Blog Seven -- deBourgoing and Miller

First off, I was very thrilled to read a web article for hip-hop for this class since the type of music is one of my favorites. Second of all, while reading through de Bourgoing's weblog of "Hip Hop Goes Transmedia: Seven Laws" I came across a couple of key arguments that she brings up.  She starts off right away by pointing out how digital media has helped up and coming artists put there work out there more effectively and efficiently than in years past, especially in L.A. where they are having a sort of "L.A. Renaissance" as she calls it. These new digital avenues for expression have allowed the genre of hip-hop to expand across multiple platforms of media and evolve to fit the current generation's way of receiving that media like the Internet and Twitter.
Another argument that de Bourgoing bring up is the sense of "keeping it real". She also emphasizes that we have to be careful about how real we go because the market is not accepting of everything, even if the artist is being one hundred percent truthful. Apart from the lyrics of an artist, what he or she wears is judged just as much to the public eye. Eminem is known for he wife beater for example while Jay-Z is known for his all black attire. It is encouraged to be unique to stand out but keep in mind that if an artist comes out to the stage with no pants, he or she will get some raised eyebrows.
Finally, the last argument that I will bring up relating to de Bourgoing's article is the concept of collaboration. Although hip-hop is known for its individual masterminds, collaboration is often encouraged to produce a mix of rap styles. Personally, many of my favorite tracks by artists are often done by more than one. For example, Eminem and Lil' Wayne's title "No Love" spoke out to me because they combined two styles of music that appeal to me. Apart from artists collaborating, the DJ is the third element that can get involved. De Bourgoing states that collaboration can be used to reach a common goal and make the final product more seamless.

I see a couple connections between deBourgoing's article and the material we have touched on the first half of class. First of all her concept of collaboration and crowdsourcing are very similar with each other. Crowdsourcing uses multiple counts of information and combines them to form an overall piece while collaboration is working together for a common goal. Both are really similar in style.

When I was finished reading the first portion of Miller's book I was left thinking to myself, what does it all mean? He touches on various forms of technical media and how it has evolved throughout time but what does he imply about all of it? I'm going out on a whim here but I think that his first portion is all about using media to preserve our ideas and thoughts for tomorrow. For example, he talked about the phonograph which is one of the first devices to play sound recordings. This is still relevant today because it is easy to see how technology has kept on the phonographic paths of making a memory of our thoughts for us to go back to later. Facebook and Twitter are common examples of how the phonograph has evolved. 

Connections between deBourgoing's article and Miller's book can be clearly seen. In a section of Miller's book he relates the phonograph to today's media to preserving language and text to refer to in the future. Miller also touches on the fact of collaboration and how it has been used to create an end product, very similar to deBourgoing's law number four which was collaboration. Another connection that I found was that they both related media to evolving to multi platforms like the Internet and Torrents.

Blog Four: Weinberger -- O'Reily

After going through and analyzing five chapters of Weinberger's ideas and trying to relate them to the "Web 2.0" and "Web Squared" articles, I found many connections. The connection I am going to focus primarily on for this post is the Web 2.0 and Web Squared's concept of collective intelligence and suddenly having all of this combined information made possible by technology. With all of this miscellaneous information, it needs some sort of organization or order to sort through it all. As a result, this is where Weinberger's idea of 'tagging' or 'third order' comes into play.

Weinberger's third order doesn't force data into categories but instead tags it. Wikipedia would be an example of data forced into one specific label. Tagging doesn't have those restrictions. For example at the top of page 92, Weinberger states that "Tagging lets a user of online resources - Web pages, photos - add a word or two to them so she can find them again later (Weinberger 92)." In other words, this concept of tagging can be used in music, movies, class websites, and just about anything on the World Wide Web. Delicious.com is a perfect example of how tagging can be amazingly useful and effective. It is a bookmarking site that allows the user to list web pages that he or she might want to go back to. To help you find the sites you've bookmarked, Delicious allows the attachment of whatever words you want to place with that link. For example, if I wanted to bookmark the Washington State University website, I would tag it with "Wazzu" or "WSU" or "Colleges". This concept is so useful because it allows the user to tag things his or her own way, making it unique and easy to remember.

Blog Three

Referring to my previous blog, the one thing I try to keep totally organized is my school planner. It is a physical and small book that I write assignments, due dates, and appointments down onto it. Though I see my method of planning to be the most efficient out there, I know that other students might not find it as effective, especially in today's society. Everything is becoming so technologically centered that it wouldn't surprise me to see another student having his or her school planner embedded in their laptop. Prior to this post I was actually looking online at some feasible electronic planner but nothing caught my eye. Personally, I need to write down everything with a physical pen that touches actual paper. Students now, particularly newer college students, might find this method too time-consuming and since their laptop is already there in front of them, why not insert a due date then?

I said earlier that I need a planner to actually open, write an important assignment down, and close it. Does that make me old-fashioned? I hope not because I'm not quite sure what makes me old-fashioned yet. I think that it means that for me, writing something down will make it stick in my brain better than simply typing a few lines on my laptop. I'm not always going to be looking at my planner, so if I remember something important that I didn't see in my planner, that is a huge benefit for me. And besides, what will the e-planner users do when their computer suddenly crashes?

Blog Two

While reading Weinberger's first couple chapters,a couple of key points came to mind. First, the addition of the Internet to our daily lives have allowed us to go from aimlessly browsing through a store, to simply ignoring all the things we don't need and easily find the ones we do. This is done through the access to the Internet. Weinberger says we now ignore the organizational structure of a store, because we no longer need to go to a physical store to shop. Technological advancements have allowed us to jump right to the end product.

One thing in my life that I tend to always keep organized is my school planner. Though mostly the rest of life tends to be a bit on the unorganized side, my planner is always serene with highlights, due dates, and important projects. When I graduate from college there is no doubt that my planner played a huge part in me getting there.

Blog One

The Internet is constantly changing and adapting to the people who use it. Newer technologies are allowing the Web to not only be present on a computer, but taking it and putting it on phones, iPods, and even airplanes. The article "Web Squared" talks about much of the advancement of the Internet from the 1990's to present day and how it is being implemented into our daily activities. In terms of my professional future, it is still very up in the air. However, one of the most important ideas that I took from the article was how the Internet is continuously being integrated into tools we use frequently on a daily basis, specifically the Redefining Collective Intelligence: New Sensory Input section of the article. This section describes the concept of collective intelligence and how it is one of the major "next step" periods for the Internet. The most current example is the Google Mobile App for the iPhone. It takes words that you speak into the phone and uses the Google search engine to look up  whatever you are saying. Google, coupled with the iPhone's GPS, can shoot back information using your location as well. For example, if I needed a haircut, I would simply say "Super Cuts" into the phone and it would provide the nearest Super Cuts salon and their phone number.


My favorite web application as of now would have to be Netflix Instant Queue. It allows me to stream almost any movie or television show for a really low monthly fee. What makes it so useful, is that I can attach my laptop to my T.V. and have a wide assortment of things to view. Netflix first made it's convenience known when they introduced the concept of having movies or shows delivered to your house. Now that they have Instant Queue, they have made it even easier to view films without even having to go to your mailbox.