“Encyclopedia” in an encyclopedia

I made a choice to search for the word encyclopedia in Wikipedia. Since Wikipedia is quite a large online search site, I know I would get a hit on the word. Since this assignment was about finding and comparing words in different encyclopedias, I thought everyone should be aware of the meaning of this word.

Wikipedia says that: An encyclopedia, encyclopaedia or (traditionally) encyclopædia is a comprehensive written compendium that contains information on all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge.

This is exactly what Wikipedia dose. It provides you with information about the word you have chosen to search for. In the articles that Wikipedia provides, the reader can also find links imbedded in the text that will lead him or her to further articles involving the hyperlinked words. I find this to be a very good search tool. This way you do not have to type your word in to the search field over and over again.

In Wikipedia, the article is divided into sections which will make it easier to find the right information fast. For example, in the article on Encyclopedia you can get a fast track to the general history of encyclopedias or to a specific historical episode of the encyclopedia.

If we then compare Wikipedia to Encyclopædia Britannica online you get a whole other search result. When typing in encyclopedia you get a random selection of articles with the word in them. However, if you type in encyclopædia you get the definition of the word.

Encyclopædia Britannica online says: Reference work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or that treats a particular branch of knowledge comprehensively.

Encyclopædia Britannica online is more like a traditional dictionary, stating the meaning of the word and then leaves it at that. Of course Britannica has also the hyperlinks in the text that takes the reader further in their search. However, Britannica only hyperlink words which have something to do with the word of the article while Wikipedia hyperlink all words that the online encyclopedia has an article on.

Of course there is that big question of trust. Wikipedia is written by us, the people of the world. Anyone can add anything to this encyclopedia…almost. There are of course some restrictions. Britannica on the other hand is run by the Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Corporation and what you can find online you can also find in the book version of Encyclopædia Britannica.

I, however, are quit fond of Wiki and feel that it provides a broad range of information that is easy to take in and will therefore stick with my wiki.

What can I say…it is wiki wiki.

Cecilia

My unconventional thoughts about games and art

""avant game" as "before the game.""

As I understand it, and I am not saying I have understood it right, so is Jane McGonigal studying the phenomena that are before the game is played or made.

avant game is a made up word that is put to describe Jane's research in digital game studies with a twist of playfulness. The phrase avant game points to the contemporary play works as well as the philosophy of game design she is studying. This game is not so much a game that is a study.

I Love Bees is a kind of game that Jane has developed. But I really can't figure it out. But after reading TheFQA - Netninja Bee Wiki I feel so much better. As in the question about whether all the people are insane. I am as the answer, I don't believe there is a real game. It is all study, or it is me who is insane. Could be that to. I am not really sure.

Well, I guess you could call it a game. But I would rather more call it a study or a challenge. Maybe a quest to seek the truth. To collect information and to find out what has happen to a blog is a quest, not a game.

Implementation

I get the feeling of SKIN by Shelley Jackson when I see the work of by Nick Montfort and Scott Rettberg. It is all about making a statement and to see how many people will fallow and obey their will. It is the same as the roundabout dogs and flash mobs. Think of something stupid and extreme to do and see how many that are willing to follow.

But it is all about how you see it and what kind of experience you have of it. I do think it is quite cool that people are doing this. But there are so many of them now, they have lost there aura so to speak.

/cecilia

My Essay

I will base my essay on what I have written below. About how the simulated worlds of online games like SL and WOW are combined with our real world through money.
I will look upon how the culture of SL has affected the world we live in and maybe what consequences it might have in the future.

I have found three different outside articles that I will use in this essay that are all about making money in the online world. I will combined these sources with sources from the texts that we have read in class.

I will get back with more information about my essay thoughts later next week.

/CJ

Simulated Worlds

Well, better late then never as it is said. I'm am slowly trying to get on track with my self between school and Spain so to say.

My thoughts on simulated worlds.

There are many kinds of simulated worlds, online and off-line. Online we have Second Life, WOW and so on. Off-line we have Disneyland and other fairylands.
Simulated worlds are places that are built up to meet or inner desires, to for fill a fantasy of our.
Simulated worlds can in some ways complete the real world that we live in.
However, the real world and simulated worlds online has started to interfere with each other. I read the other week an article about a man in china that earns his living by playing WOW. And that there are people living of SL by building and selling houses and land to other members. In SL there is also a currency that goes hand in hand with the US dollar. What you earn in Linden $ you can get out in US $. It is just like going to another country.

When did simulated worlds stop for fill our psychological needs and started to replace our physical needs? Ones no one knew how you were in an online world, now it is all about making money and get a profit out of it.

/cecilia

YouTube brought to you by me

When going through the list of social sites, I kind off got stuck on You Tube. Mostly since I actually have my own videos to publish since I bought my digital camera.
And it is quite fun to know that you can share you videos with just any one. So far I have only uploaded two videos but I hope that there will be more of them coming.
I would like to share them with all of you since some of you are in one of the videos.

You can look at them on; http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=digcultcj

I like You Tube a lot since I like watching strange and funny movies and the site provides me with just that. The whole site is about sharing videos, and even if there is a place called community in You Tube, I still haven't really figured out how or even if you can search for other members. I can only search for videos.

However, when searching for videos, I came upon some video clips that should be X-rated and dose not really belong to this kind of site where people put up videos of their children.

Since I had a hard time finding other members, I am not really sure of the sites audience. It seems like anyone with an interest for video clips join this social site.

Of course, now in the beginning, I am not in total familiar with all the elements on the site, but that is something that will come as play with it I suppose.

Well, that is YouTube for me.

Cj.

Me on Digital Culture and Blogs

I suppose that I first came in contact with digital culture when I was around sixteen, the year when I started high school. I was in the Media program in high school so a lot of my time were spent in front of a computer.

The first virtual community I joined was "Lunarstorm". After that I joined in several other communities as well as MSN which I have strongly held on to till this day.

As the technology develops, I guess my interest in the digital culture has change along with it and along with the changes of my life. I have during the years gone through different sorts of digital cultures depending on how my life looks like.

Today I mostly use "Resedagboken", a community for travelers, along with my MSN for my spare time. For work and school I have a broad selection of e-mails and intra nets to keep me updated on whats going on around me.

Of course, as a single girl that I am, I have like many others tried some dating sites. These sites works like any other community that you can find online, except here everyone is middle aged and a bit creepy.

I have along with this program also started having my own blogs a bit here and there ( you see, I can never remember my user name so I keep creating new ones). For the moment I believe I am a member of Blogger (as you can see), Twitter, MySpace, del.icio.us, Hello, Flicker and so on.

When it comes to games I am fairly new in this area. I have created my on little figure in Second Life, and I must admit that I had more fun redesigning her than I have had playing the game so far. But that is just me I guess.

Except for digital cultures like the ones I have talked about where I am more involved, I also come across some other cultures that I'm not so involved in.
These are for example the online version of news papers that I read, information sites like Wikipedia that I use for school and work to find facts that I need.

I have also come across a vary of different blogs, especially the ones that are being announced on news sites. These blogs are about love, sex, politics, travels and much more.
On MySpace and Blogger it is more likely to find more personal blogs about peoples life and their inner secrets.

I would suppose that this includes my relation to Digital Culture. Not the most advanced one, but life is not over yet...more will come.

-Cecilia Johansson

2:a life

Hey you all. I have not been so active here as I should have been. I have had some trouble logging on to blogger from my computer, but now I have fixed it. So here I am.

I created a virtual me on second life the other week.

My name there is ; Sisilya Vuckovic. I am still stuck on the little island where everyone first ends up. But I will get of that on soon I hope!! For some reason I don't like it there. I guess it might have something to do with the ugly rats. Don't really fancy them.

So I'll see you in 2:a life sometime.

Love Cj

twitter.com

Hey you all. I have enterd myself on twitter and you will all find me as "DigCultCj". Add me!!! I want friends.

Love Cj

Digital Cultur session 2 20070321

Hey, I have created my blog now!!! Right now we are having our second session for this course and we are discussing Secondlife.com and something called twitter.com ( or rather our teacher Mia is talking and we are listening). Good ey...

Any how, see you next time...