.

Photoshop. It’s cool. And disturbing.

And it’s what we’re going to be talking about in class on Friday. So, to prep for class, check out two of the largest sites for Photoshop Phreakishness: Something Awful and Worth1000.

Here are the links:

• Something Awful
• Worth1000’s current and most recent contests
• Worth1000’s archive of all galleries

Here are a few galleries from both sites that I’d like you to look at and think about:

• Attack of the Clones 11
• Dude, Where’s Your Ride?
• Visual Puns 5
• Hungry Man Phriday
• Fasting Time 3
• Band Name Movies
• Alternate Reflections and Shadows 3

That should be enough to get you started.

By our class meeting on April 20th, you are to accomplish the following:

• Develop 3 substantially different avatars and be able to switch among them on the fly (this will involve creating a folder for each in your inventory that you can drag onto your avatar to instantly change)
• Add 3 Second Life users who are not members of The Cultured group to your friends list (this means that these 3 users will have to accept your offer of friendship)
• Build and keep an object in Second Life
• Develop your profile

We’ll be spending time in Second Life as a class between now and then, but you will also have to spend time outside of class to get them all done.

Good luck!

For Wednesday’s class, check out these links to some of the recent discussion about Wikipedia:

• Wikipedia explains itself
• Wikipedia explains what it is not
• The Burlington Free Press covers the controversy
• Inside Higher Ed covers the controversy
• Wikipedia covers this and other Wiki controversies
• The Phantom Professor gives her opinion
• Timothy Burke gives his opinion

Check these out. I look forward to hearing your opinion in class on Wednesday.

UPDATE! — Here’s something else I came across: the Conservapedia. It seems to exist as a form of protest against the Wikipedia. At first I wasn’t sure whether this was a hoax or a sincere effort, but I’m now leaning away from the hoax hypothesis. Read About the Conservapedia, and the apparent raison d’etre for the site, Examples of Bias in Wikipedia. It may take a while to load these pages, though, so be patient. (Apparently, when they took the Wiki out of wikipedia, they failed to realize that wiki means “fast.”)

On Wednesday we’ll be talking about blogs, so read through a sizeable chunk from three different blogs.

I’ve posted a new page with a few blogs to get you started, though you can read whatever blogs you want. Just a reminder, all of the pages for this course are listed in the black bar underneath the banner at the top of the page.

Also, feel free to check out podcasts and vlogs, if that’s your thing. I only demand that if you’re focusing on audio or video blogs, that you include at least one text blog in the mix of your three.

UPDATE! Check this out — here’s an entire video documentary about blogs and blogging named, appropriately enough, Blogumentary. How about this for a relevant quote: “While mainstream news is sold to us by a handful of corporate media giants, blogs offer a more personal, citizen-media perspective. When you start a blog, you are the media.” It’s only 65 minutes long, and could offer you lots and lots of material upon which to meditate. Hint hint.

And, while we’re on the topic of Google Video, why the heck don’t they offer a way to embed their media player on blogs? It’s not like YouTube (which is now owned by Google) reverese-engineered some magical super-advanced technology from crashed UFOs. And yet…

Just a quick note to point out that the instructions for your Meditations have been posted to the blog. Check out the link in the bar just underneath the course banner. (Or, alternately, click here.)

Hi,

If you’re still having trouble accessing the WebCT page, here’s the link to Monday’s reading: click here (this link has been removed).