Writing & Computers: "Creative Commons", Mashups

This week in English 318, also known as Writing & Computers, we took most of the week off so Professor Jennings could go to a technology conference. In place of Wednesday's and Friday's classes we had to review three different Web sites. They all dealt with copyright issues, the sharing of content, and building Web mashups (combining different types of data or content, such as videos or photos with music). For example, Web site and television channel Current (http://www.current.com/) uses mashups that developers created for stories featured on their Web pages as well as in their many news and commentary programs. The Web site Creative Commons dealt with content developers who want to find a middle-ground between having copyrighted work (no one can access his/her content) and having public-domain content (anyone can access, manipulate, and alter content for different, and possibly disagreeable, purposes). Looking at these three sites were helpful to me, and I know I will want to use the knowledge I gained from them in my future in communications and/or technology. You have to be careful about who you are dealing with, what you are doing/how you play with someone else's content, and who was in charge of hiring you. If you are not, many people may merely ask you to remove their content (or take it down themselves). Some people may sue you for piracy and/or other reasons. Those are just some things you may want to think about when creating your own content using another's. I cannot answer all of the questions about this, so the links to these three sites are listed below this post.

http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/DrMashuporWhyEducatorsSho/44592

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122367645363324303.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#articleTabs_comments%26articleTabs%3Dcomments

Creative Commons

Writing & Computers: "The Dickens Web"

Hey all. In Writing & Computers we finished that wiki video this past Monday. We then started talking about these two assignments that we have to complete by this Friday and next Monday. One of them is an essay that asks us to define certain topics (phrases) in the writing and computers world, such as digital citizenship, digital writing, and participatory culture. The other is an assignment where we have to research, view, and critique a choice Web site. This week we also looked up different Web pages that include social bookmarking and blogging. One I discovered is called The Dickens Web (http://www.eastgate.com/catalog/Dickens.html). That is all for this week!