Oooooh could be helpful....

Game Informer Online Magazine.....

Future...........

• become popular with all age groups
• become more popular with girls
• better graphics due to more reliance on CGI
• merge with other new media technologies
  

Issues.........

• delays getting into the game - article on World of Warcraft
• hackers - another article on World of Warcraft
• should virtual crimes have real justice - article, another article
  
• online mugging - article
• institutions and audiences merging - article on Second Life
• virtual child pornography on Second Life - should it be treated as 'real-life' and punished? - article
  

Audiences...........

• more boys than girls?
• teenagers?
• audiences have increased due to more people having broadband internet
• can they now be more creative? - video of a 'Second Life film' - showing audiences creativity
  

Institutions........

• Playstation
• Microsoft

• Blizzard Entertainment - World of Warcraft
  
• Linden Lab - Second Life
  

Technologies......

• XBox Live - article about gaming
• PC
  
• PS3 - PS3 website article, wikipedia article
  

• MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) - wikipedia article

• Examples of MMOGs - wikipedia article
  

• Examples of MMORGS (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) - wikipedia article

• Article on the differences between MMOGs and other computer games, and another one
  

Change of plan.....

I realised I couldn't write as much as I wanted to about music and film downloading, so I am now going to see if I can do any better with online gaming....

Future...

This kind of has something to do with music downloading...vaguely...!


http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2064806,00.html

Institutions, Future and Technology....

Article on how music downloading and using has changed since the 80's.


http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/commentary/listeningpost/2007/03/72847

Institutions, Future and Technology...

EMI take digital locks off of their music tracks.....


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6516189.stm

DRM........

An article explaining DRM.....


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6337781.stm

Future, technology, audiences...

Is this still counted as "illegal"?? An article on Pandora and how people listen to downloaded music....


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5264276.stm

Film piracy - future, institutions, technology, issues...

An article on how institutions are fighting back against film piracy....


http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2054391,00.html

Music formats - future...

An article on music formats of the future....


http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2054398,00.html

Institutions, Technology and Future.....

EMI is planning to sell the online music from its record label, without copy protection......


http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2049769,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6523573.stm

The future for music and film downloaders?

Will we all become syllogomaniacs? This could be included under the area of future......


http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2007/03/72737

Reminder........

Remember this is what I should be writing/finding information about:

• Technology - why and how it has changed
  
• Institutions - names, projects and changes
• Audience - what they do - changing? becoming an institution?
• Issues - legal and social
• Future - different practices, challenges to existing media

Focus on music and film downloading using the above five areas as a framework.

Institutions argue about video piracy.....

Google are accused of encouraging the piracy of films.........



http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2011904,00.html

Institutions attempt to stop illegal downloading....

The music industry in America is now attempting to stop university students downloading illegal music files......because music sales were down from $14.5 billion to $12.2 billion......considering the majority of us can't even imagine $12.2 billion - will anyone actually have any sympathy with these huge music corporations?



http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2018389,00.html

Audience interactivity....

An example of audiences interacting with a games console (Nintendo Wii) and also creating content (YouTube).



http://youtube.com/watch?v=7GxuhicjXnI

Laws on File Sharing............

A confusing article on file sharing.

File Sharing..........

Wikipedia article on 'file sharing'.

Copyright Laws.....

Information on copyright laws for sound recordings - i.e. cd, mp3 etc.



http://www.low-life.fsnet.co.uk/copyright/

Radioblogclub.com

This is an example of a music 'sharing' website - you can't download music from this website, you can search for a song and then listen to the same version that another user is listening to.....at first this doesn't sound illegal - but in actual fact it is still infringing copyright laws - its a bit like going into a shop, taking a cd without paying, going home and listening to it, then taking it back. I personally don't see why this is such a huge deal, but apparently it is theft.



http://radioblogclub.com/

For the next couple of weeks......

I am now going to focus on illegal music and film downloads/copying/sharing for a bit! I will find information on legal lawsuits that have dealt with this area of NMTs and I am going to try to see it from both points of view..........

Human Search Engines.......

www.chacha.com

This is a website which offers a search engine with a difference - it is actually a real person who helps you to find what you are looking fro....they even have proper conversations with you! Is this the way forward?



http://www.chacha.com/

The next step towards the future of digital television...

Simply Media - how successful will their new broadband television service be? Why would anyone pay to watch television programmes that are being screened in their home country, when they can watch them for free on the internet?



http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2038301,00.html

Digital Rights Management....

Article on the DRM debate....



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6458121.stm

MP3 files and illegal copying....

Useful article on when copying files is illegal and when it is legal....



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6457369.stm

Wiki............

Web 2.0 has now produced another 'wiki' - 'One Million Penguins' - does this mean that there will soon be 'wiki-gaming'.....? If it does arise, will it be any good or will it follow in the footsteps of the fore-mentioned 'WikiNovel'?



http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2033502,00.html

Institutions and Audiences converge even more.....

The fine line between audiences and institutions is about to become even narrower - as YouTube decides to offer awards for best user-generated videos........maybe this will be the 'little peoples' (as we are so often known by the coporate bigwigs) Oscars? This is obviously a big step, and it seems to be a good idea - especially as 'audiences' are concerned....but will it be a problem for big companies or will they just patronisingly applaude the winners?



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6466143.stm

The future for digital television.......?

According to 'Devolo', we will soon all be piping digital television around our homes - is this really an improvement? Was that not what happened with terestrial television - well in some sense anyway....?



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6457741.stm

Adults' myspace?

Twitters.com - supposedly the 'best' way to keep in contact with friends and family, with them being able to find out exactly what you are doing - well as far as you want them to know, obviously! Is there actually any point in though - because we already have email, msn, telephones, mobile phones, text etc - which we can easily use to inform the most nosiest of relatives what is going on in our life......and anyway, do we really want people to know what we are doing all the time......also, do we even want to know what our mates are up too when we aren't with them? Isn't that well, a little bit dull - i mean if you really that bothered about what they are up to, why don't you just invite them out for a coffee............



http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2033499,00.html

PS3....

The PlayStation 3, an example of convergence, of how far games consoles have come (where can they go in the future?) and also, of the amount of money people will pay for something that already seems over-hyped and is available much cheaper in other countries..........



http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2036764,00.html#article_continue

Viacom sues Google and YouTube..

Viacom are attempting to sue Google and YouTube for £517m because apparently YouTube is illegally showing videos of over 160,000 of Viacom's programmes. This legal battle between two huge institutions could have a big impact on the popularity of YouTube - especially if Viacom get their way and the video clips are removed.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6446193.stm

Movies on demand...............

On demand television programmes have only really just become popular, but already, in America, cinemas are discussing whether to create a service that almost offers movies on demand.


http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/I/INSTANT_FILMS?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Games on demand..............

Console games and the internet converge to make games available on demand, the makers are hoping that this will be the new iTunes - with audiences being able to download games and view them whenever they like. Will it be as successful as they hope?


http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72831-0.html?tw=wn_technology_2

Smelly Computers........

The future of the internet? Is there actually any need for it?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6404067.stm

Wi-Fi television.......

I just thought this article offered an interesting point....


http://blog.wired.com/cars/2007/02/wireless_tv_tar.html

Credit Cards and Mobile Phones converge........

Another quite unexpected convergence (well to me anyway!), is that of the credit card and mobile phone. In Japan, commuters are already using their mobiles to pay for train tickets and now it looks like McDonalds is going to get in on the act. In England a special mobile phone scanner is being fitted in Marylebone train station - so that there will be even less hassle for commuters - supposedly........


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6400217.stm

The Red Button.....

Just a reminder...


http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.03/snackminifesto.html

Can technology get any smaller?

Just when you thought that people wanted their wide-screen televisions wider, their broadband connections faster, their computer hard drives to be larger, it turns out that we also want our mp3 players smaller, our television programmes to offer mini-clips and to be able to play our computer games on our ever-shrinking mobile phones...


http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.03/snackminifesto.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.03/snack.html

The truth about HD TV..............

I read this on Wired and it really made me laugh so I thought I would put a link to it because it is about NMTs (honestly!).


http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72768-0.html?tw=wn_technology_3

Emotional Computer Games

Are computer games going to become more realistic than real-life? Developers are now attempting to create games where the characters look so convincingly real that we will supposedly be unable to tell them apart from their living, breathing counterparts. Is this a good thing? Will people think that these computer games are a substitue for actual human contact? Do we need characters to look real when we know that we are playing a game?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6376479.stm

Second Life and MTV

From what I had heard, Second Life is a place for people with 'no life' to 'get a life' and it seems that it also works for corporations as well. MTV is taking its 'real-life' TV show 'Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County' onto this virtual world - this is supposed to be to boost MTV's appeal with its teenage audience by letting the viewers interact with the 'characters'. Will it work - or will it just take even more viewers away from the programme?


http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/mtv.html

Digital vs Analogue

So as we move into the age of DAB Radio, is it about to be the end of radio DJs? Why will they be needed when everyone is going to be listening when they want to what they want - we won't be wanting them to fill the gaps in between tracks? Having said that, I personally think that radio DJs are needed - surely most people listen to the radio for the banter, news etc..., not just for the music - otherwise wouldn't they just listen to a CD or an MP3 file on Windows Media Player/ITunes etc...??


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6376857.stm

Television and the Internet.

We have already got 4oD - Channel 4's new service that lets you watch 'what you want, when you want' (for a small charge per programme) - but now it seems that the next thing to link television with the internet is 'Joost' (or Venice Project as it was known), but is this actually going to be as interactive as we hope? And also, does it spell the end of people watching the programmes when they are actually 'supposed' to be on? Will it render 'Sky+' useless ? Because why would anyone set their 'box' to record a programme when they can 'Joost' it with ease?



http://wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/trouble.html
http://sky.com/portal/site/skycom/products/equipment/skyplus
http://channel4.com/4od/

Consumption

Just as the amount of media that we consume has increased dramatically (well apart from that of the television - supposedly we are the first generation to watch less T.V than our predecessors - this I will come back too another time...) it also appears that the amount of media technologies that we 'interact' with at one time has increased, does this mean that we are becoming more demanding as an audience? do we need more than one type of media to entertain us? is it just that we feel obliged to use it so as not to let it 'go to waste'? or is that our lives are now so stressfull and hectic that we have resorted to getting our 'daily dose' all at once?



http://americanpressinstitute.org/pages/apinews/api_news_releases/seventy_percent_of_media_consu/

Institutions and Audiences

It is becoming apparent that the dividing gap between institution and audience is ever shrinking - just as the audience are becoming their own institutions (see YouTube for examples of how anyone with a faint hope of becoming the next Tarantino can upload their attempts at film making), now institutions are becoming the audience - see the BBC technology news' blog on 'A Day with Vista', does this mean that consumers are actually going to have some say in what they are shown, or are the 'gatekeepers' just being more subtle?


http://youtube.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6312501.stm
http://bustertests.co.uk/answer/media-institutions/

BBC iPlayer

Has interactive television just got better? This is the BBC's attempts to influence people into going "tapeless". Is it a nice pun on the iPod effect? Will it be any more interactive than 'the red button' or is it another way of encouraging the audience to watch repeats of repeats?


http://bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/04_april/25/newmedia.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/4296582.stm
http://shorecliffcommunications.com/redbutton/

To begin.........

To start with, some helpful definitions of NMT.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media

Helloooooo!

This is my New Media Technologies blog, where I am going to record the things I have found out about NMTs and I am going to start to analyse connections between different NMTs.