Steph's E-learning and Digital Cultures site » boundaries http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/stephaniec part of the MSc in E-learning at the University of Edinburgh Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:05:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 Network names http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/stephaniec/2013/02/14/network-names/ http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/stephaniec/2013/02/14/network-names/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:37:00 +0000 Steph Carr http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/stephaniec/2013/02/14/network-names/ Apparently the stories have been circulating for some time about creatively named wifi networks, but I must have missed the memo. So when I saw this whilst standing at the bus stop today it amused me. A bit of googling later and I found that this is a common practice and that there are several websites which collate the best examples – this bbc article gives a good overview. It’s quite interesting to note that a lot of the wifi network names are actually messages to neighbours, presumably people find it an easy way to communicate in testy or awkward circumstances.

It got me thinking about the quote which Amy discusses on her blog. Could this perhaps be an example of a transductive relationship between human and technology? The fact that the message crosses physical boundaries (house walls) is also interesting when considering the notion of transliteracy.

]]> http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/stephaniec/2013/02/14/network-names/feed/ 2 Hijacked http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/stephaniec/2013/02/03/hijacked/ http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/stephaniec/2013/02/03/hijacked/#comments Sun, 03 Feb 2013 12:44:00 +0000 Steph Carr http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/stephaniec/2013/02/03/hijacked/ Thomas et. al (2007) explore the concept of transliteracy using a number of phrases which invoke the concept of travel and movement. They talk about ‘crossing divides’ (title); ‘ a going ‘beyond’ or a moving ‘across’ (p.6). I am currently travelling by train down the east coast of England and I’m interested to note how my ability to cross boundaries into a visual modality has been denied by the train operator’s fair usage policy – I can’t access Youtube; iPlayer etc. I’m also more than interested to note that the train company’s policy has crossed the boundary into my tumblog. My embedded youtube clips have been replaced by their block page. I think the juxtaposition of the themes of ‘trans’ with the limitations of physical travel provides a mildly amusing irony. The blocking is also potentially a variation on Giraf87′s tumblog entry Page not found. In this instance the narrative is fractured due to human decision making which in turn provides unexpected technical consequences.

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