Weeks 1-4 - R. Jorgensen reflection blog.

Over the last four weeks I have really started looking at the things I do online with some internal scrutiny. Is what I am posting on sites like Facebook and Twitter right? Are my blog posts going to hurt anyone or bring backlash to me?

Reading through Ess and Tavani’s books, I have started to realize that I may need to think a bit more globally when posting or getting in to an argument online. Is everything I do going to be considered legal? Am I taking away from someone’s well being?

This week, more than the rest I have a deep tie to. Being a musician right now is tough with all the file sharing that happens in our industry. We have seen our music shared all over the world and there is nothing we can do about it. We’ve even seen it uploaded to YouTube, but because they slowed it down just a bit, they were able to get away with it despite several letters to have it removed.

I can personally say, I have been in the middle of the file sharing argument from both sides. Not just music. Software too. I’ve seen piracy in the field of software since I was eight years old. I had an uncle copy the software from many Atari 2600 cartridges and then copy them to ROM chips and they were sent to me for Christmas one year. In the late 80’s and early 90’s before the internet, I had my fair share of software for the Atari 800xl that I did not purchase. It was just freely passed around from person to person to make a copy and move on.

I have looked back on these decisions over the last few weeks now and I truly feel bad for doing this. Should I have scrounged and saved to get the software the right way? Probably. Would my love of computers bloomed if I didn’t have the curiosity to get the software and figure out how it worked? One can not be sure. What I do know is that what I did was wrong and took away from the people who made the products I had been using.

Another part I have come to learn from the first four weeks is to start having conversation without the conversation stoppers. I know I have used them myself in the past. I have also had them used on me when talking about things like politics and computer/internet related issues in the world.

So far, I feel this class is making me a better thinker and it is opening my eyes. I can’t wait for the next eight weeks.