A Note for 2006 Students

Hello to those students enroled in Self.Net in 2006! This blog was used when Self.Net was first run in 2004 and won't be used for the 2006 version of the course. You'll be joining your own tutorial blogs in week 4 (which will look something like this) so best of luck in the blogosphere! :)

The End of the Course as we know it...

Okay, the major essays are all marked and can be collected from me in room G.07. I'll be in my office most of next week (Nov 15th - 19th), so please do come and pick your essays up.

Also, can I take this opportunity to thank you all: firstly, for your reflective posts which will be very useful in evaluating the course (and thanks for the kinds words about your tutor, too!); and, secondly, and most importantly, can I thank you all for your participation in the many facets of Self.Net. It has been a real pleasure running this course and being your tutor and participating in some fascinating conversations about all things digital which, I'm sure, will continue long after the course has faded in your memories!

I hope your increased critical awareness of digital culture serves you all well in the future, and with any luck I'll see a number of you in other courses, or doing Honours (since so many of you are writing at a level which would see you do very well in an honours program).

Byebye.

Perth Blog Nite

On Wednesday, October 27th, Curtin University will host Perth's first ever Blog Nite, themed "blogging at the end of the earth". Speakers will look at the social aspects of blogging, the commerical utility of blogs and I'm going to be talking about the use of blogging in universities (informed, in part, by your experiences and responses as part of Self.Net. Everyone is welcome to come along, so if you're interested (and have made sure it won't delay your essay due the next day!), please come along. More details are here.

Australian Culture Jamming 2004

• DearJohn.Org - A campaign by those who claim to rarely campaign, but who are more motivated by the idea of getting rid of Howard than they are restrained by apathy! This is a great, media-rich website and has a fantastic array of tools in their culture jamming arsenal, from screen-savers to printable posters and buttons.
• Donkey John - A fantastic little game which shows our PM in the role of King Kong, stealing the oil from East Timor (and being motivated by oil profits and control; *cough* Iraq).
• GetRidofHoward.Org.Au - A nexus point for the various anti-Howard online efforts.
• JohnHowardLies.com - The most well know and controversial anti-Howard website which documents the many, many broken promises during Howard's years as the boy who (after many, many years) would be king (also, check out the small but effective John Howard Lies Video [wmv]).
• John Howard's Blog - A satirical blog "written" by the PM! (Not updated all that often, though.)
• Troy Rollo - Also of interest is that one of the few (only?) candidates blogging their campaign is Troy Rollo who is standing as an independent against Howard in his electorate of Bennelong!

Your Webliography Responses

Now that almost everyone has posted their Critical Annotated Webliographies to the Tutorial Blogs, I thought it was worth reminding you all that you are asked (in the next week) to post responses to two other people's Webliographies. Please note:

• Your responses are intended to be critical but also constructive and polite. Your response should examine how successful you think their Webliography was, what points you thought were well made, and constructively criticise any areas which you thought seemed lacking.
• You can comment on anyone else's Webliography in your tutorial group, but please collectively do not have any more than three responses to any one Webliography (the original author of the Webliography is welcome to comment on your comments if they wish and this does not count as part of the three).
• If you want to see an example of two very well written comments, check out Saywood's comments on Laura's Webliography and on Liam's Webliography.

Finally, when your two Responses are evaulated by Karen or myself, they are worth 5% of your overall mark for this unit, so I strongly urge you to write them carefully!

Remember, the point is for you to engage with each other, learn from each other and also to get used to constructively commenting on each other's work. Hopefully this should sharpen both your research focus and your knowledge of how your peers are writing.

Globally Networked media and Postcolonial Theory

Here are the details of the second of Mark Poster's two public lectures. Again, this is very topical for Self.Net and I recommend you head along if you have time.

LECTURE: Globally Networked media and Postcolonial Theory (Public lecture)

Thu, 09 Sep 2004 19:00 - Alexander Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, UWA

Professor Mark Poster, University of California, Irvine and IAS Professor-at-Large, UWA

As the Keynote address for Network Media: Code, Culture and Convention, a cross-disciplinary symposium at the University of Western Australia September 9 – 11, 2004

Date and Time: Thursday 9 September at 7.00pm

Venue: Alexander Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, UWA (Enter off Hackett Drive though Hackett Entrance 1 Parking available in Car Park P3 near Reid Library, Law Building and Arts Building)

Abstract: The impact of converging information media needs to be studied in relation to social and cultural practices, particularly as these media cross cultural and political boundaries. The question of postcoloniality is at stake as media and their associated contents reach across the planet. We might then ask: Is the epoch of postcolonial or transnational studies over? Is the present era still one best characterized in terms of resistance to Western hegemony by states that formerly were administered by the imperial branches of European and American governments? Or are we now in a post-postcolonial epoch? Put differently, I offer the hypothesis that as globalizing, networked media continue to disseminate and to multiply, postcoloniality appears more and more as a moment in a declining phase, continuing and shifting to be sure, of the larger phenomenon of globalization. For the purposes of
this talk, I will explore the hypothesis that the postcoloniality is now folding into globalizing movements and trends, especially through the dissemination of planetary networked media.

ALL WELCOME. NO RESERVATION IS REQUIRED

For more information please contact The Institute of Advanced Studies,
UWA on Tel (08) 6488 1340; Email ias@admin.uwa.edu.au; www.ias.uwa.edu.au

Confusing Acronyms?

Have you been confused by an acronym yet in your exploration of the world wide web? If so, Anli (here) points to the very useful Jargon Lexicon which may give you some answers.

Public Lecture: "The Digital Self: Identity Theft and Security"

Professor Mark Poster who is lecturing for Self.Net on Monday, 6th of September is also giving a public lecture on Tuesday, 31st August which everyone is welcome to attend (I thoroughly recommend you do). Details ...

LECTURE: The Digital Self: Identity Theft and Security

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 18:15 - Social Sciences Lecture Theatre, UWA

Professor Mark Poster, University of California, Irvine And IAS Professor-at-Large, UWA. You are invited to a free public lecture byProfessor Mark Poster, University of California, Irvine & IAS Professor-at-Large, UWA on ' The Digital Self: Identity Theft and Security'.

Date and Time: Tuesday 31 August at 6.15pm

Venue: Social Sciences Lecture Theatre, UWA (Parking available from
Hackett Drive entrance 1 in Car Park 3. Map.

Update (4 Sept 04, 9.15am): For those who were interested in hearing Mark Poster's "The Digital Self" lecture but couldn't attend on the night, an iLecture recording of the talk is available here.

Additional References/Links for the Self.Info II Lecture

A few supplemental links for those interested in following up on ideas raised in Jane Long's lecture on race, history and life online.

• To see the 1971 'I'd like to sing the world a song' Coca-Cola advertisement, click here. (1.2 MB, Realplayer). Or you can just hear the song here.
• You can also read the 'Digital Divide' report by Novak and Hoffman: Bridging the Digital Divide: The Impact of Race on Computer Access and Internet Use.
• To reach part of Peggy McIntosh's work on whiteness and the invisible backpack of privilege, click here.

A Few Changes to the Tutorial Blogs

Hi Everyone,

New Link
A couple of changes to your tutorial blog. Firstly, you will notice I've added a link to the main Self.Net blog; this contains occassional posts from myself or Karen focusing on items which may be of interest for all students. Also, a number of curious people have found my own personal blog. Since some of you have found it, I may as put a link here, so if anyone else wants a read, you're most welcome (but do keep in mind, this is my personal blog, so isn't always 100% academically orientated!).

Blog Navigation Bar
I'm sure you've all noticed this new Navigation Bar at the top of the blog:

This adds some functions which might make using the tutorial blog easier:

• The orange Blogger button will take you directly to Blogger.com.

• Entering a search into the empty form box (the white box) and hitting search will search this blog (or whatever blog you are viewing). This should make finding earlier material much easier (only 15 posts remain on the front page, the rest go into the archive, accessible via the links on the side).

• Finally, the BlogThis! button will automatically open a window to let you write a blog post.

FollowUp Comments for those Introducing Readings
Just a quick note: most of you who have already introduced readings this week in tutorials have gone back and published your reflection upon the tutorial after it finished. Those who haven't (and those presenting in the coming weeks) please remember that part of your tutorial presentation is to go back to the post you made before the tute and reflect on how well your presentation went (how well the ideas were received; what sort of conversation happened; any ways your ideas about the reading might have changed/expaned). Ideally, this should be done as soon as possible after your tutorial presentation (but really should be before the next meeting of your tutorial). Others are reminded, that they are always welcome to comment on any posts in their tutorial blog and are also welcome to post relevant links/ideas whenever you find things! (oh, and for those of you who've never read other people's comments, give it a go; there are some really interesting dialogues taking place in the comments!).

A reminder:
Before clicking the 'Publish Post' button, if you place the cursor inside the window where you have written your post press either Ctrl+A to select all and then Ctrl+C (on a PC) or Apple+A to select all and then Apple+C (on a Mac), this will place the text you have written in the memory of the computer (this is referred to as placing text on the clipboard). If something goes wrong during the attempt to publish, all you need to do to make the post a second time is place the cursor in the post window and press either Ctrl+V (PC) or Apple+V (Mac) to paste the text from the clipboard into that text box. (Occassionally blogger does 'hang' [which means not finishing the posting function], so it is useful to make this quick backup in order to avoid typing out the entry a second time!)