“There are plenty of things to worry about when it comes to social media. They are Skinner boxes designed to condition us to undervalue our privacy and to disclose personal information. They have opaque governance structures. They are walled gardens that violate the innovative spirit of the internet. But to deride them for being social, […]
Archive for the ‘Techno-dysfunctions’ Category
Cyburbia author’s social networking polemic
December 30th, 2009
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by Derek Morrison, 30 December 2009 James Harkin, author of Cyburbia had an interesting piece in today’s print Guardian titled A Cult and not a cure (Guardian, 30 December 2009). As is common the online version of the article had the different title The trouble with Twitter and was posted on the Guardian Online website […]
Independent “The First Decade” internet essay
December 9th, 2009
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The UK Independent is running a series of four essays this week to mark the first decade of the 21st century. The second essay this week was titled Has the Internet Brought us Together or Driven Us Apart (8 December 2009). It’s a good reflective piece by Johann Hari. The following extracts give a flavour […]
BBC undertaking “open source” documentary on Web
November 29th, 2009
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by Derek Morrison, 29 November 2009 The BBC has a new intiative underway with the working title Digital Revolution.. They are in process of producing a new four part documentary about how the Web is transforming the world and they intend to open up as much of the production process as possible. It’s an interesting […]
My mind is going, going, gone … oh no it hasn’t
November 14th, 2009
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by Derek Morrison, 14 November 2009 Here’s definitely one for my techno-dysfunctions category. At 18m 30s into The World’s technology podcast 263 there was an interesting interview with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger about his book Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age (Princeton University Press, 2009). The Princeton Press site also offers a link to […]
Byteing stories to death
November 5th, 2009
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by Derek Morrison, 5 November 2009) One for my techno-dysfunctions category of posts. There is an interesting little piece in today’s Times by Ben Macintyre (who always tells a good story) called The internet is killing storytelling (Times, 5 November 2009). His title and narrative will speak for itself. Download article as PDF
The World does the Google Generation
October 25th, 2009
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by Derek Morrison, 25 October 2009 The BBC has many irons in many fires but one of its more understated initiatives is The World which is a collabration with WGBH Boston and the US PRI. The World also produces a technology podcast which quite frequently contains some gem informed by scholarly work. Such was the […]
Open opportunties, open threats? – Postscript
October 5th, 2009
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by Derek Morrison, originally posted 1 May 2009, updated 5 October 2009 N.B. The following posting represents the personal views of the author and should not be construed as necessarily representative of any other individual or organisation. One of the “messages” in my earlier Open opportunties, open threats? posting (Auricle, 30 April 2009) was that […]
Technology Impeded Learning (TIL)?
September 29th, 2009
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by Derek Morrison, 25 September 2009 There! … Even in the title of this posting I’ve added my six pence (cents) worth to the concerns of those becoming exercised by the unchallenged assumption that “technologies + learning = good thing” In my posting J.G.Ballard on the dangers of “inner space†(Auricle, 27 September 2009) I […]
Quote: J.G.Ballard on the dangers of “inner space”
September 27th, 2009
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by Derek Morrison, 27 September 2009 Wilf Self’s review of the life of J.G.Ballard on BBC R4 last night (Archive on 4 – Self on Ballard) contained some direct quotes from the late author whose works included Myths of the Near Future and whose 1984 novel/auto-biography was the engine behind Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun. […]
