Mick Winter - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Books by Mick Winter

Cuba for the Misinformed: Facts from the forbidden island

Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: After Avatars, Trolls and Puppets, Tara Brabazon (ed), (Oxford: Chandos, 2012)

Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: After Avatars, Trolls and Puppets tracks new modes of commun... more Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: After Avatars, Trolls and Puppets tracks new modes of community, enabling the creation of connections, consciousness and social change. It is not a book of predictions, dreams, aspirations and digi-topia. It is not a history of convergent media. Instead, it investigates how particular platforms, portals and applications hook into daily life and build relationships beyond geographical locations or familial links.

It is timely for such a monograph. In August 2001, Tara Brabazon, the editor of this book, published an academic article titled “How imagined are virtual communities?” The date is important. This was a key period of transition between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Cutting through these clichés, the article emerged just as the read-write web entered popular cultural currency. At that time, most consumers of websites were not producers. Most online activities were searching, reading and viewing, rather than commenting, writing and uploading. This article sketched provisional theoretical work on how Benedict Anderson’s landmark monograph Imagined Communities could be translated into the burgeoning web environment. Anderson, in reviewing how formerly colonised people ‘invented’ nations to resist, reclaim and reinvigorate the languages, traditions and histories smashed by the colonisers, summoned the phrase Imagined Communities. He showed how arbitrary – yet integral – these imaginings became in creating and reinforcing moments and monuments of resistance and challenge.

Anderson’s arguments about language, power and colonisation can be migrated to the next century. But caution is required. Since the editor’s 2001 article, the web has matured. It is television with a cursor. It is a jukebox with a slot to swipe a credit card. It is a shop that delivers. It is a lover that texts commitment. But the web is also part of popular culture, weaving passion into interactivity. It has embedded into the life of millions and added further layers of exclusion and disconnection for the already disempowered. The exclusion of particular people becomes serious - more serious - when assumptions of connectivity and web literacy permeate governmental, commercial and educational institutions.

Digital Dialogues and Community 2.0: After Avatars, Trolls and Puppets enters the rapidly maturing social media environment and documents the quest – if not the reality – of community. It also notes that alongside every engaged, connected and supportive group are those who are excluded, marginalised, ridiculed or forgotten. The quest for authenticity for some layers injustice for others.

There is productive research to be completed in this moment of transformation. The writers in this collection probe the concept of community when it is imagined and imagining, disconnected from physical territory. Particularly, there is attention – recognising the events in the Middle East in early 2011 – on how social media creates political consciousness and how this consciousness manifests into social change both on and offline. The goal is not to segregate digital and analogue spaces and identities, but to look for productive, imaginative and creative relationships between these spheres.

The contributors enter digital microenvironments to explore the desires for connection and communication. They explore the quest for authenticity. Our task is to probe how technology redraws the boundaries between connection, consciousness and community. Put more clearly, and summoning one of the fathers of cultural studies, we test Raymond Williams’ maxim that, “the process of communication is in fact the process of community.” We do not assume that a community (inevitably) emerges from communication. We do not assume political change evolves from consciousness. Instead, the researchers in this collection open new spaces for thinking about language, identity and social connections.

Peak Oil Prep: Prepare for Peak Oil, Climate Change and Economic Collapse

You can easily lead a more sustainable, money-saving life right now. But you have to do it yourse... more You can easily lead a more sustainable, money-saving life right now. But you have to do it yourself. No one, including the government, is going to do it for you.

The book covers topics that list three free, or low-cost, things you can do to save money; decrease energy dependence; fight global warming and abrupt climate change; and improve your home, your community, and your environment.

Topics include: Self-employment, relocation, local business, car, food, shopping, money, neighborhood, kitchen, bathroom, yard, heating, cooling, lighting, and many more.

Scan Me - Everybody's Guide to the Magical World of QR Codes

" Imagine you could hold your mobile phone up to an image, and magically summon any information y... more " Imagine you could hold your mobile phone up to an image, and magically summon any information you wished.

You see a movie poster and wonder if the movie is worth seeing. Zap! You're watching the movie's trailer.

You see a restaurant menu and wonder about the food. Zap! You're reading reviews from people who ate there.

You're at a subway stop. Zap! You're seeing the actual arrival time of the next train.

You see a magazine ad for a product and want to buy it. Zap! You've placed the order.

How does this magic happen? With something called a QR Code. If you have a business or non-profit organization, you absolutely want to know how to use QR Codes.

This book will tell you how you can use them in your marketing to attract, assist, hang on to and increase your customers. If you want to know how to make them and use them for personal or educational use, you'll learn that, too.

They're free. They're fun. They're useful. Why not start now?"

Papers by Mick Winter

Social Networking: Moving Beyond Space and Time

SpringerBriefs in Business, 2014

Disintermediation and Reintermediation: From Professional to Amateur to Professional

SpringerBriefs in Business, 2014

World Famous in New Zealand

SpringerBriefs in Business, 2014

100 % Pure New Zealand

SpringerBriefs in Business, 2014

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From Social Networking to Geosocial Networking

SpringerBriefs in Business, 2014

Creative Industries: A Pinot in One Hand, a Throttle in the Other

SpringerBriefs in Business, 2014

Okay, right up front. I'll admit it. I almost didn't go. I was really sleepy and wanted to go bac... more Okay, right up front. I'll admit it. I almost didn't go. I was really sleepy and wanted to go back to bed. But, I told myself, maybe it'll be more interesting than I expect.

“I have seen the future, and it rings"

Peak oil prep: prepare for peak oil, climate change and economic collapse

Copyright © 2006 by Mick Winter All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or tr... more Copyright © 2006 by Mick Winter All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without ...

Is your tasting room ready for the Crowds

Wine Business Monthly April, Jan 1, 2001

The Napa Valley Book: Everything You Need to Know about California's Premium Wine Country

Scan Me-Everybody's Guide to the Magical World of Qr Codes

"" Imagine you could hold your mobile phone up to an image, and magically summon any in... more "" Imagine you could hold your mobile phone up to an image, and magically summon any information you wished. You see a movie poster and wonder if the movie is worth seeing. Zap! You're watching the movie's trailer. You see a restaurant menu and wonder about the food. Zap! You're reading reviews from people who ate there. You're at a subway stop. Zap! You're seeing the actual arrival time of the next train. You see a magazine ad for a product and want to buy it. Zap! You've placed the order. How does this magic happen? With something called a QR Code. If you have a business or non-profit organization, you absolutely want to know how to use QR Codes. This book will tell you how you can use them in your marketing to attract, assist, hang on to and increase your customers. If you want to know how to make them and use them for personal or educational use, you'll learn that, too. They're free. They're fun. They're useful. Why not start now?""

The Napa Valley Book: The Insider's Guide for Visitors and Residents

Sustainable Living: For Home, Neighborhood and Community

Copyright © 2007 by Mick Winter All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or tr... more Copyright © 2007 by Mick Winter All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without ...