Art Galleries of St. Augustine - First Friday Art Walk

Please Join Us for the AGOSA First Friday Artwalk, Friday December 7th, 2012!

This event is a free, self-guided tour of the art galleries of St. Augustine. From 5 - 9 PM come and enjoy local art, refreshment and live music during the festive first artwalk! There will be one FREE Artwalk Troller. The trolley tour will start at 6 and go until 9 on King Street. The trolley will loop around the galleries every 15 minutes.

Look for the official AGOSA Gallery Member Decal in the window of any art gallery you want to purchase art from.

These art galleries have a quality selection of artwork and they provide a commitment to integrity in all of their business practices. They guarantee the highest level  of service, you won't be disappointed!

So join us on Friday for this unique artistic experience!

Podcast on Copyright

Copyright

Online Privacy

This article discusses Internet privacy. It talks about how the Internet isn’t really free like most people think it is but more of an exchange of information. When we visit sites such as Facebook and Google they are gathering information from us as we are surfing the sites. There is a newly released privacy add-on for Firefox and Chrome that allows you to instantly check your privacy settings across Facebook, Google and other sites. It allows you to fix privacy settings and notifies you when the policies have changed so you can update your privacy. The article also mentions that Congress and the executive branch have been talking more about online privacy in the past couple of years, which may mean some changes for the future.

The article is a good example of online privacy and highlights the fact that our privacy settings may not always be as private as we think they are. With changing policies and updates we don’t always realize when privacy policies have changed. I thought I had my Facebook as private as it could be but recently I noticed that people I’m not friends with have been liking my photos. It wasn’t until then that I realized that the privacy settings must have changed and my photos were no longer private. The Privacyfix add-on discussed in the article is supposed to notify you when things like this change and highlights parts of the settings we may want to look at.

It seems that these days it is getting harder and harder to control what information gets revealed about ourselves on the Internet. We still have some control but there are the things such as cookies and spy ware that are gathering information about what we do on the Internet that we don’t have control over. In the future I can only imagine it is going to get worse with new technologies, programs and even hackers and attacks. Privacy on the web is hardly privacy at all.

It is hard to stay private when all the different applications on the Internet are gathering information from us, even apps we no longer use or our friends apps. Also the fact that sites like Facebook are sharing our information with other websites automatically. There is privacy on the web, its just becoming harder to control.

Conflict and Warfare in the Digital Age

In Cyber attack on Saudi Firm, U.S. Sees Iran Firing Back

This article is a great example of cyber war and the use of computers to cause conflict. Hackers unleashed a computer virus on the world’s most valuable oil company, Saudi Aramco. It erased data on three-quarters of Aramco’s corporate PC’s replacing it all with an image of a burning American flag (creepy).  The US intelligence found the perpetrator to be Iran. The hackers called themselves the “Cutting Sword of Justice.” The company was forced to shut down its internal corporate network. The virus was called Shamoon, and it had a kill switch set to attack at the exact time the computers were wiped of memory. The erasing mechanism was named Wiper, which is the same name given to an erasing component of a virus that had attacked Iran in May. This lead to suspicions that this attack was a retaliation by Iran.

In this attack, the hackers got into the system somehow and disrupted it. This article reminded me a lot of what we discussed in class. In this attack it seems they were doing it for revenge/retaliation. The hackers sent an image of a flaming American flag and also sent a list back of all the computers that were hacked. This was sort of a bragging list; the Iranians proving to themselves that they could accomplish it and they did. I don’t think that conflict in the digital age is anywhere near over; if anything it is only going to get worse. Right now we don’t know of any ways to stop it.

Americans believe that Iran was also responsible for the attacks that disrupted the online baking sites Capitol One and BB&T. This is all a wake up call and the reality it that other countries do have the technology and skills to attack our computer systems. If Iran is capable of these attacks Americans can only fear that China and Russia are working on attacks as well. If America fights Iran back it could lead to a cyber war that we might not be ready for. In fact I don’t think any country is ready for any sort of cyber war. But at the rate we’re going it seems that it is inevitable if we don’t change something about the way we protect our computers.

These cyber attacks may mean that we do need to start from fresh with the Internet.  We need more secure and private systems that no other country can hack into. Even though it would be a lot of work it may be more beneficial to start over. This is only the beginning of cyber attacks; with time other countries may be able to develop even more destructive viruses. America can’t afford for any of our computer systems to be attacked.

The Digital Divide

The Digital Divide is the gap between people with effective access to digital information and technology and those without it. This doesn’t just mean knowing how to log into a computer but how to access information and use the different tools. People need the education and resources. Global divide is on the global scale, but social divide is the breakdown within the nation, and that is some of what this article discusses.

This article discusses one towns attempt to close the space in the digital divide (social divide) by offering Google Fiber for a $10 deposit to members of the community. With this could come new educational opportunities and incentive for developers to further build and strengthen the communities. But only the areas where enough people registered and paid the deposit would get the services. The city has already been affected by racial segregation, so they don’t want this to increase just because not everyone can afford access to Google. The community members need to convince the whole town that it is worth it to get access to the Internet. They are expressing the importance of it for jobs, research, education, government services and more. Many people didn’t even know what Google Fiber was. It is a long article but the general message being the importance of access to the Internet and getting awareness out.

This article is a good example of the social divide of our country. By bringing in Google Fiber they are hoping to improve education and job opportunities in the area. But it is not as easy as everyone would hope it could be. In this case, thought it’s rather cheap, it’s not free. This steers some people away either because they cant afford it or don’t feel like paying. And those who have never used a computer or Google before would need to be educated on how to operate the system. But it has great potential to close the divide.

For this town, if everyone had access to the Internet it would help close the digital divide and also help to stop segregation. It would help to create economic equality, information sharing, social equality and social mobility. Right now the town is segregated, and some feel having to pay for this service will further segregate them. But in reality it has the potential to close the social divide of the community.

The article just helps to highlight that it is not going to be easy to close the divide. But we all have to start somewhere and members of this community are spreading awareness to pave the way for further changes.

Net Neutrality

Podcast

Online Identity

In class we discussed online identity as being an emacipatory media space where people can post and share things that they might not in real life.  It’s way for people to freely post and find people who share the same interests.

I found a current event on Digg.com that has to do with Internet immersion and plugging into the online world. The article talks about William Gibson and his book Neuromancer, where the Internet plugs directly into a persons brain, and how people would be interested in this if it were possible. People would love to be able to totally immerse themselves into a virtual world that they love, such as Harry Potter or Star Trek.  In the article it says that while the Internet began as a way to exchange information it has also become a host of many virtual fantasy worlds. It goes on to say that maybe in the future it will be possible to have Internet to brain interaction. For some people that may be a very pleasing idea. Those who enjoy the virtual world would be able to create their own online identity that is different from the life they lead in the real world.

This relates to what we discussed in class about creating an online identity.  Right now people are free to create all different kinds of online identities whether it is through blogs, chat rooms, fan sites and more.  But there are limitations; you cannot totally immerse yourself all the time in the virtual world.  People still have their reflexive and ascribed identities; the way people see them in the real world and how they see themselves.  This article is interesting because it is about just being able to connect right to the Internet and the virtual world, and if this were possible maybe people would feel totally free and not worry about how other people see them.  Even though this obviously is not possible right now it just goes to show how technology is increasing along with ways of communicating.  

With all the different virtual worlds on the Internet people are able to interact more with others that they share similar interests with. Also being anonymous allows people to share more of how they really feel. Communicating over the Internet is only growing, so maybe something like brain to Internet connection could be possible in the future.