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1. Design and explain an alternative final project assignment other than the one Dr. Edwards assigned that would more fully synthesize and perhaps even productively revise or extend the course goals or structure as expressed in the syllabus. Offer a rationale and supporting details as to why this would be a powerful and innovative alternative final project assignment that would produce outstanding work from students.

I think an interesting final project would be a sort of research paper. There would be social media sites to choose from (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Tumblr, Linkedin, Pinterest, etc) and working in groups would probably make the most sense. If it were an individual project, they would focus on all aspects of the network, however working in groups they would choose what part of their history they would look at. Individuals would study the legal, cultural, political, and social aspects of each site, and how they developed. Since these are such big corporations now, it would be interesting to see how they started and how they came to be what they are today. As DTC students, innovating ideas are crucial to make a career in our ideal area of study. Dissecting how these sites came to be would help us figure out what we need to do and what we need to learn from. All of these sites have had their setbacks, and looking at how they dealt with them would be beneficial. 

For this project, I think there would need to be a requirement on how they're utilizing copyright laws. They all hold a vast amount of information, so copyright needs to come into play. Using articles or large events on how they dealt with copyright laws would be important. 

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I think from a DTC perspective, interesting has a lot to do with creativity. Thinking outside of the box will help your project stand out better than the rest of the class. Unlike most other majors, DTC requires you to think about topics from a rhetorical perspective, as well as a creative one. Combining many types of information you see and hear will help your idea be the most interesting and unique.

On the other hand, the opposite of this will be media that is plain and boring. Things that don’t grab people’s attention won’t keep it either. I’ve noticed, from my experience, I’ve learned the most from my classmates projects that have unique and distinguishable traits.

DTC is a rather new field with the intention of furthering the technological aspects of society that we have today. It’s important to be looking forward so your work will be remembered.

Blog Post 5

I realized that my most recent assignment was posted to the wrong blog. The post can be found at the following address:

http://kelsiemcneal.blogspot.com/2013/09/september-27.html

Blog Post #3

What are the most important "harms" that you, personally, see facing the ways intellectual property operating today, and how are those different from or similar to the harms faced by previous generations?

I think one of the biggest problems facing the ways intellectual property is operating today is the monopoly that the media is creating.

“…The different forms of media were owned by separate media companies. Now, the media is increasingly owned by only a few companies. Indeed, after the changes that the FCC announced in June 2003, most expect that within a few years, we will live in a world where just three companies control more than 85 percent of the media” (Lessig, 2004).

With such a small amount of people controlling what everybody sees, biased opinions are more likely to be used. Lessig also touches on the fact that controversial ads are going to be regulated even more. While sometimes this can be a good thing, as in to not offend anyone or any group of people, too much concentration silences the smaller opinions. Allowing only a few people (those who run the media) to control what all of the viewers are allowed to see isn’t necessarily the safest thing when it comes to expressing an individual opinion.

In my generation, we basically grew up on the developing internet and other technology resources. We are able to share and learn about more information at the tip of our fingertips. Earlier generations didn't have the ease of information that we do today. Now, we can search a few words and come up with a whole piece of research someone has been working on. 

In previous generations, publishing companies were the ones to produce the work to the public and try to get more people to read it. They raised the prices of books and research information so the creator, as well as the publisher, would get the money they deserved. When the internet came about, the need for the publisher lessened. They aren't absolutely necessary, since authors can directly publish their work online. This should greatly lower the price of books and textbooks, but since we're in a transitional phase, it's going to take more work.

Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock down Culture and Control Creativity. New York: Penguin, 2004. Print.

Views on Copyright

 and copyright libertarians, and explain your answers. (It would probably be helpful to define those terms very specifically.)

When it comes to the copyright world, there are many different opinions on how it should be regulated and distributed. Since it's become such an easy thing to disobey copyright laws, much more opinions are forming on how it should be regulated. It is a difficult task, and there are also a greater amount of different views on how it should be monitored. For instance, an artist will probably have different opinions and reasoning than will someone that sits at home and downloads music and games illegally all the time.

 A copyright communist would be someone who is completely open to sharing materials. This could be a website such as the pirate bay or creative commons, where everyone can upload their files and also download whatever files they want. They feel that everyone should be able to share the files that they are distributing on their websites.

Lessig would definitely be a copyright liberal in this situation. He is looking for innovating new ideas to share with the world about how to change the copyright laws and rules. Copyright liberals are looking to the future to make progression and reformation of the copyright and sharing world.

Copyright conservatives would be set on the way things are now, since they have stayed pretty traditional. Change is not something they see necessary. They want to keep the laws and rules regulated in the same way they are, and preserving existing conditions is their most important goal. I think a lot of music artists are copyright conservatives. This is because they benefit from people purchasing their work, and if people are pirating it or stealing it, they don't make the money they intended. Their careers depend on who buys their music. Fundamentalists also have a very similar mindset, so I would use the same people as an example.

Copyright libertarians would believe that the government shouldn't have anything to do with how their work is distributed. It should be about how the individual wants their work shared. Someone that comes to mind would be Macklemore, the Seattle rapper. A few months back he was talking about how if you can't afford his music to pirate it and share it with your friends. Not many artists would promote that.

Blog Post 1

In college I have noticed more resources being available for students to exercise their right to tinker. The most common way I have seen this done is by using multiple modes in one project. By this I mean combining videos or pictures with sounds or talking. Even though this has been done before, the way in which it is used comes from students thinking outside of the box. In the DTC field you have to be able to do this so you stand out from everyone around you. I've noticed with this major how the projects that stand out the most are the ones where people have used their right to tinker the most. Since we are given so many resources, the ones that use the most usually become the most prominent projects.