sorry for the improvisation...

Computation and the humanities. Data design and management. Databases, complexity, neural networks. Why these are crucial concepts - and always have been for the Humanities.

Issues at Stake:

Standards

• For consistency
• Infrastructure changes need to be considered -- need to have a long-term vision for market-based, short term recording media
• Archaic standards still in existence -- qwerty keyboard

Uses for computational humanities:

• Organizing information -- Tree diagram

May 5th class

• Childhood games - gaming technologies are being directed towards educational ends
• Oregon Trail
• Math Munchers
• Mario Teaches Typing
• Sim Ant
• Realism isn't always related to photorealism
• Data design and management
• Subscription based model - Itunes sharing
• Great Britain and the BBC - taxation for television

Simulation vs. Shoot 'Em Up

• "America's Army" as an example of interactive recruitment --> blending the virtual, inconsequential world with the war of the most consequential nature
• "Simulation" games are increasingly prevalent...the goal is no longer to escape reality but to mimic it, thus creating an equally real space for interaction

Simulation vs. Shoot 'Em Up

• "America's Army" as an example of interactive recruitment --> blending the virtual, inconsequential world with the war of the most consequential nature
• "Simulation" games are increasingly prevalent...the goal is no longer to escape reality but to mimic it, thus creating an equally real space for interaction

May 11th class -- Intellectual Property

Management of Reproduction

• This became significant when there was a growth of an educated middle-class

--> The Public Sphere -- Consuming / Producing Media in the Public

• All dependent on readership / audience
• Ephemeral Printing key to public discourse

Creative Commons

• Tension between individual and group control, attention
• Authorship increasingly a vital issue given how technology is more collaborative

Copyright Issues in contention:

• State upholding ownership vs. "fair use"
• Perpetuating the production of quality content (via economic incentive) vs. limiting creativity
• Digital technologies threaten this

Threats to Culture

• All culture is "remix"
• "90,000 years of human culture is about plagiarism"
• Therefore, there is no such thing as cultural creativity because we are constantly talking and building off each other
• Digital technologies tool to push human culture to near unfathomable heights of expression

Solutions

• Creative Commons / Variable Copyrights vs. "Digital Rights Management"
• Creative Commons recognizes contradictory nature of copyright law (opt out), and seeks to bridge gap between digital anarchy and constraint