Web 1.0: hierarchy...Web 2.0: hierarchy too?

In class last week we investigated web development…1.0, 2.0 etc. 1.0, the web that we left behind in the 1990’s was quite hierarchical – Erica’s simile to a theatrical stage really helped me understand the concept. Web 2.0 (our current web generation) has a much more flattened hierarchy. No longer is there an authorative voice, but instead a sense of community and interaction; all users are somewhat given a voice. Again the theatre simile works brilliantly at clearly defining and understanding this notion. Web 2.0 : Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The audience was very interactive and would alert the actor’s (and not always in very subtle ways) what they thought of the play.

These two generations are to be clearly represented in the contrasting online websites of Online Britannica and Wikipedia. Britannica is written by a panel of experts (just like the physical Britannica books). Wikipedia however is understood as an online information centre that the users themselves can act as authors for. We as participants of Wikipedia are given the opportunity to add to or adapt the information on the website. The idea behind this means that there is no longer an ‘authortive’ group or ‘one voice’ feeding us information, but instead it is users informing users.

That’s the IDEA anyway.

I however have to question this.

The claim is that Online Britannica and Wikipedia mirror the development of Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. Britannica – one voice. Wikipedia – interaction and community. We say that Wikipedia is an example of a flattened hierarchy, but is it really? Or is this program just giving an authoritive opportunity to different groups? When investigating the authorship of Wikipedia I discovered that of all the consumers, a very minimal percentage actually engage in the writing. When Jimbo Wales, the face of Wikipedia did an authorship study on his program he found out that over 50% of all the edits are done by just 0.7% of the users ... 524 people. ...Think of all the hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people that use Wikipedia regularly – to have such a minority actually writing this information effectively shows that even Wikipedia has an authorative group. Yes we are all given the opportunity to indulge in this experience but how many of us actually do it??? Obviously a very small few. Majority of us are consumers of the information in front of us and don’t even think of the source – hardly an interactive community…

Erica touched on the subject of Wikipedia, the sum of social prejudice and I’d like to quickly elaborate on this…When it comes to Wikipedia might = right. It is those people that have the time and desire to contribute to the program that do so. This small group will effectively plant information, documenting it as ‘truth’ even if it isn’t….

So…has hierarchy been banished with these new web developments? I certainly have to question it…I do believe that Web 2.0 is a web generation that offers many more interactive opportunities but even in these programs (be it Wikipedia, Bebo, Blogs, Facebook etc) there seem to be ‘authorative groups’. Maybe it comes down to how much you actually WANT to participate, but those that indulge more frequently than others certainly maintain an upper hand.

Until next time,

Michaela

Hackers, freedom fighters?

Well I am currently sitting on the couch watching a documentary about Tom Cruise, personally can’t stand the guy since he jumped on Oprah’s couch. Anyway he’s a wee bit boring so thought I’d have a flick through the recent comments posted about hacking. Intense technology, like the little gits and gadgets of the internet never really interested me but this morning’s class somewhat changed that! I’m so interested in this whole hacking theme…How do they gain the skill and knowledge to get into the itsy bitsy wee corners of cyberspace!!! So, I was reading Nicole’s blog relating to hackers being classed as modern freedom fighters or a new age terrorists…

In regards to the view of hackers as freedom fighters:

I believe society needs some sort of boundaries and hierarchy for successful flow. Without boundaries and rules in place the world would be a huge communist society. New Zealand, a democratic country, runs successfully because we have ‘boundaries’ or ‘laws’ so to speak in place, (even if I don’t necessarily agree with the current gvmt, but that’s totally another subject). If hackers ‘crack in’ and gain unlimited access to any material, be it company, government or personal information they are breaking the boundaries that make up our society. Imagine if they got in and accessed your bank account details or a large company’s new business plan; it’s a breach of privacy. Nicole’s right when she says people need to display their moral obligation and act responsibly in cyberspace, black hat hackers don’t seem to respect these boundaries. Yes, some hackers do have good reason, for example in our first reading by R.Kitchen we are taught that the first computers were massive machines originally developed to crack Nazi war codes – these people I would class as ‘freedom fighters’ but there has to be a limit. Possibly harsher penalties for black hat hacking? But then I guess this form of crime is sometimes VERY hard to catch! Any thoughts?

OK now bed time! Untill next time…

Michaela

Psyche of Hacker

After our class today I decided to look up 'The Hacker Manifesto' that Erika talked about; I was interested to get into the psyche of a hacker. I found out that the Hacker Manifesto was written by a hacker who went by the name of 'THE MENTOR.' The piece was written on January the 8th, 1986, after the authors’ arrest. He was only 21 years old at the time. Inspired by the book ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress’ (which he was reading at the time) and the idea of a revolution and with hacking withdrawal, The Mentor constructed the small essay. In 2000 in an interview with Elf Qrin, The Mentor revealed that he still finds the piece very valid today.

I want to know why hackers, more specifically, the hacker’s who cause chaos by hacking into prohibited places, do what they do. What inspires them? Is it a forceful desire to create havoc and grief for others or are they simply bored and too intelligent for their own good? After reading the ‘Hacker Manifesto’ I am overwhelmed with a sense of empathy for the author. To me he seems like a bored young man who hasn’t found his place in the world. The constant interruption in the text with what appears to be an adult’s or an authority’s opinion; “Damn kid. Probably copied it”; “Damn underachiever,” reveals to me that The Mentor feels patronized. He is obviously an intelligent kid and gets bored with the badgering of his teacher to learn something he already knows. He finds the computer. This gives him an escape. With it he can make his own mistakes, does what he wants to do. It doesn’t judge him or belittle him. When he begins his hacking he feels a sense of accomplishment and success. It’s addictive. It escalates from here on.

I know some of you may think that I am excusing hackers for their work and somewhat ‘siding with them’. This is not the case at all. The Hacker Manifesto just opened my eyes to the inner hacker; who they are, how they think and feel. Yes, maybe hackers are stereotyped as geeky male teenagers who are at the peak of puberty and outcasts in the world, but one must ponder; we live in a western world where such things as sport, sex and beauty are celebrated. How often do you hear news about intellects and academia…Very rarely when compared to sport and entertainment, which have whole television channels and newspapers dedicated to them. Where do the social misfits place in this world? Some find satisfaction in their cyber world and feel success through tunneling the phone lines to sacred places. Yes perhaps hacking into government systems and causing corruption aren’t very appropriate things to do, but one does need an outlet and possibly for some people, testing their hacking boundaries by burrowing deeper and deeper may be a their exit.

I’ve got a copy of ‘The Hacker Manifesto’ below so you can all have a read and maybe even respond with your own opinion.

Anywho, until next time :)
Ciao!
Michaela



The Hacker Manifesto
Written January 8, 1986
By ‘The Mentor’

Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...Damn kids. They're all alike. But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him? I am a hacker, enter my world...Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...Damn underachiever. They're all alike. I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike. I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me.. Or thinks I'm a smart ass.. Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike. And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found. "This is it... this is where I belong..." I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert. This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.

Interview with the Mentor

Check out my new link 'Interview with the Mentor.' You can find it under Interesting Links. It is an interview with the hacker who in 1986 wrote 'The Hacker Manifesto' which remains legendary amoung hackers today.

Community vs Network

In our second lecture we were asked the question ‘What do you think makes an online community and how does this differ from an online network?’ I thought this topic seemed fitting for my first post seeing as we are using an interactive program for our assignment in this course.

For me an online community is more personal and intimate than a network. Those in our online community are people we choose to communicate with on a regular basis and possibly have strong or familiar ties with. For instance, I have a both a facebook and bebo account. My ‘friends’ in these programmes are the people I have personally added or accepted as friends; most are family or close friends that I correspond with very regularly. I use the systems to keep in touch with people and in turn share a little bit of my life with them through photographs and comments.

In contrast to this, I view a network as a more broad community. There is often a common interest and weak ties between people. I will use facebook again as an example to illustrate my point. On facebook I belong to a ‘New Zealand’ network. There are 278,619 members in this network. Obviously I do not know all these members, but there is a common interest; our country. The same example could be used on bebo. Bebo allows members to join ‘groups’. These groups vary, from sports to television shows, to fan clubs. People joined to these networks are linked by their common interest. Many are strangers to one another and may never interact, but they are still in the same network.

These are just my views on the topic but if you have any thoughts of your own let me know!

Michaela