Guinness is Good for you!

Choose any one product and explain how its production, distribution and consumption can be seen as a 'network'. Identify relevant nodes, ties and flows in this network. Pay attention to the role of ICT and indicate where technology might fit into the network. If necessary, make a sketch of your network design and then scan and upload to your blog along with a brief explanatory note.

A network comprises of the following three elements;
1. Nodes: are usually 'physical' or 'set' places or areas but they can also be people. For example, cities, industries and primary resources are all nodes but so too are consumers.
2. Ties: are the links by which the nodes are tied together. Like nodes they can exist in the physical world. Examples of ties are the trucks that transport products from businesses to the consumers (nodes). Ties can also be concepts or social relations such as economic or capital factors. The need of the consumer for a certain product is also classified as a tie.
3. Flows: are what is transported between various nodes by the ties. Flows can be products or people or even capital. Knowledge and relations would also be considered to be flows.

The product I have chosen is Guinness.
The History of Guinness:
· 1759: It all began with a signature. Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on a disused brewery at St. James’ Gate, Dublin in. It cost him an initial £100 pounds with an annual rent of £45.
· 1769: The first export shipment of six and a half barrels of Guinness beer leaves Dublin on a sailing vessel bound for England.
· 1803: Arthur Guinness dies. His son, Arthur II inherits the brewing mantle, ensuring the brewer stays in the family.
· 1840: The first shipment to be sent to America reaches New York.
· 1936: The first overseas Guinness brewery is built at Park Royal in London.
· 1950-1974: New Breweries open up all over the world, including Canada, Australia, Africa and South East Asia.
· 1997: Diageo is formed
· 2009: Guinness celebrates 250 years.

Production:
Until 2010, Guinness would buy the majority of its barley from the Greencore Group, a leading international manufacturer of convenience foods and ingredients. The Greencore Group would sell seeds, manure and sprays to Irish farmers who would go on to grow the barley. The farmers would then sell any grain that passed as malting barley back to Greencore. Guinness would then purchase the barley from Greencore and begin the brewing process. As of January 2010, Greencore sold its malting barley division to a French company named Axereal who are expected to do business with Guinness in the future. Another ingredient used to make barley is hops, which is used as a flavouring and stablilty agent in Guinness. Germany, the US and China are the biggest exporters of hops and Guinness is believed to purchase their supply from one of these nations.
The last ingredient added is Brewer’s yeast which is used to provide a nicer taste to the product.Once the Guinness brewery has obtained all of these ingredients then the brewing process can begin.

Distribution
Once finished brewing and once fully matured, the products are then packed up and ready to be distributed to consumers worldwide. From each of its many breweries around the world Guinness is transported to pubs, off licences and supermarkets worldwide.

Consumption
Guinness is sold in 150 countries around the world and in 2007 it was estimated that 10 million glasses of Guinness were enjoyed every day. One can purchase Guinness in just about every pub or off licence in Ireland.

ICT plays a big role in the Guinness network. The Guinness website allows the company to expand the variety of products that they sell. They’re no longer restricted to beverages but have also allowed themselves to sell merchandise such as hats, key rings, jerseys, etc. The website also acts as form of communication between the Guinness and their customers, allowing them to get feedback and to see where they can improve their product. I’m sure technology has also affected the brewing process making it much more efficient.

The illustration above names the specific Nodes, Ties and Flows in this network. The Nodes are illustrated by the large yellow font, the flows by the purple font and the ties by the smaller yellow font.

The Network Society by Jan Van Dijk

2.3 New Media Characteristics
According to Van Dijk, the New Media is defined by its characteristics of integration, interactivity, and digital code - elaborate on this definition.

In his text, The Network Society, Jan Van Dijk explains how the New Media is defined by its characteristics of integration, interactivity and digital code. In the following piece I will be elaborating on this definition as well as the characteristics involved. The only sources I used in constructing this piece were the text itself and any notes taken during class.

1. Integration
The first characteristic that Van Dijk claims the New Media is based on is that of integration. He proposes the idea that the most important structural new media characteristic is the integration of telecommunications, data communications and mass communications in a single medium. He calls the process convergence and because of this new media is often called multimedia. There are 5 levels in which integration can take place. These are:
1. infrastructure
2. transportation
3. management
4. services
5. types of data

Integration eventually leads to the merging of telecommunications, data communications and mass communications. These all create multifunctional, high speed networks that were once called electronic superhighways but nowadays go by the name broadband. Integration is enabled by two techniques;
1. Full digitalization of all media
2. Broadband transmission through all connections by cable and by air.



2. Interactivity
The next characteristic that Van Dijk claims the new media is based on is interactivity. Interactivity is generally defined as being a sequence of action and reaction. Van Dijk puts forward an alternative definition in his text which operates at four accumulative levels; space dimension, time dimension, behavioural dimension and mental dimension.
· Space Dimension: is the most elementary level of interactivity. It is the possibility of establishing two sided or multilateral communication.
· Time Dimension: this deals with the degree of synchronicity. An uninterrupted sequence of action and reaction usually improves the quality of interaction. However interactive media such as email are used for their lack of synchronicity. Sending and receiving emails can be done at self-chosen times and places, and one is allowed to think longer about a reply.
· Behavioural Dimension: this is defined as the ability of the sender and the receiver to switch roles at any moment. It is about the control over the events in the process of interaction. At this level interactivity means that the user is able to intervene into the program itself and make a difference.
· Mental Dimension: Van Dijk considers this to be the highest level of interactivity. It is acting and reacting with an understanding of meanings and contexts by all interactors involved. It is a necessary condition for full interactivity in physical conversation and computer-mediated communication.



3. Digital Code

Digital code is a technical media characteristic only defining the form of new media operations. It means that in using computer technology, every item of information and communication can be transformed and transmitted in the form of strings of ones and zeros called bytes, with every single 1 or 0 being a bit. It is an artificial code that that replaces the natural codes of the analogue creation and transmission of items of information and communication. The formation of digital code involves cutting into pieces a number of undivided analogue items and then recombining them in a digitized form. There are many effects of the use of digital code but the most important ones are;
1. The increase in the quantity of items of information and communication: this makes their production, recording and distribution much easier.
2. The transformation from linear to hypertext media: this is the break up of the traditional linear order of large units of information and communication in such a way that they can be transformed into hyperlinks of items liable to be perceived or processed in the order that the reader, viewer or listener wants.