Category: Lifestream

From Twitter: A course that looks of interest



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 20, 2017 at 01:17PM
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“In this 90-minute introductory course discover how awareness based systems change and a method of learning from the emerging future allow individuals, organizations, and communities to turn ideas into real world change.”

Not everyone seeks to change the world around them, but for those that do, having an understanding of some the tools and systems available to us seems like time well spent.

From Twitter: “IRL” interrupts

You don’t need physical proximity to reach out to get support! Much appreciated.

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 20, 2017 at 10:55AM
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From Twitter: Togethertube catchup

Oh to be a full-time student! Togethertube is not an asynchronous activity so scheduling along with IRL is important.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 20, 2017 at 10:55AM
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From Twitter: still finding my feet

Support from my fellow students via Twitter is much appreciated. Distances involved are not important when you can draw “lifts” from the words on the screen.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 20, 2017 at 10:52AM
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From Twitter: Momentum building?

Time is spent on discussing words that define our situation, society, the balance of power doesn’t shift, and the meaning of words will never be codified.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 19, 2017 at 11:54PM
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From Twitter: Our community expands

My twitter comment is in reference to the course documentation that says
“Content is being fed into the lifestream:blog regularly – nearly every day – and this is demonstrated across the whole period of the course.” (p11)

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 19, 2017 at 11:49PM
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From Twitter: some questions on practical application of the technology used on the module



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 18, 2017 at 05:37PM
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From Twitter – I missed something, but I’m not sure what it was.

We have been looking at sci-fi films with Togethertube, I missed a session. A discussion on Twitter reminded me of Memento, a film where the protaganist uses “an intricate system of Polaroid photographs and tattoos to track information he cannot remember.” (wikipedia)

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 17, 2017 at 10:31PM
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A start on the Cyborg Manifesto

Haraway’s (2007) “A cyborg manifesto” is not the only reading which I have to take on with help of caffeine.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 17, 2017 at 10:21PM
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From Twitter – The digital divide requires people to cross it



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 17, 2017 at 11:54AM
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Technology itself is not the cause of the digital divide, though if we froze all progress and took stock of where we are, that might not be a bad thing. It’s not going happen with the current
economic and political will driving adoption forward. That said, peoples’ opinions often create, or perpetuate, blocks where adoption of new technology less welcome.

From Twitter – The Digital Divide

The digital divide, as discussed by Hand (2008, p34) is alive and well between education institutions also.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 17, 2017 at 11:06AM
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Hand, M (2008) Hardware to everywhere: narratives of promise and threat, chapter 1 of Making digital cultures: access, interactivity and authenticity. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp 15-42.

From Twitter – Yes, we do switch off.

We all switch off from our connection to the internet, at least by diverting our eyes to a printed page. We are not yet fully adopted citizens of the web, consuming content all our waking time. I can’t see a future where we are looking at screens with out pause or break. Perhaps though, screens are just a temporary measure until we can live up to cyborg ideals and have the images directly beamed in to our brains.

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 16, 2017 at 09:26PM
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Ref: Hand, M (2008) Hardware to everywhere: narratives of promise and threat, chapter 1 of Making digital cultures: access, interactivity and authenticity. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp 15-42.

Do we ever switch off?

If we lived as cybercitizens, would we ever be able to leave our connection to the network behind?



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 16, 2017 at 09:12PM
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What a party! From slaying robots to a hottub, across the Scottish Borders to Canada

It was my birthday. I hired a house with enough room for friends and family. I am not the only avid consumer of hi-tech entertainment in my family. In sharing the experience of VR, it is clear there is a direction of travel that I suggest would be common place among many people: “immersion” is good. My brother-in-law, a long-time fan of computer games played the HTC Vive that I set up. He played a game called Raw Data in which you defend you and your team against rogue a rogue AI and its evil robot henchmen. He claimed it was “the best gaming experience of [his] life”. He was connected in VR, fighting robots alongside a woman from Canada who was helping him learn how to play the game. We are citizens of the web during such times. The hot tub… well that was just awesome, sitting in water heated to 40 degrees Celsius, under the stars with a glass of wine, chatting with those sharing that “real” experience with me.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 16, 2017 at 09:11PM
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Who is watching who?

The government of the UK simultaneously presses us to make use of the web and technology, whilst concerning themselves with how to monitor us doing so. Hand (2008 p41) argues that

“the dominant narratives of digital culture are somewhat polarized when seen in the most general terms: on the one hand, we have a potentially democratizing technology of circulation, networking, interactivity, and empowerment, while on the other, a potentially de-democratizing technology of surveillance, privatization, and commodification.”

The subject of this tweet sits uneasily in such a frame of reference. On the one hand, the captured image has been taken from an “open” surveillance camera and shared on Twitter. It was put there by a Twitter bot. On the flip side, the fact that the owner of the surveillance camera likely doesn’t even know the camera is “open” and probably has not chosen it to be made freely available. It still represents the ubiquity of “security” cameras, and also highlights a concern that if you have a camera connected to the web, there’s no way to guarantee that it will not be put to use by others: twitter bots; or even state-sponsored others.


from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 13, 2017 at 12:46AM
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Hand, M (2008) Hardware to everywhere: narratives of promise and threat, chapter 1 of Making digital cultures: access, interactivity and authenticity. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp 15-42.

From Twitter – VR art at its finest?

This is my first post on “VR” commonly referring to the latest crop of virtual reality head mounted displays offering an all-encompassing field of vision through screens, and movement tracking. With the talk of cyborg augmentation of a human, and the concept of trans-humanism appearing in the readings, I realise I very much fit the look of part-man, part-machine when I’m wearing the device. I was also struck about how art forms much of our cultural heritage, and how that can now be consumed in a very different manner, forcing artists to rethink their creations, and how they are consumed. I wonder too if the formation of this visual “bunker” now completes the digital reality highlighted by Hand (2008).

“Digital reality is perfect. It provides the bunker self with immediate, universal access to a global community without people: electronic communication without social contact, being digital without being human, going on-line without leaving the safety of the electronic bunker .” (Kroker and Kroker 1996: 96-7 in Hand, 2008 p39)

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 12, 2017 at 08:03PM
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ref: Hand, M (2008) Hardware to everywhere: narratives of promise and threat, chapter 1 of Making digital cultures: access, interactivity and authenticity. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp 15-42.

From Twitter – An experiment of open learning?

I will be interested to reflect on this question later in the course. Has being part of an open community (relevant perhaps more to latter stages of EDC) helped or hindered my own performance? Does the idea of being able to view everyone’s contributions in a spirit of openness actually change what I write, or do not write for concern over what might be thought of me by those looking in from the “outside”?

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 12, 2017 at 06:05PM
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From Twitter – I for one welcome our new neural linguistic interpreter. And not a fish in sight.

It’s well worth a read of the post but also the comments to the post I’ve linked here. It appears the claims of the original author were slightly overblown. That said, Google has improved the efficiency of machine translation substantially, importantly, its ability to learn-on-the-go. When considering the rate of increase of computational power, and the miniturisation of the same, how long will it be until the ability to understand via an interlingua powered by a neural network like the one identified from Google below is embedded in our own body for real-time interpreting. This could be the step toward being cyborg or transhuman that a lot of humanity would be willing to take without moral or ethical qualms.

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 10, 2017 at 12:20AM
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It’s alive! Images as its memory

I was able to insert an image in to my tweet from my clipboard. This is a very useful feature, and one which I take for granted. With the press of three buttons and a short gesture of the mouse, I’m able to capture a memory in digital form. Part evidence, part reminder of what I saw on-screen. Such a facility to extend my memory, and my ability to explain something is an “enhancing technology” which Miller (2011 p221) describes.

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 09, 2017 at 01:05PM
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ref: Miller, V. (2011) Chapter 9: The Body and Information Technology, in Understanding Digital Culture. London: Sage.

Twitter – IFTTT and Twitter seems to be working

It’s been suggested that we use IFTTT.com to help build a lifestream. I haven’t used Twitter in some time, so this should be fun.

January 09, 2017 at 01:02PM
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