Reflecting on The Future of Work

This year my university class BCM313 – The Future of Work – has taught me all about the skill of professional conversation, active listening and how to implement narrative techniques.

The narrative interview with Maliek Edwards was an insightful process into understanding more about different ways of thinking when it comes to the Communication industry. During the interview, I wrote down key terms and phrases that resonated with me. I wanted to further expand on certain notes. This process combined with the semi-structured interview technique was the basis behind the non-linear structure the presentation followed.

My own experience with the organisation on the operations side shaped the way I understood Maliek’s professional values and how he implemented this in his work as I had already witnessed the end result of this. Working with the company I have been a receiver of internal messages for two years, hearing Maliek talk about the cooperation as a whole reinforced many ideas that were translated to me previously.

Being on the receiving side of larger branding decisions from Maliek I had to consciously recognise any biased presumptions I made about Malieks values, to counteract this I made sure to use direct quotes in my presentation and focus substantially on the recording of Maliek himself.

The narrative techniques I used in my presentation to understand Malieks professional values were mainly based around Michael White’s ‘Absent but Implicit’ to understand Maleik’s experience on a deeper level.

During the presentation, many of the quotes that were highlighted by my peers were ones that I also resonated with and built my presentation around. I did also note to my class that the interview with Maliek went for an hour to the narrative style and therefore I focused on the technique regarding a more specific value that Maliejk had in his work which was ‘Network-based work.’

After the presentation it was interesting to compare and contrast the various values and ideas that were bought up in other presentations to my own, this step reinforced the individualised experience of each of our subjects as well as the shared experience of people and values as a whole.

References

Carey, M, Walther, S & Russell, S 2009, ‘The Absent but Implicit: A Map to Support Therapeutic Enquiry’, Family process, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 319–331.

Click to access Absent_But_Implicit.pdf

Russell, S & Carey, M 2002, ‘Re-membering: Responding to Commonly Asked Questions’, International journal of narrative therapy and community work, vol. 2002, no. 3, pp. 23–31.

http://narrativepractices.com.au/attach/pdf/Remembering_Common_Questions.pdf

Week 11 The Internet of things!

I didn’t quite grasp this concept in the beginning of the lecture, however, the idea that we will continue to connect everything to the internet if it will increase capabilities made me understand. The first thing I though of was the app controlled colour bedroom lights, you can program them to turn on, strobe or be a certain colour. The simple concept of light from the sun, to a candle, to a lightbulb and now this! Then I thought lets think larger and smart homes, entire homes that are revolutionised as Things of the Internet. Voice controlled, interactive and connected.

The further I got into this lecture I started thinking, wow, humans could be totally connected to the internet one day and as soon as I said it out loud I realised that we already are! Our thoughts and consciousness is recorded phones and smart watched, the amount of steps we take in a day. There is an algorithm and sata that knows when we happy, depressed. Check out this Forbes article about Target knowing a teenager was pregnant before her father did.

Imagine if all your data over your life was collected from what you watch, what you write and what you read to create your own artificial intelligence that acted independently. It’s a super scary hypothetical but honestly one day I don’t think it will be that far fetched.

Week 10: Dark fiber….who is watching!?

Do you have a sticker over your laptop camera? Is someone watching?

In my last blog post we explored how the shield of anonymity can be used to hold companies and governments accountable and dodge negative consequence. But what happens when people and groups use anonymity to run a muck.

Made with Giphy

A prime example of online criminal organisations is Lulzsec, a group of people that never knew each-others identity but managed to become a collective. This article by the guardian has more information into the specifics of what they did and how they were caught.

The main focus here is that in 2011 these guys were able to hack the FBI. It;s this amount of power that hackers can have that put the everyday security at risk

This article by the conversation looks into cybercrime and webcams being accessed without permission. Its a concept that I still feel removed from however the reality is that this is something that could happen to anyone without them even knowing. Webcam lights can be disabled and breaches in security happen more ofter than it seems. My remediation reflects the caution we need to take as individuals in making sure our data is as secure as possible.

Week 6 The Attention Economy

I’m not like other distributions!

This weeks lecture we dove into longtail theory. This was the first time I had ever heard the term used. The term is explained well using the examples of Amazon and Netflix in this Wired article. The term was coined by Chris Anderson describing the phenomenon of the internet changing the types of products sold that produce the majority. This can be seen when we look at streaming platforms versus as Hollywood block busters.

“The strategy theorizes that consumers are shifting from mass-market buying to more niche or artisan buying.”

This distribution kind of embodies everyone moving away from the mainstream and this is why me remediation is very hipster based.

Week 8 Network Insurgencies

This weeks lecture content about Web.20, participatory culture and creative commons made me think of wikipedia straight away. Wikipedia is notorious for collaborative information, it is knows for the sheer amount of knowlege base but also for not being a reliable. We 2.0 created opportunity for participatory information and encourages collaboration but simultaneously allows for the internet to be a noisy space. Here is an example of me adding my digital artefact to the phonics page of wikipedia.

Collaborative knowledge
Participatory Culture

I wanted to focus on the political participation by showing you how easy it is to spread misinformation. This can be seen in collaborative sites like wikipedia but also can be anything in the form of online uploads.

Feudalism 2.0 Week 7

In a society where investors are kings and entrepreneurs are lords, the digital realm has renewed the relevance of modern feudalism. My remediation in lecture content this week is focused around the saturation of information under the current circumstances. There has been a large push for people to work home due to technological advancements as well the current living climate. This remediation reflects the the exposure to distraction and the integration of work and home life.

Not only are the distractions of access to information prone to getting in the way of a space for work, but it has become difficult for many to draw lines between their working hours as they always have access to their digital office.

Week 4 BCM206

The chronic task of sorting: information flows and liquid labour

Liquid Life

My remediation from week four reflects the conclusions I drew from the lecture content. The reading “Function creep: Communication technologies and anticipatory labour in the information workplace” by M.Gregg resonated with me as someone working online. This video is of myself in my Friday afternoon class as we get distracted by watching foreign videos about how to open a door, It dawned on me that the boundaries establish in regular tutorials have been removed when it comes to online class. The consumption of education has also fallen into the classification of liquid life and although we are still learning, each class I am constantly surprised be what exactly about. I found a irony in this remediation that I enjoy.

A Global Nervous System

Reflecting on this weeks lecture content I curated an image that I feel best embodies my favourite concepts. The switching on of distributed information. This image is a nod to J.C.R Licklider‘s “Galactic Network” concept, apart of the foundation of the creation of the internet according to the ‘Internet Society’, as well as honouring the paradigm shift that was bought on through the process of the world connecting. Perspectives shifted as new things became possible and as mindsets continue to change more ideas will present themselves. This lecture about the history of communication from the telegraph to the internet made me very excited to see what the future and the next 20 years is going to hold.

Week 5: Networked participation and Collective intelligence

Collective intelligence is the result of the collaboration of information, knowledge and perspective. Collective intelligence is witnessed in our everyday lives, on social media, in traditional media, even when studying for an assignment. Ideas come together and shape understanding.

A classic example in Wikipedia as discussed in this weeks content. Its an easy example of a participatory source of knowlege as (admit it) at one point or another you have referred to it. Wikipedia helps bring up the negatives associated with collective intelligence. With no gatekeepers, there are questions surrounding credibility.

I think when assessing credibility of legacy media collective intelligence may assist in accuracy, minor contributions such as an alternate camera angle or perspective can help to create a fuller picture as seen in the video shown in the lecture.

I made this gif that had a collage of all the things that came to made when thinking of participatory culture in emergent media.

Privacy, Surveillance. The Price of Content

The lecture this week looked into the consequences of emergent media. Revealing to me some of the hidden costs of networking including behaviour modulation through algorithmic control, privacy and surveillance. I for one sure as heck don’t know where or to who my information is going to but I, also like many, have had a few too many uncanny experiences where the advertisements I see relate heavy on my current experience.

Behavioural data sharing is the element that was most intriguing to me. The fact that your habits can be collected means that business are able to accurately predict what you’ll want to see.

I looked into Prism Break which is some recommended tools that encrypt communications and shield information against surveillance. IOS products were not recommended to have these encryptors as privacy may be compromised by IOS itself. This is something I want to look into further. It isn’t my personal information I’m worried about, its the fact that organisations are able to predict future trends and could implement bots to steer people into their desired course if action