My first day

I missed my very first lecture. I got there just in time to pick up a handout of the first semester course and a Digital Consumption audit form. I thought that perhaps the lecture might be repeated. But no such luck. However, there was a transcript of some sort on the net. Somewhere.

Last week, somehow, I lost my password to log into the uni account. I could log in to one area, because the computer had stored my password. Trying to log back into myuni was a different matter. So I had to get up early, go to the student office, find out my password, log on to get my timetable, try and print it out and go the first lecture.

Of course I slept in because I had little sleep the night before. The bus took ages. There was a queue at the student office. I couldn’t find a printer. I couldn’t find the Horace Lamb Lecture Theatre – and the directions I was given made me go ’round in circles.

I managed to talk to Mary Griffiths, the Associate Professor for a few minutes. I need to fill out the audit form and perhaps I had better drop it off first thing in the morning, because it is worth 5% of the term’s assessment value. Maybe I had better try to see her for a few minutes too, just to make sure that I am on the right track and didn’t miss too much.

Now, trying to locate just where my timetable is in myuni is not very clear (to me) neither is the location of the dig_rev site mentioned in the announcements. Try to google it – hmmm . . . nothing relating to Adelaide Uni . . . try the yahoo.groups result . . . hmmm the Digital Revolution (aka dig_rev) is a famous rebellious hacker community.

“The world’s movement into a new age of electronics, computers, and high-speed computations has bred a new type of person. Power, once measured in brute strength and influence, is gradually shifting to those with intelligence and skill with new technologies. Where heros and villians of the past were sword-swinging or gun-toting warriors, this new age of technology has seen the rise of a new kind of protagonist: the hacker. Modern-day clashes between governments, corporations, and power brokers have encouraged the growth of loosely organized rebellious hacker communities, the most famous of which is the Digital Revolution.”

quoted from http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/dig_rev/

Finally found the right buttons to push and found the appropriate downloads to try and catch up with the lecture. Can’t see my timetable there though. Now all I have to do is download and install a copy of PowerPoint . . . that’s taking ages . . .

Well, I finaly managed to download a PowerPoint viewer and have a look at te two presentations for this morning’s lctures. Rob’s seemed very straight forward as it contained lots of text. References to Corey Delaney made me think the information portrayed was fairly recent. A reference to Napster made me wonder how up-to-date all of this material was (Naptser was forced to liquidate its assets in 2002). Whilst I could read and digest te content from Rob, Mary’s PowerPoint presentation was more graphical – so I had to interpret a sense of the direction it was taking me.

Both lectures dwelt on the differences between the old analog past and our new digital present which has been built from an analog base of diverging communications, computing processes and content. This revoution is still evolving into a media rich experience. It is still evolving to the point where certain processes, once set in motion, are replicated virally, sometimes without control. Delaney and the Brittney Spears phenomena are examples of this, in tandem with the new directions that our spoken language itself is degenerating into.

I will have to have a look at these lectures again, and digest them in more detail.

. . . and so, as the sun figaratively sets on this side of the planet (it did that hours ago) . . . that was my first day of my Media Studies course. Not the best of outcomes, but not a total loss. I’m going to fill out my digital consumption audit and have another cup of coffee. See you soon.