As web technologies advance, are we giving away too much information about our personal lives?
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The internet in its essence is a directory; a platform whereby users can access information and purchase goods or services. It provides a key asset for communication in the twenty first century. As time passes, society delves into the depths of the World Wide Web, immersing and embedding personal data within, enabling digital profiling and data surveillance on a global scale. With internet connections performing at even greater speeds, we are able to access further information and expose ourselves to this unforgiving environment. Recent statistics indicate that over 21% of the world’s population are actively online (Miniwatts Marketing Group 2008), and as technology advances and global corporations develop, the application of data mining techniques are without doubt becoming more common and sophisticated.
Has society become ignorant in respect of the electronic footprint that it leaves behind? Should society be concerned about the cause and effects of our individual actions online with regards to our privacy within the digital domain? More importantly should there be legislation in place to enable fully anonymous browsing and digital privacy online? Or is this even a genuine concern? David Smith from the Information Commissioner’s Office argues that ‘The cost to a person’s future can be very high if something undesirable is found’ (BBC 2007). Something should therefore be done to prevent any possible future catastrophes.
This research aims to investigate and question concerns relating to privacy online. Since the development of web surveillance technologies, the internet has seen the rise of many successful companies, but most notably Google Inc. Initially known only for its unique search engine algorithms, Google has innovated and acquired numerous web technologies and now dominates a 63% share of the search engine market (Peter 2008). Google.com is also ranked the second most accessed website in the world by Alexa (2008), and with its countless sub brands, for example, YouTube and Blogger, it would perhaps be correct to assume that almost everybody who has been online will at some point in time have used services provided by Google.
The underlying question asks whether society is giving away too much information relating to their personal lives. Whether users are logging onto Google to perform simple search queries or signing into their Gmail accounts, every click, search parameter and email that is read has been scanned, analysed and stored. This data, when processed, can be combined to compile complete digital profiles of individuals, becoming available to the provider to perform targeted advertising, significantly increasing revenue. Furthermore, this information has the potential to become damaging in the wrong hands. This thesis raises the awareness and the effects of using such services, with the new Google Android phone and preinstalled toolbars arriving on new computers, global forces such as Google are becoming escapable in almost every aspect of modern day life. Does society really want to forsake its privacy in the aid of better targeted adverts?
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What is Google Scribe? A BRIEF Overview!
Google Scribe is an autonomous automatic writing machine, inspired by the surrealist movement.
The application aims to facilitate the process of writing in an unconscious state by utilising unaware participants search data to fulfil the writing process.
Most of us are aware that Google consistently monitors, tracks and surveys individuals habits online. Utilising the Google Suggests API the application turns Googles “helpfulness” into its worst enemy, creating content that will disrupt its own services. In the case of Google Scribe, generated texts will be published to Google Groups. The Google Suggests API generates highly keyword driven content, filled with some of the most commonly searched phrases on in the world. Recent testing and application already proves that the application works, with the following phrases coming top in the google groups search listings:
Plym.ac.uk, Idat Plymouth, Actionscript Capitalise Strings, Informal Interviews, How to Fry an Egg, Cod 5 New Maps & Actionscript 3 Preloader
How does it work and who is the user?
The user becomes both the reader and publisher of the narrative, and is only able to observe and deconstruct the narrative process through the visual processing of textual data. The user has no direct control over the writing process, other than to halt automation, however he or she can chose to publish this new recycled content online.
Search terms are fed into the system, these are generated from external individuals who are unaware that their search activity is being used to as a narrative generator, they are simply searching online and are totally disjointed from the narrative. Therefore this adds an unconscious element to the creation of the narrative.
These search terms are then processed and entered into the Google Suggests API, returning common search patterns which are inserted back into the text. This process continually loops creating playful texts with oddly formed sentences, often containing many juxtaposing phrases. The text also creates a nonlinear reading structure as the user is continually forced backwards as they read forwards to deconstruct the linking, meaning and creation of the text.
Evaluation of the Arch-DNA Project
ARCH-DNA VISUALISATION
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Architecture is a common aesthetic of everyday life, we see it in magazines, online and most are encapsulated within it in every day. But what happens when this space is deconstructed and transformed into live data, how do we visualise and understand it? With the inspirational work of digital artists such as Stanza, could DNA and architecture link?
“DNA.. is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA)… The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people. The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism, similar to the way in which letters of the alphabet appear in a certain order to form words and sentences” (Genetics Home Reference 2009).
The Arch-DNA visualisation acts as a way of new thinking for architecture. With the advent of such technologies as the Arch-OS system, data relating to activity, temperature and usage is readily available to designers and artists alike. This processed data could be considered as the structure and makeup to a building. If DNA can exist in humans and other living organisms, is it not possible that architecture can also harbour its own DNA. Through the user of a cross platform system, the Arch-DNA visualisation aims to provide a solution for the understanding of such data, in a new form of DNA.
Garry T. Marx once argued:
“These materials can help us see and understand (whether emotionally or cognitively). They offer an alternative language through visual metaphors. The traditional role of the artist in making the unseen visible has a particularly appropriate meaning here. Such media can educate in a distinctive and perhaps more profound sense than can the exclusively verbal. They can help us see and experience in different ways, especially things that are new. For example, we can more readily understand electronic data and microscopic DNA sequences when they are transformed into images through artistic representations”(Lyon, D et al 1996:228).
Utilising the existing Arch-OS system for the collection of data, the application processes the architecture in the following way, mimicking the characteristics of the human DNA.
Human: “The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T)”.
Portland Square:The information relating to the DNA is stored as code made from 4 elements, Devonport (Block A), Stonehouse (Block B), Plymouth (Block C) and External (Roof Top).
Basing and developing the project on this theory, the Arch-DNA provides a solution to this problem. It acts as a way of representing the internal data as a visual experience, which could be displayed via the GreenScreen display. This would of course result in a level of self-reflexivity, exposing the makeup of the building, on the building. Here I am, this is me!
This principle could also be transferable to many other areas. The application has the capability of displaying DNA segments from animals and even humans. One could also utilise the DNA generated from the data as a way of creating replicas, or even clones if you wish.
As evolution occurs and the data becomes updated, the visualisation continually updates itself, injecting the most recent DNA into the visualisation. This creates a real-time generation process meaning that only the most recent DNA is displayed. This live data is what inevitably drives every audio and visual aspect of the project. Below you will find a much more detailed evaluation of how the system works, and how the process of transformation occurs.
How the System works
The process of visualising the DNA data is carried out by a number of technologies. The diagram below shows a simplified version of how the system works.
Essentially the system starts life on a processing machine, for example a laptop or pc. The machine runs a localised or server located html web page which includes an embedded flash application. Plugged into the Arch-OS data feed via an Internet connection, the application processes data obtained from 39 sensors located both internally and externally from the Portland Square building on the Plymouth University campus.
The live feed can be viewed here:
http://arch-os.scce.plymouth.ac.uk/raw_data.php?source=all_bms
Example Arch-OS Data
30 17.5 30 18.92 18.96 39.45 292.48 -184.52 118.24 -143.4 245.64 -163.72 2 265.64 46.52 20.48 57.45 20.63 59.34 21.37 92.83 10.81 4.69 20.59 21.8 15.18 19.11 20.07 21.62 18.28 21.1 21.28 17.32 0 4.09 20.23 81.68 0.14 215.91
Conversion to DNA Process
This unique Arch-OS data is then transformed into a distinctive DNA structure, transforming the information from a numerical values into a sequential string of characters and groups using a predefined algorithmic conversion:
A = -, B = ., C = “Spaces”, D = 0, E = 1, F = 2, G = 3, H = 4, I = 5, J = 6, K = 7, L = 8, M = 9, N = 10, 0 = 11, P = 12, Q = 13, R = 14, S = 15, T = 16, U = 17, V = 18, W = 19, X = 20, Y = 21, Z = 22.
Example of the Arch-OS data when converted into DNA:
CDCQBECCDC RBIBCQBFBC CIBGBCBIBD HCARDBEBCM DBBDCAMDBD CBDEBFDCAP CBGBCBCBEF BFDCDFBEBC TBDHCEGBCC CTBGCEHBED CUBFCCIBFI CKBDFCCBIC CTBFCCUBHC OBRCSBMCTB DGCUBGCCRB GCUBCECUBB HCRBQCDCDB DICTBBCCHA FHCAEDCVEB
This process mimics the extraction process that you would typically see in a laboratory, filtering out the correct information and representing it in a data form.
The Visualisation Aesthetics
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Once the initial processing of the information has occurred the application begins the visualisation process in real time. Individual cells are constructed and are visualised and modified depending on the DNA data relating to the particular cell. Predefined algorithms handle the details such as size, colour, blur and alpha levels, modifying as the data updates.
Blur:
Blur is created dependant on the character reference number.
Character 6 has 100 pixel blur vertically
Characters >=20 have 200px vertical blur;
Characters >=10 && Characters<15 have a 200px horizontal blur.
Glow and Alpha
Glow and alpha are depentandt once again on the character reference number. So for example if Z related to 26, this number is multiplied by 4 giving the overall glow size and alpha level.
Blend
There are three types of blend mode available for this visualisation.
- ‘No’ blend is applied to cells with a character reference of 9
- ‘Add’ blend is applied to cells with a character reference that is even
- ‘Overlay’ is added when the character is none of the above
The graduation of the visualisation background is generated from the Arch-OS data feed. Capturing the first, middle and last node, the system calculates an RBG input specific to the current live data feed, once again updating as the live data adjusts. Using these three points allows for a variety of colour combinations and possibilities.
This visual style mimics that of an Agarose Gel Electrophoresis Ethidium Bromide Staining used by scientists all over the globe.
Generating the Audio
Generation of the audio is once again composed using the compiled and processed DNA data. Characters numerical values are outputted to a customised audio generation application, which creates music scores, formulated using a php midi plug-in. This audio is then performed by the browsers.
Presenting it back to the Space / User
The visualisation has been designed to be displayed by either utilising a large LCD display, or by using much larger visual apparatus such as the GreenScreen. The GreenScreen the most relevant location for this project as it is displaying the data from inside. This gives passers by the opportunity to withness the collection and transformation of the data. The audio too is best suited for the Portland Square building as it would plug directly into the existing sound architecture of the building. Once again acting as a way for communicating the data to the viewer.
References
Lyon, D., Zureik, E. (1996) Computers Surveillance & Privacy, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Genetics Home Reference (2009) What is DNA?[online] http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/basics/dna [date accessed: 11th March 2009]
