Ethics and Law in New Media, week one.

Read Pekka Himanen's paper "Challenges to the Global Information Society" and write a blog review of Himanen's paper.

Himanen talks in his paper about the challenges that are going on in welfare society or in the information society. He describes the information society as creative and based on interaction, relying on innovation and collaboration. I think a lot of his predictions can be transferred to the current situation where desperate change is needed and new ideas are welcome. 
His ideas on the one hand are true, because work is done faster, people need less time to do the jobs, but on the other hand he kind of draws a very illusionistic picture of the future. Almost prophetic.
I think most of his paper can be applied to current Estonian situation, where deaths exceed births, and there are more old age pensioneers and lots of workless people. The number of workless people is still growing. I also think this prophecy (although he did not mean it like this) would be of use in this very moment, because this is the time for changes to occur. 
This article gave me hope that I am not the one insane person trying to turn my colleagues to using computers in order to create a more fruitful and amusing lesson (of course there are a few of them interested). I believe that the generation after us is experiencing or will experience the signs of Himanen's prophecy.
Moving on to Himanen's statement that new information society is caring, creative and supporting, I automatically thought if this could be possible with all the criminals and people "with lower status", some of them are irreparable from my point of view. Otherwise I am quite pro Himanen's claims. It would be really positive if there could be such a world. I am left with imagining butterflies and flowers from a commercial of new Fanta without artificial ingredients, only natural fruit juice!
 

Study Theobald's question of 'mind-quake', find a real-life example and describe it.

As I am a teacher, I am probably going to give examples from the field of education. I think a good example of Theobald's mindquake is probably a shift from the rigid school system towards e-learning. There are lots of inflexible teachers whose working habits are based on books only. The new generation, or as they say "digital natives" feel comfortable with computers, but there are still a lot of teachers who do not apply computers or any other digital equipment to learning. I think it is of utmost importance to have at least some knowledge of computers nowadays unless you do not want to stay behind from your students. You are more competitive with good computer knowledge than without any.

Another example popped into my mind, a bit comical, perhaps. In the Soviet times people used to use magazines after the toilet procedures since there was not much money to buy toilet paper, which nowadays would be impossible to be considered normal, I suppose.

Pick one of Handy's paradoxes, find a good real-life illustrative case and describe it.

The paradox of aging. It is extremely obvious that in today's rapidly changing world it is quite impossible to follow all the new trends and changes. Some people attempt to keep in pace with the changes, but to many of them it is impossible to keep track of changes. 

I am going to give a simplistic, down-to-earth example, perhaps. Elderly people usually tend to teach how younger generations should raise their children. They neither remember their difficulties nor feel that much of it has changed. For example in olden times parents did not have nappies, and there were few washing machines. Babies were wrapped in blankets and they moved less than the babies of current mothers. The children of today grow with technology and handle it flawlessly, even better than their parents, and can teach them a lot about different gadgets. Lots of grown-ups still are afraid of computers, thus they prefer not to work with them. Even dating new people is different nowadays - the Internet is a powerful means for it, you may have long conversations and wrong impressions before really getting together.

Pick one of Castells' features of network society and write a short analysis.

The culture of true virtuality. We can take different forums as an example of the culture of true virtuality. People have nicknames and in real life those people prefer to be called by their nicknames rather than their real names. Usually it is easier to communicate "through your computer screen", because you can open up more easily with your "false identity" than in face-to-face conversations. On the other hand it is easier to disguise in virtual reality where 1/3 of communication is held. By 1/3 I mean the row of words to which only the recipient can give meaning. It does not include body language, voice or facial impressions, only words. 

People with similar interests usually gather to similar forums, chat rooms, games, etc. They use specific language, which may not be understood by outsiders (e.g. parents, people with different interests). They are targeted by ads from companies that satisfy their specific needs. Google AdSense is pretty skilful in finding those ads. 

Another growing phenomenon in Estonia is Facebook. Since Rate.ee and Orkut have exhausted their users, a lot of people are moving towards Facebook. It is a more dynamic, flexible, cross-communicative social networking platform where people can choose between different options to be amused, to get information and to pass information on to the others. There are different options to keep users "hooked on", and to "feed" them specific advertisements. From my example pupils really like to spend time in the above-mentioned social networks and communicate with their friends via different IM-providers.



-----------------------

/I'll leave my written remarks of Himanen's paper for my personal use...these do not count as the assignment/

First he describes the global trends of the development of information society by naming key concepts like: 

• Increasing international tax competition - that countries challenge each other for investments and skilled workforce.
  
• The new global division of labour - routine production is a matter of cheaper workforce, while developed countries must use innovation and higher expertise in order to improve productivity. Developing countries offer markets for the products from developed countries.
  
• Population ageing - workforce is diminishing, because the society moves towards the society of elderly people, which means that a few babies are born and most of the people are either middle-aged or pensioneers.
  
• Increasing pressures on the welfare society - there is greater global tax competition, which stresses welfare societies, as well as rising dependency ratio. In order to improve the situation innovation must be used for productivity enhancement.
  
• The second phase of the information society - as the first phas developed technology, the second phase must focus on larger social matters and looking at ways of operating.
  
• The rise of cultural industries - The field of culture is expanding, which results in content digitalisation; coupling of information-, communication technology, and media.
  
• The rise of bio-industries - due to ageing it is necessary to enhance different bio-industry work, for example genetic engineering, medicine, welfare technology, and biotechnology.
  
• Regional conscentration - because of the increasing urbanisation rate there is pressure on larger innovation rate. Global competition requires larger entities, though.
  
• A deepening global divide - The income gap between the poor and the rich is now 75:1, which can be improved by changing the structures of world trade and bridging the information divide.
  
• The spread of a "culture of emergency" - In workplaces there is a risk of increasing instability in order to achieve development.
  

He also gives three main global competition models, which are the "Silicon Valley Model", the "Singapore Model" and the "Finnish Model", the latter of those concentrating on European issues. 
He points out the main values of the reform in European Model:

• Caring - every person is responsible for the welfare of another person, people have to care for other people. Everyone has equal opportunities.
  
• Confidence - it gives safety and makes the atmosphere of fear less possible.
  
• Communality - being part of a larger community which shares your interests. Living together with other people of similar interests.
  
• Encouragement - members of such community feel that they achieve more from being supported by other people. Every person gives fruitful encouragement, one cannot let somebody down in order to be progressive.
  
• Freedom -  every individual has rights, their privacy is protected, differences are tolerated. Other people must not be harmed, though.
  
• Creativity - all humans need to find an outcome, realise their potential and fulfil themselves in continuous personal growth.
  
• Courage -  this value helps realise all the other values according to Himanen.
  
• Visionariness - it consists of hope, new ideas, willingness to make the world a better place.
  
• Balance - equity between all the values.
  
• Meaningfulness - this is something that fulfils the life principle. One might think about what makes his or her life meaningful.
  

The next thing Himanen points out are key concepts of social development:

• A creative economy - creativity should improve and add value to productivity. Traditional skills need creativity. Expertise and creativity are very important in welfare society, especially in the cultural and the welfare sector, where financing should be directed. Interaction between IT and the former sectors create totally new opportunities.
  Himanen points out that Europe is innovative, but produces little brand names and business models, he adds that financing in education, research and development is needed. Taxation must promote job creation and entrepreneurship, which makes financing of welfare society possible.
  An important value is the achievement of a high employment rate. In information society work depends on creativity, it has to be done passionately with inner power and that makes it possible to stay ahead of the competition. Working with others in a creative community enriches production.
• A creative welfare society - people must have equal opportunities, they are born with equal opportunities. The government is responsible for providing it to its people.
  More alternative service providers should appear next to "mainstream" companies. Productivity is enhanced through innovativeness, and in various networked organisations (not only Internet). Users of the services or products should be roped in the innovation process.
  Also training and examples of innovation and creation come in handy. Education is of utmost importance, and it has to be of high quality. Life-long learning is essential. People must learn how to build self-confidence and social skills. They learn how to identify and solve problems, generate ideas, criticise, and work together with other people. As information is the "raw material" for people, free access to information should be allowed. Innovation is based on the higher education system. 
  
• Humanly meaningful development - It is important to provide socially, mentally, physically, and culturally balanced development. Health programmes should be promoted. People have to find ways of how to balance their time between work and leisure, otherwise they can burn out when working too much. The goals must be reasonable in order to achieve them, flexible working hours could also be a solution to balancing work and leisure. When job satisfaction grows due to the factors mentioned beforehand, it is more effectively done. Physical balance is also of utmost essence, so different health programmes can be introduced in companies.
  
• A global culture - This requires open-mindedness and tolerance. It is important to keep experts in their country, but there is an opportunity to get the experts from overseas. An important factor that helps to keep experts in their own country or attracts experts from the other countries, is reasonable income taxation. For the latter openness to diverse ideas and various people are important. We can benefit from globalisation, but we must give something in turn as well.