Personal na Espasyo sa Pangmadlang Midyum

Ang blog ay isang personal na espasyo ng mga nasa isip o iniisip ng isang tao, subalit ito rin ay espasyo upang ikawala ang mga nararamdaman ng nagsusulat. Naniniwala ako na ang mga blog ay espasyo ng pag-alaala sa mga masasaya at ganoon din ng mga malulungkot na pagkakataon kaya ito ay ating isinusulat at ibinabahagi sa ating personal na espasyo- ang ating blog site. Matagal akong hindi nakapag-blog at aaminin kong sa bawat pagkakataong ninanais kong makapagsulat ay siya namang panahong inaatake ako ng aking katamaran.

Sa taong ito, ang blog entry na ito ang siyang unang entry ko sa aking personal na espasyo sa isang alternatibong midya na naka-direkta sa pangmadlang espasyo, ang Web o ang Internet. Masayang malamang sa lawak ng mundong virtual ay mayroon pa ring mga taong nagtitiyagang malaman ang iyong saloobin o naiisip ukol sa ilang isyu sa lipunan, maging ito nga ay pang-lipunang sakop o pang-personal na daing lamang.

Para sa bumabasa nito, mabuhay ka! At para sa may-akda ng entry na ito, nawa'y sikapin mo pang mas mapaunlad ang blog na ito sa simleng pagta-type ng mga saloobin o opinyong nais mong ikawala mula sa iyong isipan o damdamin.

Cheers to UP Web Scholar Ma'am Data

Ma'am Data told me this afternoon while we were walking downstairs that she made it to Fulbright Scholarship! Until now, my heart beats with joy whenever I think how she told me. She liked whispered it to me and she said that I am the first to know because I also applied in Fulbright, and she's on her way then to Dean Roland to tell him the great news.

Stolen shot of Ma'am Data while discussing the 

program for our Interactive Broadcasting class.

MY FULBRIGHT APPLICATION
It was through Ma'am Data that I learned about this Fulbright program offered last year wherein I applied but did not make it to the final round of panel interview. (To read my experience and to check some photos during the interview, please click here.) I also asked Ma'am Data to recommend me to the scholarship program since she has been my professor on that semester. She agreed and I read her recommendation for me and it was really touching. Upon knowing the result of my application, I told it to her and shared my experience during the interview. She told me that she is also applying, and I got so excited for her because I already know that she would make it- knowing her research interest, her background, and her recent researches and even her thesis on the web.

NEW MEDIA LITERACY
I believe that our classes with Ma'am Data like our BC 148 (Interactive Broadcasting) and Comm 150 (New Media Culture) have the first of a kind classes in the College of Mass Communication. It is about the recent developments of the Web as applied in broadcasting and in media. Even the some of the topics were not easy to grasp, Ma'am Data makes it easier for us to comprehend better and to apply these terms in our cases. It is because of her why I would like pursue a program or a curriculum study on the new media to be included in the college.

THESIS IT!
It is also because of Ma'am Data and another Fulbright scholar Ma'am Betsy why I am pursuing my present thesis topic. I love these professors and they do inspire me a lot in my studies. Most professors say that when you select a thesis topic, it should be the one topic that you really love and passionate about. In my case, it's not only the topic that I am in love with and passionate about, but also the people who are behind the wonders of this idea. When Ma'am Data cracked the news to me, the second thing that came into my mind is my thesis adviser. Since Ma'am Betsy will not be around next semester due to her Fulbright research grant, Ma'am Data is the nearest adviser I can choose for my topic because online is her forte. So I told her who will be my adviser for my thesis? She said that the scholarship will be on October 2012 and by that time, I hope, I am already done with my thesis and already graduated, too.

Because she's so cool and awesome, like that.

I wish you all the best, Prof. Data Tolentino-Canlas, Ph.D.!

Reasons for not blogging

You can throw whatever negative adjectives to me right now. I deserve none of your positive insights about me maintaining a blog site. Maybe, you can judge me with such words if you are in my situation right now. Well, I will just narrate some of the reasons why some students, such as me, do not go online or do not write an entry on their blog site. Although I have to admit I am active in other social networking sites but blogging? Oh, forget it. I have my reasons.

Season. I though of this first reason because of summer season! I believe that someone needs to take a break in a while from his or her online world to have a breathe in the real world. The film Inception has really gotten into me and that I think we need to prioritize more reality than the thought-of-imagination-like world and in this case, the Internet. We need to have time with friends, family, and the people who has been with us even before we find ourselves in front of a monitor and doing whatever things that can make you escape reality. And I need to admit, I've been enjoying the real world, even without sharing those experiences online, on my blog site.

Challenge. You may call it challenge or a game. Have you ever tried this before- challenging yourself and pushing your limits to something that is connected with your behavior and web usage? Yes, you can think of Facebook usage in here. When you badly need to focus on your academics but you cannot help to loose your network? That's my second reason for not blogging for almost a week now. Now the added challenge is suffocating the ideas on my mind and I needed to control and challenge myself to keep it on myself.

Privacy. I know this reason defeats the main purpose of blogging which is I think sharing and expressing one's self to its readers and to public who have an access to their blog site in general. Just like the reason before this, I wanted to challenge myself in keeping myself private. Funny? I don't think so. Maybe it's just that sometimes, you needed to inhibit yourself too much of public exposure for you to be refrained to many stupid talks. Also, it's about protecting your reputation and dignity, if ever you have such. Now that's funny.

Activities. In connection to the first reason, whenever schoolbreaks enter the scene, it's much better to indulge into a lot of physical activities or simply, outdoor fun! Since I gained a lot of weight in the previous semesters that have passed, I badly need to connect myself to physically challenging activities. I know you might think what activities are applicable to me? Well, I walk a lot, and travel a lot. And upon coming home I tiredly, I'd rather choose to just lay down and take a rest than to post entries.

Those are some of the reasons why my blog site have been so trashy for the last days since I hardly post entries. A lot of ideas and a lot of experiences are about to explode in this site so thank you for checking this regularly. Now tell me, do we share common reasons? Post your comments below!

Facebook Funeral

My classmate in Internet studies class had a really interesting topic on his webpage assignment. A Facebook funeral.

He is Wacky, a person who is on the first glance will give you an impression on him being a chick-guy but he is way beyond that. This guy is profound and intelligent.

On his assignment, he showed a video wherein a character who died in real life had a funeral on a video game War Craft and the attendees who organized the funeral online were killed by another troop in the game. Ma'am Data and Margie said that there is already an application on Facebook wherein when an account holder has died, his or her page can turn into a Memorial what you have to do is to report that the owner is already dead.

I was also intrigued about this. What if I die? Who will handle my accounts online? How will this blog be without someone who handles this? I cannot imagine death, really. Thinking about it makes me sad, because in real life, we will really die, it's just that I am not yet ready for that.

Anyway, our Comm 150 class today was essential and my classmates' insights on each other's webpage assignment really contributed to each others awareness and knowledge about this phenomenal media- the Internet.   

Online Media Literacy Program NOW!

PDI reporter fears for life over Tim Yap tweet

 - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

      This is the very reason why Philippines should have an online media literacy program. Too much democracy and power on the use of the web means less time to think critically- trying to grasp the freshest news even without confirmation, just to create a buzz online.
-Originally posted at UP CYBER NOMADS' web site at:
http://upcybernomads.blogspot.com/2010/12/online-media-literacy-program-now.html


UPDATE:
      My friend and fellow student DJ at MOR Dagupan Elizer Evangelista agreed with me in my post regarding the same topic in Facebook. He is also a Mass Communication student in Dagupan, and he pointed out that being literate is not equated as being a media literate. I agreed with him and argued that a person can be literate with in aspects such as in writing and reading, but being a media literate is not the same as being a literate per se since the ability of a person to decipher the messages behind the shows or the texts that is being broad casted to usover the mainstream or on the online media is very different. The need for online and new media literacy is evident with the rising number of Filipinos who upload videos and tweet messages, without backing their 'texts' or 'messages' credibly.

Why I like New Media Studies

This is my research interest, as of now. I know I will love this as long as I love the internet and the web.
I just talked with my professor in BC 148  (Interactive Broadcasting class which I took last semester) and Comm 150 (Internet and New Media Culture class which I am currently am taking this semester) Professor Data Canlas.

She introduced me to a lot of interesting ideas regarding the internet and the World Wide Web last semester in our BC 148 class, and for now, she still continuous to share her knowledge about the online media to class. Today, as our class ended, I got to talk to her one-to-one regarding her research interest which I am also interested in.Though in our conversation, I drew what differs my research  topic from hers. She is into the convergence of the new media and the mobile phones and the social effects thereof; while my topic interest is on participative new media.

Even last semester in our BC 148, Ma'am Data inspired me to be involved actively in the cyberspace because it is not being studied on and the scholarly papers at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication are mostly focused on the mainstream media. I learned from our conversation that researches on the internet are focused more on the commercial side of it. She mentioned famous individuals online such as the Internet Marketing Consultant Mr. Carlo Ople and the Blogger Ms. Janette Toral.

This interview is connected to my interview in Fulbright Global UGRAD Exchange Scholarship scheduled next week, on the first day of December! And I am so excited yet anxious about it so I am into researching more about the stuff that I needed to clarify- if any, regarding my dossier.

I am praying that I will be chosen as one of the grantees of this scholarship because I want to learn more and acquire a broad perspective regarding this body of knowledge which is I believe available at the United States  of America and is only limited here in the Philippines with the reasons I mentioned above herein. I also wanted to share whatever knowledge that I will acquire in the scholarship program to the Filipino people and to the Philippine media.

AUGUST 1991: The WEBvolution begins

Photo available here. Used here non-commercially, for academic purposes only.

                   I found it interesting that eight days before I came out from my mother’s womb on the 14^th day of August in 1991, Sir Tim Berners-Lee publicly introduced the World Wide Web or the WWW[1]. The World Wide Web is made out of billions of data such as documents, photos, music, videos, that were interconnected by to computers all around the world, enabling the users to share files whenever and wherever they may be. [2]  It is quite intimidating to know that the web’s years of existence is the same as my existence in the world.

                I say intimidating because during the first class meeting on the 9^th of November in our Communication 150 class, I realized that we encountered the web and the internet late for our age, and in our generation. For my case, I first encountered the web when I was a 6^th grader when we were tasked to search for something for our subject back then. Yes, it was 2004 and the web was 13 years old already and again, yes, I was also 13 then.  

                Looking at how the web started, you may not even believe that the proposal was at first doubted by the boss of Sir Tim burners-Lee, yet the success is truly significant in the lives of the people in the current century. This is an excerpt from an interview to Sir Berners-Lee by Dr. Aleks Krotoski wherein the web inventor showed how happy he was upon the first flight of the web on the 6^th of August, 1991 as shown in the TV series produced by the BBC entitled The Virtual Revolution[3];

“I get it all wired up then that was the big switch… through the switch the lights went on… and that was the web taking off across the world. People started to log on and typing hypertext and I could feel the power of all these links spreading across the planet and we just have to hold on tight… and a call came from BBC… to cover the incredible uptake.”

               

                Although looking at how big the impact of the web in our life today, it is still seen as not encompassing some of the traditional media such as the television and the radio.[4] But I think it is because as compared to the traditional media, the new media is younger when it comes to the domination aspect. Because looking at it, as young as it may be, the influence and the impact it has made to the people is much bigger than that of other media.  

                As a “Digital Native” or as a person who is born and raised in a world of digitalization, as what John Palfrey and Urs Gasser called it in their book Born Digital[5], I am happy how our life has become more comfortable especially in doing academic works wherein a single click may lead to thousands of ideas ready to be acquired online.  It has also broadened our horizons because what was difficult to achieve before is now a single search away, even in our capabilities on doing some things such as buying expensive books and music. My mother would always tell me that I am blessed having such gadgets and internet because I can chat with and see our relatives who are miles away from us, virtually.

                If the web has its good sides, it is undeniable that it has also bad sides. The most important is the privacy of the individual who publishes almost everything on the internet. According to my professor in my English 30 or my English for the Profession class, Prof. Dr. Helen L.  Lopez when I asked her if I can publish my written output made in class online, she was against the thought of publishing it online. She said that my privacy can be intruded and that the paper I wrote might get criticisms and if other finds it unworthy to be published, then my reputation and also the University’s reputation might be ruined. I was unable to express my point to her. I believe that the web gives an opportunity for us to express ourselves and to let others know what we think or what our opinions are on certain issues.

                According to Stan Yee, our culture now is a “share everything” culture wherein the private data about us is easily disclosed to public which in turn might be subjected to exploitation and abuse[6].  I believe that it also relies on the information that you are sharing online and the settings you establish on the media or channel that you are publishing it on.

                Even there are negative sides on using the web as a medium on expressing yourself, I am still happy that the internet and the web help everything from doing a simple to the most complex actions, easy. And even though I was born with the month and the year when the web was also born, I can say that as I grow old with it, I get to study how it evolves and how it can deeply penetrate the lives of the people particularly its users- the very fact that we are of the same age helps. In short, I am part of making and even witnessing how it evolves!

               

               

---

[1] “Internet History” available at Computer Hope website at http://www.computerhope.com/history/internet.htm; Internet, accessed 9 November 2010.

[2] “WWW” available at the Computer Hope website at http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/w/www.htm; Internet , accessed 9 November 2010.

[3] The Virtual revolution is documentary series which has four episodes. It was presented by Dr. Aleks Krotoski. For more information, check the website of the series at http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/.

[4] “ Is the Web the ultimate propaganda machine?” available at Dr. Aleks Krotoski’s website at http://alekskrotoski.com/post/event-digifest-is-the-web-the-ultimate-propaganda-machine; Internet, accessed 11 November 2010.

[5] “About the Book” available at the Born Digital website at http://borndigitalbook.com/about.php; Internet, accessed 15 November 2010.

[6] “Are You Checking In- or Out?” in Reader’s Digest Asia’s Guide Tech section, November 2010, 145. 

XXXXX

A REPOST from the UP Cybernomads website at http://upcybernomads.blogspot.com/2010/11/august-1991-webvolution-begins.html. The author decided to post the same content in his own blog site for the future references. 

Finally done, for now

Done with my internet stuff. I still need to do and to catch up with my academic stuff.
I learned and discovered so much about the new media today!
Now, I need a rest and a break to have more time in reading a bunch of readings piled up on my table.
I wish I won't be sleepy tomorrow for my 1-7 PM classes.

The Mainstream and the New Media

As I browse the web to search something for my assignment, I encountered again one of my crushes when it comes to online and new media, Dr. Aleks Krotoski. We will encounter her in one of our assigned short films. Ma'am Data introduced her to me last semester. I would like to share this to you since I find it intresting because we are more exposed to the mainstream media than the new media, in general; and Dr. Krotoski's insights are very significant especially that we are studying the internet and the new media culture at the same time we are also studying the mainstream media.

Photo available at the BBC's Virtual Revolution website.

No copyright infringement intended. 

Used here for educational and non-commercial purposes only.

"...the Web has the potential to be the ultimate propaganda tool, but it’s not there yet."
-Dr. Aleks Krotoski

Dr. Krotoski talked in her article "Is the Web the ultimate propaganda machine?" (see link below) about the mainstream media as compared to the use of the web as an alternative propaganda tool. I believe she and Ma'am Data has the same philosophy about the use of the web as a propaganda machinery.

  
"We don’t want governments in our Web! It’s a rhetoric-free platform! We populate it, for us and our interests! We don’t want it to be used to manipulate us!"
-Dr. Aleks Krotoski


If there is one thing that I learned ultimately in BC 148 or the Interactive Broadcasting class is that we should be targeting the 'known institutions' and use the web to tear it down. Just like what Dr. Krotoski stated above, we don't want spinternet to control us!


HERE IS THE LINK:
http://alekskrotoski.com/post/event-digifest-is-the-web-the-ultimate-propaganda-machine

Multiply Reload

Finally i got to open my Multiply account or my online depository of photos! :)
Now I have a chance to look back on those days when I still was lesser fat than now. LOL
Photos are private so you need to be my friend their first for you to view the photos although there are some albums which can be viewed publicly. Cheers for my old friend, Multiply!

Here's the screen shot of my account. Edited version.

FIRSTs on the First Day

This day is my first day in class this semester in my first subject, too, wherein our first topic was about our first encounter with Internet. So here's the result of the first class activity.

The first question for the activity was, "When was the first time you encountered the Internet?" We were divided into two groups so that we will be able to get to know our classmates better and to know the intensity of our "relationship" with the internet. Our group was composed of Marji, Jara, Wacky, Gelly, Jervis, Kath, Marjo, and Jamay. Majority of us did encounter the web during our elementary days when we were curious about the stuff and when we first made our e-mail, visited websites such as sfogs, and connecting with family as what Jervis told the group. It was also when Wacky first downloaded a Pokemon stuff and when Marji did Meteor Garden stuff online.

Our professor, Ma'am Data was taken aback by that fact that majority of us had their first encounter with the Internet during elementary years from 2002-2004. She shared that her first encounter was on 1994 at the College of Science Library when she sent a message over the net. Lucky for us now that we have an access in almost everywhere within the College of Mass Communication.

GOING STRONG.
The current relationship with the internet is "going strong" as what Jara said. I came to sum that there are basically two purposes of the internet for us, according to the discussion. First is that it is used for connection. It slowly changes the cellphone as a medium for fast communication because Skype is now available and it's free and you are able to view the one you are talking to. You will also meet a total stranger  wherein the traditional "know-the-name-first system" when meeting someone is also changing to "guess-me" or "this-is-my-codename" system. Second it is used for entertainment such as to watch television since most of us are dormers wherein television is scarce or even not available at all. Hence, we rely on the internet to watch the programs we'd like to watch on TV.  Marji pointed out that television can sometimes be delayed since some programs were already online and she was able to catch up on these programs online.

FIRST ASSIGNMENT.
Yes, assignment was also given on the first day and that is to search for the month and year when we were born about what was happening online then and share our thoughts about it. I also volunteered to make the Yahoo groups of our class and I find it relevant for us to immediately check the syllabus which will be uploaded therein. Tell you, billions of readings are included therein.

PHENOMENON.
The class discussion was so interactive and also very opening since I discovered a lot from my classmates and even new points laid out by Ma'am Data. I am hoping to learn more about this phenomenon, the virtual revolution as what Dr. Aleks Krotoski would say. Ma'am Data keeps on pointing out that there really is a change that is happening and we are part and in the middle of these phenomena. And we will be part of a solution or contribute something to it, hopefully beyond and even inside the class.

Now that excites me so much!