Hi Matt,

Excellent presentation and a well-designed artefact, it was good to explore Gather. I got a good feel of the overall application through your presentation and demo. I feel your design had a very realistic approach by mimicking your work layout, if you are able to push this in your organization then it may completely revamp and change the way meetings are done by adding a fun aspect to it. Also, during the demo when we went into each individual rooms, I felt it replicated a real office like structure where you are unable to hear the person in the next room. I also liked how to you started off your presentation by relating it to different theories.
Regards,
Narius

Hi Matt,

I really enjoyed your presentation and your demo of the artefact. You spent a great deal of time and effort in carefully design and implementation which reflects in the high quality of your artifact. I was instrigued by your theory regarding replicating the work environment office workers are used to in a virutal environment to make working from home fun and engaging. We are definitely creatures of habit and social beings who have been programmed for many years to physically interact and collaborate with other human beings. The pandemic has definitely been hard on most of us especially the social and extroverted ones that gained energy by socially interacting with others.

I know you mentioned that some of the functionality and integrations with Google Cloud marketed by Gather did not live up to the expectation; however, I found your demo very engaging and really enjoyed the office spaces you created for us. I would be interested to know how your experiment goes in real-life when you have your co-workers try it for the week.

It was a pleasure being in this course with you. All the best and I hope our paths cross again. I know you had mentioned that you are close to graduating, so good luck with your integration route, whether it is essay, project or thesis.

Kind Regards,

Rayees

Nice find! As a philosophy graduate with an ongoing interest in ethics I have much enjoyed the series myself. I believe that the writing team included professional philosophers to help generate and critique the plot, so there's a lot of academic depth hiding just beneath the entertaining and absurd surface. It's quite fun trying to spot the philosophers/schools of philosophy being called upon in each episode, as well as in the broader trajectory of the plot.

Hi Matt,

I enjoyed reading your post. I completely agree that using DeepFake for harassments in on the rise. Criminals and attackers are always on the hunt for new ways through which they can target their victims. One of the most concerning factors is that DeepFake technology is widely available (Ahmed, 2021).

As this technology advances it will become more and more difficult to differentiate between a real and a fake video or audio. I have seen videos on YouTube regarding DeepFake and it is scary to see how real they look. With further advancements and perfection of this technology, criminals will use this to their advantage and can cause serious harm by targeting government officials or tarnish someone’s reputation.  I believe there should be strict laws on misuse of such technology and the content should be regulated by tech companies creating such technologies.

An interesting post by Norton giving some more insight on DeepFake technology: https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-emerging-threats-what-are-deepfakes.html#made

References

Ahmed, A. (2021, March 9). Social Media Users Warned Of Deepfake: The New Conartistry Tool. Digital Information World. Retrieved from https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2021/03/social-media-users-warned-of-deepfake.html

I enjoyed this, too, and I didn't make the connection with last week's work: thanks for the reminder. For those not wanting to watch (or wanting to know more about it) there's an overview of the special at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Burnham:_Inside

When my kids came to have a look at my half-finished new office (formerly bedroom) a couple of weeks ago they observed that it looked very much indeed like Bo Burnham's room: a lot of cables, microphones, cameras, musical instruments, lighting, computers, monitors, a chair, a desk, and not much else. I felt quite pleased.

Thanks Matt, I have been looking for something to watch on Netflix.

It might be worth looking into Doug Engelbart's work, because he basically invented everything! including the GUI, the mouse, and much of what we use today. That includes hypertext (notwithstanding the Memex) and a wide range of collaboration tools, notably NLS in the 1960s.

Hi Matthew,

Nice to meet you as well. Congratulations on almost making it to the finish line with your MSc IS program. 

Your post mentioning the future of social media and how it impacts your family and kids resonates with me. We opted for online year of schooling for our son last year who was in kindergarten at the time, and had to use Google Classroom. I was not very comfortable for him to have an online presence at such a young age; however, given the unprecedented circumstances with the pandemic, we felt it was a sacrifice we had to make for his safety and well-being. 

I look forward to collaborating with you and the rest of the colleagues as well! 

Kind Regards,

Rayees