Hi guys, this week we covered 6 readings. Our readings covered readings involving different identities involved in the internet, internet law (who should govern), internet rights (rights to ownership of property), and crime involved in internet communities and relationships.
Overall I think that these readings painted a pretty mysterious and nasty picture of the internet world. When we use the internet, well most of us, we view it from a common perspective, that being the perspective of just accomplishing a task. For those of us with a deeper involvement (for example this class & some professions or hobbies) in the internet we dig deeper than just the surface and get to see the underlings of the internet and communities. With reference to some of the readings for example the one written on Gender-Switching on the internet. I know it happens on occasion. I know I myself have not run into this problem, but I never believed it would be as much of a common problem as the article describes. Let alone the male gender to be the one to be doing most of the switching. This I believe paints a disturbing picture and potentially hurts the reputation of the male gender.
Another interesting article that I took particular interest in was the one written by Mathias Klang on “Avatar: From Deity to Corporate Identity”, in which it was argued who has the right to online identities, online Avatars in MMORPG’s to be specific. I believe personally that the person has the right to their online identity and any notoriety that might be come of it due to actions or accomplishments achieved throughout the use of the internet. This article paints a different, lawfully confusing interpretation as to ownership. The involvement of EULA’s (End User License Agreements) makes it increasingly difficult to retain the ownership of your online identities, specifically in the use of 3rd party software such as MMORPG’s. Even though the software might be the companies, any byproduct produced with the use of their software I believe should belong to the creator. What the software companies are doing to their users is downright wrong. For example, that is like writing an entire book using Microsoft Word and then Microsoft coming along and saying that they own the book because you wrote it using their software. Another example would be the website, people use WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors to create the millions of websites that comprise the internet. If the software companies who produced these editors were to come along and claim ownership to the creations because they made the software, the internet would be owned by primarily Microsoft (makers of FrontPage), and Adobe (formerly Macromedia, owners of Studio software including Dreamweaver/Fireworks/Flash).
It is my impression after reading these articles that the internet can be a very intimidating, misleading, and demanding marketplace, both on the professional, but also the personal level.
This is not a news article, but it was a interesting blog from a professor at the University of Washington on gender switching: http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2000/F/200005126.html
They found that "most people are honest about their gender the vast majority of time. If you are talking to someone who says she's a 22-year-old woman, the odds are that's what she really is." which argues directly against the claims made in the reading "Do boys (and girls) just wanna have fun?"
Word Count: 486 (just thought I would save you time George)
2 comments:
The internet, being a physical world on its own is a place where people choose to be who they want to be and it is left to the audience to make believe what they can. So if your identity on cyberspace is to be whom you want to be i would say go for it. And not intimidating enough because life itself is full of risk. So if you are not ready for the outcomes of somethings you have no idea of, so why commit? it is a pleasing world for those who are willing and want to indulge.
The identities that you create in cyberspace is that person choice. No one forced them to create identities. The creators of these identities should own their identities, however it does not seem that way to the companies of these cyberspaces. They figure that you comply to the Terms of Service and since we own this cyberspace its our right to have control over the identities. However, these companies do realize that having control over them brings to light the privacy of information issue which many feels that is being violated already.
Post a Comment