Olivia Toh (10427597)

“Masquerades in Cyberspace”

This project sought to examine how the Internet offers a space for individuals to (re)create themselves.

When I began this project, I envisioned looking at how the Internet allows individuals to experiment with concepts of identity. As a space where bodily signifiers are absent, the Internet provides an interesting arena - simultaneously public and private - where individuals need to make themselves exist by creating a digital body and online identity.

This is my last videoblog and it looks at how the online identities we create can affect us in 'real' life, both at present and in the future.

My third videoblog is about how the anonymity of the Internet can encourage deception and anti-social behaviour.

Much like Web sites, blogs have become ubiquitous virtually overnight. As most blogs are interactive and invite feedback from readers, the blogging dichotomy has emerged as a viable alternative news medium. The growing impact of bloggers ultimately comes in their antagonistic approach to correcting or supplementing reports given in the mainstream media. Many blogs provide a unique and unconventional perspective on the local and national news.

The wall street journal recorded that “the number of Americans reading blogs jumped 58% in 2004 to an estimated 32 million people…with about 11 million looking to political blogs for news surrounding the presidential campaign.”

Critical Analysis of Text and Video Blog Series

Online Communities and the Arts

Hana Parkinson 10404608

This blog project was about how the prevalence of virtual communities is functioning to assist people working in the arts. Online forums, including MySpace, deviantART and fuel4arts.com, are enabling artists by allowing them “free” exposure to an almost unlimited audience.

Online Communities and the Arts: Conclusion

This is my last video blog post in the series Online Communities and the Arts, titled 'Conclusion.

Online Communities and the Arts: Interactive Art

This is my third video blog in the series Online Communites and the Arts, titled 'Interactive Art'.

So, this is the last post. Unfortunately, this one comes with a disclaimer:

Facebook, in its infinite wisdom, deletes the accounts of users that it suspects to be fraudulent. Since there's no way of telling Facebook that the account serves the interest of student research, one just has to hope and pray they don't get around to deleting your fake accounts the same week that your thesis is due. Unfortunately, that's precisely what happened with me.

You can read about some examples of this happening here:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/facebook-giveth-facebook-taketh-away/2...