Ok, but seriously...

...i'm not a huge fan of Social Network Games.
But we'll get to that.

I actually have played something compareable once. And it was quite fun!

Our tale begins in the early ages of the internet...
Or at least what they were for us. I't was around the time all the kids in the neighbourhood, inclouding myself, finally got connected to the outside world from their home computers.

And with this new connectivity came a whole new age of procrastination. Wasting time on the internet became a serious part of our lifes, and sadly, it still is...
...but it's fun as well. I bet millions of cat-video-watchers can second that!

But thats not the point, got a little off track there...
Well, my friend started out playing some text-based browser game called "Inselkampf", or Island War, roughly translated. What sounds pretty lame soon got us all addicted. And similar in fashion to todays network games, to keep up and get better you'd have to come back every couple of hours to give new orders.
In the game every player started out with one island, where he could start to build a civilisation, supply food and rough goods, and so on. Once you got that rolling you can start building ships and prepare for war. Aim was it, to invade other players, conquor more and more islands and expand your territory. Once destroyed you would always have to start over again, so after some time it got pretty tough for newcomers.
We didn't care since we were big enough already.

But then somehow came the time it got out of hand. Players got huge and formed alliances with other big players. It consumed more and more of our time, and nevertheless the day came whey 20 players simultaneously attacked you to literally destroy all your efforts.



did you get that point right there? that was the point my online gaming carreer died.


sure i tried out some mini games, but nothing serious from that point on.

But thats not the reason i hate social network games. After all it was fun while it lasted...



The real, one and only reason is people spamming your newsfeeds and even your private wall with countless posts. once and for all:

I won't adopt the bird and im sure as f*** not gonna help you in your mafia war.

Social network games...

...piss me off!



- period!

Web 2.0 vs. Social Media

Both are terms we've all heard hundreds of times. Although it seems one is beeing a lot more present nowadays, almost burying the other one. Sure, it had it's high times as well, but these days are officially over.
Can you guess which one i think is ruling now?

Tell ya what, you dont have to.
Just have a look down there...

As you can see "Web 2.0" has had it high times in 2007. I myself remember it becoming more and more popular. Everybody was talking about it, few knowing what it meant.
I've never been a big fan.
Sure, it's somehow got its eligibility, for setting sails shipping into a new are of the world wide web. But sill, it's just such a missleading term. Sounds like you have to update some software.

- hey, did you hear about this new web 2.0 ?
- sure, already got it!

sounds about right to me, makes no sense in reality.



and i suppose i don't have to go all "social media" on you. you've propably googled it already...

Creative Commons

Well, i guess almost everybody in our generation, called the digital natives, has seen, heard or read "creative commons" before. If not anywhere else at least in wikipedia the last couple of years.

Although the term wasn't new to me i'll have to admit i never quite knew what it meant.

So, to clarify all that mystery, or at least to reflect what i think it means...
i'll just go ahead and spill it out, short and simple:

The Creative Commons (CC) is a nonprofit organisation seeking reglementation for usage of copyright material put on the internet. There are different types of cc licencing, allowing different ways of usage.
The most commonly known, even if not by name, is the simple Attribution CC. Its allowing you to use said material an nearly all ways imaginable, from publishing to remixing, even for commercial use, as long as the original creator gets mentioned as he desired.
Other licensing options are use only for non profit purposes or display and distribution only of non derivative works, so no remixing or similar.

Of course there are a lot more possible CC licences, but i think this is enough to give you a bit of an understanding what it's all about.
If you'r interested in a more detailed explanation hit up this link to get to the Creative Commons Homepage.

Podcasts

Personally i am a big fan of podcasts. I liked the idea behind it since i first heard about them.
So at that time, about two or three years ago, i went up to iTunes to download myself some podcasts. Since then i regularly watched different podcasts from all kinds of topics.

Due to personal interest i'm a big fan of action-sports Podcasts, Skateboarding and Snowboarding to be specific. There are a couple i can really recommend.
On the skateboarding side Thrasher Skateboard Magazine Podcast, Flip Skateboards Podcast and DVS Skate Podcast are a good watch to keep up with the skateboard world, learn new tricks and most of all be entertained. (Unfortunatley Thrasher isn't available in german iTunes anymore, so the Link goes to the website, equally informative nevertheless)
METHOD.TV Snowboarding Podcast on the other hand is great to stay op to date with what's happening in snowboarding.

Furthermore for anyone interested in newest developments in technology, web and media in general, what sort of fits our field of study quite well, i'd like to name The Engadget Show. Always entertaining to watch and full of news, definitly no waste of time.

Last of all one for the guys who can need some usefull handyman advice, covering all topics of everyday life, and don't mind some - let's say - "appealing visuals", can head over to EyeHandy.
We all know what sells here, but be sure that listening to the content could really teach you something.


so long, cheers...
 

Rethinking Education

So, i just watched the video "Rethinking Education". Go ahead and watch it, you can find it here.


So, i thought this is a pretty inspiring video. It gets you thinking about stuff my generation sees as normal, cause were used to it, but also about how education right now isn't at the same state the youth is at. In most schools the form of education is still pretty "oldschool" (no pun intended). The video shows that there are ways and possibilitys to use modern technology to communicate knowlege better and to reach the students through the digital environment they're already used to navigate in.

Well, but there were also some minor points i didn't like. I thought the way the video was mapped into the classroom, especially at the beginning, looked really out of place and therefor was distracting from the content of the video. At least thats how i felt.
And with another thing i'll have to agree with what someone mentioned in the comments. It's beeing talked about music and work of all kinds are accessible on the internet, but forgets that many might be copyright protected, and so either not freely accessible or infringing the rights of its owner.

But these are, as mentioned, just minor points and shouldn't be given too much weight. After all ist a great video that reaches out to the viewer and manages to inspire.

Auf los geht's los...

Hallo miteinander!
Hier ist also der erste, anfängliche, wie immer nichts sagende, Anfangs-Alibi-Post, den man wohl in jedem Blog finden kann. Und das ist ja an sich nichts schlimmes, lockert die Stimmung und beschafft einen mehr, oder meist weniger, galanten Einstieg zu den eigentlichen Inhalten.
Um dann auch zu eben diesen zu kommen: dieser Blog wird sich hauptsächlich den Inhalten der SocialWeb Vorlesung widmen.

So, Schluss mit dem Gelaber... in diesem Sinne:

- peace