Blogs are an important technical development concerning the recorded history of the human condition. For eons written history primarily reflected only the perspective of the power classes. During the last two centuries we have seen a move toward the "common people" recording their own history in a written format, as the technology and cost of paper based publication has gone down. This trend has began to change the way that we see our own history, a history that was previosly left to a much tenuous oral tradition.
Blogs bring recording history to the speed and mass availabilty of instant messaging. While possibly a pop trend in their current form, blogs are definately a step away from information being controlled by the power classes. The name blog will someday be replaced, however, the concept of instantly publicated, dated entries will be a cornerstone of future information technology developments.

Journalistic Style Blogs - Blogs of this nature allow the author to immediately publicate information about current events, often events that are neglected by the mass media, bringing the attention to a larger concerned by uninformed population. For example, I witnessed a major incidence of rascism at the Wilson Farms on Elmwood and Auburn. I immediatley posted the information concerning the situation to my community blog with links to Tops corporate headquarters, the owners of the Wilson Farms Francise. Within hours people who check my community blog began to write letters to Tops within a day Tops responded that the manager had been repremanded. While I cannot be sure that this stop him from future incidences of rascism, I can be sure that he has been warned that the people of the community are watching and that they care about what happens in there community markets. This type of small community information is drectly overlooked even by the local media. A more public example wa st he case of Trent Lott, whose racist remarks at the Birthday of Strom Thurman were vritually unreported until the mainstream media picked up on reports from Blogs.

Personal Style Journals - 1st person vs 2nd person historical record
While many people in our class have discounted personal blogs as frivoulous, self involved publications I would like to argue the importance of such blogs. One of the greatest aspects of personal blogs is the ease of use factor. Blogs provide an publication outlet for many people in our society that are otherwise excluded from pubically expressing their feelings due to technological and social barriers.

I was totally outraged at the statement by Elizabeth Osder, a visiting professor at The University of Southern California's School of Journalism, who said "Bloggers are navel-gazers," "And they're about as interesting as friends who make you look at their scrap books." She added, "There's an overfascination here with self-expression, with opinion. This is opinion without expertise, without resources, without reporting."

The mass recording of the human condition should not be conducted soley by the well-trained, highly educated classes. In upholding such opinions Ms. Osder is submitting to the historical precedents of information oppression by the power classes.

In the long run, the mass number of personal blogs currently recorded in databases, will allow future historians to get a much more accurate representation of how people in a particular community felt. A much better representation, in my opinion, than if we are limited only to the opinion of those "studying" the human condition.

Group Journals-
Group journals also represent another way in which we can harness the power of blogs for community building. Group blogs and other closely related online discourse formats such as Wiki, provide many benefits over the traditional online community based communication tools. For example, Blogs offer significant benefits over mailing lists. First, anyone can read a blog, meaning that it is not restricted only to the recipients of the mailing list. This publication of the contents also allows for new members to be introduced to the concepts of the group before joining. Blogs also provide a historical record that is often more accessible than in mailing lists.

Many people still say that blogs are just contributing to the numbness created by mass media saturation. Blogs are not the problem. The true offender of free knowledge is mass advertising. Blogs truly embody what the internet was created for - a free trasnfer of information between people and communities. All in all, I realize that blogs are a trend that will definately be replaced by something better. However, blogs are a really important step in the transfer from a humanity based on closed information to one based on free publication and sharing of the historical recording of the human experience. It is no wonder that in 1999 there were only 23 blogs and now there are millions.

Globalization is not panacea - the Earth will not return to Pangea. While the higher ideals of globalization are a world with no borders, the unfortunate realistic outlook is world with no community and international slavery. Economic globalization is a tool of the power classes used in order to move labor sources from places where the worker is well protected and of higher cost to place with no restraints and low costs. Economic globalization is also a return to the tradition of colonization. Global corporations, once free from the constraints of national law and able to comb the earth for places which will harbor factories run on cheap and dirty child labor. Publically, this movement is conducted in the name of all middle to upper class western citizens. In reality this movement of labor forces is conducted in the name of capitalism to produce profits for the ultra rich.

Television is a major instrument in the promotion of economic globalization. Television make speople from all cultures want the goods of one culture. The culture of a globalized world. Who profits from the export of our popular culture. Nike, MTV, Coca-Cola, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, the Spice Girls, etc. It is no coincidence that huge corporations and the personalities the represnt them fund the production of our exported mass media. Through globalization our media is taking over the world and shoving our propaganda down the throats of many unsuspected entertainment consumers in foreign countries. For example, when I lived in Germany I was able to view many American network television stations, including ABC, NBC, CNN, MTV, etc. We now know that during the earlier days of the Iraqi war, George W and his administration lied about many of the reasons and facts surrounding the conflict. There is no doubt that people is hundred of countries witnessed this same incorrect information dissemination while busy consuming our exported entertainment. Because we now know of these outright lies and inconsistences (Sadam was responsible for 9-11, etc) we can now assume that many other things reported on the main stream globalized news media sources may also be questionable.

The same goes for television, the huge lack of local and public television stations terrifies me. This is definately a reflection into the globalization movement. The precursor to globalization is national homogenisation. Soon through media promotion and increased interconenctivity every city in the united states will consist of a Walmart, a Target, A Best Buy, a Texaco, Office Max, and a McDonalds. This import precursor means that main stream media becomes more expensive in terms of advertsisment. For example, to get a spot on NBC at 7PM on Tuesday ocsts far to much money for most local establishments. However, the large multi-national corporations can fund such advertsisments across the world on these globalized media netwroks. The reinforces the position of such corporations in the global market place, opening up channels of demand in more and more places. With the channel so demand in place, the companies become more powerful and can do things such as bribe governemnts for off shore tax protection, child labor, etc

I would like to argue that the internet, originally designed for military purposes of post-apocalyptic communication, is quickly becomming yet another tool in the move toward globalization. While we often see the internet as bringing our global citizenry together in a positive way, by providing free access to many of the worlds information databases, I would like to argue that the internet may also be a tool which can be used to rip our local communities apart and focus us on the acceptance of globalization. By moving our neighborly associations from a local to a global/virtual level, we are giving up much of the freedoms associated with local organization and politcal change. While the internet provides a way for people from around the w
orld
to
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ni
te in virtual communties under a common interest, it is also providing a distraction from our actual communties. Through services like AOL, the typical internet user is provided with an experience that makes them often feel more "at home" with a fellow "smurf" collector in Sweden than with their actual neighbors, who share a political, social and community infrastructure wth them.

Globalization is a sham, it a a tool that will take the dirty work american corporations particpate in and move it across borders, in essensce sweeping it under the carpet.

Many digital artists are troubled by the notion that video games seems to reinforce the staus quo of the male dominated, violent, capitalist condition. In repsonse to this, artists such as the woman at opensorcery (Annd Schleiner) and Natalie Bookchin among many others are producing gaming environments and modifications which both challenge the role of the video game as a purely entertainment based medium and use them to ecplore social issues and protest the violenece many of them are based aorund.

A great example of an artist using the game engine for social protest is Anna Schleiner Velevet Strike project . Velvet Strke is a game modification for counterstrike, which is itself a modification of a commercial game. In counterstike, a typical military-based, first person shooter game you play the roll of an trooper fighting terrorists. The velevet strike modification exploites code that allows th user to upload a spray paint which can be sprayed on the walls and floor of the game. The sprays found at velevt strike are very anti-violence and often poke fun at the male dominated nature of such video games and he American campaign in Iraq.

Velevt strike has a web page where other artists can upload image files that can be made into sprays for other artists. This idea of female artists confronting the mostly male game players in a networked war space with anti-violence propangda is very unique. It is the first anti-war protests that I have seen within virtual space. Anne-Marie Schleiner of Velevt Strike is definately an informed iindividual who beginning to study games from a crtical standpoint and then reacting in an artistic manor. Here is a link to her statement about velevet-strike.

In response to the project many CS gamers have become quite aggravated and resorted to sending hate male, etc. Here are some examples.
"Hello,
What a stupid initiative!!! If you don't like the game just don't buy it, and don't piss off other people with your shit.
Just a woman could have think of making something like Velvet Strike....
if you don't realize that videogame is just a VIDEOGAME, an that its a fake world, well then, GO PLAY WITH YOUR BARBIE!
its the same kind of people as you that tell that violent movie influence people and make them commit murders. The facts is that most people are intelligent and can see THE difference...
Anyway,"

"CS IS MY WAY OUT AFTER 911"
...I also take extreme umbrage about your section explaining Velvet-Strike. I watched as the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center burned and colapsed. I saw people jumping out of those towers live, not on some TV. I smelt the smoke, heard the rumble, felt the earth shake. Those are images and feelings that are indescribable. I cannot get the image of the first tower crashing down, destroying everything below. I was in that Plaza, was on the Observation Deck, had dinner at Windows on the World, knew people who worked there, took the PATH trains inside of it! And when you say that we should not be at war with Afgnastan, it makes me stomach turn and my heart sink. I cannot begin to describe the anguish I felt after 9/11.

By outraging these people she is not only provoking response but requiring them to think about their actions. Both of these men are very angry and have definately been affected by her work at an emotional level. I believe both men will tell others about it, even if in a negative light. In doing that her message spreads like a vrius among the people she would otherwise not confront until it reaches a taget, like myself, where it sets in.

Anna Schleiner was also the co-developer of Anime Noir. Many web based art initatives challenge the sexual oppression of women. Anime Noir is a Macromedia Director based web art game that challenges the sexual
oppression of women . Online games since
t
he


e
arly days of text-based MUDs have always had an underground and often obvious sexual overtone. Anne noticed that men tended to control these domains. They aimed to create a sexual chat game that encouraged men to behave as sexually desired by females. In the game, onlin eusers meet in avirtual place and are encouraged to get "sexual" through tickling, touching, chatting and other vritual foreplay methods. The goal is for the character to "score" with as many other users as possible - thus rasing levels. to do this the user must sattisfy the desires of the other user in order to be sexually accepted. This encourages men to give into the desires of the female characters in order to gain levels and self satisfaction. The makers of Anime Noir hoped that this influence would continue outside of the temporary gaming space.

Another game modification for artistic purposes called 911 Survivor was created in response to the terrorist attacks of 911. The "game" developers thought that by using a highly realistic 3D gaming engine they could put you in the place of what it was like to be in the tower during the terrorist attack. In the game you are in your office when a plane hits the building. You try to escape. When I last checked you were eventually confronted with no exist and would make the choice - as many did on that on 9-11 to jump ot your death. People palying the game get a sense for the true height of the building and a glimpse at what it felt like from inside.

The artists responsible for this have received numerous death threats , etc. But I do not think their point was to make fun of the victims of the terrorist attck but rather to use the medium most familar to them in order to express the situation to others. The situation is, however, quite ackward as the Unreal 2003 engine used is very much based on killing.

While I feel that the gaming industry, just as many corporate industries is based on greed, violence, and deception. I do feel that the gaming medium is just beginning to be explored as a potential medium for social change and influence and should be seen as an obvious extension to the multimedialisation of art.

I stayed up again to make the buttons shinier and change some code. I was going to go to bed but I knew if I stayed up to 3am I could be the first one to get a star for today.

Matthew and I had a serious talk about life and I tried to get him interested in doing an online childrens book style journal. I think he might actually like it. I hope so because he seemed very bored and sad recently and I just want to see him happy.

On another note, I am really excited about applying for the job at Canisius. I do not really have a lot of time to prepare a portfolio but I have lots of work to show. Really, I spend most of my time working on the site now, so I guess I will have to include that. If I don't get the job its fine because I know I will have a ton of opporuntiy as soon as I graduate but if I do get it, it will make paying off my student loans that much easier.

Heather Killian, if you are reading this please call me 885-1492 or IM on my sideKick, the link is right at the top of my link list. I am really excited to finally see you after all this time.

Rachel, if you are reading this, we should get togther with Heather soon before she goes. Call me so we can figure something out.

I met with Mike from the site, who also happens to be my best brother, at spot. Anyways, we talked about the site and decided that maybe it was time to start a restaurant review.

Mike said the he and Jill could review restaurants with photos and all, and then othe rpoeple could leave comments and rate the restaurant. This would allow for a diversified opinion poll. Say for vegetarians and other people with special dietary concerns like gluten intollerance.

It would also allow for restaurants to be continually reviewed over time in a similar way to the journal format.

Anyways, as a first step I would liek to say that I had the albacore tuna sandwich at Spot Coffee on Elmwood and it was quite tasty. As you can see from the pic I completely finished it all, which is rare for me.

So I spent the whole morning fixing up some last minute stuff and adding the new features. Now I think I am going to head over to Canisius and print out some flyers to hand out at Spot and around the neighborhood.

Maybe I'll see you around.

Well, its is 7am and I am still updating stuff for the brand new ver 1.7. Nobody really new what it was going to be so I hope people are surprised and really happy. It took a lot of work this evening in order to set up the search engine and voice and music messaging system.

Tomorrow, Terry is going skiing and I kind of wnat to go but now I will be for sure to tired. I am also going to start promoting the site to people. I willl begin by passing flyers out on elmwood and doing some video interviews on the street to get more people to visit. I also, think the radio needs more organized shows.

I am really most sad that Matthew no longer particiates in the site. I am not sure why he has stopped but it makes me sad. He used to be one the more interesting journals. Maybe he'll change now that he has his new super halogen fish tank light. He really seems to have suffered a bug setback when his salt water tank starting having all those problems.

After spending the afternoon hunting variable and programming my seahorse onto my sideKick, I am now going to go ahead and dance. I better go get ready. Maybe I will have pics of the event later. I guess like 10 of us are going.

Terry and I are having a debate about the role of the excutioner in the State Prison Systems. I am saying that not only the executioner, but all people that work on death row are most definately sick individuals. Terry says they are most likely poor people from the country with no other job alternatives beside Walmart.

I think they are guilty of murder and can make the choice to move within our large country and find another job. Maybe a lower paying job but definately something less horrific. Especially if they were working in the prison and lived in the country. Working there as a prison guard would afford them the ability to save enough money to move to another city and start over.

I cannot justify that any environmental situation can alleviate the responsibility of organized and mechanized mass murder.

On another note, if you check executioner.com it takes you to mastertrader.com - a day trading site.

We were here to celebrate the end of the semester and graduation for Rachel and Desi. Rachel, Terry, Holly, and I lost money, Desi won $75.



I definately thought I could like gambling. It started by dropping $1 in a machine and getting $9.

Next I lost $25. Now I hate it. My advice, don't gamble, however, definately come for free drinks and the earth-unfriendly buffet. There were seriously piles of shrimp, crab legs, organic mesclux mix salad, etc that the waitress told us would all be "thrown out" in 10 minutes, because it was almost closing time.



It seems crazy that so much food can go to waste, especially in such a poor place, as Rachel noted in her journal. I mean Niagara Falls is so poor that they decided to turn their convention center into a casino.