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Dear Everyone,
Many thanks for your coming today; we greatly appreciate Dr. Gillian Young for her wonderful talk in the meet-up. we would also express our special gratitude to Dr. Tracy Simmons for her coming and participation. Hopeful we will release the newsletter by next Monday. For the next time our discussion would be focusing on a certain topic related to 'the future mode of communication'. Thanks again for all your wonderful participation today. We are looking forward to seeing you all again next month.
Best regards,
Jin Shang
27/04/2009
-----------------------------------
Creative Cuppa 6th Coffee Meetup
(Event completed & newsletter coming out soon ... )
Theme: Digital Avatar / Virtual Reality
Time: 12:00pm - 13:00pm (Monday, 27st April 2009)
Venue: 324 KEB (Ken Edwards Building), City Campus, University of Leicester
Guest Speaker: Dr. Gillian Youngs
Event Coordinator: Jin Shang
Event description: by Jin Shang
Along with the improving Interactivity of internet technology and increasing popularity of 3D applications such as computer games, more and more people are connected to a different 'life', by projecting themselves onto the Internet and creating their own virtual identities on the web; and this is what usually referred to as the making of 'digital avatar'. Some people predict that, with technology improvement, we human beings will be living in a virtual world in the near future, in which people, and animals, are mostly represented by animated avatars and do everything from social activities to shopping; and this may lead to another social revolution, in which avatars' society would dominate the world. Some other people, however, doubt the changes, and insist that even though people could create their lives and even their world on the web, they are still who they are in the real life, and will never be replaced by their avatars. This time, Dr. Gillian Youngs will share with us her initial experience in the virtual environment, and attempt to unveil a truth of her own thoughts about the 'virtual reality'. Come along and share your ideas with us. Everyone is welcome. Beverage & snacks are served for free. You can pop in and drop out anytime. The most important thing is that you feel fun, relax, and really enjoying being with everyone of us.
http://creativecuppa.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=62980387435
Creative Cuppa
22/04/2009
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Newsletter for 5th Creative Cuppa Meet-up
-------------
On the 31th March 2009, Creative Cuppa held its 5th meet-up in 526 KEB (Ken Edwards Building), City Campus, University of Leicester. Many thanks to Adeline Tan, Amit Chandraker, Chih-Jung Fan, Hwang Hs, Kal Jaber, Li Jun Zhang, Mokhtar Elareshi, Rosidayu Sabran, Walid Muhaisen, and Ivy Chen, for their participation. We would also like to express our special gratitude to Dr. Bu Qingxiu, from the School of Law, Queens University Belfast (QUB), for his attendance and thoughtful ideas. This time our discussion was focused on the topic of ‘virtual community/ online community’, as this is seen as an important aspect of the emerging Internet culture that is increasingly affecting and changing our real lives today.
Basically we addressed four key aspects of online communities. The discussion began with gender issues; actually the Internet and other new media technologies have provided more equal opportunities for women, as in the ‘weightless world’, physical weakness of women is no longer important; in this meaning, the historical boundaries between genders are broken. Therefore, Adeline believes that women can now do the same things as men, and think this is development of human society. However it still seems that women and men show great differences in their differing ‘virtual lives’. While most women are still more interested in chatting, gossip and female-oriented issues, men do still prefer to ‘do business’ of all kinds.
Then, our discussion was steered toward a focus on the virtual communities organized by special-interest groups, such as diaspora groups and protest groups. Actually people from these groups have also received great benefits from the Internet; now that it’s getting much easier for them to create their own connections or networks for their specific purposes. For instance, migrants can now easily create their own ‘migrant communities’ in their host country, in order to build invisible ties between each other and between them and their homelands. Activists, similarly, use the Internet to create temporary alliances in order to gather as many people as possible in a short space of time, in order to fight for political issues and rights.
After that, Hwang raised the very interesting point that young people seem more active in organizing or attending online communities, as they’re more curious about new things and more willing to share new things with each other. Hwang gave an example from South Korea, during the protest against the importation of US beef; young protesters used their camera-phones to capture the latest pictures from the protesting groups and sent them back to the camps for uploading to the web so that more people could be updated with live information. This also reminds us of another case: when the Sichuan Earthquake took place, it was young people again who shot live pictures and videos, and broadcast the calamity live online through Twitter and YouTube.
Once we’ve discussed all the matters, we then realized a question of whether there is a real separation between virtual communities and our ‘real world’. You can still see the connections everywhere; women are still chatty and sensitive; men are still ambitious and greedy; migrants are still interested in ‘ties’ with their ‘families’; and young people are still curious and active. That is to say, if there is no substantial change, our eulogizing about the ‘power of the Internet’ would be nothing but a hallucination. Dr. Bu pointed out that so far, no legal system in the world is complete to deal with the new emerging problems in cyberspace. In fact, he also admitted that most lawmakers have lagged far behind the rapid increase in new issues. If that is the case, we may question ourselves, whether we’re placed in a safer situation sitting behind the screen, or simply even more dangerous. If that is the case, women are getting more easily hooked; men more easily trapped; diasporas more easily controlled, and youngsters more easily deceived and used. And is that really what we expected from the Internet? This, we believe, is a big question that everyone should continue to think about carefully.
Generally, the meet-up this time was pretty successful, with our largest participation so far, since the event started in Nov. 2008. Even though we don't have to agree on everything, there we have a time when everybody all consider that we are experiencing the same things. Next time, we will be focused on the topic of ‘virtual reality/ digital avatar’; and we're going to be brought into a 3D space, in which people may have very different thoughts about the ‘world’. We're pleased to have invited Dr. Gillian Youngs to give a talk about her own initial experience in the virtual environment as she is developing research in this area now. Again, thanks for all your active participation and wonderful contribution to Creative Cuppa. We’re looking forward to seeing you all next time!
Video links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WtGpywsLSE (online community - forum-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRkMGED7LYE (SparkPeople.com's Free Support Community)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAnjz619SUc (Sichuan Earth Quake 12 May 2008)
Jin Shang
06/04/2009
On the 31th March 2009, Creative Cuppa held its 5th meet-up in 526 KEB (Ken Edwards Building), City Campus, University of Leicester. Many thanks to Adeline Tan, Amit Chandraker, Chih-Jung Fan, Hwang Hs, Kal Jaber, Li Jun Zhang, Mokhtar Elareshi, Rosidayu Sabran, Walid Muhaisen, and Ivy Chen, for their participation. We would also like to express our special gratitude to Dr. Bu Qingxiu, from the School of Law, Queens University Belfast (QUB), for his attendance and thoughtful ideas. This time our discussion was focused on the topic of ‘virtual community/ online community’, as this is seen as an important aspect of the emerging Internet culture that is increasingly affecting and changing our real lives today.
Basically we addressed four key aspects of online communities. The discussion began with gender issues; actually the Internet and other new media technologies have provided more equal opportunities for women, as in the ‘weightless world’, physical weakness of women is no longer important; in this meaning, the historical boundaries between genders are broken. Therefore, Adeline believes that women can now do the same things as men, and think this is development of human society. However it still seems that women and men show great differences in their differing ‘virtual lives’. While most women are still more interested in chatting, gossip and female-oriented issues, men do still prefer to ‘do business’ of all kinds.
Then, our discussion was steered toward a focus on the virtual communities organized by special-interest groups, such as diaspora groups and protest groups. Actually people from these groups have also received great benefits from the Internet; now that it’s getting much easier for them to create their own connections or networks for their specific purposes. For instance, migrants can now easily create their own ‘migrant communities’ in their host country, in order to build invisible ties between each other and between them and their homelands. Activists, similarly, use the Internet to create temporary alliances in order to gather as many people as possible in a short space of time, in order to fight for political issues and rights.
After that, Hwang raised the very interesting point that young people seem more active in organizing or attending online communities, as they’re more curious about new things and more willing to share new things with each other. Hwang gave an example from South Korea, during the protest against the importation of US beef; young protesters used their camera-phones to capture the latest pictures from the protesting groups and sent them back to the camps for uploading to the web so that more people could be updated with live information. This also reminds us of another case: when the Sichuan Earthquake took place, it was young people again who shot live pictures and videos, and broadcast the calamity live online through Twitter and YouTube.
Once we’ve discussed all the matters, we then realized a question of whether there is a real separation between virtual communities and our ‘real world’. You can still see the connections everywhere; women are still chatty and sensitive; men are still ambitious and greedy; migrants are still interested in ‘ties’ with their ‘families’; and young people are still curious and active. That is to say, if there is no substantial change, our eulogizing about the ‘power of the Internet’ would be nothing but a hallucination. Dr. Bu pointed out that so far, no legal system in the world is complete to deal with the new emerging problems in cyberspace. In fact, he also admitted that most lawmakers have lagged far behind the rapid increase in new issues. If that is the case, we may question ourselves, whether we’re placed in a safer situation sitting behind the screen, or simply even more dangerous. If that is the case, women are getting more easily hooked; men more easily trapped; diasporas more easily controlled, and youngsters more easily deceived and used. And is that really what we expected from the Internet? This, we believe, is a big question that everyone should continue to think about carefully.
Generally, the meet-up this time was pretty successful, with our largest participation so far, since the event started in Nov. 2008. Even though we don't have to agree on everything, there we have a time when everybody all consider that we are experiencing the same things. Next time, we will be focused on the topic of ‘virtual reality/ digital avatar’; and we're going to be brought into a 3D space, in which people may have very different thoughts about the ‘world’. We're pleased to have invited Dr. Gillian Youngs to give a talk about her own initial experience in the virtual environment as she is developing research in this area now. Again, thanks for all your active participation and wonderful contribution to Creative Cuppa. We’re looking forward to seeing you all next time!
Video links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WtGpywsLSE (online community - forum-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRkMGED7LYE (SparkPeople.com's Free Support Community)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAnjz619SUc (Sichuan Earth Quake 12 May 2008)
Jin Shang
06/04/2009
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Latest News: Grant Received From RTIF
-------------
Dear Everyone,
We are pleased to announce that Creative Cuppa has been awarded a £2000 grant by RTIF (Roberts Funding) through the University of Leicester Graduate Office. This will serve as an operating budget, under the supervision of the Department of Media and Communication and overseen by Dr. Gillian Youngs and Mr. Jin Shang. Dr. Gillian Youngs has been nominated as Chairing Director and Mr. Jin Shang as Operating Director. Other staff on the Board of Management are Mr. Tony O'Tierney (Internal Coordinator), Ms. Shani Lee (External Coordinator), and Miss. Xingfang Chen (Management Assistant).
Creative Cuppa is a recently-launched long-term student/staff research seminar series in association with the Department of Media and Communication. The project, based in the University of Leicester, aims to bring together researchers and other interested people from different disciplines or knowledge backgrounds, both inside and outside the University, to generate, discuss, and criticize any issues related to their experience or understanding of new media technologies.
The discussion topics are varied and relate to both theory and practice. For example, two of the recent discussion topics have been focused on 'Online journalism' and 'Virtual Community'. We do also invite guest speakers to give informal talks, usually followed by Q&A sessions as well as time for broader discussion. Follow-up discussions could be well linked with Gillian's 'Digital Economy Research Group'.
Creative Cuppa holds meet-ups every month. A different theme is chosen for each meet-up, but always focused on the discussion of themes within new media and communication technologies. A newsletter is usually produced after each meet-up and sent to those who have subscribed to the service. Through the activities, participants are expected to better understand the modern world from a socio-technical perspective, which will be relevant to their research and career development in the future.
Creative Cuppa has also created an online community on Facebook. This is designed to keep the participants connected and updated at all times. In that sense, Creative Cuppa is more like an ongoing process that cross over the boundaries of time and space. So please join us. Everyone is welcome, no matter what background or discipline you are from. You can join in and drop out anytime you want. The most important thing is that you have fun, feel relaxed, and are ready to refresh your minds with loads of new creative ideas.
http://creativecuppa.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60675201456
Thanks for supporting us,
Jin Shang
Operating Director
Creative Cuppa Organizing Committee
Dear Everyone,
We are pleased to announce that Creative Cuppa has been awarded a £2000 grant by RTIF (Roberts Funding) through the University of Leicester Graduate Office. This will serve as an operating budget, under the supervision of the Department of Media and Communication and overseen by Dr. Gillian Youngs and Mr. Jin Shang. Dr. Gillian Youngs has been nominated as Chairing Director and Mr. Jin Shang as Operating Director. Other staff on the Board of Management are Mr. Tony O'Tierney (Internal Coordinator), Ms. Shani Lee (External Coordinator), and Miss. Xingfang Chen (Management Assistant).
Creative Cuppa is a recently-launched long-term student/staff research seminar series in association with the Department of Media and Communication. The project, based in the University of Leicester, aims to bring together researchers and other interested people from different disciplines or knowledge backgrounds, both inside and outside the University, to generate, discuss, and criticize any issues related to their experience or understanding of new media technologies.
The discussion topics are varied and relate to both theory and practice. For example, two of the recent discussion topics have been focused on 'Online journalism' and 'Virtual Community'. We do also invite guest speakers to give informal talks, usually followed by Q&A sessions as well as time for broader discussion. Follow-up discussions could be well linked with Gillian's 'Digital Economy Research Group'.
Creative Cuppa holds meet-ups every month. A different theme is chosen for each meet-up, but always focused on the discussion of themes within new media and communication technologies. A newsletter is usually produced after each meet-up and sent to those who have subscribed to the service. Through the activities, participants are expected to better understand the modern world from a socio-technical perspective, which will be relevant to their research and career development in the future.
Creative Cuppa has also created an online community on Facebook. This is designed to keep the participants connected and updated at all times. In that sense, Creative Cuppa is more like an ongoing process that cross over the boundaries of time and space. So please join us. Everyone is welcome, no matter what background or discipline you are from. You can join in and drop out anytime you want. The most important thing is that you have fun, feel relaxed, and are ready to refresh your minds with loads of new creative ideas.
http://creativecuppa.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60675201456
Thanks for supporting us,
Jin Shang
Operating Director
Creative Cuppa Organizing Committee
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