Melbournes Club Lockout Plan

Todays blog is a bit off topic from eCulture but I thought was an important topic that could effect Melbournes Nightlife.

Due to constant violent incidents that require police attention, the Parliament have introduced a plan to enforce Melbourne’s night clubs to stop patrons venue-hopping after set times as a plan to prevent violence in the CBD.


Obviously the younger generation are furious that they can no longer move onto a different club after a certain hour of the night. This will also decrease revenue for all nightclub owners and could destroy Melbournes vibrent nightlife!.


Australian Hotels Association chief executive Brian Kearney said the policy would ruin many businesses and destroy Melbourne's vibrant night life. "Where is the evidence to suggest that a lockout is warranted in Melbourne and, if it was introduced, what guarantee is there that it would be effective?" Mr Kearney told The Age.

After reading both sides of the story, I would have to agree with the introduction of a Nightclub curfew!

Firstly, People are most aggressive when they leave a night club and try to find another. Often they have consumed alcohol and if refused entry to there next destination, in more cases then one.....a heated argument occurs or they go around causing trouble in the streets of Melbourne.

Secondly, Crime figures showed more then 2000 assaults in the Melbourne’s CBD last year, most in the early hours of the morning.

Superintendent Paul Carey, acting regional commander of the central metropolitan region said police were not at odds with any particular licensed premises. "What we are asking [venues] to do is comply with the laws, to be involved in the responsible service of alcohol and harm minimisation," he said.

If this plan will prevent nightlife voilence in Melbournes CBD, I am all for it!!!!

However it will be interesting to see if Melbournes Clubs owners will actually abide by these rules and if violence in Melbourne’s CBD will actually decrease!

Cybersex

An intresting topic that has really developed over the last 10 years due to the advancement of technology.

Cybersex reefers to the meeting of the male and the female. It can be referred to as pornography, online dating, online sex and chartrooms.

In a narrow sense, Cybersex is said to be a human/computer interaction in which participants are sexually motivated.

This has caused society to become cyborgs.

A cyborg is classified as mixing technology with our biological side to meet people
Rather then going to events or meeting people.

It is scary to think that we as a society today rely heavily on technology for our entertinament,buiness ventures and survival. A prime example is a man surviving on an electrical device such as a pacemaker, without technology would he still be alive?

The future really has advanced with the introduction of Virtual Reality Based Cybersex such as a software program called "Afterlife". This allowes participants to enter a three dimensional, audiovisual and tactile reality using a Full body data suit which give the user a sense of a realism but in a remote home environment with no human interaction.


The future could that people will choose to meet online rather then in person, as with the case with Rebecca who believes that "she is becoming a cyborg because her sex life is undeniably tied to and dependent upon AOL chat rooms. All her sexual activities involving partners are online. “Rebecca is not sexually active other than with men she meets online. Although she has had cyber-sex and telephone sex with many men through AOL, Rebecca has not physically had sex with a partner since she began using the service. Rebecca does not practice casual sex in the real world because she does not believe it to be moral or safe.
“(Maheu, 1999:5)


Technology has caused a boundary and a relationship between the end user and the machine. Rebecca has defiantly become a cyborg.......scary but true!

We do not want our world to cometo this because in the end, we need human interaction for many reasons but such as reproduction.

Jumping topics, I think it is important to discuss the impact technology has on us as a soicety because with great technology comes great responsibility, this always however somehow leads to misuse.
A major problem in today’s technological world is the use of technology to breach invasion privacy laws or abuse/take advantage of other end users. "Misuse of technology also involves exposing our youth to cyber-crime.”(Maheu, 1999:5)
Even though governments are always trying to prevent the next occuring problem with technology, there almost always is away around it!

To summarise cybersex allows adults using internet resources to explore sexual identities and experiences. Being affordable and easily accessible and the fact that you are basically anonymous is a strong point to end users. However it allows deception, child pornography and even infidelity and should not always be considered as a way to escape reality!

eExtremists

eCulture this week has a new tutor and lecturer and has given a better perspective on what needs to be written and constructed for the weekly blogs. This week, i'll be discussing extremism.

Extremism is characterized by dogmatic intolerance, expressed mildly or violently, and inclines toward an inflexible obedience to an accepted authority, shaped by a common ideology or sense of group unity (Gardner, 1997).

Many issuies drive extremists, such as Racial Purity, Anti Liberal and anti Government movements. Basically anything that goes against the norm in society.

The internet is used in many ways to spread certain message about extremist groups and helps recruit new members.

A quote which I thought was important to include was that:

“Extremist groups were among the very early users of electronic communication network that eventually evolved into the Internet. For example, Tom Metzger, the leader of the White Aryan Resistance, created a computer bulletin board. Since then these groups have been very active” (Gerstenfeld, Grant and Chiang, 2003:1).

Most extremist web sites include multimedia content, chat features and links to other assoicated websites.

An example of a current eExtremist group using internet resources is the Aryan Nations. The Aryan Nations are dedicated extremists to Racial Purity. The website allows users to sign up, contact and chat to other registered users and administrators. It also promotes other webites and provides activist tips to encourage readers to take their stance on racial purity.
Please see the website below for more details:
http://www.aryan-nations.org/

Another internet method used by extremists is the internets cyberspace online chatting and messaging enviroment. A great way too attract and advertise to new members!

This has however posed a significant threat to children gaining access to these sites and making a decision on what they read due to not having the experience needed to make a researched or knowledgeable decision.

I think its important for the parents of the children to teach them media literacy and critical thinking rather then relying on filtering software and firewalls to block certain websites!

It is also important to mention that the government and internet filtering organisations will always find it hard to govern the world wide web. One of the major reasons for this is the difficulty of finding the location of the hosting website and identifying and charging the owner of the website. In contrast, traditional advertising methods such as the TV and radio can be easily governed and prevented. The internet really has given extremist groups a great, easy and effective way to communicate, advertise and to attract new members!