The End of the Course as we know it...

Okay, the major essays are all marked and can be collected from me in room G.07. I'll be in my office most of next week (Nov 15th - 19th), so please do come and pick your essays up.

Also, can I take this opportunity to thank you all: firstly, for your reflective posts which will be very useful in evaluating the course (and thanks for the kinds words about your tutor, too!); and, secondly, and most importantly, can I thank you all for your participation in the many facets of Self.Net. It has been a real pleasure running this course and being your tutor and participating in some fascinating conversations about all things digital which, I'm sure, will continue long after the course has faded in your memories!

I hope your increased critical awareness of digital culture serves you all well in the future, and with any luck I'll see a number of you in other courses, or doing Honours (since so many of you are writing at a level which would see you do very well in an honours program).

Byebye.

Reflections -To blog or not to blog

This unit has proven to be the most controversial and yet stimulating module of this semester. Initially, the segment on Haraway's cyborg manifesto and the cybernetic theories made me feel like i was in a parallel universe and that my fate in this unit was to be a doomed one. However, as I started to grapple with the various ideas and concepts that were discussed I realised that it is more relevant than i thought it would be.

The Blogging process was a significant element in my learning journey in this course. I definitely feel that it complimented tutorials and workshops and it gave me a space to read, reflect and analyse the issues that were debated on, in my own time. I also learnt a great deal through the blog entires, as they exposed me to a variety of opinions and beliefs. "Tuesday 2pm" soon became a new community that i became familiar with. Strangely, i'm still unsure of some online identities(i.e. Im not sure who's who) and perhaps i have been treating them seperately from their offline idenities.

Well, at the start of this course I though i was a full fledged cyborg in compliance to Haraway's description. I am in every way intertwined with technology, ranging from the withdrawal effects I get when the tv is off or my genuine hysteria when the internet connection suddenly ceases. However, as many of us are, I am still uncomfortable with the implications of being a cyborg as it implies a certain degree of detachment from being "natural" and perhaps this synthetic dependence makes us vulnerable. I would rather view us as human beings who are thriving in an era which requires us to learn and pick up the technological skills we know in order to live comfortably and efficiently.

On hindsight, this unit was an enjoyable one with a good mix of academia, current affairs and interactive engagement. To everyone in the tute, you guys were great fun!:)

Playing Politics Workshop Response

1)I examined September 12 and New York Defender and believe these games to be ‘effective’ if the players on the internet have adequate knowledge on the war on terror and its implications, namely the September 11 incident and its aftermath. However, its effectiveness may be lessened after playing it several times as one becomes desensitised to the message it might be conveying. I felt my experience was enhanced by the readings that accompanied both games as it gave me a clearer understanding of the political innuendos and messages. Without them I would be deciphering the game and its messages according to my own understanding. Also, the degree of effectiveness may be down played as many would view it as merely an intellectual and thought-provoking game with no lasting effects.

2)After examining September 12, I felt that the intention of the game seemed to show the inevitable lost of civilians in attempt to sieve-out and destroy the terrorist. I also observed that the people morning for the dead civilians transformed into terrorists in the next instance, further increasing the numbers. This struck me as it clearly represented the grievance and bitterness of the victims of war having lost family and friends innocently, and some opting to join forces with the terrorist in revenge. This portrayed the cyclical nature of destruction in war as what ever good intent that the U.S government has seems futile under such circumstances. The news release reiterated my impressions of the game and gave further understanding of the flaws of the current anti terrorist tactics and measures.

I also played New York defender and was initially rather pleased with my “accurate” shootings, however, as the terrorist planes increased in frequency I found myself frantically shooting and a sense of hopelessness and panic emerged and increased till the game finally ended. I guessed that the sense of helplessness was somewhat representative of the helplessness that the people in New York and victims of terrorist acts might have experienced and how it seems impossible to be prepared for it all. The same sense of futility prevails with the number of martyrs and terrorists on the rise and the unceasing threats and kidnappings occurring today.

3)I would like to have a political simulation representing the futility of voicing political views about the state in countries where the people's voices are very repressed. For my safety, I will not mention the country(s) I might be referring to:) In this simulation, each time a person speaks up (in the form of word bubbles) he either gets taken away by some secret police or is thrown into exile. The player should then aim to shoot as many word bubbles into boxes labelled “propaganda” while dodging the police. The end result will be a no-win scenario.

The Good, The Bad and The Virtual : Ethics in the Age of Information

-In this essay, Poster describes the ongoing relationship between media and ethics to be a complex one. Each new medium seems to trigger a trend of paranoia as it “deterritorialize culture” and destabilizes the core of ethical practices.

-Poster chooses to use the term “Virtual” as a categorization that makes it hard to adhere to existing definitions of good and bad.

-Ethics as a problem
· Is it possible to apply the same ethical standards and moral judgments used to evaluate face-face speech acts to mediated cultural acts (television, phones, internet)?
· The issue of real life vs virtual world, should the same standards be deployed?
· The limitations of real life ethics in a virtual sphere. New systems of valuation required.

Ethics :
· Bounded by particular times and spaces.
· The boundaries and comfort zones began to crumble with digitalized networks, portable appliances and an advancement of technology that further blurs the lines between real relations and virtual relations.
· Ethics were made in a different era and context. Evolves and varies in perspectives does not included mediated culture.

-Historical discourse looking at the way ethics in relation to its context has changed since the premodern period.

Uses the theories of philosophers
· Kant’s ethics(1949): Universalization of ethical domain
· Kierkeggard: Religion and Ethics
· Levinas: The Other
· Nietzsche(1967) : Genealogy of morals
(pronounced as ‘ni-cha’ according to the Germans)

-The INFORMATION AGE
Before the Web was created in 1993, there was no apparent danger in the Net community (1969-1993). It was an open, safe and trusted environment.However, the forms of conflict that appeared were unparallel to that of real life in its form due to the very nature of the net (spamming and flaming).

These conflicts were thought to be easily regulated with the introduction of ‘netiquette’ where the protocols of online behavior disseminated and were adopted quickly.

After 1993 the WWW attracted millions of people and caused an influx of net users that overwhelmed the net culture and the policies of netiquette never kept up.

Other forms of broadcast media further complicated the ethics of the new media as it increased the net’s reputation by constantly discussing its contents which are deemed “unethical” in the real world. Non-net users became thoroughly informed of the experiences and judged the virtual world though not being part of it.

-Ethics on the internet
Media changes the ethical environment. This is especially so in the case of the internet where what is held apart in real life is mixed together to produce a jarring spectrum of humanity that we often ignore or disapprove of.

With the internet, the content and actions no longer fall under ethical rules that apply in real life.
Poster discusses the issues which brings about large debate
· Anonymity of Identity
· Data/Information Overload
· Censorship

New form of moral restraint required?

-Discourse on ethical machines
· Ethical subject is placed in the limelight.
Pertinent question : How can identity in cyberspace conform with identity in real life?
What is the nature of the communicating subject and its relation with the ‘real’ subject?

· Donath’s : Deception and Identity theory.
She believes in imposing real world standards onto the internet though acknowledging its uniqueness.

-Habermas’s Discourse ethics
The theory is not applicable to the internet as it focuses on face-to-face speech and social interaction.

-Conclusion
· Poster urges a partial application of the Nietzschean perspective of the moralities of good/bad and good/evil. Nietzsche proposed a “transvaluation of all values” to an enhancement of “life”.

· He also calls for a new theory of the political as a collective determination of the good in a context in which individual determination of the good (self-censorship etc) takes less prominence than in the modern or print era.

Webliography

3. Critically assess the ways in which constructions of identity have been extended and/or altered by information and communication technologies.

Introduction:
"No longer is a matter of physical attributes, identity made intelligible through the art of self-performance. And 'self' in this(virtual) realm is anything but fixed; it is as multiple as the imagination, unstable and infinitely 'morphable’.” [1]

The realm of the virtual world offers a myriad of identities and personas that one can easily build and amend at a click of a mouse. The potential for diversity and multiplicity is endless and as Herrup says “infinitely morphable”. To fully grasp the extent of this question, it is imperative to define the nature of ‘identity’ in the cyber culture and explore the different ways users consciously or unconsciously extend and alter the construction of themselves in various virtual realms. The power of the internet to personalise and at the same time typify people is a potent and complex one.

1.Cyberculture :Cyber-Identity and Virtual Community
Ng’s site[2] is a great introductory site to what cyber culture, cyber identity and virtual communities are and how they function. It is a useful starting point to begin research as it is well organised, comprehensive and contains a good range of links and sources. Ng uses work from Suler and Turkle that gives comprehensive theoretical backing his writing.

He analyses identity in cyberspace versus the real world and believes in the “parallel existence” of the two worlds and that the real world influences the virtual world thus affecting what one portrays onto the cyber identity. A certain aspect of a person’s experiences and desires will be projected directly and indirectly. He goes on to acknowledge the importance of socialisation in virtual communities such as chat rooms that will help to alter and construct a person’s online identity.

2.The psychology of cyberspace :Identity Management in Cyberspace
In this site[3], John Sula offers a psychological perspective to cyber identity in the virtual arena and states that a person's identity ‘embodies multiplicity’. He analyses how the virtual world ‘offers a niche for each of these specific facets of selfhood’ or in other words, it creates a diverse avenues for people to unravel and expose their multifaceted personalities. He mentions the ‘deconstruction’ of self that occurs online and believes in the balance of this assortment of identities to be a “healthy” state of mental health. He does bring up a point that identity markers through the medium of ‘verbalisers’ can be a conscious and sub-conscious effort; he believes one must strive to gain some form of consciousness in the construction of identity to become a better person online. I found Sula’s work particularly interesting and it revealed a fresh and insightful aspect of cyber identity online and the power we have to determine its outcome.

3.Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community
In this article[4], Donath begins by acknowledging the importance of identity in an online world. She uses the quote from Sartre``I am my body to the extent that I am,'' and contrasts this physical definition from the implications of virtual identity. The virtual world is one that thrives and functions using information and like free particles the information diffuses across an endless space. “The inhabitants of this impalpable space are also diffuse, free from the body's unifying anchor. One can have, some claim, as many electronic personas as one has time and energy to create”.
Donath uses Usenet as an example and distinguishes it from fantasy and imaginary realms like MUD. And yet in these worlds, identity deceptions exist for a number of reasons and results in certain effects as well.She lists out a number of signals of deception and identity cues that will hint an identity deception such as account name/ID, identity “voice” and “language”, signals, writing style, signature. Then again, these can be concealed and altered as well. Towards the end of her article she makes a powerful point on the architecture of the online environment and how the virtual “architects” are responsible in ensuring a design of an online structure which would enable us to attain maximum knowledge of the people we are in virtual contact with.

4.Who Am We?: We are moving from modernist calculation toward postmodernist simulation, where the self is a multiple, distributed system.
‘Who am We?’ [5] by Sherry Turkle further explores the notion of an extended identity brought about by the advancement of communication technology such as internets in the form of countless chatrooms. This has created a free experimentation of identity creation and role playing in a limitless extent. “Now real life itself may be, as one of Turkle's subjects says, "just one more window."
Everything from SimLife to MUD opens another window to a new identity. She goes into a study of MUDs and its anonymity which gives people an avenue for self exploration and multiple personas. The fluidity of identity construction is evident in this virtual world, as people bring not merely what they are but what they wish for and what they never dared to be into an extended version of what they are from behind the key board. The notion of the self not only being “decentered but multiplied without limit” is explored and she provides a series of case studies to fuel her point.

5."Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet"

Lisa Nakamura’s [6] article was very useful in understanding racial identity and its altering nature in the virtual world. She states that identity can be created at will, where gender, age, race, etc can be altered and manipulated. She used LambdaMoo as the chosen medium where programming features (such as the ability to physically "set" one's gender, race, and physical appearance) are offered to the participants to construct a ‘theatrical’ online identity.
At LambdaMoo, writing a self description is the first component to the participant’s cyber identity.The majority of players do not mention race in their self description, and use pronouns to indicate a male or a female gender. A noticeable choice is made to exclude racial description so as perhaps not to feel “excluded”, as all players are assumed to be the default “white, male, highly educated, and middle class”. Here, it is possible to be a tourist of races and identities where one can construct a sense of exoticness by adopting an Oriental or Asian identity, perpetuating racial stereotypes and myths on the internet. Nakamura makes strong points with references to Butler and Haraway on the subject of racial and gender identify and inequalities in LambdaMoo and across the internet.

6.BABES ON THE WEB: Sex, Identity and the Home Page
Marj Kibby[7] addresses a dominant feminist conflict where the body is the object of the gaze. She provides an in-depth account of how woman on the web seem to be stuck in a paradox where they want to disconnect sexuality from their identity but they seem to incorporate it as an ‘integral part’ of their identity when given the ability to construct an image of themselves through homepages etc. She provides sound rationale behind such behavioural patterns and uses many examples on the web and theories from Bakhtin and Goffman to validate her points. She sums it saying that “boundaries between the self and the body are in a state of flux under the impact of technological development, the divisions between the identity and the body blurred by the mediations of technology”.

Conclusion
This research has brought about a whole new level of understanding and appreciation in regard to the diverse elements of the construction of identity and how it evolves and alters in the virtual world, an extension from the body behind the screen. The different sources reveal that through the advancement of technology a liberating and yet disempowering force has emerged. Identity is now a multi-faceted construct bounded only by imagination. However, due to the lack of responsibility and knowledge both by the ‘architects’ and users of an unchecked virtual world, elements of identify such as race and gender has also become marginalised and bounded unnecessarily.

References(footnotes)

[1] Mocha J. Herrup, ‘Virtual Identity’ in To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism, ed. Rebecca Walker (New York: Anchor Books, 1995) pp. .
[2] Kevin Ng, ‘Cyberculture: Cyber-Identity and Virtual Community’, University of Alberta, (2003) http://www.ualberta.ca/~kbng/Cyberculture.html (accessed 20 August 2004).
[3] John Suler, ‘Identity Management in Cyberspace’,The Pyschology of Cyberspace (May 1996) http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/identitymanage.html (accessed 19 August 2004).
[4] Judith S. Donath, ‘Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community’, MIT Media Lab (November 1996) http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html (accessed 19 August 2004).
[5] Sherry Turkle, ‘Who Am We’, Wired Magazine, 4.02, (January 1996) http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/turkle_pr.html (accessed 26 August 2004).
[6] Lisa Nakamura, ‘Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet’, Humanities UCI, http://www.humanities.uci.edu/mposter/syllabi/readings/nakamura.html (accessed 20 August 2004).
[7]Marj Kibby, ‘BABES ON THE WEB: Sex, Identity and the Home Page’Media International Australia, No. 84, (May 1997), pp.39-45, http://www.newcastle.edu.au/discipline/sociol-anthrop/staff/kibbymarj/babes.html (accessed 31 August 2004).

Webliography Responses

For guidelines on making your Responses to your peer's Critical Annotated Webliographies, please see details here.

MENU DRIVEN IDENTITY WORKSHOP-My response

1.Which categories are available for users to choose from when signing up for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or in order to use the Second Life gameworld? What presumptions do these categories make about users, and what does the absence of certain categories of identity say?

As observed by many from this tutorial group, Hotmail and Yahoo!Mail provides the categories of language, country/region, gender, birth date and occupation for users to choose from. Yahoo! Mail, for advertising purposes, provides a more extensive range for occupation including industry and specialisation for users. This is to funnel the massive range of advertising to suit the user’s needs as presumed by the service provider based on the choices selected(interests, career etc). The categories available seems to place little importance on the race of the users as they are differentiated by geographic locale rather than by ethinicity or colour.

Second Life provides “Second Life First Name”, “Second Life Last Name”, “date of birth” and “gender”. The game offers a selection of preset last names that are uncommon and allows for a unique in-world identity that seems to be race and colour free.

4.Are any of the websites you've visited inherently racist? Why or why not?

One must question the definition of the term racism in attempt to answer this question. If racism is defined to be an animosity towards other races or a belief in racial superiority then perhaps many of the sites are racist towards the minority races or less affluent races, as there is exclusiveness in categorization. However, I do not believe that the intent and motive of the sites were to condescend and marginalize these other races. As an Asian myself, I never felt ‘marginalized’ by Yahoo! and Hotmail, as I find it more of a hassle to deal with a long list of tick boxes and columns “about me”. I believe that most of the sites probably started by providing their service to a targeted user group based on market research and statistics. However, as the accessibility of internet increases resulting in a greater diversity online, these service providers must begin to take responsibility to ensure that more groups are accounted for.

To be honest, I did feel tangibly isolated while browsing through Lavalife due to the overall design of the site, which seems to have adhered to a default set of identity categories (namely age, location, colour, star sign, religiousness , height, physique, smoking/drinking habits). Colour (mainly white) seems to be an important aspect of the Lavalife ‘identity’ thus creating an obvious segregation between other races.

Changes to this tutorial blog

Hi Everyone,

New Link
A couple of changes to your tutorial blog. Firstly, you will notice I've added a link to the main Self.Net blog; this contains occassional posts from myself or Karen focusing on items which may be of interest for all students. Also, a number of curious people have found my own personal blog. Since some of you have found it, I may as put a link here, so if anyone else wants a read, you're most welcome (but do keep in mind, this is my personal blog, so isn't always 100% academically orientated!).

Blog Navigation Bar
I'm sure you've all noticed this new Navigation Bar at the top of the blog:

This adds some functions which might make using the tutorial blog easier:

• The orange Blogger button will take you directly to Blogger.com.

• Entering a search into the empty form box (the white box) and hitting search will search this blog (or whatever blog you are viewing). This should make finding earlier material much easier (only 15 posts remain on the front page, the rest go into the archive, accessible via the links on the side).

• Finally, the BlogThis! button will automatically open a window to let you write a blog post.

FollowUp Comments for those Introducing Readings
Just a quick note: most of you who have already introduced readings this week in tutorials have gone back and published your reflection upon the tutorial after it finished. Those who haven't (and those presenting in the coming weeks) please remember that part of your tutorial presentation is to go back to the post you made before the tute and reflect on how well your presentation went (how well the ideas were received; what sort of conversation happened; any ways your ideas about the reading might have changed/expaned). Ideally, this should be done as soon as possible after your tutorial presentation (but really should be before the next meeting of your tutorial). Others are reminded, that they are always welcome to comment on any posts in their tutorial blog and are also welcome to post relevant links/ideas whenever you find things! (oh, and for those of you who've never read other people's comments, give it a go; there are some really interesting dialogues taking place in the comments!).

A reminder:
Before clicking the 'Publish Post' button, if you place the cursor inside the window where you have written your post press either Ctrl+A to select all and then Ctrl+C (on a PC) or Apple+A to select all and then Apple+C (on a Mac), this will place the text you have written in the memory of the computer (this is referred to as placing text on the clipboard). If something goes wrong during the attempt to publish, all you need to do to make the post a second time is place the cursor in the post window and press either Ctrl+V (PC) or Apple+V (Mac) to paste the text from the clipboard into that text box. (Occassionally blogger does 'hang' [which means not finishing the posting function], so it is useful to make this quick backup in order to avoid typing out the entry a second time!)