Topic 3: The Networked World
Write a short opinion in your blog about the real applicability of nonmarket production and related strategies in your main field of activities (e.g. design, education etc).
As Yochai Benkler points out in his The Wealth of Networks, most of the basic science as well as information and Internet software is produced by noncommercial industries or widespread cooperative networks of volunteers. When economists speak of information, they usually say that it is 'non-rival' - its consumption by one person does not make it any less available for consumption by another.
Noncommercial or nonmarket production has a significant role in tourism industry. For the most part, tourism bureaux and non-market production offer their output at no charge or at less than economically significant prices. The kind of services referred to here include for example information offices (e.g. at airports, in local communities), museums, libraries. The whole industry is based on useful information and personal visitor experience.
The choice is ours, whether we buy travel guides (such as Lonely Planet, Frommer's, Eyewitness or similar) or rely on other travellers who are more than happy to share their experience on numerous travel forums (such as TripAdvisor or the good and functional local Trip.ee, the latter being an even better example as it was started by a group of travel enthusiasts for noncommercial use). As the trend is more and more towards independent travel planning, people often turn to forum environments before they turn to traditional or online travel agencies. To be able to say one is a tourism professional, he or she must have a notable travel experience, which makes a lot of frequent travellers (who are often also frequent bloggers and forum visitors) a good and reliable source of information. Especially about destinations off the beaten path, untouched by masses.
Wikitravel is a widely used open source travel guide featuring up-to-date information on attractions, hotels, restaurants, travel tips and more. So far there are 24,060 destination guides and other articles written and edited by Wikitravellers from around the globe.
As a person who has always had itchy feet, I like to think of travelling as one form of education and self-enrichment. Travelling enables us to broaden the minds in obvious respects, living in another culture permits to collate it to our own. According to Benkler, information, knowledge and culture are equally vital for human development and freedom, and since the beginning of the Internet age these three have obtained a more and more central position in our society. For those, who really want to experience the depths of different cultures and suck in the knowledge, travelling is lifestyle that is away from commercial products. Therefore, nonmarket production and related strategies are applicable, and widely practiced, in the field of tourism.
Topic 4: Censors in Cyberspace
Pick a blocking software package. Install it to a PC and test it by browsing the web. Try some of the supposed 'forbidden' sites as well as some controversial issues (feminism, disabilities, minorities, various political movements and organisations). Blog your experiences.
I tried out CyberPatrol 7.7, supposedly the pioneer and leader in the Parental Control software market, launched in 1995. The first time I installed it on my computer, I chose the most restricted environment and user type, i.e child at home, to understand what it is like to use Internet under total control. This user profile filters unwanted content at maximum strength, blocks chats and social networking sites, imposes daily and weekly browse limits. Practically makes browsing the web nearly impossible. For some reasons, the instant override option, that should allow to unlock the blocked content entering the Headquarters password, did not work on my browser.
I tried to create another user profile to surf the web as a mature teen. As I have only one Windows profile to log into the computer, I encountered a difficulty as CyberPatrol automatically offers to create a CyberPatrol user profile using the Windows user name. This enables CyberPatrol to automatically select the appropriate CyberPatrol user profile whenever a user logs on with their Windows user account. After consulting the Help feature, I found out it is also possible to create Windows independent profiles if you prefer to have just one Windows profile to log into the computer but would like each user to have their own CyberPatrol user profile.
The CyberPatrol user type mature teen filters content at medium to maximum strength but allows chat and sex education websites. Time management is enabled as a default setting but all settings can be customized at the so called Headquarters. I must have been doing my homework too late, because at about 11:30 pm my browser was blocked. Reason: Access to websites is denied at this time of day. I disabled the time management and surfed a few pages: adult/sexually explicit content vs sex education. The first were all blocked, while the latter gave results as a search word on Google, YouTube, etc. I tried a few other 'threatening' words including sex and fortunately names like Sex Pistols didn't get blocked. Bearing education in mind, I searched for the words bully and cyber bullying to see what comes up and whether I get relevant information on these issues. I did find websites that explain this threat and help children or teenagers to be aware of and take precautions to avoid or fight the bullies. However, with the word bully the first search result Google gave me was: Rockstar Games Presents BULLY. Although the third person action-adventure video game, where the player takes control of teenage rebel James 'Jimmy' Hopkins, has an ESRB rating T (Teen) (content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older), it has caused controversy among parents and educators. Groups such as Bullying Online and Peaceaholics have criticized the game for glorifying or trivializing school bullying. In 2007, Yahoo! Games listed it as one of the top ten controversial games of all time.
CyberPatrol offers to set up a user profile also for other environments and user types, including adults. The business environment user profile protects users from adult/sexually explicit, spyware and phishing websites with medium strength filtering for all other non-productive categories. No time restrictions.
Having tried the different options and given a thought about my own user experience, I believe programs like CyberPatrol might have some good use, preferably with customized settings, agreed by both the parent and the child. There is also an option to try the Monitor Only version that doesn't block content or impose time restrictions, but allows you to view reports on activity summary for each monitored user profile. I agree that the best parent is a parent with enough time, courage and wisdom, a parent who doesn't make bones about tabooed topics and prepares the child to survive in the real world. As for my generation, Internet became an everyday part of our lives relatively late, in high school or for some of us even at the uni. We were mature teens or grownups and didn't need much parental guide. However, I admit some time restriction would have saved my parents quite a few shockingly huge phone bills in the early dial-up years. It is important that we know about the so called cyber sharks now that we have become or are about to become parents ourselves. To keep Internet access free of constricting rules as we are used to it, to let our children take the best of it, we must learn to balance the use of Internet and other important activities both in our own lives and those of our children. If the growing number of Patrol-like programs help to raise our attention, they have already been somewhat useful, even when not directly applied.
What are the Cyber Sharks? E-Book - Surfing Among The Cyber Sharks (PDF)
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