Wrapping It Up

Wrapping It Up

This will be my last post as an assignment. I have gone over many topics on this blog since I started it in January for my Introduction to Digital Culture course. I started out talking about disintermediation. I used self-publishing as a way to discuss how disintermediation affects us. I was glad I chose that because I was able to link the great and geeky, Wil Wheaton .

An Accurate Depiction

In February, I explored prosumerism  by looking at greeting cards. I decided that Google+ is not relevant when the topic was social media. Google+ is still pretty much a wasteland. I still have not posted anything new on there, I think it is a failure because too many people have locked into Facebook. Facebook has put solutions into play for the concerns that may have driven people to Google+ in the past.  After dismissing Google+, I explored trolling. I still believe that there are different levels of trolling. Then I looked at what a lousy job the cookies on my computer were doing. I still get ads in Spanish despite not speaking the language.

Two Gorgeous Doctors

In March I edited a Wikipedia article about Doctor Who . The edit was small and it is still there. Other classmates also made edits in Wikipedia articles. It was interesting to see whose edits stayed and whose edits were struck down almost immediately. I had no idea that it would be so easy to edit Wikipedia.  It was nice to see that Wikipedia is a lot more accurate than most people perceive it to be. I often use Wikipedia as a starting place for research assignments and I think academia and librarians should recognize how useful a tool Wikipedia can be. The other topic that was addressed in March was ontology. I found that tagging my posts was far easier and I think it was much more useful than creating a hierarchial structure for them.

The Digital Divide

In April, I looked at the network effect. I know that the store I work at uses a gas discount program tied to grocery purchases as a way to get our customers to lock-in. I also looked at the digital divide. I disagree with those who look at the divide and compare it to not having a luxury car. Having access to the internet is becoming an essential part of life to many Americans and comparing it to a luxury car is disingenuous. Then I argued that freedom of speech on  the internet is a human right and referenced Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights .

So that's all that I've written on this blog for class, but what does it mean, what have I learned, what do I think about everything that we have covered?  We are living in a digital age. We are no longer passive consumers, we are becoming more active in the creation of the products that we buy. We are getting rid of middlemen in some areas because it is simply easier or allows us more control over our finished products. Facebook has become a part of everyday life for a lot of people and they really should pay more attention to their privacy settings and whom they friend. There are good hackers and there are bad and dangerous hackers. We should pay attention to how companies track us on our own computers. Wikipedia is easy to edit but it does guard against misinformation. Tags and keywords make it easier to find information than the traditional hierarchial methods. There exists a huge digital divide due to socio-economic or even geographical reasons. Human rights are changing as we go further into the digital era.  I think that we have made an excellent first foray into digital culture and I have learned a lot from this class. I was not aware of how much of a prosumerism culture we are becoming and until I took this class, I had never even heard of the term digital divide. I was impressed with the blogs of  other students who took this class and how they covered the same topics from different perspectives.

We live in a magical age where you can apply for a job in your pajamas at 3 am right after you check your bank statement and right before you borrow an electronic book from the library through the online catalogue. If we are to pursue careers in the information resources and/or library science fields, we need to recognize that the needs of our patrons or users have changed and so should we. We must adapt, without adaptation, there is no survival.

At least for class assignments