Monday, November 24, 2014

Surveillance: Americans Unconcerned?

Assignment Due: Post a significant article (not from the Guardianwith a full reference to your blog based on your Snowden research.


Austen, Ian. "Americans Relatively Sanguine About Online Privacy, Study Says." Bits: Privacy. The New York Times, 24 Nov. 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/americans-relatively-sanguine-about-online-privacy-study-says/>.



"OTTAWA — A survey released on Monday suggests that revelations about government online snooping provided by Edward Snowden did not raise concerns about online privacy to the same degree in the United States as in other countries. But it also indicates that a majority of Americans are worried about the security of personal information." 
-Ian Austen, NYT

Friday, November 21, 2014

Digital Story Proposal: What the "you-know-what" is Up with Internet Comments?



            That title is a quote from one of my current professors (maintaining that person’s anonymity): but seriously--what is up with those anonymous internet comments? Has humanity always been so absurdly racist, sexist, and really every other negative term ending in “-ist”, but it was simply not recorded as well as it is today, with the onset of mass anonymous commenting and messaging…

 I’d say that psychoanalytical theory is starting to look more and more realistic each day with the increasing amounts of hatred found on the internet. (Psychoanalytical (a.k.a. Freudian) theory extremely simplified: the human brain functions completely based on desires, via the ‘id’, there is then the ‘super-ego’, which is supposed to be the civilizing side, and then the ‘ego’ tries to strike a balance between the two)(Inspired by Cannon). The connection I am making is that the ‘ego’ gives up on the ‘super ego’ to some extent when there appears to be no consequences for acting out on the id’s desires, such as anonymity. [I could not find a reference for this very nit-picky, particular Freudian connection I wanted to make, so yes I am extrapolating based on what I know about psychoanalytical theory]. I wish that I had kept a screenshot collection of the crap I’ve read others say to each other because of how they feel invincible via an anonymity shield, but I have simply tried to ignore it.

It should go without saying at this point how this fits in with the digital media/social justice crossroads. Anonymous correspondence gives people the ability to say things that they would never say in real life to another person. Is this just a method of redirecting underlying feelings and is thus somehow healthy; however, that question steps outside of this course’s bounds.

So, my central concept is to look at how anonymous communications effects people and situations. I have found a stack of literature of people writing on how it hurts society in many ways, such as compromising democracy by removing accountability (see David Davenport) and helping the growth of ultra-polarization/nationalism (Both the Toronto Star and The Economist), among cyberbullying and other issues; however, I haven’t found much on the positive side yet, besides some scary cases of hotels and rental companies coming after clients/tenants with legal action after a former customer gave the group a negative review(even when it was posted anonymously)( Marchitelli).  

            My direct idea for producing the story will take one of two paths, both using the same basic tools. I plan to stick to what I know (local-powered programs) rather than mess around with some online tool that could disappear overnight, like all of those broken links from http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools. I will either make a documentary on the subject or try to come up with a fictional storyline of someone being cyber-bullied and/or benefiting from anonymity at the same time. I originally wanted to touch on surveillance as well, but I would start running into significant issues finding literature for that given the amount of trouble it took me to get a preliminary set of sources for the messaging and anonymity component.

            My specific tool idea at the moment is to take pictures and apply what is known as the “Ken Burns” effect, where movement is created on still images by careful transitions and camera panning/zooming. I cite in the Bibliography the video I watched to figure out how to set it up properly, and I embedded a sample that I made of the effect in this post. The image is a leftover resource from another recent project; it is an edited version of the girl in the red coat from Schindler’s List. I also tried to use Google Slides for the effect, but it is far more of a headache than it is worth compared to just using far more powerful, full-featured movie editing programs.

            I guess you could consider the general theme to be a bit indecisive; I can really see either way (pro or against anonymity) with this issue, but yet I can have strong opinions for either side. Also, I plan to add some voiceover of course to the video for the digital story. So, in summary, the idea is to use local-powered programs (cloud computing is overrated) to make a documentary-style or a fictional narrative story dealing with the benefits and issues associated with anonymity on the internet, primarily for anonymous communications. I may even try to do a two-charter dialogue/debate, could be pretty interesting to pull-off. 



Annotated Bibliography
Cannon, Joan Bartczak. "Psychoanalytic Psychology." Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health. N.p.: Salem, 2014. N. pag. Web. 22 Nov. 2014. <http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.jcu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=93872169&site=eds-live>.
Used as a refresher for the little piece on id, superego, ego.

"Cyber-nationalism: The Brave New World of E-hatred." Economist 388 (2008): 69-70. Web. 22 Nov. 2014. <http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.jcu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eft&AN=508081666&site=eds-live>.
See “How the Internet's Become an Engine of Hatred” Entry

Davenport, David. "Anonymity on the Internet: Why the Price May Be Too High." Communications of the ACM 45.4 (2002): 33-35. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Cynical/skeptical view of the anonymity, pretty heavily against it.

Guichard, Audrey. "Hate Crime in Cyberspace: The Challenges of Substantive Criminal Law." Information & Communications Technology Law 18.2 (2009): 201-34. Web. 22 Nov. 2014. <http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.jcu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=41998118&site=eds-live>.
I haven’t used this one yet, but it will come in handy if I went the fictional route and had a court case part.

"How the Internet's Become an Engine of Hatred." Toronto Star (Canada). N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. <http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.jcu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=6FP4187289485&site=eds-live>.
Works alongside ‘Cyber-nationalism: The Brave New World of E-hatred’ to provide some background on another disturbing issue associated with this.

Marchitelli, Rosa. "Negative Online Reviews Led to Threats of Legal Action from Targeted Businesses." CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 20 Oct. 2014. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/negative-online-reviews-led-to-threats-of-legal-action-from-targeted-businesses-1.2803572>.
Crazy news story, and it isn’t the only case of this, more than one company is pulling this crap.

Scott, Susan V., and Wanda J. Orlikowski. "Entanglements in Practice: Performing Anonymity through Social Media." MIS Quarterly 38.3 (2014): 873-93. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
This is a big one, it seems a bit over my head, but I think I got something out of it, some studies on anonymous reviews. Probably my closets link to NSA surveillance. 

Thefrugalfilmmaker. "Sony Vegas: Ken Burns Effect." Sony Vegas: Ken Burns Effect. YouTube, 10 Aug. 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
This was used to bring me up-to-speed on how to use a "Ken Burns" effect, which is moving a camera on a still image to create a kind of motion.







Friday, November 7, 2014

[Group] Permits, Permissions, and Contact Info for the SAP

Permits and Permissions List

Megan, Matt, Will, Joe M
[Note: will flesh out the publicity section more as the other group members finish]

Category 1: Publicity (on campus)

Office of Student Activities

The Campus’ Gatekeeper for just about all forms of posting/advertising sites.jcu.edu/studentactivities/

Lisa M. Ramsey, M.Ed., Director
Located in D.J. Lombardo Student Center, Room 201

Phone Number: 216-397-4288

Category 2: On-Campus Resources

The ??? office near the mailroom (not sure what it is called) that has done similar collections in the past.

Category 3: Off-Campus Organization to Contact


Interconnection a similar kind of charity, also deals somewhat with phones

Emergency Cell Phone Providing Charities
These two charities rely on government regulations mandating that cellphones can be used to call 911 without a carrier



Service Providing Charities

Verizon’s Personal Charity for providing cellphones for victims of domestic violence /abuse http://www.verizonwireless.com/aboutus/hopeline/index.html

Requires self-paid shipping: Cell Phones for Soldiers (+ family members): http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/shippinglabel-generic.php
Additional Resource for finding more charities: http://www.recyclingforcharities.com/index.php

Category 4: Where should the junk devices go?


A site recomend through the Basil Action Network: http://www.ban.org/



There is a limit per person per day, but that is easily circumvented if you brought in sent in a group of people one by one or went to multiple locations.
Phone Number: 440-684-0302