Blog #8

You ever wonder why making the first movie or the first book of a large series is always the most expensive? So did Stiglitz, he was interested in the cost of things, and the patterns associated with those costs. While the counterpart here Shapiro and Varian were interested in how that technology worked behind the scenes. These authors all brought up very good points but they didn't predict everything. The things they did predict well were the death of Netscape. This was an internet browsing program that was popular in the 90's but fell apart because of Microsoft and that prediction that Shapiro and Varian made.

            The next thing that they talked about mostly was that the death of new programs would come about only because cost of product would continue to rise. This is a major problem in the long run because you can look today at adobe products and see, that people will still buy things for ungodly prices. They predicted that the industry would crash because consumers wouldn't want to buy the expensive product when they could get the same thing with the less expensive product.

Another thing they didn't predict was social media sites. They didn't mention the new idea of using the programs that people had created to connect people or the idea that with this connection it would drive people to get things that others already had just by providing massive amounts of space for people to advertise the programs. Another example is mobile phones. This isn't classically seen as a product but rather a necessity now by many of those that are our age, without your phone people feel lost and feel like they just don’t fit in.

            Although all of that being said I would have to side with Shapiro and Varian, that the industry will crash eventually because technology is getting so expensive. The real reason I think this is because there are so many free versions of software out there now that people can do basically the same thing that the high end gadgets do on something that was free. I feel like their prediction is bound to come true eventually, but Stiglitz was more on the ball with the closer future than they were.

Blog #7

RiP: A Remix Manifesto from Laurent LaSalle on Vimeo.


This video is a large part of our class and also brings up the remix video that we watched for class earlier in the semester. It also brings up the large points of Artists being paid for their sounds and how publishers or copyright holders reap all the benefits.

The video in a nut shell is our class, and describes pretty much everything we have gone over within the past few weeks.

Blog #6

Interesting to is something that spikes curiosity, something that contains interest to people by bringing in their eye. Sort of like an art piece where to really know what the artist or author is doing you have to take a second look, and look deeper into the meanings behind what was said. This same concept is essential in student works in the same way because students need that double take most of the time to get the point they are trying to make across.

To a teacher I could see why you think most of our projects aren't interesting. You have seen it all, you have seen failed attempts to make a project interesting and just through the years you have taught you have seen so many duplicates that nothing may seem interesting. The fun fact of it all is that the students have to think outside the box. We have to think abstractly how to get the information we want across to you and then we have to change how the information is perceived.

As a DTC major I think making a project interesting is taking information that is clearly against your point and spinning it or remixing it so that it is completely and utterly agreeing with your main points. A good example would be taking a news station that is clearly one side of the political spectrum and using what we know and the abilities we have to transform it into the other sides view point completely and without odd pauses or choppy breaks. This would be an excellent idea for a project.

The worst idea for us as students to do as a project would be a simple hey I looked up this piece and yeah this is what they said. Or to Copy an idea completely this would be a work that shows that the student doesn't care about being interesting or notable.