Week 10 – Governance

Quick hits from:

I. Holliday and Kwok’s Hong Kong e-government:

• HK government substantial progress in having online service for business sector but changes in governance are limited; need to have strategy that also intensifies engagement with citizens in politics
• Focus on two distinct domains of internal and external impacts
• Internally: enhanced communication networks, HKHA linked via improved internal communication, mobile computing facilities in different parts of territory à but hard to say that e-government is transforming operations in HK gov bc still keep same internal dynamics before info age, always in ways that make the government look good
  • Internal impacts are limited
• Externally: more useful info available online so citizens better served than before; but still a long way from citizens interaction intensifying
• Overall recognize HK government is committed to e-government and to leading IT development; there’s huge budget to government IT and e-gov projects, also uses private partnerships to make e-government; also created avenues for e-communication access points and e-business à but form of governance still the same
• Governance may be difficult for HK government if don’t intensify e-government in a way that engages citizens at political and policy debate

II. Zhang’s great Chinese firewall:

• interviews 19 Chinese dignitary policy makers; 18 out of 19 agreed the web was good for china in terms of informationization, modernization and globalization
• suggests relaxed in ideological claims but still wants to control online content
• important factors behind China’s cyber policies and policymaking process: economic advances, business opportunities public interests, public demands for info and more contemporary lifestyle, political and ideological concerns, global criticism of China’s internet blocking
• attitude changes in policy makers suggest internet has destabilized old bureaucratic and political systems to more contemporary admin infrastructure
• authorities and individuals now have more to do with the internet than before

III:  Kraidy’s Saudi Arabia hypermedia:

• studies how technology influence changes in political, cultural religious and commercial factors in Arab public discourse; argues that introduction of Arabic-language reality tv programs triggered hypermedia space as part of public discourse
• hypermedia chains: e-mail, web sites, cell, text message, digital cameras, e-newspapers, satellite tv
• Reality tv show Star Academy had 16 male and female contestants “vying for pan-Arab stardom… hailed from Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. Throughout every week of the show, the students took lessons in oral interpretation, dancing, singing, music, fashion, hair-styling and make-up.”
• Controversy because clerics thought it was offensive, calling it “whorehouse”; Islamist youth group created site called no2staracademic.net; battle on space of communications ensued with supporters and dissenters of show
• In heavily policed social environments like Saudi Arabia’s, hypermedia space becomes an alternative space for social communication, whose dynamics undermine established modalities of governance and compel policy makers to search for new parameters of governance”

If mashups were to play a role in int’l governance, I think it would be in a way that’s cosmopolitan-esque. As shown in the articles above, state gov’ts use the internet as a way to inform their citizens (as to whether or not it fosters fertile ground for civil participation in policy debates is another story) and to create global business opportunities. So if we apply it to an international sphere, I think international governance would be used in the context of informing people who use ICT.

Mashups could also be used to make the state more effective in carrying out public services. For example, the city of Ann Arbor has a mashup website that allows citizens to “request service and check the status of service requests using Google Maps, Cityworks local API and ReCaptcha. Citizens can solicit a request by entering an address manually or select a location from a Google Map.” Service requests range from street light repair, compost pick up, park maintenance, pot hole repair etc.

Other examples of ways that government can use mashups in their governance is listed here.

I found this video particularly in understanding the overall concept of mashups:

7 Cool “Mashup” Websites – What Are Mashup Websites?
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Week 9 – Global Civil Society

Quick hits from:

A. Warkentin and Mingst on Global Civil Society:

• NGOs are political actors in their own right; the internet intensifies the facilitation of their agenda nationally and transnationally
• Ability to raise public concern and support depends on presenting agenda as a humanitarian issue, a personal issue—internet was used to facilitate this
• Warkentin’s definition of global civil society: transnationally defined ‘set of ideologically variable mechanisms or channels of opportunity for political involvement’ and, more broadly, as an ongoing phenomenon that exhibits certain (elemental) characteristics
• Campaign against Multilateral Agreement on Investment treat was stopped; when its provisions were leaked, MAI met a flood of protestations from slew of NGOs (globally); OECD discussed MAI as financial issue whereas NGOs switched focus to impact of treaty on environment, global development, human rights and democratic governance
• International campaign to ban landmines was successful thanks to NGOs and support from established forms of authority i.e. UN Security council members, especially France and Great Britain, Mines Action Canada, several dignitaries including the Pope; Existence of landmines existed on premise of security/military issue but anti-landmine parties framed it as humanitarian issue, personal safety of civilians (which made up 80 percent of landmine victims)

B. Denning’s Cyberwarriors

• Hacktivism: fusion of hacking with activism
• Cyberterrorism: refers to activity of terrorist nature
• Attraction of hacktivism: unconstrained by geography, low cost, little expertise
• Can tamper with domain name service, perform web sit-ins to disrupt normal service and denial of service attacks (DoS) to shut down websites and e-mail servers
• Likely that conflict in physical world has paralleled operation in cyberspace as cyberspace defense lags behind

C. Goldstein on the Ukrainian Orange Revolution:

• Citizen journalism: audience who was once on receiving end become actors who influence what becomes broadcast content, involves acts showing agency
• Be wary of cyberutopianism, not all digital tech leads to more inclusive political future
• Self-censorhip big in Kuchma-dominated Ukraine but state didn’t have gripping authority online; had anti-Kuchma organizations utilizing the internet as a way to mobilize ppl and get their message out without being completely shut down by the gov’t
• Gongadze’s violent death (journalist against self-censorship, was fired and co-founded Ukranian Parvada) triggered Ukraine Without Kuchma and the internet to be recognized as legit news source; other non-state internet media gained credibility
• Actually only few ppl had online access, but the message spread because those people were well-connected and had lots of networks (two step flow of info)

A + B + C = Mosaic of global civil society. It’s helpful for me to think of GCS as a mosaic because it’s a messy picture… it’s transnational… it’s made up of thousands of parts (organizations) that have their own values… the fact that some of them share the same values while some of them simultaneously oppose each other also makes it a political entity… An entity wherein diverse political interests are facilitated by technology and the internet. This set-up connects with the cosmopolitan theory in being characteristically democractic and multi-lateral in its values. The Ukraine article especially strongly links the global civil society to the cosmo theo considering the Ukrainian people’s struggle against state control on media and the Orange Revolution being firmly linked with Yuschenko who was leaning towards democracy than the Kuchma regime.

Taking the examples of the campaign to ban landmines and the Ukrainian people’s desire to fight state censorship/control, the good can be found in people’s ability to use technology, particularly the world wide web, as a tool to weaken authority that does not seem to fit with the best interests of people. In a more local context, the internet also creates opportunities for non-profits to get together to discuss ways to get their message out more effectively. Last Saturday, I attended a storytelling workshop for non-profits at George Brown College. It was delivered by broadcast reporter Kris Reyes. About 20 people from the non-profit sector attended to learn how to better tell their story in a way that appeals to the news industry. Some of the non-profits who had members attend are illustrated on my map. Many of them were able to network and share tips on how to maximize their resources, especially in ways of how to tell the stories of their organizations. Many of them said they found out about the workshop through e-mails, twitter feeds and word of mouth.

Bad forces can also be located in the same space that allows people to fight for their best interests. As Danning suggests, while conflicts in the real world spill into cyberspace, the consequences in cyberwarfare aren’t as lethal as physical warfare, at least not yet. So I think one of the ways wicked influences corrupt is in perpetuating evil dated narratives and ideologies in websites that deceive and attempt to pass-off prejudice ideas as fact. An example would be an anti-Semitic website called Bamboo Delight Company. In a philosophy course I took, it was critiqued as offering alternative healing methods while actually being full of ridiculously heinous and racist claims.

<a href=”http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/krozal” target=”MyMap”><img src=”http://www.mapbuilder.net/img/MyMap.gif” alt=”MyMaps at MapBuilder.net” width=”80″ height=”15″ border=”0″></a>

Week 8 – Global Business

Does the Internet democratize the consumer? Is privacy a concern?

Quick hit summaries:

Turow’s article on Audience Construction and Culture production

• Sets up dilemma between producers exploiting technology to survey interests of consumers to improve their products and brings to light issue that they maybe intruding in consumers’ privacy by surveillance of ways consumers use the internet
• On the other hand, this other mode called customer relationship management becomes a kind of loophole/creates a different avenue for producers to not come across as sketchy stalkers—using CRM means that instead businesses tap into the consumer’s interests by letting consumers express their interests likely without knowing that they are doing so. For example CNN.com asks users to personalize their page to get breaking news in their e-mails. This allows CNN & its advertisers find out what their interests are without actually having to follow the consumer’s web exploits.
• Turow also brings up the “walled garden” where consumers can go for info on communications and commerce services—this is a good place for advertisers to find out more about the consumers’ interests

Sharma and Sheth’s article on the revolution in marketing thought and strategy

• S&S look at the dynamics of marketing practice and thought as consequences of web-based marketing. These characteristics include: Start manufacturing only when customer orders; Make stuff based on preference of consumer i.e. Dell’s personalization strategy; Effectiveness continues to become a way to enhance customer loyalty; Strategy tends to be to change customer expectations instead of affecting customer satisfaction; Marketing integration becomes important because of synergy in integrating different functions of new organizations
• Also considers change in consumer behaviours including: Consumers become cocreators; Reducing locational dependence in having faster access to direct info; Access pricing faster;
• Constraining factors include continued cost and tax advantages, concern over privacy/trust/security

Tian, Yin and Taylor’s article on internet-based manufacturing

• They go through in great detail the model of internet-based manufacturing wherein multi-agent model is important in flow of information and task allocation within the network companies
• The main goal for distributed information system for networked manufacturing is not just inter-operability for individual enterprises but also collaboration at semantic level
• Authors propose new infrastructure for distributed info management systems, which includes several agents to cooperate with each other i.e. user-friendly interface, cooperative to find partners, application information, retrieval, security and network communication agents

Ok… so given this “data” from the three articles I think the internet somewhat limits but mostly proliferates the democratization of the consumer. The first way it democratizes the consumer is by ideology. Democracy is tied to the cosmopolitan theory. The cosmopolitan theory stands for all the ever-pervasive universalistic values of the west—the centrepiece system of the democratic society is capitalism. Web-based marketing exists in the realm of capitalism. It also democratizes the consumer because what for-profits promote in their marketing are still based on the consumer’s interests, in a sense the consumers are free to dictate to the producers what they want produced. Isn’t the whole reason why businesses want to stalk consumers is so that they can find out what consumers want in order to be able to provide it to them? Also, as Sharma and Sheth’s article emphasizes: contemporary manufacturing is based on personalization. As they say, the “strategy tends to be to change customer expectations instead of affecting customer satisfaction.”

At the same time, models like the customer relationship management, while it isn’t a flat out 1984-esque privacy invasion, become a loophole to somewhat dictate what consumers should be buying. Like Turow mentions, some businesses reinforce a sense of loyalty from customers by offering discounts and other benefits. The perks a consumer gets from buying from a specific company more or less influence consumers to keep buying what that business produces. In a sense this enticement prevents them from feeling totally free to explore what other companies have to offer because they’ve gotten used to the comfort of trusting that one brand.

The fun theory website I think is a creative and clever way that Volkswagen demonstrates the customer-relationship-management model. While it doesn’t offer consumers blatantly tangible benefits/deals, it offers interesting ideas people can relate to and connect with (i.e. piano stairs up the subway, putting magnets on shirts to make folding clothes fun etc.)—this gives the company the advantage of memory.

Moving on to the iPhone apps… while these apps look extremely helpful and fun, I think they may also become extremely useful in generating a generation incapable of living outside gadgets and relying on the human brain to perform day to day functions. What’s awesome: lets you take panoramic photos, access to news, weather, maps, recipes, What’s not so cool: music features (i.e. the one that “teaches” you how to play the guitar, it’s not nearly as close to the real thing), other functions including news, office tools, charts, emails—these could cause someone to suffer similar dysfunctions brought about by the “crackberry.”

Week 7 – Second segment on historical change

What are the main arguments in the two readings for this week? What version of historical change do you believe in and why?

In the spirit of sociological study, Castell’s piece emphasized the discipline’s need to quantify the social change arising in the Information Age. Castell’s argument towards post-modernism stems from the networked nature of the information age, the dynamic structure composed of various networks. He uses the term network enterprise to emphasize the interconnectedness of today’s communication system, and thus creating an avenue for various parties to create a platform around which to organize their interests. This creates the contemporary society, the new society that is simultaneously flexible and adaptable, yet inefficient in creating symbolic dominant control and standardized mass production. This new society is also not static given that networks are used to instantaneously diversify social structures in an interactive system, including the global market and other pools of labour.

Unlike Castell’s focus on the structure of networks, Fraiberg’s piece focuses on the idea of the body as representing the complexities of the information age. Fraiberg focuses on the conservative condemnation of AIDS as polluting society due to the deviant nature conservative interests attach to it. She references very strongly Haraway’s idea of the cyborg as “potent fusions balanced with dangerous possibilities.” In doing so she actively critiques traditional binaries of power that disapprovingly exclude the multitude of ways individuals in society define themselves (specifically sexual orientation among other classifiers including religion and gender), while at the same time addressing the dangers of having a decentralized state of authority. The body of the information society therefore, should be recognized as an avenue of releasing a sense of agency.

I prefer Castell’s perspective of historical change. Fraiberg’s adamant reference to the cyborg appears too simplistic and to my view portrays the information age as highly disadvantageous and replete with networks of ‘disease’ that is damaging to society as a whole. Furthermore, not everyone has the opportunity to represent their interests given the prevalence of the digital divide. Castell’s argument which emphasizes the paradigms of academia and the need for quantifiable measures to understand the new society appears more logical, coherent and less radical in my mind.

Sentence to translate: The Winter Olympics has energized Canadian nationalism.

English to Spanish using google translate: Los Juegos Olímpicos de Invierno ha energizado el nacionalismo canadiense

Spanish to English using google translate: The Winter Olympics has energized Canadian nationalism.

Week 6 – First segment on historical change

What are the main arguments in the two readings for this week?
Which one do you prefer and why?

In his article, Ess criticized the cosmopolitan position to be an idealistic take on the impact of the internet on society. According to him, the belief in an electronic global village and technological determinism are romantic views that naively assume the world as a macrocosm of parties, essentially monolithic in seeing universal communication and democracy as the road to prosperity.

Just as Ess strikes down the cosmopolitan view as naïve and ethnocentric in its democratic idealism, Bettig’s article vehemently critiques the capitalist system for expanding its market forces to corrupting the internet as another space for elites to regenerate their capital by manipulating market demand and state officials, thereby taking advantage of proletariats in the electronic age.

Bettig’s anti-capitalist position appeals to me more than the cosmopolitan perspective. As an anthropology student, I find the cosmopolitan ideal to be ethnocentric because not all countries hold the same cultural values as the west. In fact, enforcing the ideology of democracy on non-western countries is an undemocratic premise in itself. Assuming that non-westerners want the same technological infrastructure established in the west is also hypocritical of democracy. We live in a highly capitalistic society and the criticisms of the Marxist position on our consumer-based society have more tangible resonance than assumptions of technology as a means to proliferate an ideology that issues like poverty can be eradicated through public discourse.

As post-secondary students, we experience the tendencies Bettig pointed out in the radical tradition, namely the expansion of intellectual property rights and the growing commercialization of information. I think the fact that the majority of our school’s computers are dell, with Microsoft programs, and that our library extends to online article databases, relates to Bettig’s point on elite alliances made in the communications sector to control and gain profit from the acquisition of knowledge. We pay to go to school and in doing so we pay to have access to such resources.

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Week 6 – First segment on historical change

February 18, 2010

What are the main arguments in the two readings for this week?

Which one do you prefer and why?

In his article, Ess criticized the cosmopolitan position to be an idealistic take on the impact of the internet on society. According to him, the belief in an electronic global village and technological determinism are romantic views that naively assume the world as a macrocosm of parties, essentially monolithic in seeing universal communication and democracy as the road to prosperity.

Just as Ess strikes down the cosmopolitan view as naïve and ethnocentric in its democratic idealism, Bettig’s article vehemently critiques the capitalist system for expanding its market forces to corrupting the internet as another space for elites to regenerate their capital by manipulating market demand and state officials, thereby taking advantage of proletariats in the electronic age.

Bettig’s anti-capitalist position appeals to me more than the cosmopolitan perspective. I As an anthropology student, I find the cosmopolitan ideal to be ethnocentric because not all countries hold the same cultural values as the west. In fact, enforcing the ideology of democracy on non-western countries is an undemocratic premise in itself. Assuming that non-westerners want the same technological infrastructure established in the west is also hypocritical of democracy. We live in a highly capitalistic society and the criticisms of the Marxist position on our consumer-based society have more tangible resonance than assumptions of technology as a means to proliferate an ideology that issues like poverty can be eradicated through public discourse.

As post-secondary students, we experience the tendencies Bettig pointed out in the radical tradition, namely the expansion of intellectual property rights and the growing commercialization of information. I think the fact that the majority of our school’s computers are dell, with Microsoft programs, and that our library extends to online article databases, relates to Bettig’s point on elite alliances made in the communications sector to control and gain profit from the acquisition of knowledge. We pay to go to school and in doing so we pay to have access to such resources.

Week 5 – Internet Governance

The knowledge that accumulates online is vast due to the highly user-driven nature of the internet. Users can navigate themselves in this prodigious pool of data thanks to the structure of folksonomy.

Folksonomy is the classification of knowledge created by users. For instance, the tagging system on blogs allows users to attribute certain keywords to their blog entries to help their readers find entries related to specific topics/keywords. Folksonomy derives its meaning from the word “folk,” referring to the traditional knowledge passed down in generations of family groups. The latter part of the term refers to classification and organization, much like the term taxonomy, which indicates a system of classification. So given that the data is contributed by users, who themselves classify the data, the structure of folksonomy is very much determined by the content added by internet users.

Folksonomy extends itself to the process of globalization in the sense that “folk” knowledge used to be restricted to family/community generations in a specific region. It can now be shared with an international audience – the global internet community. In addition to this global audience, “folk” knowledge could also be examined in relation to the origins or the nascent stages of any ideas being developed over time and shared online.

Week 4 – What is social networking?

Are wikis an effective means of communication?  Why or why not?  Why does it matter?

If something is effective it means it is successful in performing an intended purpose or function.

Wikipedia is an internet source for general knowledge. Anyone with access to the internet can add and/or edit information about virtually any topic in existence.

I think the effective-ness of wikipedia could be measured in the degree that it allows people to access general knowledge that is accurate and cohesively organized. Having said that wikis provide an effective platform of communication in allowing people who may never have met to collaborate on creating a pool of information for the general public. The fact that there is no physical human interaction between the authors may even help the authors develop their written communication skills. They have to be clear in conveying their ideas in written form otherwise their co-contributors may dismiss their input as unsubstantial. It is also very effective in dispensing general knowledge because it also crosses language barriers. Wikipedia has “85,000 active contributors working on more than 14,000,000 articles in more than 250 languages.”

Conversely, the massive amount of contributors and articles also challenges the idea of efficacy of wikis in disseminating information. The huge numbers of contributors and articles, along with its open-free-editing format raises the issue of quantity over quality. There are likely thousands of useless articles on wiki and this speaks to the idea of the internet being a sea of useless “data.” It’s also difficult to trust the quality of the data because the author may not be a credible source given that anyone can access it.

The effectiveness of Wikipedia can be viewed as a micro-study of the internet that relates to, as discussed in class, whether the free flow of online data creates superfluous matter or whether it creates information that can be useful for communicating ideas that can have any sort of positive impact.

Source: google search turned up irrelevantcombinations.blogspot.com

Are wikis an effective means of communication?  Why or why not?  Why does it matter?

If something is effective it means it is successful in performing an intended purpose or function.

Wikipedia is an internet source for general knowledge. Anyone with access to the internet can add and/or edit information about virtually any topic in existence.

I think the effective-ness of wikipedia could be measured in the degree that it allows people to access general knowledge that is accurate and cohesively organized. Having said that wikis provide an effective platform of communication in allowing people who may never have met to collaborate on creating a pool of information for the general public. The fact that there is no physical human interaction between the authors may even help the authors develop their written communication skills. They have to be clear in conveying their ideas in written form otherwise their co-contributors may dismiss their input as unsubstantial. It is also very effective in dispensing general knowledge because it also crosses language barriers. Wikipedia has “85,000 active contributors working on more than 14,000,000 articles in more than 250 languages.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About#Strengths.2C_weaknesses.2C_and_article_quality_in_Wikipedia)

Conversely, the massive amount of contributors and articles also challenges the idea of efficacy of wikis in disseminating information. The huge numbers of contributors and articles, along with its open-free-editing format raises the issue of quantity over quality. There are likely thousands of useless articles on wiki and this speaks to the idea of the internet being a sea of useless “data.” It’s also difficult to trust the quality of the data because the author may not be a credible source given that anyone can access it.

The effectiveness of Wikipedia can be viewed as a micro-study of the internet that relates to, as discussed in class, whether the free flow of online data creates superfluous matter or whether it creates information that can be useful for communicating ideas that can have any sort of positive impact.

Week 3 – What is New Media?

Should we be worried about the digital divide?  Why or why not?

“New media, broadly understood to include the use of new communications technology for old or new purposes… are always introduced into a pattern of tension created by the coexistence of old and new, which is far richer than any single medium that becomes a focus of interest because it is novel. New media embody the possibility that accustomed orders are in jeopardy, since communication is a peculiar kind of interaction that actively seeks variety.”

– Carolyn Marvin, 1988 in “When Old Technologies were new”

Enter the digital divide. This is the context in which the digital divide exists: while new media creates ways to enhance people’s daily routines, novel technology also complicates the social relationship between society as a whole. Just because new technology exists doesn’t mean everyone can access it.

This context should give us reason to feel some sense of moral anxiety about the digital divide. New technology isn’t a monolithic entity – take the internet, this technology in itself is comprised of different parties that have unique financial, academic and social interests. This means different power dynamics are always in play and some end up with the short end of the stick.

Consider this: call centres in developing countries. One could argue that such facilities allow people in developing countries to actively participate in the intensifying industry of global communications and that they are important because they help solve daily problems people encounter with the new technology. But are call centre employees really benefiting from this situation? I personally don’t think their position as call centre employees is empowering. Their position actually exacerbates social stratification between developed and developing nations, it contributes to solidifying developing nations as “helpers” for “wealthy” developed countries. When a south east Asian call centre employee has a problem with his/her home internet, he/she isn’t calling internet help hotlines in North America or Europe.

We should be worried about the digital divide. If call centres (that exacerbate tension between developing and developed countries) are considered the norm now, it makes me wonder what types of relationships will exist to support new media in the future.

Catching up

I came into the course in Week 3. Catch-up process is well underway.

Week 2 – What is the Internet?

How did my grandparents communicate?

In providing a rich history of the contemporary internet’s development in the 1960s, Kleinrock’s article “History of the internet and its flexible future” illustrates the exclusivity of the then-new technology. In its nascent stages, the internet was accessible and available to a select elite, primarily the U.S. military and American institutions of academia. So, while the technology was technically available for my grandparents they were not communicating the same way my generation is today.

Unlike the stark difference between the intensity of communication between my generation and my grandparents’, my grandparents communicated in the same ways their own parents and grandparents. Based on Kleinrock’s article written communication was via post mail and in terms of wireless technology this was via the phonograph, telegraph, radio and telephone.

How could Web 3.0 change my life?

My primary method of communication is in using the internet. It is Web 2.0 that allows me to use it with the considerable intensity that I do. The existence of youtube, facebook, twitter, google and various other sites that I use and contribute to on a regular basis has already established a stark difference between my lifestyle now and when I was in high school (when those social networking sites weren’t as popular or as pervasive).

According to a video introducing the premise of the semantic web, syntax is the way in which people express an idea using words. Semantics is the way syntax is interpreted to derive meaning. Given this, Web 3.0 promises a elevated platform comapred to Web 2.0 because of its feature of using semantics. This function could change my life by further intensifying the ways in which I communicate with my personal social networks and the ways I conduct my research. As a journalist-in training, Web 3.0 would help me access information faster than I already do because in being able to derive meaning in the words I use to search for info, it would likely provide me with the most useful collection of info as soon as possible. Using key words, which is the case with Web 2.0, restricts my search to sources that have the key words I use.

How would being a ‘digital native’ affect my answer to this question?

Being a ‘digital native’ affects my answer to this question because while I am part of a tech-savvy generation, I still haven’t had much interaction with the developing system that is Web 3.0. ‘Digital natives’ are accustomed to using search engines and interacting via internet social networks, so the ways in which I perceive Web 3.0 to change my life would be influenced by this behaviour, which consists of chronic use of networking sites such as facebook.