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Level Five

2005-11-30T06:29:00.000-08:00

I think about the website Projet Wikira (http://wikira.bbclone.de/) which purposes to users to write a common science fiction story for an online book. The website works under the technology wiki, which permits to edit texts in common. Personally, I think that is a good idea because it brings a new conception of writting.

Level Four

2005-11-30T06:17:00.000-08:00

Personally, I think that it could be good to create a wiki website for our class, to put on line our works, our files, our data, etc. in order to have a common platform. Also, we could discuss about the elements of courses that we don’t understand and to speak about it. Moreover, I consider that it could be a dynamic and interactive way to work all together. Otherwise, if a student can't be here at our class, he could recuperate the information he needs on this website. In addition, the wiki technology permits to users to create a common work : students could all write something about a specific subject in order to answer to a more general question.

Level Three

2005-11-30T06:09:00.000-08:00

The article that I would like to modify is about techno music, more precisely about free techno (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetekno). In fact, in Wikipedia, there isn’t any mention about the phenomenon of the travellers, which exists since the end of the 80’s. The definition of free techno given on the website is very general and is not complete for me. The page talks about the music itself, its organization, its history and its spirit. Nevertheless, I think that it would be good to talk about its primitive origins, its part in the techno music history, its situation in the world, its more known dj’s and especially its communities, called “travellers”. In fact techno travellers are communities that exist around the free techno movement. They travel all over the world through buses to spread their sounds for free to lots of people. The movement is inspired by the “beatnick” and “hippy” communities that had existed in the 60’s and the 70’s. Nevertheless, the movement has been launched in the United Kingdom, in the end of the 90’s, with the Spiral Tribe, who had decided to make their own philosophy and to follow their own rules against the “Iron lady” of the UK, Margaret Thatcher. They had created a real inspiration for lots of people who prefers to live for their sounds than living in societies.

Level Two

2005-11-30T05:17:00.000-08:00

The best known application of wiki on the internet is the website of wikipedia.org, which corresponds to an electronic encyclopaedia which works because of the collaboration of different users. I use it very often, as for this challenge, because there are lots of information on almost every subjects or domains. When I don’t know the definition of a term and that I’m online, I can search on this website its meaning, as in an “actualized” dictionary. Personally, I think that this website have an enormous international impact because everybody, in every countries, can contribute to its evolution, and that different versions, in various languages, of wikipedia exist. Moreover, the fact that this website in on the web justifies its international diffusion.

Level One

2005-11-30T05:05:00.000-08:00

A wiki is a group of Web pages that permits the users to add or to edit contents. Also, the word wiki refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website (as for blogs). This technology, which corresponds to a simplification of the process of creating HTML pages, allows its users to exchange information or data through a collaborative dimension. Moreover, the term is named after a Hawaiian term (“Wiki” or “Wiki Wiki”) meaning “quick” or “fast”. In fact, editing a wiki page is very simple and very quick compared to an html page. In addition, sometimes it can be interpreted as the backronym for "What I know is", which describes the knowledge contribution, storage and exchange function.

Review questions for November 30

2005-11-29T16:26:00.000-08:00

1) The exercise we did in class this week involved finding information. What was your best source of information to answer the questions ? Why ? What other strategies did you use to answer the questions ?

When I had to answer to the questions of the exam, I went to the website http://www.wikipedia.org/, that I consider as a very great source of information. In fact, this website corresponds to an electronic encyclopaedia which purposes an enormous quantity of information, on lots of subjects. Also, I used the website http://www.google.com/ when I didn’t find what I was searching on Wikipedia, because I consider it as one of the best and more complete web search motor.

2) At the end of class, we had a collection of answers available to all of you in the form of each student's blog. What is this effect called and what does it do ? How can it be useful to you ? Did you use it ? What types of situations or tasks can it be useful in ?

We could call this effect “an effect of community”, as a groupware. In fact, we can all see what other students have done on their blog and use it : the information can be more detailed. So, if I don’t understand a concept about a specific subject, I can visit one of the students’ blog to have an explanation. Even if I didn’t use it, I think that it can be very helpful, especially when people have to work in group, exchanging lots of information.

3) What is the difference between the attitude and approach of French people (in general) and Americans (in general) to technology and the adoption of new technologies ? Should this change ? How ? What would help it change ?

Personally, I think that the difference existing between French people and Americans face with technologies is purely cultural. Indeed, in France, people are very negative or pessimistic when they encounter something new that is not yet institutionalised. Maybe can we explain it through the phenomenon of “fear” or a certain conservatism. In the USA, people are more enthusiastic, because they are “early adopters” and that they always have been positive face with new discoveries, especially new technologies. Nevertheless, I think that this difference will persists because of our specific mentalities, or way of thinking.

4) In more and more professions, the application of e-communications skills like we are developing are increasingly important. Give three examples of professions you are interested in where this is the case.

I know that in the future, I want to work in the domains of multimedia, culture and arts. These three examples are jobs that I am interested in :
- Journalist in the domains of culture and arts (you need to have e-communication skills to search for information or to communicate with institutions) - examples : the periodical "beaux-art"(www.beauxartsmagazine.com), the magazine "technikart"(www.technikart.com), the TV show "Tracks"(www.arte-tv.com/fr/art-musique/tracks/).
- Person in charge of the digital politic of an institution - example : the Unesco (www.unesco.org)
- Director of a digital art gallery - The Cube (www.lesiteducube.com)

5) Concerning the practice of ripping : what is your point of view on this practice ? Is it illegal ? Is it unethical ? What are the moral considerations ? Do you consider it normal ? Why ?

I think that the practice of ripping is very useful for people, because they can listen to music or watch videos in a more flexible way : they just need to rip their data on CD’s and to bring it wherever they want. In France, ripping albums or movies are illegal, even if everybody does it. We could say that there is a kind of contradiction in this practice. For me it is not unethical because music or movies are cultural contents and have to be accessible to everybody, without any financial constraints. I consider it as normal, and I think that it can help to promote the artists or the producers, because their creation can be more known.

6) What are three things you learned from this exercise, two things that interested you, and one question you still have about the subjects mentioned ?

I learned three phenomena as long tail marketing strategies, DRM and click and mortar companies. Also, I have been interested in Intellectual Property and alternative journalism, because it corresponds to practices that exists outside the web and that are very important in the media. Nevertheless, I still want to know if Pay-on-demand TV is a good concept and if it will work.

Level Two

2005-11-23T06:41:00.000-08:00

1. Intellectual property (or IP) refers to a legal entitlement (exclusive rights) around the expression form of an idea. It reflects that the idea is the product of the mind or the intellect, and that IP rights may be protected at law in the same way as any other form of property = it exists for the domains of movies, music, books, websites, and photos.

2. EULA is a free software license which corresponds to a contract between a producer and a user of computer software. It specifies the properties of the permission allowed by the owner to the user = the company macromedia.com (http://www.macromedia.com) adopts this license.

3. DRM refers to technical methods used to handle the description, analysis, valuation, trading and monitoring of the rights linked to a digital production = Windows Media Digital Rights Management for Windows Media Audio and Video (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/drm/default.aspx)

4. Pay-On-Demand TV are special programs that TV channels purposes people to download or to watch in exchange of money = Apple's iTunes video will purposes in the future to people to download episodes of TV show (Lost, for example) (http://www.apple.com/imac/frontrow.html)

5. Time shifting corresponds to the recording of TV shows to storage medium to be watched at a time choose by the consumer. First it was purposed on VCR, then on PVR (Personal Video Recording). It can also be applied to cable television broadcasting = BrightBox (http://www.mybrightbox.com) is a technology which permits people to do it on the Internet.

6. TIVO is an American brand of digital video recorder, or PVR. It is a consumer video device which allows users to capture television programming to internal hard disk storage for later viewing = it corresponds to “time-shifting”;

7. An FTP server can be a computer responsible for serving any kind of files, via the File Transfer Protocol to FTP clients which can also be web browsers. This technology permits people to share a important number of files (as sounds, videos, software, etc.) and to transfer their website on their host servers = the free software FileZilla (http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/) , which contains lots of useful features and an intuitive interface.

8. Prime time corresponds to a period of the evening where the most watched TV shows are broadcasted. For the radio, it corresponds to the beginning of the morning generally in France.

9. Long tail marketing strategy is a technique to increase sales while decreasing the cost per sale by developing and selling to thousands of niche markets. It has implications within search engine marketing, online selling and advertising purchases. Video games developers adopt it in releasing website development kits (it allow players to create fan websites featuring artwork and materials provided by the game developer) = The Google Adwords program (https://adwords.google.com/select/) is a good example.

10. Click and mortar (or clicks and bricks) company is an organisation which adopts a strategy or business model in e-commerce in trying to integrate online and physical presences = the French electronic shop Surcouf has got real shop in France and also an e-shop on its website (http://www.surcouf.com)

11. Ripping is the process which consists to copy audio or video data on DVD or CD. The copied data are encoded in a compressed format such as MP3, WMA, etc. = the website CDBurnerXpro purposes a mp3 ripping software (http://www.cdburner.com-http.com/)

12. Alternative journalism on the web corresponds to an untraditional form of journalism that we can find on the Internet = for example, the Internation website Indymedia (http://www.indymedia.org) corresponds to a blog which purposes alternative informations all over the world.

Level One

2005-11-23T06:02:00.000-08:00

Level One

1. There is a free software named Dotclear (http://www.dotclear.net) which permits people to edit blogs.

2. The website of OTU (this is a travel agency for students - http://www.otu.fr ) permits students to buy plane tickets directly by themselves and not by sellers anymore.

3. The French editor ‘L’Eclat” (http://www.lyber-eclat.net) offers to people to download their texts for free.

4. The website of Plans Up Bouygues Telecom (in relation with the French operator Bouygues Telecom) (http://www.plansup.bouyguestelecom.fr) purposes to their young customers lots of services (ringtones, gifts, etc.) in order to make them create a community of value.

5. The podcast http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/podcast offers people to learn English through audio reports treating about society’s subjects.

6. The company Virgin (http://www.virginradio.co.uk/thestation/podcasts) has created a radio website which contains daily podcasts.

//01//

2005-11-23T04:52:00.000-08:00

1) Learning a language, like English, is not just learning vocabulary and grammar and studying books. It is also learning how to use the language in order to get things accomplished, create contact, maintain relationships, establish trust and so on. These are the social or professional functions of the language. In this respect, what are the ways you are learning English in our class by internet ? How are you creating and maintaining contact and relationships ? How are you using English ? What are the ways you could do this better ?

Personally, I think that we use the English language as a tool to express ourselves. In fact, we all have different levels but the main topic of this e-culture class is not about the language itself but about how we can express ourselves with it. Through the Internet, we learn how to use our basics to have discussions with other people, to search for information on the Web. In addition, I think that there is a real stake for us to adopt this logic : we are immersed into an environment which creates a link between the English language and the e-culture. Moreover, there is a kind of pleasure to speak between us through this way, because we usually know each other but not in this context, which shows more solidarity. Also, in this class, we can have a different vision of work because if there is something that we find interesting, we can share it through files or websites links in the common space of MSN messenger. In my opinion, it constitutes a new way to work, maybe more collaborative.

2) What is an FTP server and why is it useful ? What are some of the activities you can do with it ? Do you have one available for you, and which one is it ? If you don't have one, why don't you get one?

An FTP server can corresponds to two things. First, it can be a computer responsible for serving any kind of files, via the File Transfer Protocol to FTP clients which can also be web browsers. Also, it can be a software program that implements the FTP protocol and is working as a daemon serving any kind of files. These technologies permit people to share a important number of files (as sounds, videos, software, etc.) and to transfer their website on their host servers. In a nutshell, an FTP server is very useful, especially when you want to convey heavy files. Personally, I use the free software FileZilla (http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/) , which contains lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. I have learned to use last year, when I was a trainee, and I consider it as one of the easier FTP server to use, even if I launch it very rarely.

3) Our class has a special approach to interactivity. It is not possible to have the same interaction of a normal class, but it offers several new ways of interacting. What are these ? What are the ways that are especially interesting to you ? How could they work better ? What technical solutions can you suggest ?

In my opinion, the interactivity specific to our class is revealed through many elements. First, when you speak to us, we can answer in the common space of MSN messenger that we have or into the main microphone of the class. In addition, we can react to what others students express in the common space. Then, when you ask us to discuss about a subject or a phenomenon, or to find a specific solution, we can visit websites on the Internet to find some information and go further. I think that it is interesting to communicate in this way, because it permit us to learn how to exploit the interactivity of the Internet. Nevertheless, I think that there are many problems with it, especially with the fact that we can’t interact with everybody at the same time because it is more difficult on the Internet. In fact, when a student wants to express himself orally, he has first to send you a message through MSN Messenger, and sometimes, you don’t give him the occasion to speak. Maybe that giving a microphone to every student could be a solution ? We could all react at the same time...

4) Prepare one question about the last class : what did you not understand ? What would like to have more information on and why? What question did our discussion cause you to ask ?

I have a question about the last class : why have we created blogs ? I understand that it constitutes a good way to present or to have our works on the Internet, but I don’t see any other interests. I think that it creates a kind of “pollution” on the web, and I don’t understand why you didn’t explain to us precisely its main reason.