PERSONAL WEBIFICATION - WEEK 4

THE TIME FACTOR

Webification; a new term introduced to me recently. Connoted by me as the representation of myself on the internet. I am allowing myself to use the MySpace area as a place where I allow myself the freedom to put over some of my personal viewpoints. I am finding the subject matter very time consuming and at times frustrating. It is a wonderful thing to be able to create your own public “private” space, one in which you feel you have full control over production as well as the power of being your own censor, deciding the fate of other people’s comments/contributions.

A rare glimpse inside the Webification Room at UOW.
Where time and space are compressed,
alter egos are manufactured
and the cybergrail of perfect interactivication is sought

As my projects develop, I hope to explore the limitations that are imposed on users of the various “technologies” such as Facebook v MySpace v Blogger, all three of which I am familiar with and exemplify a manageable cross section.

My comment for this week involves time management. I have been busy setting up brand new blogs, Facebook and a MySpace profiles as well as trying to contribute to class discussions for the two core 100 DIGC subjects. Personal experience so far has illustrated to me how much time is involved in achieving any semblance of worthwhile production. I would ask that you reflect on the time taken in the modern era to create this on line presence and compare it with historical forms of communication such as letter writing, or say, an opinion piece such as a letter to the Editor.

Modern technology says NO to just getting on the keyboard and typing out your piece, then posting it off to wherever. (Yes, I know about e-mail, but I will argue that commodification and cultural developments of the technological age demands more, a powerful product to which we are culturally bound and therefore encouraged to participate in.)

A price is paid for the agency to reach a far larger audience. The communication needs to be formatted in a certain way, whether it be on Facebook, a blog or whatever. I will arguer that one item high on the price list is time. I have found that I have spent much, much more of my time setting up an artificial cyberspace that is visually pleasing to me (with my intended audience factored in) than actually creating text or communication in the knowledge sharing sense.

I will also argue that the time factor will continue to play a large part in my future efforts in developing the three elements of communication (FB, MyS, and blogs). I would hazard a guess that each contribution I make would take at least three times as long as if I simply thought about what I was going to write and then wrote it down on paper and posted it as a jpeg on a white background on a web page.

There is a price we pay for the 24/7 divergent, convergent availability of modern communication.

Food I will leave for thought is the possible development of the disappearing private communication in relation to the emergence of public communication.