Subculture Report

Here is a link to my report

Wall Street Journal's "The Really Smart Phone"

Last weekend's edition of the Wall Street Journal had a very interesting article titled "The Really Smart Phone." Yes, I still go old school and read newspapers, especially when I want to take a break from the 80+ blogs I read on my Google Reader. Here is a link to the online version of the WSJ as well http://on.wsj.com/gi1pSm.

An MIT researcher states, "Phones can know. People can get this god's eye view of human behavior." Cell phones collect much more data than we are aware. Of course, we know that phone companies keep track of our location based on cell towers so that we can be routed to the closest/optimum one when moving about a city, but there is a wealth of data that our personal devices also collects. Not only is data, text, and voice usage recorded, but at times even our phone's GPS sensors, camera, light sensors, and gyroscopes kick into gear to record your personal movements and behaviors throughout the day. "Researchers are already exploring ways that the information gleaned from mobile phones can improve public health, urban planning and marketing"

Below are a few excerpts from the article of how this data can be used:

"At Northeastern University in Boston, network physicists discovered just how predictable people could be by studying the travel routines of 100,000 European mobile-phone users. After analyzing more than 16 million records of call date, time and position, the researchers determined that, taken together, people's movements appeared to follow a mathematical pattern. The scientists said that, with enough information about past movements, they could forecast someone's future whereabouts with 93.6% accuracy."

"And back at MIT, scientists who tracked student cellphones during the latest presidential election were able to deduce that two people were talking about politics, even though the researchers didn't know the content of the conversation. By analyzing changes in movement and communication patterns, researchers could also detect flu symptoms before the students themselves realized they were getting sick."

"Just by watching where you spend time, I can say a lot about the music you like, the car you drive, your financial risk, your risk for diabetes. If you add financial data, you get an even greater insight," said Dr. Pentland. "We are trying to understand the molecules of behavior in this really complete way."

Literacy on Dribbble

Dribbble jargon is quite easy to pick up on. As with any social networking site, Dribbble has it's own set of Web 2.0 words that define actions performed on the site. Twitter has Tweets, Facebook has Pokes, Fourqaure has Mayors, etc. The Dribbble lexicon is based off of basketball terms. For example, when you post a 400x300 screengrab of your work, it is called a 'shot' and people participating on the site are called 'players'. Designers can 'rebound' other players' shots by posting a screengrab of their own in response to another player's shot. Furthermore, shots that have a lot of rebounds become 'playoffs.' There are additional buzzwords that further designate the players on Dribbble. Players who have been on the site for long enough are called 'pros' while new players are labeled 'rookies.' Since you must be invited to participate on the site, a new user can indicate themselves as a 'prospect' to signal that they want to get 'drafted' as  player.

Learning these terms are quite easy, as is with joining any social networking site. However, there are literacies involved with being familiar in graphic, product, and web design to fully understand the discussions on the site. For example, players may comment on the type design in a certain shot, and write about kearning and leading, which are all terms related to typography. They may even go into talking about crossbars, terminals, and apertures, which are again, all terms related to typography and type design. Below, I've included screengrabs of another conversation that utilizes non-colloquial abbreviations:

Here we see players using terms such as UX and UI, which stand for 'user experience' and 'user 'interface' respectively. They are both specializations in graphic design. 

"Check-in" Apps

I know a few people in out class are doing their reports on "check-in" services such as Foursquare or austin-based Gowalla. As a location-based service user myself, I decided to write some of my thoughts on these types of social networks.

From the advent of these networks, it seems that the one of the initial draws of the service was the game mechanic. When you check in on places on Gowalla, you receive a "stamp" of that place in your passport. Players can even receive a pin for competing a trip, such as hitting all the popular BBQ joints in Austin. Each city comes with its own unique set of trips curated by the Gowalla team and its users. People can also pick up and drop off virtual items in a sort of geo-caching-like game. Foursquare exhibits similar game mechanics, but there are also some real-world perks in checking in regularly to a place. The person that checks in the most at a place in a certain time period becomes the Mayor of that place. On Foursquare, some of the benefits of being a mayor of a place include discounts or free things to that place. For example, I think the mayor of Halcyon (a coffee shop in town) gets free daily coffee. Foursquare brings people back to their favorite places as they check-in daily to defend their Mayorship. For what I know, Gowalla doesn't have these discount perks yet. I recall though that during SXSW, where they had a very large presence, they would give away free stuff such as t-shirts and even iPhones for checking in at various venues and SXSW events.

For me, I use Gowalla more as a travel log of sorts ... a new way of documenting the places I go with geo-location, uploading comments, and photos. It's just a new way for me to discover new places. When I go to a new city, I will often check out the Gowalla trips associated with that area. Who knows, maybe I will find a new favorite coffeeshop or best-kept-secret bookstore.

S/R 3: eXistenZ

David Cronenberg’s science fiction film, eXistenZ, tells the story of a near-future dystopian society where video games have become the cultural norm as a recreational pastime. In this world, there is constant tension between gamers and realists who believe that the games are evil. These video games, instead of being played through hand-held controllers and viewed on a screen, connects directly to a person’s nervous system through a “bioport” installed at the base of his or her spine, and players use umbilical-like cords to jack into to the game. The game pods are grown than machined, as they mimic masses of amphibious flesh and organs, rather than artificial electrical components. Allegra Geller, a renowned game designer, conducts a focus group to test her new video game, eXistenZ, using these game pods. However, an assassination attempt by a realist quickly disperses the group and Geller flees to safety with marketing trainee Ted Pikul. Geller fears that the attempt on her life has damaged the only copy of eXistenZ in her game pod. She convinces Pikul to install an illegal bioport so that he may play the game with her. They visit Kiri Vinokur, Allegra's mentor, who installs Pikuls bioport. Pikul and Allegra enter eXistenZ together, and inside the game, they obtain new micropods, which descend their consciousness into a subsequent game layer. They find themselves in a game pod factory, harvesting mutated amphibians to create more game pods. Reality is distorted when Pikul creates an organic gun similar to the one used in the original assassination attempt, and continues to struggle with which setting is the real world versus the game world. Allegra finds a diseased game pod and hooks into it in the hopes that they can destroy Cortical Systematic's game pods. However, Allegra herself becomes infected and Pikul theorizes that they have lost the game. The two wake up and find themselves back at the ski lodge. Reality is further blurred as it seems that the disease from the game has infected Allegra’s game pod in this world. They exit the lodge to find war has broken out as the realists attempt to purge the world of game pods. Pikul reveals to Allegra that he is actually a realist and her assassin, which is the reason why he originally did not have a bioport. Allegra discloses that she had known he was her assassin, and preemptively kills Pikul. The two wake up in a focus group paralleling the first scene. In a twist, it turns out they are part of a focus group to beta test game designer's Yevgeny Nourish’s new game, tranCendenZ. Pikul and Allegra uncover the fact that they are realists, and kill Nourish for distorting reality.

What I found fascinating in eXistenZ was the recurring theme of self-determination and autonomy. As human beings, we assume we have complete free will in our actions and that we have the power to think and act without outside influence or compulsion. In reality, our thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears and shortcomings are all shaped by external influences. I am reminded of Plato's Allegory of a Cave, where individuals chained in a cave are only exposed to shadows projected on the wall. This is their reality, and know little of the outside world. In fact, they assume what they know is reality. Since our experiences all come from the outside, such as from our parents, our friends, our environment, and everything we are exposed to, no decision is made without bias or predisposition. Our world and culture consists of the 6 billion plus human beings that inhabit this world, each one acting as their own autonomous agent. They affect the lives of everyone around them, and we in turn affect the lives of everyone around us. This push-pull system is on constant flux as each individual acts as both sculptures and sculptors in our real-world narrative. eXistenZ/tranCendenZ exemplifies this metaphysical condition through the notion that each player’s existence and presence in the game changes the game world completely. Each person brings with them their own personality and ever-changing sets of variables that collide and intermingle with the other players personalities and variables as well. What results are entirely new and unpredictable experiences. It is up to the players to decide how to handle the various situations. It seems then, what we have is not free will but free choice, a circumstance that not only exists in the game world, but also in reality. We cannot choose what happens to us, but we can choose what happens in us. What do we do now with the knowledge of this metaphysical condition and the idea that everyone’s lives are interconnected? Do we let our actions take control over us? Or, do we sculpt our critical consciousness to exercise our own morality and rationality and strive to be the best of humanity?

The Onion's "World of World of Warcraft"

This is an old one, but I wanted to write a blog post about it since we just watched eXistenZ and maybe all needed something a little more light-hearted. The Onion's "World of World of Warcraft" is in itself a parody of role-playing video games that also pokes fun at the ubiquitous and at times seemingly ridiculous presence of avatars and alternate online identities. No description of mine can do the video justice, so I will let you watch it below:


'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality has many uses. In my mind, the most useful aspect of AR is for the presentation of information and graphics in new ways. We have a new layer in which we can experience the world around us. I really like the USPS package size software that as mentioned in the Poynter app, and the restaurant apps even. I can see how AR can be useful for the military purposes. Imagine HUDs (head-over displays) that are so pertinent in video games (such as showing mini-maps, vital stats, ammo supplies) being used to display information on goggles and displays for today's army. 

There are also uses for AR besides for information display or helpful applications for day to day activities. With any new technology, there will also be uses for entertainment. For example, the Inception app (http://inceptiontheapp.com/), records sounds a visuals around the user to present their reality as if it is a dream. Some might say that it is a new technologically assisted method for "tripping out", without the drug-induced consequences of course. The uses for AR are seemingly endless, and I am excited to see how it will integrate into our daily lives.