Lecture 1 and how I use the net

Obake and I had our first lecture on Wednesday, no Tut, and there were some interesting things talked about. We looked at some broad ideas about how the internet is used and who are using it.

One of the approaches is that we use the internet 'to find and experience social connection' and 'to create new social spaces'. I really like this idea, it matches with my thoughts on technology as a tool to facilitate connection and social interaction. I keep hearing ideas about the internet and virtual life as isolating and that people don't have 'real' interactions on the web and I know that isn't true. The gaming experience my SO has playing World of Warcraft with his best mates is really not so different to the experience they have gaming in our loungeroom. The conversation I have with my mates about Buffy or Batman or Battlestar Galactica or music or fashion or whatever on messengers is no different to the one we have over coffee (except maybe for sending links instead of pulling out dvd's or magazines or whatever).

There were also some discussion on who uses the internet particularly in terms of access. As expected it tends to be wealthy countries who have higher level of access. From what I remember 1 in 2 Australians have access. I have questions, though, about levels of usage and what people use the internet for. I use the internet pretty intensively. We were asked to think about the way we use the internet and I'm going to outline my usage below. I know a lot of people who use it for not much more than email, but then I don't watch TV so I wouldn't expect that everyone accesses media in the same way.

So how does the size and segmentation affect the way people use the web? Are the actual interactions similar even though different interests are accessed? How does the echo baby boom affect the population and use of the net? What about the choice not to use despite accessibility? Early net users had different expectations and ways of using the technology (eg more hands on coding) - there are some tangled questions in there about the difference due to the population boom and access and class and culture. I think that there are reflections about the rest of society that can be made looking at the composition and patterns of population in relation to the development of more accessibility both in cost and ease of use but I'm still not quite sure what all of these are!

We also talked a bit about governance of the internet which I found quite interesting particularly relationships between opensource and who participates in decisions regarding how things are governed and whether there is buy-in. The example our lecturer used was IE and the implementation of different aspects of html and java. I can vaguely remember debates about how evil IE was because it was creating it's own version of html. Me, I'm powered by Firefox.
We're going to cover governance in more depth in a later lecture so I'll add some more thoughts then.

So here's a little bit about me and how I use the net.

I'm an Arts student, one of two in the class (the other being Obake), which is a little intimidating. I'm planning on doing postgrad in Cultural Studies and one of my areas of interest is geek/web culture.

I both use the net and have a web presence. Mostly I use the net for fandom related activities: ficcing (reading and writing), keeping abreast of stuff related to my favorite shows/creators, talking to my friends about all of the above. I also keep in contact with my Mum, living in Sydney (now - Czech in June) and with some friends I made while living in the UK or others who've moved away from Bris. Most of my friends have LJ's (live journals) and I can find out what's going on in their lives even when I can't physically catch up with them because of mutually busy lives. I run a blog about Brisbane that I started this year as an experiment. I also run a fanfiction rec site and a personal journal. I'm working on a project about the Sabbats of the pagan year, in a kinda on again off again way, using html. I use the OLT for all of my readings in preference to paper and use the net for research on all of my interests. I buy music from Japan via the net and DVD's, books and obscure industrial/ebm/goth music from America and Europe. So I both have a presence and use the net to support my interests and interactions.

On an average day I start Gaius, my computer, up at somewhere between 9 and 11 when I wake up. We have broadband and the net goes straight on. An hour or so is spent going through my email - about 10 or so mailing lists each day + personal mail. Then I'll do my readings/study or read fanfic for a while. I usually have about four browser windows and three or four programs on that I'm working with. By the time my SO's come home from work (shift work really sux) we both sit on our computers chatting about what we've done and are doing. Gaius sits on my desk and, if we stretch, my SO and I can reach out and hold hands.

The first time I used a computer I was probably about 8 and my Dad had picked up a Tandy TSR80 - we still have it though it hasn't been turned on in years. The first time I used the net was in 91 to do research on a project for English at Highschool. I spent most of 93/94 using email, newsgroups, lynx and mosaic the first web browser, sometimes at the expense of assignments for uni. When I dropped out and moved to Sydney it was too expensive to afford net access and I didn't get back on until I moved back to Brisbane. I missed the whole IRC boom and then went overseas to the UK with our old laptop (Dragon). We had unlimited net in the UK and we listened to Triple J from our kitchen in Bristol. But somehow I missed the start of the weblog boom which truly sucked because I resorted to a mailing list to tell everyone what we got up to and where we went. We had a website that we stored pictures of the cool places we went to. Now a weblog would have been a so much better idea. I came back to Brisbane, got married, went back to uni and got broadband. LJ soon followed and my very on website. There are over 20 computers between 8 people in our house, most of which are connected to the Lan and internet.

My relationship with the net is a little mixed. At first I didn't get as heavily involved because it really couldn't do what I wanted from it. I didn't have much reason to create a web presence - I still mostly lurk on mail lists rather than participate. But now I feel solidly part of a community that I can go down the street and read the codes of people walking around and know that they are into similar things to what I am. I might even recognise their nick or have been in the same virtual space at the same time. But I've also got the space to control my anonymity and my presence. I have four distinct emails that I use for specific purposes and specific identities. Sure you *can* work out who I am, it's not that well hidden, but I can have a separation if I need it. I can control my identity and presence.

Wow that's actually quite a lot for my first real entry. I hope its given a bit of a perspective on who I am and what I'm bringing to my 'autoethnographic study' ;)

Chani