Role – My role in the project was focused on the Hong Kong new amendment of copyright and the suggestion of new business model for the industry.
Obviously, compare with my previous blog post I wrote in the beginning of the project, my role have got a huge change. Initially, I was assigned to analysis the difference between copyright infringements and the UGC (User Generated Content) behaviour. And also an analysis of creative common and the free culture in Australia. However, after I did the research on the cases of copyright infringements, I found the case of my home town- Hong Kong. This coincidence really brings a big change in my research.
Firstly, this is a totally new case and still in progress. There are none of the students have done this case before. So we put this case into a bug picture of our project. Second, Hong Kong is a city with foreign culture background and legislative system within China (where all the world know they get such the most distinctive copyright law). And this amendment, personally as a Hong Kong resident, is trying to control our freedom of speak and right to know. That’s the reason I pay a lot of time to focus on this case.
And also in the progress of finding some case of infringements, I found out a lot of new copyright law in different countries and I summarize them and analyze some professional ideas to come up some suggestion of new business model for the entertainment industry. Luckily, my group mates always gave me a big support and accepted my new idea and changes.
Progress – I have been taught so long to do research before I came to Australia. I was working in TV Company and writing script for the hosts. And I also have a hobby of writing prose and short story. So I got many experiences of doing research on different topics. This is my strengths on the project and I understand what I need to find in order to hit on the topic, where I can find those information and how do I filter out the useless data. Actually, the Internet really help me a lot. Since I am not in Hong Kong, in order to follow the case of Hong Kong I need to check different newspapers’ Website and different blogs on the Internet to get the latest information. Also, my friends on Facebook always share the latest move of the government and the how the Hong Kong residents fight against the amendment.
To be honest, I am kind of underestimate the whole research project….or I should admit I overestimate my ability. Since the first year I came to Melbourne, every time when I write about my weakness, I am always to write about my poor English with no doubt. For these years, there should no more excuse for me. However, in this research project, we are required to do a mass quantity of research and that mean the afford of reading is heavier than ever.
Strategies – I did try many research strategies for my individual research. For example I will input the keyword in the search engine and open several search results first. Because you never know which one is really relevant to my part, even they get a very strange name or the author make it very abstract. Then I will look into detail inside. Even one sentence of them is useful, I still can go deeper by input the key idea of the sentence in the search engine to achieve more information of it. Also, when sometime I find an essay relevant to my part, I will search the reference in it so I can ensure I get the most original information but not some ideas too objective or included the author’s point of view in it.
Or, when sometime I find a blog post, the tag or links in it will help me to get more information within the topic or more than the topic. For example when I find the copyright amendment in Switzerland in a blog post, I can get more information about cases from Netherland and France because of the blogger makes links and tags in the blog post.
And in the Collaborative strategies, I always have a good communication with my group mates. Firstly, we must ensure we will not have the same sources of references. Because it is just wasting our time if we read the same references individually. In order to sort out this problem, our group have created a dropbox folder. In this folder, we have different sub-folders inside categorized by our big topics. Each time we find a useful documents or Websites, we will upload to the dropbox to share with each other. And if we find some references might useful for the others, we would also put them in the other’s sub-folders. This move can make our research process more efficiency and let us know what our group mates were doing and how’re their progress rate.
Problems – As I mention before, my weakness is English. No matter, writing or reading. And that becomes the largest barrier in my research. In reading, I need more time to understand the whole meaning of the whole article. If a local student need 30minutes to read, I might need 2 hours or more to fully understand what the article written about. To solve this problem and make my research progress more efficiency, sometime I would search in Chinese first. It didn’t narrow down the quantity of search results, in fact many Chinese(in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan or other countries using Chinese like Malaysia and Singapore) would do the research on the Web and re-write it in Chinese(personal purpose or professional writing). After I found some useful information, I just simply search them in keyword again. Then I will can get the original idea in English. Also, because at the same time I got a Chinese version of the event(honestly, some people just translate their reference into Chinese and make it their own idea), it is easier for me to understand the content with these more professional Chinese translation.
Connections & intersections – For me,I see this course as a challenge; a huge research project requires more research references; more written requirement to test our skill of analysis and summarizing; a professional presentation with limited time and with audiences, etc. All of these are an ordeal for us.
Though this research project, I learn more about problem solving and collaboration. I did face a period of confusion: what my part in the team? Our group mates are so talented and they knew what they want to do. Luckily, I became honest and ask my group mates for help. And they very appreciated I did that, because at the same time we got the opportunity to re-evaluate our collaboration and our role in the project. I think that’s the spirit of group project. Skill of research is definitely important for our future career, but more important is how to work as a TEAM.
FINAL GRADE:
I am giving myself a D(85) as part of this self-assessment. I still need to improve my ability on everything.