Newsletter for 7th Creative Cuppa Meet-up

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On the 28th May, Creative Cuppa had its 7th meet-up in ATT SB2.07 (Attenborough 2nd FLR), City Campus, University of Leicester. Many thanks to Amit Chandraker, Aoeline Tao, Chih-Jung Fan, Ebruhim Hasum, Hongsuda Sornhlin, Li Jun Zhang, Patama Satawedin, Naparat Prueksuralai, Sarah Cameron, Zidong Huang for their participation. We would also like to express our special gratitude to those who came from the School of Management and Department of Engineering. This time, our discussion was focused on the future possibilities of communication development and the technologies mediating its development, with Zhang Lijun, Chih-jung Fan and Tony O'Tierney respectively discussing their own experiences and views on the different new media as emerging technologies and future modes of communication; below are their contributions to the 'collaborative' work of the newsletter (including Sarah Cameron's comments on the event).

Tony discussed some issues surrounding the ID card debate, showing the views of politicians and journalists on the topic. The group discussed some arguments countering the proposed benefits from the scheme. There was lively debate over the validity of public concerns, with some suggesting that the ID card scheme is consistent with practices in other countries while others saw great disparities. Jin suggested that some of the fears people have regarding the controversial ID card database might be eased by the appointment of a third party overseer to monitor its implementation. (by Tony O'Tierney)

Zhang Lijun shared her original experience of using Pbworks to do a group work. It is a good tool for collaborative works, especially in the aspect of recording all the project process in one page. Some ideas were discussed in the meeting. Firstly, the security problem was considered. It is true that there may be encounter such issue because of the uncertainty of technology. Secondly, some people think it is more or less the same as public forum or Google Docs. However, it has its main focus on law, design & marketing, Consulting, Educational, General and personal aspect. So some people may say it is more like an intranet service outsourcing. Anyway, it has its advantage on improving productivity and efficiency. More exploring is needed to find more about it. (by Zhang Lijun)

Chih-Jung mentioned that television might become 'YouTube' alike in the future. It might have influences on the funding of broadcasters and viewing behaviour. It also raised the discussion on the regulation aspect. If everyone can upload the content, how could the regulatory body regulate the content? The censorship system might have to change. Regulation would become an important issue in the digital age. Regarding to the interactive functions, such as telephone and recording service, it would depend on the faster transmission infrastructure. The government and media (or telecommunication) companies need to invest more on the construction of the internet infrastructure. (by Chih-jung Fan)

The meet up was really interesting and productive. The presentation of pbwiki showed how it can be a very useful research platform. The discussion about digital television allowed us to think about the future possibilities for programming, audience behaviour and advertising. The discussion about ID cards was really engaging, I have strong beliefs about the issue which is also related to my own research. It was a good session and though people disagreed about issues (which is what makes a good debate!) we all acknowledged that technologies can be of great benefit or detriment to us, depending largely on the nature of usage, user intent, wider social and political backdrops and most fundamentally I believe, on power structures. (by Sarah Cameron)

This time, we successfully tried a collaborative work, with almost everyone making their own contribution to the event. From the feedback, we’ve also received our best comments since the project commenced. Next time, we will focus on the topic of Creative Technologies & Contemporary Cinema; and we’re very pleased we have invited Dr. Anna Claydon to give a talk about technology's impact on the transformation of contemporary cinema, and Anna would like to share her own thought on how technologies, both 'old' and 'new', are used to shape the footage in the process of filmmaking today. Again, we would like to thank everyone who has made enormous contributions to Creative Cuppa. We look forward to seeing you all next time!


Video links: http://pbworks.com/academic.wiki (PBworks)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LONA3Acc5js (Channel 4: No to ID cards)


Yours sincerely,

Jin Shang
Creative Cuppa Seminar Series
Department of Media and Communication
University of Leicester
June 2, 2009


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