Editorial
As the convergence of technology continues apace, media literacy is becoming a basic requirement for those wanting to participate fully in society. One important facet of media literacy is the ability to use and engage in information and communications technology such as the internet and the mobile phone. The difficulty is that as these devices get more and more complex, it is often leaving behind people of a certain generation. This “digital divide” is much more then just a case of social demographics. It now affects a large segment of society of a certain age or mindset. We all can appreciate how children seem to instinctively take to the computer mouse or games console and seem to have an innate ability to work out the finer details of the DVD player or mobile phone. Those of us in our thirties can also relate to the tedium of showing our parents how to text message for the first time. But now it is increasingly becoming the case that people in their thirties, who may have thought of themselves as technically savvy - are getting by-passed by the new innovations. Setting up a blog, getting an avatar, pulling an RSS feed or even just using a search engine effectively are now becoming important components of a media literate society. And often the consequences of not being media literate are becoming more and more apparent.
Even now people of this generation are becoming unsettled by the “digital breadcrumb” trail that they have unknowingly left behind them. The Hub recently came across the case of a chartered accountant who had a legal case against him (unfounded allegations, as it happened) that was reported in the online edition of a national newspaper. Now when someone Googles his name that article is the first thing that greets them. Not very good for the business image as you can imagine but how does that individual control or stop it? |
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Likewise, there is a new generation of Beboers and MySpacers who may be leaving an even more disastrous digital impression as they parade the “sins of their youth” for all to see across the various social networking sites. How will a prospective employer in the future react when a customary search engine request on their employee’s name shows a litany of college antics – either sexual profligate or indeed, potentially criminal?
The answer is media literacy. For school-goers it is now becoming an important part of the curriculum and media studies is becoming part and parcel of general civic education. This is something that the EU is endorsing and is part of the Lisbon strategy for creating a knowledge economy. But for those outside the educational threshold, it is important that they train – or re-train themselves – to understand the tools of communications technology.
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The Digital Hub (www.thedigitalhub.com), as an Apple Regional Training Centre, is currently running a series of Digital Media courses, fulfilling its remit to extend the knowledge of digital media throughout Ireland. These courses will give participants a basic understanding of the media toolset available on Apple computers – from manipulating digital photos to creating movies and music.
Likewise, the Digital Media Forum (www.digitalmediaforum.net) runs a series of government-funded training courses aimed at enterprise, helping them to upskill their staff in core digital media skills from photoshop to project management.
FAS (www.fas.ie) also run training programmes in digital media throughout the country as well as providing companies with subventions for in-company training. If that doesn’t suit, any vocational college and a number of private colleges around Ireland run evening courses related to digital media. It is through courses like these that participants can learn basic tricks to offset the problems raised above. For example, where your name is linked to an unfavorable topic on a search engine, optimizing your name or website on the search engine can easily push the unwanted search result out of the top ten. Also, participants can learn how to manage their online identity and understand the basic mechanisms that underpin the digital world. The message really is simple: get literate.
The Future is Robotic
As we head towards the end of the first decade of this millennium, there is, increasingly, an uneasy relationship between reality and science fiction as the seemingly inexhaustible progress of science and technology marches on. With Moore’s Law still ensuring that the storage capacity and processing power of computers is exponentially increasing year on year, we are rapidly seeing the sort of devices we once looked at with wonder in Star Trek becoming an everyday reality. Okay, so we don’t have phasers yet but we are close to having personalized media on demand anytime, anywhere. Biometrics are becoming a part of everyday life with even the Abbey Theatre using fingerprint detection for its employees to sign in. Computers and mobile electronics have become engrained in to our day to day lives and the latest communication devices mean ubiquitous access wherever we are in the world. But the one curious absence in our lives – the thing that for many of us would truly mean that science fiction had become science fact – are domestic robots. The great promise of the 1950’s for the western world was that the monotonous activity of housework would be taken over by humble human-serving robots. The great threat of the 1980’s was that these same humble robots would then take over us. Neither, fortunately or unfortunately, has happened yet.
In science fiction much of the ground work for the future has been laid by imaginative writers and visionaries such as Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. It was the latter who, in his 1942 short story “Runaround”, outlined the Three Laws of Robotics – laws which featured prominently in the movie version of another story of his, “I, Robot”. |
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These Laws state the following:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
These laws may appear fanciful to us, but in South Korea, where technology and automation are far more integrated into the fabric of society then anywhere else in the world, they are drawing up a code of ethics for robots. Why? Well, although South Korea and Japan suffer from some of the lowest birth rates in the world, they have not opted for immigration to meet their manpower needs. Instead they have looked to automation and robotics. Indeed, South Korea have set the goal of putting a robot into every household by the year 2015. As such, they have seen it as prescient to draw up a code along the lines of Asimov’s Three Law’s to deal with miscreant robots in the future.
In Japan, too, they are looking ever-increasingly to robots to help them with their manpower problems. With an ageing infirm population placing enormous pressure on the health care system, the government has laid down deadlines to ensure that robots will solve the problem. Japanese robots already can run, lean over and pour tea and by next year robots will be expected to work as cleaners. By 2012, they will be able to make beds and by 2016, to lift and carry the sick. Nurses, child-minders, home help, teachers – these are the proposed roles for robots in these future-obsessed Asian countries. Of course, the other less palatable roles that robots are being considered for are in the military and as sex dolls – two areas which have been driving forces in technology since time immemorial.
The development of robotics in these countries is truly breathtaking. For example, in the government funded ATR Laboratories outside Kyoto, Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro has created a life-like doppelganger of himself – effectively a robot twin – made from metal and polyurethane. Ishiguro believes that such a robot in the future will be the equivalent of the “Elixir of Youth”.
Professor Ishiguro’s Robotic Twin.
Like a robotic Dorian Gray, Ishiguro’s envisages a time when his robot twin can take classes and tutorials while the older, wizened real Professor stays at home and operates the robot remotely.
But a more immediate use for these life-like robots has come from the corporate sector. Kokoro, a Tokyo robotics firm that Ishiguro collaborates with, has seen huge demand for robotic receptionists and museum guides after Ishiguro made a replica of a famous Japanese newscaster, Ayako Fujii. In war-torn Afghanistan the US and British banks are considering using 200 robots to work as tellers as it is near-impossible to get English-speaking workers.
Again, seeing the proposed uses of robots, another famous science fiction film – Westworld – springs to mind. In that 1973 film, written and directed by Michael Crichton, an amusement park full of lifelike robots go on the rampage, railing against the abuse of their human masters. |
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The leader of the gang is played – with post-modern flair – by Yul Bryner, who in turn reprises his role as the GunSlinger from The Magnificent Seven - this time as a robotic version in the Western-themed part of the amusement park.
Again and again, fiction plays upon the dystopian fears surrounding technology. From Metropolis to Terminator, the Frankenstein’s Monster side of robotics seems to consistently rear its ugly head. Ishiguro has turned down approaches from US universities as he feels uncomfortable with the militaries involvement in robotics. In Japan, a constitutional ban constrains universities from working on military applications of robotics. Indeed, the basis of James Cameron’s Terminator movie is posited on the assumption that the military develops an artificially-intelligent machine which in turn goes to war with humanity. It is a threat that the Japanese, of all nations, are keenly aware of – as they are the only country to have felt the full devastating force of a military-engineered weapon of mass destruction - the Atom bomb.
Ishiguro notes that Asians are more pre-disposed towards robots then their western counterparts. When Honda showed off their robot, Asimov, he noted that Japanese adults immediately touched it, whereas European and Americans tend to hesitate. Perhaps it is a recognition of the de-humanizing affects of industrialization on the European sensibility that this fear of technology emanates from.,, or perhaps a genuine Christian fear of the unknown. Either way, it is safe to say that we will be looking with trepidation and awe at the East for the next few decades to see where robotics will lead us.
News
Digital Media Courses @ The Digital Hub
The Digital Hub is now offering short intensive courses in specific aspects of digital media. From introductory courses, for those just starting out, to master classes aimed at industry professionals, our experienced lecturers will share their skills in a professional friendly environment.
July 28th: Welcome to your iLife
Time: 10am - 4pm
An introduction to using Macs and the iLife suite of software. iLife is built around the concept of using your Macintosh as a hub for creative activities using the following.
iTunes - Stores and organises audio and video content.
iPhoto - Stores, organises and gives you creative ways to share digital photos.
iMovie - A user friendly environment for capturing, editing and publishing digital video.
Whether you’re taking digital photographs, putting your home videos on DVD or writing your own songs iLife has an easy solution for you.
August 18th: Introduction to iMovie
Time: 10am - 4pm
iMovie is a video editing software, created by Apple as part of their iLife suite. When you make a movie you create a memory that will last forever. With iMovie, you simply arrange your video clips, still images and music in the order that best tells your story. iMovie makes it easy to share you movies with your friends and family. Screen it on your TV, phone, iPod or post it on the internet. This course will be an introduction to video editing software aimed at people who have home video cameras.
The Digital Hub is an Apple Regional Training Centre
Teacher Training
August 27th:- 31st: Photo Story
Photo Story 3 for Windows XP is a free application from Microsoft which allows users to add motion to still digital photos. In the workshop students create stories to which they add text, narration, effects and music. The course will involve audio recording, editing digital photography, image editing and production on CD and DVD.
Games Workshop
August 13th - 17th: Mission Maker Summer Camp
Time: 10am - 4pm
The Mission Maker Camp will allow teenagers (aged 12 - 18) to create a 3D game with a wide choice of different environments, speaking characters and props. The games will be available to play on the Digital Hub website.
Further information please contact:
mail: learning@thedigitalhub.com Tel: 014806200 web: www.thedigitalhub.com
Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund
The Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund is funded by Irish Aid and run by Connect World, a not-for-profit group based in The Digital Hub. It is a grant scheme aimed at assisting and promoting more and better quality media coverage of development issues in the Irish media.
Connect World are also running an Applicant workshop. For further information on the workshops or the fund, please email mediafund@connect-world.net
Telephone Lorraine at (+353) 1-480 6222.
Upcoming Deadlines are as follows:
Standard Grant Round II Monday 1 October 2007
TV Seed Grant Monday 3 March 2008
Standard Grant Round I Wednesday 30 April 2008
Standard Grant Round II Tuesday 30 September 2008
World Cyber Game Ireland 2007
The Irish Qualifiers will take place in The Digital Hub from
15th - 16th Sept 2007.
For details of the 2007 Regional competitions click here.
To register to compete in the Irish Qualifiers of the World Cyber Games 2007 click here
Visit the WCG Ireland myspace page and leave your comments about the upcoming competition by clicking here
Right click here to save a copy of the 2006 video.
Right click here to save a copy of the 2006 Grand Final in Monza Italy.
Images and video content from the September 2006 event can be found at: www.worldcybergamesireland.com
Dare to be Digital Ireland - Irish teams selected
On the 25th of April two teams were selected from 13 entries to represent Ireland at the International Dare to be Digital competition, to be held in University of Abertay, Scotland on the 25th of August. The teams chosen are Zero One (Republic of Ireland) and Artificial Entertainment (Northern Ireland). Both teams will start their 9 week game development in Queens University, Belfast on the 11th of June.
As the competition comes to an end, Teams from around the world will gather in Edinburgh, where they will have the opportunity to put their games on display for the public to play in Dare Protoplay from the 12th to the 14th of August. On August 25th the Judging of all games will take place at the University of Abertay in Dundee.
Keep up to date with the Irish team’s progress on www.daretobedigitalireland.com
Further information: daretobedigital@thedigitalhub.com
Events
July 10th: Sage -- Coffee & CRM
Location: The Conrad Hotel, Dublin, Ireland
Time: 7.30am
Price:Free
Sage is hosting a business briefing 'Coffee & CRM' which is designed to provide businesses with the information and products to improve productivity and harness the power of customer and financial information by taking business information to a new level of performance through an integrated Sage CRM and Sage 200 solution. Brian Halpin, GM of Sage Technologies will present an informative look at Sage CRM and Nick Carr, Sage 200 Technical Consultant will demonstrate how Sage 200 provides business with a platform to build an integrated business solution to manage and accelerate processes at every part of your business, from accounting to customer service and from the shop floor to sales and professional services.
More info: 1800 255 300 http://www.sage.ie/SageCrm_Event.html
July 18th: Irish Internet Association -- What is Accessibility 2.0?
Location: Engineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Rd, Dublin 4, Dublin, Ireland
Time: 2pm
Price:EUR145 Members EUR210 Non-Members
A half day workshop on Accessibility 2.0. Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the web. An accessible website also means a better user experience for all visitors to your site. Many organisations are legally or ethically required to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), but the new WCAG 2.0 makes the definition of compliance ever more ambiguous. This workshop demystifies the new guidelines, clearly defines what they mean for you and your website, and offers advice on how to achieve compliance, whilst enhancing the usability of your site for all users. If accessibility is something you have to, or choose to, care about, then you won't want to miss it.
More info: events@iia.ie Tel: 01-542 4154 http://www.iia.ie/events.asp?eventid=151
July 19th: itrek - A Carbon Conscious Challenge
Location: Digital Exchange, Crane Street, The Digital Hub, Dublin 8
Time: 12pm
iTrek was an innovative digital, physical and mental challenge carried out around the city of Dublin. 20 young people were invited to take part for a week of activities. Using mobile phones and wireless systems the teams of eco-heroes were encouraged to solve clues and track down characters in an effort to save the planet from environmental disaster.
Through the website www.itrek.ie, and using video messaging Crudella Oil, Enviro’mental and Bio’diva set the challenges for the eco-heroes each day demanding them to use clever teamwork and individual know how to survive. The teams faced a number of challenges, including; The Oil Slick Challenge-where they encountered creative alternatives to using oil; The Waste Race-which challenged the eco-heroes to examine what they bought and to be creative with their waste; The Forest Wave Hunt-which used a wireless backpack system to track down Bio’diva and learn a little more about her natural habitat-The Phoenix Park. The week culminated in a night away where the teams camped out and prepared for the final day of games and activities for the ultimate survival skills challenge.
The Showcase in The Digital Hub on the 19th of July will celebrate the achievements of the young people from the Liberties/Coombe community who took part in the project.
RSVP: Louise Morgan on 01 4806200 or learning@thedigitalhub.com by Monday, 16th July 2007.
July 26th: Internet Marketing for 21st Century Businesses
Location: The Grand Hotel, Malahide, Dublin, Ireland
Time: 9am
Price:EUR90 (SME), EUR295 (Large)
This seminar overflows with ideas, tips, insider secrets and strategies for turning your website into a highly trained 24/7 global sales executive. Presented as a programme of the 2007 National Centre of Excellence, the seminar will teach you how to design and build effective internet marketing campaigns for sales lead generation. The seminar is non-technical and is aimed at owner managers in the SME sector and senior marketing management in larger companies.
More info: seminars@praxisnow.ie Tel: 01-2360076 http://www.praxisnow.ie/NCE.htm
August 9th: Internet Marketing for 21st Century Businesses
Location: The Clarion Hotel IFSC, Dublin, Ireland
Time: 9:00
Price:EUR90 (SME), EUR295 (Large)
This seminar overflows with ideas, tips, insider secrets and strategies for turning your website into a highly trained 24/7 global sales executive. Presented as a programme of the 2007 National Centre of Excellence, the seminar will teach you how to design and build effective internet marketing campaigns for sales lead generation. The seminar is non-technical and is aimed at owner managers in the SME sector and senior marketing management in larger companies.
More info: seminars@praxisnow.ie Tel: 01-2360076 http://www.praxisnow.ie/NCE.htm