I had no idea what Digital Cultures would be about when I first started my course back in September 2009. The first few lessons focussed on what blogging is about and how the internet phenomenon started. Two names are most memorable from the beginning of the year - Heather Dooce and Sir Tim Burners-Lee.

We later looked at technological convergence and if technology has changed news delivery. The answer was a resounding yes; and Apple's iPhone helped me come to a sensible conclusion. We then looked at whether cultural imagination forms the future, with the console generation helping me to understand these elements well. In later lessons we looked at monopolies, when I researched Google and found out some very interesting information. I also looked into the worst and best user interfaces, although perhaps I was a little biased towards Apple?

Computer topics surrounded later weeks when we discussed whether computers will surpass the human mind, if virtual worlds are immersive, if Web 2.0 is addictive, and the possibility of the Sony Reader killing traditional books. These were all interesting areas, mainly because they are topics that are progressing and growing in popularity rapidly.

I got more personal in later postings with my rant about how terrible Microsoft's Internet Explorer is, and whether Rockstar are the pioneers of virtual worlds with their Grand Theft Auto series. Further lessons discussed more serious issues about whether personal privacy is rapidly declining, if intellectual property is respected, and if the UK Government will eventually replicate a Big Brother society.

Later topics related to the free aspects of the internet, when I blogged about whether open source software should be pre-installed, if a semantic web is a good idea, and the issues surrounding net neutrality.

Nearing the end of the lessons we talked about more economic aspects such as The Long Tail and the Digital Divide. These were definitely business related topics, with digital elements to them.

The final task of the Digital Cultures course was to discuss four topics in a completely independent manner. The first was a topic of interest that was not covered in detail during the taught lessons, when I decided to blog about the developing world of eGovernments; the second was a topic where your original thoughts have developed or changed, with my personal views on open source meeting that criteria; the third was a discussion regarding the future of Digital Cultures; and the fourth was a reflection on what you have learnt throughout the entire year (this specific blog post).

"The Digital Revolution: The World at the Click of a Button"
Fernanda Romano (International Trade Forum - Issue 3 - Published 2009)

So, to conclude, I have learnt a whole wealth of aspects regarding Digital Cultures worldwide. From the internet to daily life, the Digital Revolution is having a huge impact on our daily lives.

It's easy to analyse past events in technology, but rather difficult to predict future events. In just ten years technological achievements have been incredible.

We've seen games consoles launch a whole new market, sometimes making similar amounts of money as popular international films. We've seen computers go from being rare in homes to become as common and widespread as televisions; now being regarded as an essential ornament in the home by many. However, I am not writing this post to discuss the past, only the future. So what does the future really hold for Digital Cultures?

Well, I believe personal surveillance by governments is going to be a big issue in the future; with the amount of information they could potentially know about us being a frightening prospect. I also believe the keyboard and mouse may be consigned to the bin, with touch screens being widely adopted by many manufacturers. It wouldn't surprise me if laptops, desktops and mobile phones all use some form of touch screen elements in ten years time.

Device storage and processors could also progress to have unprecedented specifications. Traditional hard drives will be phased out and replaced by solid state alternatives. Dual Core and Quad Core processors will be regarded as slow, with six and eight core implementations becoming the industry standard. Whether Microsoft will hold such a high market share will also be interesting. I would like to see Apple's Macintosh brand accelerate in growth, and not just be regarded as good for video, music and design and nothing else - after all people can't use the no right click argument anymore!

"It's a peculiar feature of this technology that by making things smaller everything gets better. The transistors get faster, you can put more of a system on a chip."
Dr Gordon Moore (Inventor of Moore's Law)

So, judging my Moore's Law, the future of Digital Cultures looks positive. However, if people abuse the power of advancements in technology, such as Governments, then the consequences could be a very scary prospect indeed.

I wrote a post back in February about whether open source software should come pre-installed on both Microsoft's and Apple's operating systems. As I have used open source software more and more over a period of weeks my views have changed slightly.

I use an Apple MacBook Pro with BootCamp running Windows 7 on a partition of my hard drive. To be honest, I am an Apple fan, and therefore rarely use Windows 7 as I prefer Snow Leopard.

When using Snow Leopard, it surprised me when I thought about my most used applications. I use Google Chrome as my primary web browser of choice, and personally believe it blows Firefox, Opera and Safari out of the water; don't get me started with my views on Internet Explorer! For media playback I use VLC Media Player, due to it's extensive file format support, and therefore rarely use Apple's QuickTime Player or iTunes. For FTP management I use FileZilla, an extremely powerful client that puts many similar paid software alternatives to shame. For document work I use NeoOffice, a great Mac alternative to both Microsoft Office and Apple's iWork suite. It does the job fine, and doesn't cost the astronomical amount that Microsoft charge. For my archiving tasks I use The Unarchiver; powerful extraction software that is better than Apple's bundled efforts.

"I'm a huge supporter of the free software movement."
Gregory Papadopoulos (Sun Microsystems)

So, to be honest, I use open source software for the majority of my computing tasks everyday. Well known corporation efforts just aren't as good in my opinion. Therefore, my original view of open source software being pre-installed from an out-of-the-box state remains the same, and stronger now than ever!

Becoming an electronic Government (shortened as eGovernment) means to embrace the digital environment and to enable a comfortable, transparent and cheap interaction between a government and its citizens and businesses. The eGovernment process can be broken down in to four categories:

• Government-to-Consumer (G2C)
• Government-to-Business (G2B)
• Government-to-Government (G2G)
• Government-to-Employees (G2E)

These four seperate domains all play varying roles in terms of Government activity. Aspects such as public holidays, public hearing schedules, online polling, campaigning, lodging tax returns and applying for services and grants are just some of the many examples.

An eGovernment doesn't refer to just the internet platform; other technologies such as SMS Text Messaging, MMS, CCTV, biometric identification and identity cards are some of the other methods commonly used in various countries. In the case of the UK Government, these methods are already being implemented.

"The public services portal Directgov is the major single access point for eGovernment services to citizens. Beyond the actual services offered, the portal also contains comprehensive information on a broad spectrum of fields making thus navigation within further websites unnecessary."
Digital Britain Final Report (Published by the UK Government)

In my opinion, an eGovernment is something the general public must accept. Websites such as Directgov are useful for a wealth of information. However, continual web surveillance and CCTV coverage is becoming so excessive and vast that general privacy is starting to become impossible.