Life in the Network

This picture was taken from a show we played in Shakopee, at this teen center/venue place called The Enigma. I think this is probably the best picture I have to personify myself, because it shows me in an activity that I spend most of my time on. I love music and there's nothing better than playing shows so it’s a fitting picture.

When I think about sites like Flickr in regards to the reading for this week, I immediately take note of the fact that this website isn’t a commercially based one. Not only do they not sell anything, but there aren’t any ads anywhere on the site, which seems very rare for most of the sites that I see. However, they are still offering premium memberships for a price. Even though the website seems to escape a lot of the commerciality of the internet, it still appears anyways.

In regards to the Sturtz reading, I noticed how unique the “tagging� folksonomy is from the traditional top down method of organization. I never realized how much rhetoric there is involved in the creation of these systems. I’ve recently seen the tagging mechanism employed on a growing number of websites wihtout much of a thought, but now that I 'm a little more familiar with it, I realize it's because folksonomies are such a good system.

As for Gurak's Cyberliteracy, I was interested in the way she emphasized the need to think critically about the use of and whats available on the internet. Being an internet user for years, I don't really think too much about what kind of material is on the internet and it's effects of society. I was struck by her point that, along with cable television, in the early days of the internet people thought it would be a tool capable of immense teaching potential (as it is), but was moved in on instead by commercial interests. Although there are obviously many different types of educational sites along with any other kind of site you can imagine, the internet does definitely seem a commercial medium in most aspects. It's almost just as impossible to get away from advertisements online as it is from TV commercials or billboards. In a way, I suppose the internet is a kind of microcosm for the nation, as the country seems oftentimes driven mostly by commercial interests at the expense of others.