Task 6 - New Interactive Environments

Kiousis, S. (2002) Interactivity: a concept explication. New Media & Society, SAGE Publications, Vol 4(3):355–383. Available at:http://rcirib.ir/articles/pdfs/cd1%5CIngenta_Sage_Articles_on_194_225_11_89/Ingenta866.pdf

Summary

In his article, Kiousis tried to define again the meaning of interactivity. He suggested that definition of interactivity could be a hybrid of conceptual definition and operational definition. In his research, he analyzed previous studies, which tried to define interactivity.

He used a two-dimensional analysis of literature, which compared object emphasized theories with intellectual perception theories. Object emphasized theories concerned technology, communication setting and perceiver. Intellectual perception theories considered the fields of communication and non-communication. Non-communication fields, where the term interactivity is used are for example sociology, psychology, computer sciences, etc.

The author brings out several definitions given by academics through time. He also brings out the problems with these definitions, as why they are not sufficient for explaining the concept of interactivity. He also states that the definitions do not have consensus and are often described from a point of view of different fields, which also changes the meaning of interactivity. The author does not want to alter the efforts of other researchers, but rather eliminates the not essential components and merges the essential ones.

Finally he concludes that interactivity consists of structure of technology, communication context and user perception.

Kiousis suggests that interactivity is in one hand media and in the other hand a psychological variable. Interactivity is media in a sense that it needs some kind of technology, which makes the communication possible and mediates the communication. Interactivity as a psychological variable means that interactivity reveals, when the users perceive the interaction. Thus it can be concluded that interactivity depends on both - the technology as well as human perception.

Projektijuhtimine - kodutöö 2

Magistritöö WBS

Task 5 - New Interactive Environments

Task:

Jensen, J.F. (1998). Interactivity: tracking a new concept in media and communication studies. Nordicom Review, 19(1), 185-204. Available at: http:// http://%20www.nordicom.gu.se/%20reviewcontents/%20ncomreview/%20ncomreview198/%20jensen.pdfreviewcontents/ ncomreview/ ncomreview198/ jensen.pdf

Have a look at the article, think about the concept of “interactivity” and put out a Weblog post summarizing its main message (300-500 words).


Interactivity – summary of “Interactivity: tracking a new concept in media and communication studies” by J.F. Jensen (1998).

In his article “Interactivity: tracking a new concept in media and communication studies” J.F. Jensen discusses the concept of the term Interactivity. He claims it to be a kind of a buzzword, like words which, within a certain topic, appear to refer to something very important and which – for a given time – are heard constantly, but are often difficult to understand since in reality nobody seems to know what they mean.

As he goes further with trying to find a background for the definition of the term, he describes the concept of the term in three academic fields: sociology, communication studies and informatics. After the discussion and analysis of the term ‘interactivity’ in the concepts of all these academic fields, he states: ‘Obviously, as far as the concept of interaction is concerned, there is already considerable confusion’.

Then he describes the term ‘interactivity’ as a prototype, criteria or continuum. Prototype example only describes the certain services or devices, which are considered to be interactive and finally leads to the understanding that the one truly interactive activity is face-to-face communication. Interactivity as criteria says that it is a kind of feature which needs to be fulfilled. He stays longer on the subject of interactivity being a continuum with different dimensions. First dimension being the most elementary mediums and their one-way communication from the sender to receiver. Then moving on to other levels of dimensions where the technology develops and communication part is getting more interactive. In the end of this research he states that it is difficult to find a certain concept of the term ‘interactivity’ when there are so many different dimensions.

Finally Jensen suggests a definition of his own. He suggests that interactivity is a measure of a media’s potential ability to let the user exert an influence on the content and/or form of the mediated communication. He divides the concept of interactivity into four dimensions: transmissional interactivity, consultational interactivity, conversational interactivity and registrational interactivity, which are presented in 3-dimensional graphic model.

As a conclusion Jensen states that he did not find a solution for defining the term ‘interactivity’, but he hopes that his efforts have made the understanding and concept of the term ‘interactivity’ a little more clear.

The article is a good overview of the different values given to the term ‘interactivity’ over the years. Although there are probably many more definitions suggested since 1998, when this article was published. I personally liked the idea that the closest example of total interactivity is face-to-face communication – using direct two-way verbal communication as well as physical reactions and mental perception of the person about the other person. Maybe interactivity is a constant try to reach the same level of communication as in face-to-face communication by developing technology and user interface. The purpose is to create such media, which makes the communication natural and totally interactive as in face-to-face communication. Just a thought.

Ethics and Law in New Media homework - Week 6

Find and blog about an illustrative case of hacktivism

I remembered some cases of hacktivism in Estonia in April 2007. It was a critical time in Estonia, because of the cultural clash between estonian and russian speaking people. In May 2007 Estonian Prime Minister had ordered a statue called Bronze Soldier to be removed from its original location. The statue played an important role in the culture of russian-speaking people in Estonia and therefore they were not satisfied with the Prime Minister's actions. The situation concluded with a public rage in the streets of Tallinn, during which many buildings were damaged, shops were robbed and people were arrested.

Soon after these events in April 2007 someone hacked in the Web site of the political party Reformierakond, which was the party the Prime Minister belonged to. The main page of the site consisted of an apology in russian by the Prime Minister. The government press department disproved the content and announced that the site had been hacked.

During the same time period several attacks were also made to other governmental Web sites, which made the IT-specialists and the public understand the vulnerability of government Web sites. The attacks continued for a few months and brought people's attention to the fact that Internet is not private and the security issues should be considered more important.

Blog about a case of social engineering

One of the most vicious cases of social engineering involve the "request for help" e-mails, which use the human factor and rely on human empathy. The scammers send e-mails or write to forums about some sad situation they or their loved ones are in and request financial help.

There are several cases about deceitful people taking advantage of others by relying on their empathy. One case I found about this kind of fraud was about a woman called Dina Leone who lied about having cancer for 3,5 years and it is believed that she got thousands of dollars from donations through Facebook. Firstly she looked up her old classmates and aquaintances from Facebook and soon told them that she was dying from stomach cancer. She posted pictures of herself with bald head, wrote emails about her treatments and suffering after surgeries and asked for financial help from her friends.

People started to question, how come she doesnt know much about her treatments and how did she go all bald overnight, rahter than loosing hair gradually, etc. Police investigation showed that she had not received any treatment.

These kind of people make the public suspicious of every person asking for help and make them seem as scammers and liers. But it is one of the most effective ways of manipulating, becaus most people emphatize for others.

Formulate some measures which can reduce the effectiveness of social engineering attempts

1. Background research - Use Google, Facebook or any other search engine and find out about the person sending the message. Especially in Estonia, as the country is so small everyone knows someone who knows that person, etc.
2. Inform the public - Each time you receive a suspicious email, let your friends and family know that they should be careful. It doesn't hurt to repeat the same message again over a period of time as people tend to forget.
3. Use junk mail filters and do not open suspicious email attatchments.

Introduction and Theoretical Foundations of New Media homework - Topics 4 and 6

Concept map of Interactive Media and Interaction Styles

Ethics and Law in New Media homework - Week 5

Browse the Jargon File. Write a small blog entry about a term/definition which was the most intriguing for you.

Portrait of a hacker

Education
Nearly all hackers past their teens are either college-degreed or self-educated to an equivalent level. The self-taught hacker is often considered (at least by other hackers) to be better-motivated, and may be more respected, than his school-shaped counterpart. Academic areas from which people often gravitate into hackerdom include (besides the obvious computer science and electrical engineering) physics, mathematics, linguistics, and philosophy.

The thing I found interesting while browsing the Jargon File was the way hackers parceive education. The self-learners are more motivated and respected than the educated hackers, who have been shaped by the school system. This kind of attitude could actually be overtaken by many employers from other fields as well. Who says that a degree defines persons skills if today so much information and learning materials are freely available. The person educates himself and forms his own opinions rather than studies the opinions of someone else. The degree should not be a prerequisite of its own to get a job as it is almost everywhere today. Therefore I find the hackers opinion about education fair. Important is to "walk the walk not only talk the talk". :)


Write a short blogged analysis about the hacker ethic found in today's world (is it there of not, how much of it etc).

The research by Steven Mizrach showed that the hackers in the 90s had not forgotten about the original Hacker Ethics conducted in the 60s. But the old ethics were combined with new ones. He also described the new ethics in his research. I believe a form of Hacker Ethics exists to this day, because if it didn't, it would create a chaos and be a great risk for the computerized world. New ethics are probably also just modified old ethics which take into consideration the changes taken place in todays IT world.


Choose a minority group and describe how they can make use of Internet to reduce alienation and prejudice.

Today I found an ad from my mailbox, which included an invitation to the South-Korean culture days. As I clicked on the event's web site I was pleasantly surprised by the site's design and content. I could say that it influenced my opinion of South-Korea in a positive way. Which leads me to the idea that every minority nation in another country can create a positive image of itself by offering quality content in the Internet. Basically it doesn't matter if it is a web site, a social network account, videos, photos or even adequate comments under a news piece, everything creates an image. If the minority representatives represent their country in the right places and in a right way, the image of these specific people will carry on to their entire nation.

New Interactive Environments - Task 3

Comparison of descriptions of creating a study plan

I compare the blogs of: Taavi, Ilya, Maria, Kristo and Valeria.

What elements, components, etc. have been used to describe their activity?
All of the blog posts consisted of an explanative text and some visual material, either a concept map or some other scheme. The most interesting solution was probably Valeria's. The colorful bubbles and yes/no answers in the concept map gave a good overview of her tools and actions in choosing the courses. Kristo's and Taavi's concept maps were easily understandable, simple and laconic. Ilya's and Maria's maps could not be so easily followed as they were more complicated.

What level of detail?
None of the maps were very detailed as we all have basically the same things to consider while choosing our courses. Maybe the most detailed and thorough plan was Ilya's, who took into consideration study card and academic points. But he is preparing to graduate soon therefore he needs to count his academic points more carefully then us, first year students. Taavi's map was the less detailed one, but it is because he is currently studying in a host university, has collected most of his points and has little to choose from.

What structural aspects are showing up in their descriptions/visualisations?
The structures of the maps show in my opinion the complexity and difference of people. Some like it simple and direct, others prefer it pretty, anothers just describe their thoughts and don't care about the visual result and some go into detail and thoroughly dissect every part of the process. It is interesting, as I think it shows much what are the people like.

What is missing?
I can not say what is missing as the task was relatively free. Maybe it would have been more interesting if everyone would have described the tools used in the process as well. And not only the ones used in the process of selecting courses but also the ones used daily while managing school assignments.

What are pros and cons of the different approaches?
The pros and cons probably depend on the purposes each approach is used for. Considering this specific assignment it is probably more useful to use an approach which is visually attractive and easily understandable as was Valeria's plan. The concept maps in general are good tools but they should be structured in a way which makes them easily comprehensive. Visual materials are in general better than plain text as they give a better overview and are easier to follow.