READING RESPONSES 14 - 16

Online News and the Viral Campaign: podcast and beyond
Reading Responses:
14: What is creativity?
15: National Podcast Radio
16: Wireless Revolution

Please read each of the (3) three articles and create a new post for each article by Thursday, March 24th. Each essay should be no less than two paragraphs in length and summarize the main points of the articles read. It should also include any ideas you had in relation to the reading; not opinions about the complexity of the writing, but the content. Title each entry as "Reading Response" followed by the sequential number of the article; your entry on National Podcast Radio would then be titled "Reading Response 15"

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Mini Project #7

Person 1

57 year old male banker about to retire

Interested in Sports, Stock, Politics, US news, World news, and Business news

He usually feels rushed and stressed at work because of his age

He enjoys relaxing and reading the articles on the news

He looks at the news usually at work in a small windowless office

He has a high but outdated skill level, he doesn't know electronics very well but well enough

He gets frustrated with useless information

Person 2

26 year old female kindergarten teacher

Interested in Health, Entertainment (celebrities), Politics, US news, and the Weather

She is content with her life but sometimes feels like she's rushed or can't concentrate because of the children

She needs speed and shortened information because the children take up most of her attention

She looks at the news in the morning during play time in class, so she has a shortened attention span

Her skill level is up to date with technology and she has been through college recently

She is frustrated when there is too much to read, she needs simplicity

Person 3

39 year old male meteorologist

Interested in Weather, Technology, Politics, World news, US news, and Leisure

He's usually relaxed but very critical of people's opinion

He needs information, precise information

He looks at the news at work in the lab while doing his research and checking the numbers on his weather sensors

He has a very high and up to date skill level

He gets frustrated when there aren't enough details

I decided to completely simplify everything on the website because two of my people needed that. On the main website there were sections like US news, Politics, Opinion with information under them, lots of information. I decided to delete all the information and make those sections into "buttons" that you click on if you want to know more about the US news, and on the next page will be your information because not all of my people were interested in the same subjects. I kept the weather section because all of my people needed that, and I kept the markets (stock) section for my banker. I also added a section on the right side with current news headlines which are links to more information so that, for example, the school teacher can pick and choose quickly which she might be interested in reading more about if any.

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Mini Project #7

Person 1: This person is 45 years old and teaches history at a high school. He is a pretty bad teacher and does not spend much time with the students. He is online all day looking for anything entertainment wise to pass the hours of the day. He is fat and struggling with some health problems.

Person 2: A young man in college, at the age of 27. He is in criminal justice and is very healthy. He is a straight B- student. Although he has potential, he spends too much time on social websites, mostly facebook and twitter.

Person 3: An aspiring model, she is 36 and very underweight. She worries about her health but will do anything for a shot at her dream career. She spends most of her day on social websites messaging famous fashion designers hoping for a chance.

I made a lot of changes to the website. I cut down about 90% of the writing on the page. I brought the page tabs to the top so they are easy to see and put entertainment and health near the top so my customers. I also made the top story picture bigger so it's very visual and easy to find. Finally, i took away the social media selections, such as facebook and twitter, from the bottom and put in a selection of big, easy to see, buttons near the top of the page for very easy access.

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Mini Project 7 p.2

CNNMoney.com began as a reasonably clean website. It begins at the top with some pictures and as you move down you get lost in headlines and small print shortcuts. My redesigned website contains five rows with large tiles containing the top headlines if the category. To the right of that there is a visual that pertains to the subject. Clicking on the arrow to the right of the row will bring up other categories less popular then the five on the main page. At the bottom are some quick links to other categories. The keyword search can also be arranged by date. Visual work is minimized because you only have 10 big boxes to look at. Cognitive work is minimized because there are just headlines to read and from there you can choose to read the article. Memory work is basic because the use is simple. Motor work is limited often to one click of the mouse. Sometimes you might need to click on a category or the arrow, but limited clicks. If doing a search, the user may need to type in the search bar but very limited keyboard use is required.

A Business Man who runs his own small business and wants to see what is going on with other small businesses as well as the world economy. He would be able to see if there is a need worldwide for his product and if he can refine his products to better fit the needs of his customers. The information will help him better his product by seeing what the world is looking for. This will allow for him to focus his effort on to a certain aspect. The businessman is very busy, so he is looking to obtain only information important to his business and product. He doesn’t care about gossip or celebrities, but only wants the information he is looking for presented to him in a clear and concise way. Since the small businessman works in his office which is also the shop producing his product, he is often working on the product and cannot sit for a long time in front of the computer so the information must be worded in a short way and should be available quickly. The businessman is not very technical. He is lucky to turn on the computer and open the web browser. This is why the news site should be visual. He gets upset when things are over complicated and he cannot find information he is looking for.

An economist, who enjoys cheese curls, wants to know about the stock market and wants to see how large businesses are doing. She likes to read long articles detailing the specifics of business sales and services. Following the economy and the stock market, she likes to read about predictions that other economists make. With this information she makes her own consensuses and formulates ideas. When the economy is doing bad, she is disappointed and gets frustrated easily. This makes the need of a website to be easy to use and convey information very important as she will leave the site if not satisfied. She must visit many sites to gather information, so the more that is available on one the longer she will stay. She looks for a section of the page that pertains to her, and lives there while she is using the site. She is not interested in off topic information, though she does find time to read a couple of twitter feeds and post her own on her lunch break at Starbucks. She is very proficient with computer use, and uses many RSS feeds in her browser that take her right to top stories she is interested in. Since she enjoys reading information on the economy and not looking for it, she is frustrated when information has to be looked for and not presented to her, and she will leave the site.

An engineer at a local television station wants to know what new groundbreaking technology is shaking the economic market. He knows that companies like Apple can release a product that will drive all other companies to produce products to compete with them. He likes to stay up to date with technology and knows that it is so quickly changing, he only wants to learn about that which pertains to his job or information that will be around for some amount of time. He likes pictures and videos and doesn’t necessarily want to read or have time to read large articles. He would prefer to visit a site and have the information directly in front of him. A category of information with a couple of headlines would be effective to draw him in. He likes a clean presentation of video that is easy to find and clearly presented links to the video. He works extremely well with computers, but doesn’t want to have to Google stupid little things that are easy to do but hard to find. He is frustrated when information that he knows is available to him, is hidden and requires effort to find. Also, he gets mad when he searches in the search bar, and old and irrelevant information appears, not the latest and most relevant.

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Miniproject 7

Businessman

46 years old

Lives alone

Looking for quick news on iPad before work, at lunch, or walking from office to office checking up on people

Stocks, Politics, business, World news are the highest interest

Does not care about Entertainment News

Family Man

35 years old

Wants local news over world news

Little knowledge on stocks

Constant Weather updates checker

Reads news while his kids are at school

Checks weather so the kids can be dressed properly

Entertainment junkie

17 Years old

Lives at home

Goes to every site possible to find entertainment news

Gossip lover

Stays home all the time to look up the new gossip and share it as fast as possible

Uses laptop in bed

The changes I made were directly from the personas. The top of the webpage is mostly business things, because the businessman only has a little bit of time to look at thinks while working, so all that is up top, and big, for the use of the iPad. The weather is also close to the top so that the Family man can get to that quickly, but he has a little more time, so he can have very minimal scrolling. At the bottom is the entertainment junkie’s heaven. All the stories are down there and all she has to do is click on them. Because she researches this stuff all day, she does not have to have her information at the top, she doesn’t mind digging for it just so that she can know more than everyone.

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Mini-Project #6 Part 2

DUE: Thursday, March 31st

The purpose of this project is to invite the student to think about and document an alternate way for social networks to function. As discussed in class, there are many methods for re-contextualizing elements of new media. From Lev Manovich, we learn that variability and modularity are principle components of new media. While he was delineating the fundamental components of new media, we can apply these principles to the broader context of new media in the form of mashups, remixes and repurposing.

Web 2.0 social sites have purported purposes. You have already submitted a proposal for how to subvert your selected Web 2.0 site, now it is time to do that. I have given a significant amount of time because many of your proposals will require enough time to utilize long-term trolling strategies. Please use this time to carefully document and perform your subversion.

After the project has been completed, the documentation (photos, webpages, video, games, objects) must be brought into class critique in a formal presentation on the 31st. The documentation of this project should be carefully considered, as it will be graded on visual elements as well as the aesthetics of how the project is represented.

For some additional references, I will include a list of subversive art projects and performative/trickster works.

One Year Video Performance

Second Front

The Yes Men

Mortal Kombat DDR

Banksy

kanarinka

borderxing

Wikipedia Art

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Mini-Project #7

DUE: Thursday March 10th

The purpose of this project is to have students analyze the way a user should impact design. During class, the student will have created three (3) imaginary persona character sheets which they will use to re-design a news site of their choice. The persona sheet must include a detailed description of the six points of user design discussed in class. The webpage re-design should be a simplification of the website, akin to the shift from the New York Times to the New York Times Skimmer. All modifications should be aimed at improving the function of the selected website for those specific three users and should minimize the four forms of work discussed in class.

After the student has turned in their image (.jpg) to the professor at the end of class, the student will then post their image to a new entry on this blog, labeled "Mini-Project #7: redesign". Included in this post should be the three (3) user descriptions already written by the student, as well as a new paragraph which briefly describes the reasons for your modifications. This final paragraph can be short, but should explain how you changed the website to make things easier and more focused for the personas you designed. Use terminology discussed in class lecture.

This entry should be posted the same day as class, no later.

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Project #6 Proposal

My Web 2.0 subversion project will be on Urban Dictionary, an alternative online dictionary for slang words and phrases. Anyone is free to add new definitions to the dictionary (although editors may choose to edit or remove them). Urban Dictionary also has a thumbs-up/thumbs-down rating system, which allows readers to evaluate whether they agree or disagree with a particular definition.

My plan to subvert Urban Dictionary is to add definitions of nonsense terms that I invented myself, that nobody has ever read or heard of before. I could also redefine a term that already exists, but give it a completely different and unrelated meaning. Urban Dictionary does have editors that monitor newly added definitions, so to ensure that mine get approved, I’ll need to make my definitions seem like they’re real slang rather than pure gibberish. I’ll document my project by screen-capturing my definitions when (if) they’re added to Urban Dictionary, especially after people have read my definitions and given them a thumbs up or thumbs down.

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Project 6 Proposal

DeviantArt is an online art community for people anywhere to post their own art that was created in 2000. This can practically be anything you can think of and more in the form of 2D drawings, flash videos, 3D videos, photography, and hand made stuff with the acceptance of pornography, though that could be debated really. Deviantart is meant to give artists a chance to show and share their art with a community of other art enthusiasts.

Seeing as this site is for artists to receive some sort of feedback, my plan is to make an account that is from the perspective of a dinosaur and to, in a sense, document its life. I shall post pictures related to the dinosaur such as things it eats and the way it lives. I will document this through the comments I receive from people through screen shots and by commenting on others through this persona. Also with screen shots of the actual page.

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mini project 5

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Mini-Project #5 (Redo)

For this redo of Mini-Project #5 I wanted to focus on the hardcore social aspect of Second Life. To the many players of Second Life this is not just a video game, but indeed a "second life". People gather their avatars together and socialize like any other place in real life. The conversations are usual subjects what happened in their lives today, sex life, celebrity gossip, and so forth. The players take great pride in their friends, conversational skills, and looks of their avatar.

In the end though it's just a game and that's all it will ever be. You wouldn't see a women like in the second image dressed like that in public conversing with others. Though there are some aspects of real life that are situated in real life such as the advertisements in the third image. Not a day will go by in real life that we will not see advertisement and this goes with Second Life as well. New Media has found its way into the cyber-culture through the use of internet and technology.

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Mini-Project 5-2

This particular photo is of a darker times castle during sunset. It's modeling and construction I find to be absolutely beautiful. The vastness of the place completed by the historical feel draws one in for the need of exploration unlike that of a simple one story building. The complexity keeps the place more exciting, causing more people to take interest. The repetition of objects leads the eye around, keeping movement.

This photo basically represents a large platform that appears to be the body of a large insect. The uniqueness of the layout captured my interest. The glow effects and the fog give the place an almost sort of eerie atmosphere completed by the fact that this place is in space. The picture gives you the feel as if you were standing on this large insectoid and almost makes you want to explore because of the strangeness of it all. It's almost as if it's an enemy lair in a particular sci-fi video game.


This place I found really neat. It has a lot of of wispy glowy lines that almost give a sort of wind effect in a majestic sort of way. These wispy things surround a single tree encased in itself with a bright piano. It kind of seems like something out of a story book or something from Disney. Without the glowy lines, this place would be much less interesting. They truly bring the place together to draw ones attention.

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Mini-Project #5.1

As I was walking through some creepy woods place, I saw a closed door that seemed to go into a large rock. Being curious, I opened the door and I found this bright green-glowing portal behind it. (I went through the portal and it brought me inside a house.)

While I was flying underwater at a certain location, I saw lots of different sea animals. But this school of fish—or more like cyclone of fish—especially got my attention. I went into the center of the “cyclone” and snapped a picture.

This city looked old-fashioned and partly destroyed. It’s not easily apparent in this picture, but many of the buildings here were slanted rather than perfectly upright. The dark clouds in the sky gives the scene a dark, mysterious feeling.

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Mini-Project #6 Part 1

DUE: Tuesday, March 8th

The purpose of this project is to invite the student to think about and document an alternate way for social networks to function. As discussed in class, there are many methods for re-contextualizing elements of new media. From Lev Manovich, we learn that variability and modularity are principle components of new media. While he was discussing the fundamental components of new media, we can apply these principles to the broader context of new media in the form of mashups, remixes and repurposing.

Web 2.0 social sites have purported purposes. The student will select a Web 2.0 social site and will write a two paragraph paper describing (a) the intended function and purpose of that site and (b) how the student intends to subvert this function and use it to a different purpose. Please include specific details for both how this will be accomplished and how it will be documented. This two paragraph proposal will be posted as a new entry on the blog labeled "Project #6 Proposal".

Here is a list of potential sites (but not the only available sites):

Wikipedia

Friendster

Myspace

Facebook

Youtube

Flickr

Twitter

Last.fm

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Mini-Project #5

DUE: March 1st

Each student will enter second life and create three stunning photographs in the virtual world. These could be portraits, landscapes or abstract, but must maintain a strong sense of design, composition and visual aesthetic. Your avatar CAN NOT be in the final images. These three images can be minimally cropped in aviary.com, but the final images must have all references to their source viewer removed. In other words, all viewer elements from your Second Life software should be cropped when taking the photo. Following this step by step tutorial should make it simple enough to not need additional software.

To do this, you will need to use your camera controls, your flying abilities and other inventive field photography techniques to get the right angle and image. Begin by selecting the view controls at the bottom of the Second Life Viewer and adjust your camera to the visual field you want. Next, determine what lighting you will need. To select your world lighting, go to World menu > Sun and select the correct time of day for your viewer. Finally, in the menu bar go to World menu > Snapshot. A new window will open. Verify that the "Save to Computer" box is checked. Click the "More >>" button to show advanced controls. Your resolution should be selected to no smaller than 1920 by 1080 (please uncheck "constrain proportions"). You may use alternate image dimensions, if required, but please use these as a minimum resolution. When changing the dimensions of the image, you may need to hit the refresh button in order to save your image. Select to save the image as JPEG. If you need further help, please consult this guide.

All three of these images should be posted to one (1) new blog entry before class, along with a brief paragraph of the student's description of their intent with the images. Please discuss how the virtual platform of Second Life affected your decisions for the content of the images you select. Reference the readings we have done. This project is not graded on a pass or fail basis, but will be considered according to the grading rubric handed out at the beginning of the semester.

This assignment will require an inventive use of search engines in world and out in order to discover new places and things to photograph. For further source material, please visit the site of virtual world artists Eva and Franco Mattes, whose project on the 13 most beautiful avatars should be seen.

UPDATE: All students should redo this project, keeping in mind the comments made in class critique. Do not feel like you need to retake images from the same places or people, but that you will take photographs in Second Life which reference the course concepts. Please have these posted to the blog before class on Thursday, March 3rd.

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READING RESPONSES 9 - 13

Social and Technological: open source
Reading Responses:
9: Social Interaction Design
10: visualcomplexity (visit three projects from each category on the right hand side)
11: What is collaboration?!
12: Clay Shirky - Group Politics
13: GNU Manifesto

Please visit each of the (5) five sites (some are quick visuals), but only write three (3) essays on readings 11 - 13. Post these to the class website by Thursday, March 10th. Each essay should be no less than two paragraphs in length and summarize the main points of the articles read. It should also include any insights and considerations you had in relation to the reading. Please continue to number the readings as you have done in the past.

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Mini Project #5

For this mini-project I wasn't too sure at first how to go about it, but thanks to this first image I had a topic to work with. Completely by chance I took this photo to test out the camera settings, instead it came out to this unique apocalyptic view of second life. A lone woman trying to survive this hellish nightmare that now plagues earth. From here I decided to go with this theme of "the end of life as we know it" type of deal. This first photo would inspire the next two photos I would later take for this project.



This second photo I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. While exploring the region of "Korea1" a player transformed himself into a giant gorilla. When I saw the massive primate I thought to myself "King Kong". So I tilted the camera down to give him a more taller look, had a few people enter my frame, and waited for the right facial expression. When all was right I snapped the shot and you now have the picture you see here. A angry giant gorilla getting ready to destroy a city with all it's people. If that doesn't spell doomsday then I don't know what does.


The last photo I stumbled upon by complete luck. While searching for new areas to photograph I came upon an area known as "Immortalis". It was a dark and gloomy area that perfectly fit the description of my theme. The cherry on top though was this church area that was completely destroyed with lava oozing out. I know we're not allowed to have our avatar in the final photo, but I put mine in anyways cause I felt like it added more to the shot. As you can see the image depicts a survivor who has stumbled upon a destroyed church. If this didn't survive the "apocalypse" what hope is there? Well that's what I tried to get out of the picture anyways ahahah.

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