Derek's Posted Thoughts
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Monday, December 08, 2003
Extra Credit - The College Food Group
I have heard some criticism over the way that The College Food Group set up their blog. Since they each have a separate page for their own reviews of dining areas and restaurants, some might consider the group somewhat disconnected from one another. But I do not believe that this fact is necessarily a problem for this particular group. When individuals review restaurants it is difficult to tell whether you should listen to their review or not because people’s preferences for different types of food vary so much. A dish that one person loves may be hated by the next person to try it. So once you find someone that reviews restaurants that seems to have your particular taste for food, you want to read more reviews written by that one individual so that you will continue to know if a certain restaurant will fit your particular taste. The way that this group set up their blog and presented their project at the end of the year followed this same general idea that each person will have their own individual taste for food. I admit that their style did seem somewhat unconnected to one another and the way they set up their blogs probably would have worked just as well if they had each done their own separate projects instead of trying to pull them together into one group blog. But they simply decided to go another way and instead of all reviewing one dining area and putting that on a page, and then reviewing the next and putting that on a separate page (i.e. the organizational style my group chose) they simply went for a different approach to the issue of organization. Personally I think their way worked well for their subject matter.
With Increased Connections Comes The Necessity of Increased Skills
Through my experience writing blogs this semester, I have been able to develop my communication skills. In particular, I have become much more practiced at quickly developing and summarizing my views on a particular subject. At the beginning of the year my posts on reading assignments tended to simply summarize the views of the writers. But as I became more accustomed to writing blog entries I began to be able to incorporate my own views and to be able to make my posts true responses to the reading material in comparison to my initial summaries.
At the beginning of the year my posts were much more summary in nature than anything else. In my post about Rachel Lucas' Website I discuss her stance on politics, her style as a writer, and her general demeanor. But I never address any of my own ideas or thoughts on what she discusses. I limit my statements of my own opinions to comments like, "there is a respectability in the way she [writes]." I express appreciation for her style of writing, but I never really comment on the content of what she writes. My original posts were all along this line. But as I participated in class discussions and commented on other student's blogs I realized that summaries were not enough.
As I wrote more blogs I began to develop a more pro-active approach to my posts on reading assignments. But I had not yet developed my own voice in my work. In a post on an editorial about illegal immigrants written by Phil Kent and published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, I not only analyze the writer's argumentative style but also reveal my opinions on the subject discussed. But I generally express my opinions by referencing another editorial published by the AJC. I do not delve into the issue myself. I state, "At the bottom of Kent's page there is a line added by the AJC stating, 'This column is solicited to provide another viewpoint to an AJC editorial.'" I also point out the fact that the AJC links to the editorial disagreeing with Kent with the text 'Our View,' making it very clear that Kent's editorial does not express their opinions. My reason for posting such statements is obviously to discredit Kent, but I reference to the AJC's attack on Kent's writing instead of creating my own to reveal my position in the matter.
In my last few posts of the term, I was able to utilize my increased communication skills to not only review reading assignments but also successfully express my own thoughts on the works in question. In my post concerning the future of the internet vs. TV, I examine Tara McPherson's article entitled "Reloaded." The main idea in her article is that the internet is slowly replacing TV. I make my differing opinion clear in my last statement of the post by claiming that "Television and the internet may cross over in some areas but one will never truly replace the other." There is a clear deviation from my old summary-style writing in this post. In another post about the future of the internet as it relates to our everyday lives I respond to an article by William J. Mitchell entitled "ETopia: Homes and Neighborhoods." He believes that the future of our work is embedded in telecommuting. In this post, like the one above, I express a clear opinion to the contrary of what he states after briefly reviewing his commentary. In both articles the writers also address several other ideas in their respective works. But in these posts, unlike the earlier ones, I address only one of the main ideas in each work. This fact made it much easier for me to go into more depth in my commentary while still keeping the posts relatively short. Originally I had a very hard time covering all of the material presented while still keeping my posts somewhat close to the length limit. But through expressing my own opinions while realizing that only so many issues could be discussed in brief responses to reading assignments, I was able to more successfully communicate with my readers.
Thanks to my work with blogs I have been exposed to a cutting edge communication tool that has the potential to revolutionize the way we both obtain information and connect with other individuals from around the globe. The uncut, unmediated, uncommercialized information that is possible from blogs is impressive to say the least. With such an inspiring tool at hand, I am thankful that I have begun to develop the necessary communication skills to utilize it. Throughout the term I have learned to refute or defend an argument in a reasonably efficient way, and that skill will prove invaluable as communications continue to develop to allow people access to more and more information. One issue that I only briefly blogged about in William J. Mitchell's work was his discussion on increased communications across all geographical borders. One thing that the internet certainly has done and will continue to do in bigger and better ways is to provide us with more connections to a larger number of individuals. Because of my work with blogs I am much more prepared to handle these increased connections than I was at the beginning of this term.
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Dreamin of a Better Day
In an essay by William J. Mitchell entitled Homes and Neighborhoods he discusses the future of the internet and telecommunications in general as they relate to our everyday lives. My initial reaction was to assume that it was written in the early nineties because of its unfaltering hopeful beliefs in the internet. It promises wonders like telecommuting, entire online communities, and the mass merging together of work and home in an odd commune style environment with many people living and working together. Surprisingly, it was written in 2000. My main issue with Mitchell’s essay is his belief that the internet’s revolution of our lives is still yet to come. Sure, some people telecommute now. There are semi “self-contained” communities being constructed. But the majority of America is still battling traffic everyday. The majority of America still lives and works in separate buildings. As time goes on I am sure that the technology will continue to develop to provide people with an even greater opportunity to work from home at least a few days a week. But to make the claim that people will not need an office anymore, that employers will not want their employees to come in to the office and work there, seems overly optimistic to me. As impressive as video conferencing and email and web cams get, there will still never be a substitute for an in-person meeting with your employees. And honestly although telecommuting would be nice in some cases, I personally do not think working from home would work for most Americans. On those mornings after a late night, it seems like it would be too easy for the majority of Americans to think to themselves, “Oh, an hour or two of more sleep wouldn’t hurt.” Employees would loose some of that hard-edged mentality telling them that they cannot role over for an hour of more sleep because their boss will be angry at them.
It also seems that instead of allowing Americans to work at home, this technology has increasingly allowed employers to extend the work day. Now, instead of not having to drive through traffic to and from the office and just work at home, the worst of both situations has been realized. After battling traffic to the office an employee can work all day. Then when he or she comes home the employee still has access to information at the office, so he or she can just keep working. Instead of easing the workload the internet revolution has allowed work to invade all hours of an employee’s day whether it is during the day, at night, or even on the weekends. What went on in the early nineties with the internet craze seems similar to what occurred around the time when the first person walked on the moon. Everyone made the claims that we would someday live in stations on the moon. It may happen still, but not anytime soon. The systems that Americans have in place now work for those in power, so they will not be changing anytime soon. It was a wonderful dream, too bad reality caught up.
Monday, November 10, 2003
Internet vs. TV: The Fight of The Decade
In Tara McPherson’s article Reloaded, she discusses how the internet and television interact and the possible future of both. She discusses how the internet has the image of current, fast paced information similar to that of television. She references to things like the “up to the minute” news coverage that many sites have in an attempt to match television’s supposed current, live broadcasts. The internet has an image of being on the cutting edge with all the current news and all the newest information, but it does it in a very different way than television. Television has the advantage of being able to use live broadcasts and film of different locations. The internet has a lot of film and live broadcasts of its own, but the large majority of the web is made up of photographs and text. And yet somehow the internet gives the user a feeling of connection and appeal, a feeling that the news is the most current, the information the most advanced. I think a lot of it has to do simply with the fact that the internet can provide so much more detailed information and so much more specific news than television. Television has only a handful of public stations. Buying a satellite dish or cable will provide a few hundred more. So television can provide several hundred outlets of information to the mass public at most. The internet can provide a number so much larger than that of television that it is truly baffling. Since there is so much more information on the internet than television, despite whether that information has in fact just been uncovered or not, much of it is still new to the user. A person may know a lot about any particular subject, but the internet can always provide more information.
Many originally thought in the early years of the internet that television would not survive the internet wave. But it most definitely did. While both the internet and television provide information and entertainment, the internet is hands-on while television is chosen for the user. The internet provides a multitude of information, but the user must navigate through it all alone. There are points when many users do not have the energy or patience to deal with this sometimes daunting task. In these situations, television comes to the rescue, providing hours of entertainment relatively stress or work free. The user must choose either the hands-on method or the work-free method. Television and the internet may cross over in some areas but one will never truly replace the other, at least not in this life time.
Monday, November 03, 2003
Camera Lucida and Photographs
Roland Barthes' text, Camera Lucida, brings up several interesting points about photography. One of his ideas that photographs do not capture the essence of a person very well is true. I definitely agree that you can only get a cursory idea of an individual from a photograph of him or her. The feelings, beliefs, and, as Barthes states, essence of an individual are extremely difficult to capture with a photograph. Only the best or the lucky manage to get these traits in pictures. I find his statement about how a photograph is like the return of the dead intriguing, but I disagree with him. It is true that this moment in time that someone chose to capture is somewhat a “dead” moment. The time has passed and the experience lives on only in memory. But that is why his statement is incorrect. The moment truly lives on in memory, and a photograph acts as a reference to that time and experience. The photograph represents not the dead image of a time passed, but a reminder to a memory. His comment about posing when a camera is pointed at you I definitely agree with. Truly candid photographs are taken in situations where the photographer has not told an individual that his or her picture is being taken and to “just act normal.” It is a situation in which the subject of the picture does not know he or she is being viewed through the lens. And there are not many people out there that would be ok with having their picture taken when they have not given their consent. So to capture a moment in its truthful state is to violate the subject of the picture’s privacy, thus presenting a dilemma. Overall pictures serve as excellent reminders, but certainly not memories by themselves.
Friday, October 31, 2003
Is There Anything Edison Didn't Do?
The films we watched in class were really fascinating. Movies now have massive budgets and tons of special effects. It is incredible to see what simple beginnings this huge industry had. The panoramic shot to signify a documentary style film was an interesting technique to use. Since they had footage of the real location I guess they then felt people would take the movie on a more serious note. But it just struck me as odd that this particular technique would be used in many different films. The most interesting part of the silent film era was the acting. Since there was no sound the actors had to over exagerate everything to get across a particular thought or feeling. The funniest part about this style of acting is watching a film from one of the first movies with sound ever made. The overacting style is still there, but now the actors have sound as well so the overacting is not really necessary. It just looks humorous. I never had any idea that Edison had a production company along with everything else he created. The fascination with electricity that the individuals had during this time period when movies first began to be created that Professor Tryon mentioned in class is some what disturbing, but not at all surprising. From what I know of human beings, it does not shock me at all that they would be so intrigued with watching someone get electrocuted such as in the second film we watched. Movies certainly are a huge part of our culture so it is wonderful that people are attempting to save some of the first ones from being destroyed.
Monday, October 20, 2003
Ansel Adams
I visited the High Museum. The exhibit I attended is a collection of Ansel Adams’ photographs. It was laid out in a very interesting fashion. At first it appeared that the pictures were organized in a roughly chronological style. Each set of photographs ranged in about a ten year time period. But then I noticed a few pictures in these groupings that did not fit this pattern at all. The pictures were in fact laid out more according to theme than chronology, but since many of the themes were projects that he did the pictures came from generally the same time period. His themes ranged from a documentary style set of pictures based on a wine vineyard to much more nature based pictures. There were even a few pictures of Jimmy Carter that he had taken in the collection. His focus and interest rested in the nature photographs. He was very interested in environmental conservation and did a lot of work with the Sierra Club. The pictures were well organized and I generally liked the idea of setting up the works by theme. One problem with this organization, though, is that some pictures did not have any others of the same theme in the collection. So in between the blocks of pictures that all fell into a theme there were these lone pictures stranded in random places on the walls. Despite this drawback, organizing the pictures by theme seemed to work much better than organizing them in chronological order because it was much easier to compare his earlier and later work on similar subjects than if the pictures had been strung out throughout the exhibit. The last section of the exhibit displayed work by photographers that had been inspired by Ansel Adams’ work. It was not organized by theme, but by artist. This made much more sense than attempting to display all of the work by themes due to the diversity of the work. Mitchell’s comments about the future of virtual museums will hopefully not discourage individuals from attending real museums and seeing the real works of art. There is nothing like walking into an exhibit room and seeing a piece of artwork that takes your breath away hanging an arm’s distance away from you.
