"Mobile, Mutable, Mixed, and Mashed"

I found the discussion today to be very helpful in the way Professor Dean presented it. By way of power point, the class had something to visually stimulate them and the usage of student work in combination with lecture was great. The discussion and lecture helped to further my understanding of the Boler articles. From this point, I think it is a good segway into Gamer Theory.

Axel Bruns addresses many key points in how digital media works. The issue of debate and deliberation over the internet and in a face to face setting must be explored. What is more effective... Having a discussion, deliberation, or argument through computer screens or in person? Transmissions via the internet may be delayed and the responder generally has time to think about how to respond. Does this allow for a fair system? I personally feel there needs to be a sense of accountability and who is to say what gets published on the internet actually bears any credibility. This is obviously nothing new for us as we are well immersed in the blogosphere, we scrutinize and evaluate blogs on a daily basis. Granted our classmates and professor's blogs can all be considered with a certain level of credibility. However the "other" or the World Wide Web must be taken with a grain of salt.

The need for the useless or pointless is becoming more and more evident throughout the internet. The useless and pointless referring to the type of application Merel had presented to class. This is rather a jump from where I started this post however there is a direct correlation here. The specific example she presented is just a snipet of what is beginning to dominate the internet. With this fear turning into reality, what will happen to the sense of validity and credibility? How will one be able to decipher between the truth and what is false? I am afraid the web is on track to turn into a giant wikipedia resource unless there is some sort of government intervention.

In class we talked about different platforms of social networking and the roles they play in debate. Specifically facebook does not have any real standing in an argument or formal debate. We all agreed that facebook is solely used as a social utility amongst friends. There are of course the occasions that people will use facebook for more of a structured communication. However most utilize it for the social perks, pictures, and gossip.