word. » arturo

New Media Fantics- the struggle to get there and the experience gained along the way…

arturo — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:34:40 +0000

Well to start off, let me say that this class has not been at all what I thought it was going to be…it was focused a lot more on literature concerning new media than I anticipated. When I registered I saw that we were going to look at youtube and mmorpgs and I needed another honors course…so why not right?…so coming into it, I was expecting a lot more hands-on new media work…learning how to use youtube, flickr, social networking and the sort…but what I got was a pleasant surprise…focusing on the theory and philosophy of new media probably would not have been something that I would have found interesting before, but in the end, im glad I took the course (I guess this could relate to our metaphor of taking a path less traveled and finding unexpected things for ourselves…)

When originally thinking about my final project at the beginning of the semester, I was set on doing something with iLife and my brand spankin new MacBook Pro (spankin new at the time anyway…about a month after school started, they released the new macbooks…very frustrating to say the least)…all the commercials made it look fun and easy to use, so I wanted to try it for myself…i wanted to make a movie about something that interested as the class progressed…that didnt happen….i found that the concept of web 2.0 interested me and decided that a movie probably was not the route I wanted to take with it. Keeping my desire to work with video and wanting to emphasize the ease of posting content on the internet, I decided to create a facebook group. As the kids say it these days, epic fail…

All excited, I created the Facebook group Web 2.0/New Media- Your Thoughts…the concept was for my facebook friends (and I emphasize facebook friends) to leave video responses to various discussion topics that I proposed through video posts…and here my original intent to create a movie came back…after the mid-semester conference with dr. Campbell, I decided to make a sort of montage video of the discussions with their responses…the idea for the group was really something I would have liked to work out because I wanted to know what the general public thought of new media (or at least the theory and philosophy of new media and its effect on learning)….and I found out too- they could care less…i posted my first discussion topic and hoped for the best…turns out the best is two text responses and one facetious video response (and this is out of hundreds of friends mind you…)…and even after several pleas for contributions from my the online community, not much else happened…

So about a month and a half ago, after deleting the group, I tried starting up a wiki (i dont recall whether or not I actually made the class aware of it…) I made it through wetpaint and got everything set up…but that didnt go anywhere either…i figured that users werent very likely to leave a well established new media discussion website for my bare bones and essentially empty wiki…fail number two.

So with a month to go I started to worry about how I was going to get this project done…that is, until we had our project discussion days in class…dr. Campbell noticed that I was a visual person, posting videos and pictures to delicious, my blog, and the wiki and suggested I do something with flickr…and more specifically, with the group “Tell a Story in 5 frames”…and having nowhere else to turn, I went for it…
Flickr, I learned was an very well established online community…despite having only heard about it recently…and using flickr meant going out and taking pictures and getting to use iPhoto…so I got to use my super awesome mac (now an iMac) after all…

First to explain Flickr’s origins (as previously mentioned in my presentation to a whole 5 people…which was a load off of my shoulders…)-

Flickr is self described as “almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world” (quite a statement if you ask me, but so far, theyve backed it up)…it was founded in 2004 by the married couple Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake. Ludicorp was later absorbed by Yahoo inc…flickr was originally focused on FlickrLive, a chatroom with real-time photo exchange and later developed into an online community and additional features were added including the expansion into video.

Flickr’s goals (which have been somewhat if not completely realized) were to help people make their content available to the people who matter to them and to enable new ways of organizing photos and video. This means making it easy and appealing for people to use- they needed to make it fantic (coined by Ted Nelson in Computer Lib/Dream Machines…also, turns out my blog is the first result in google for “ted nelson fantics”)…and they have. Flickr is one of the easiest photo uploading services to use because of its extensive accessibility. I can (and have) upload photos from the internet, my iPhone (any mobile device with email would work), photo software (such as iPhoto, which I used to post my pictures used in my stories)…but we all know that posting them and having them on the internet is not enough…we have to share and engage. And we can do that through flickr.com, rss feeds, blogs, and email.

Flickr also uses its Organizr, a web app that allows users to organize their photos into sets (which are in essence, virtual albums- which helps if you take a lot of photos). Flickr also encourages users to further categorize and organize their photos through tags and relies heavily on the interaction of users within the online community through the implementation of comments, tags, annotations, and notes that can all be added by users to a photo.

I’ll save my favorite part of my experience to the very end and proceed with my actual project…I joined “Tell a story in 5 frames”…its rules were: limit of 5 photos per story; any subject, but should tell a visual story; a title is the only words that can be used. Rely on the photographs to bring the story to life. In the group, members respond by relating in their own words the story that they see, or critique the story and/or photographs and open the story up to discussion.

My first post was titled Information Consolidation, which was probably the most applicable to the literature weve read throughout the semseter (mainly the memex, and augmenting human intelect)…my intent of the story (which some understood and some didnt and had a different interpretation on which is the point of the group) was to show the flow of information both on a micro scale (opinions that are spoken then printed in newspapers, then into books, and on the internet) and an overall scale (the history of information passing through spoken word, then into print, and finally through the computer/internet)

My second and third posts were simultaneous…a day in the Life of a college student was something I wanted to do since I decided to work with flickr…ive noticed that my own schedule has been sort of consistent with studying, interacting with people, and finding just enough time to sleep…so thats the concept behind that story (sorry nothing too profound with this one)

My third post is the one that I am most proud of- The Forgotten Side of Town…being involved with Baylor Students for Social Justice, I wanted to portray how privileged we are here on the Baylor campus and how the rest of waco is a heavily poverty stricken city…the first time I went downtown to get a picture of old, worn down buildings, I didnt expect to get pictures like the ones I did…when I took the picture of the homeless man I was also surprised how quickly I was able to find impoverished people…the picture of the 8th street bridge was a sort of “tunnel of oppression” that I wanted to connect the two polar sides of waco (I had intended the title to be “polar bridge”, but I felt that some would misinterpret it and expect snow or something…) I also made it a point to bookend the story with pictures of people (a fantic parallel- youre drawn in by people interacting with each other and left with a somber photo of a single wandering man)…what was also interesting was the way I successfully manipulated the concept of time… as scott mccloud would note, theres no way of telling how much time has passed between the photos, so I shot them all around the same time during the day…not on the same day, but at the same time to maintain consistency…

Finally (and this is what I really liked about the project)- the unexpected outcomes of my work…the comments on my stories were not all that profound or substantial but enough for me to discover a baylor alumnus that was also part of the group and had actually posted the pig and rhino story that won last month…i also tried to leave waco to get more “cultural” pictures, but found that I was more able to relate to the environment that I know…it was also easier getting pictures by just walking around with my camera, not knowing what I was looking for (also a past class discussion)…but my favorite part about working with flickr was the explore function it has- you can discover new photos and video by exploring them through a map, a calendar, a tag cloud, and my favorite- THE PANDA!…ill admit- ive become less critical of the idea that conncections can be made by happenstance and that “exploring” and following links and connections can increase learning…

*Note- more pictues would have been added, but unfortunately, the blog seems to want me to upload them one at a time, so instead, i’ve tried my best to provide all the links neccessary to see the photos and websites i mention…

as things begin to wind down, everything seems to fall into place.

arturo — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:55:41 +0000

listening to Dr. Philip Long today was really interesting…his keynote adressed, although emphasized on undergraduate research, seemed to fit in perfectly with this semester’s class discussions. What was interesting was his scientific view on education and his opinion that using freshmen for researchers was the best way to innovate. he discussed the use of technology in education and that was nice, but what really intrigued me was his response to one of the questions after his presentation- whether or not our current education system could be retrofitted to promote true, out of the classroom learning…his response?…the entire system has to be redone and we need to start over and rebuild our education system from the bottom up…as i thought about it, my imagination took over and i began to reimagine the entire school system where research, application, and true learning took priority over grades, money, and politics…if we ever get to this point (which seems utopian at the moment) there’s no telling what we could learn…

my paper on my project is coming soon….

Final Project Posts

arturo — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:44:21 +0000

I posted my last two stories for my final project up: A Day in the Life of a College Student and The Forgotten Side of Town

Technical Origins

arturo — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:29:03 +0000

This essay is interesting (and clearly outdated- “If you haven’t yet experienced the Web…”). The majority of it is really technical as far as explaining how the different protocols work. It is also interesting how this essay seems to have a lot of ideas that we have discussed in it (which makes sense it being the last essay and all):

The W3, with its hypertext, describes a system similar to the memex.

One of the goals was to make it accessible to the masses- Alan Kay style.

Another one of the goals was to make it as easy to edit and organize as it is to read, which relates to our delicious bookmarks and tagging as well as the wiki.

The essay also talks about having different media available on the W3…which relates to the idea that the medium is the message…

On the subject of my project, I still have a few more pictures to take…but already have ideas on when and how I’m going to get them…I plan on posting up two more stories, which may seem to be rushing things…but I have had the ideas for these stories for a while and am quickly running out of time to execute them…I am saving what I hope will be the most effective story for last…

Turkleton.

arturo — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:19:59 +0000

I didn’t really find anything particularly exciting or revealing in Video Games and Computer Holding Power although it did get me thinking of the psychological concept of video games. The children that Sherry Turkle used as examples seemed to be a bit extreme. Video games do invite the user to become completely immersed in the virtual world…video games today offer more story lines and relatable characters (mainly because of the improved graphics that make the characters look more lifelike). More and more games are beginning to play more like movies than video games…I also find it interesting that the concepts of high scores and gamer-recognition still exist…just as X-box achievements and are now recognized globally (via the internet) rather than locally as described in the arcades.

immigrant/ project.

arturo — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:45:26 +0000

although i found the reading to be rather drawn out and repetitive, the concepts and ideas it raises are interesting. it basically suggests that if intellectually superior individuals were set apart from the general population, they would advance and develop at a much faster rate. they learn as a community- not as teachers and students, but all as learners.

However I believe this should be taken as it is- a fictional utopia. As i have expressed throughout the year, I believe that our current system is the most effective for the masses as possible. To get rid of teachers and students, tests and quizzes, would be highly inefficient. I believe that the place for true learning and innovation would be graduate school. All the up to that point serves as a foundation on which to base everything following on. Without this foundation (that is, without the student/teacher, standardized testing system we employ today), we run into common obstacles that take time to overcome on our own.

“Knowledge is dead; the school however, serves the living. It should develop in the young individuals those qualities and capabilities which are of value for the welfare of the commonwealth. But that does not mean that individuality should be destroyed and the individual become a mere tool of the community, like a bee or an ant. For a community of standardised individuals without personal originality and personal aims would be a poor community without possibilities for development. On the contrary, the aim must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals, who, however, see in the service of the community their highest life problem.” – Einstein on the Philosophy of Education

Project update- I left my camera back home over the weekend…but I feel that the rest can be done with the iPhone at this point. I hope to have my second set up by the end of the week.

Attempt Number One.

arturo — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 05:54:42 +0000

So I spent the afternoon in downtown Waco taking pictures for the project…an act I do not plan on doing again alone. I felt kind of weird driving around taking pictures while onlookers…looked on. After looking at some of the pictures I decided to save them for when I knew what I was doing. That being said, I did post my first “story“. Having spent the afternoon taking pictures and learning how to use Flickr (I had some trouble figuring out how to post the pictures in the size I wanted them.), I haven’t read Lucasfilm’s Habitat yet…but the night is young:

…and apparently there’s a method to all-nighters

Thinking more on the project

arturo — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:37:57 +0000

I seem to be losing any sort of creativity I had in my titles.

Everyone else did a wordle of their blog, so I’ll conform.

So after being shown the “Tell a Story in 5 frames” group in flickr, I looked at more entries. It seems that not everyone completely understood the concept or the rules, so I figure any entry I have can’t be much worse than these. I have a ideas for a few of them provided I get a camera in time to execute them.

Additionally, I’ve been looking at other blogs that tell stories through photos. Some may be only one photo at a time, but I feel that it leaves it open to interpretation. Although I’m not really into over analyzing art, I haven’t taken into consideration how effective visual representation is. I’m really looking forward to posting pictures up…and, depending on how I like it, I plan on continuing to do so after the class is over.

Here are a few blogs that interested me: science photography, picture stories

More Project

arturo — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:56:07 +0000

I still don’t have a clue as to what I really want to do for this project. My first idea was a little ambitious and there seems to be a lack of time or motivation to actually get a good community with meaningful conversation started. What that leaves, in my opinion, is a project done on my own- something that seems counter intuitive given our conversations of community, debate, and considering others’ perspectives. I feel that any substantial or relevant communities of discussion have already been created and that creating a new site would more or less have to involve users leaving a well established community for a site with almost no substance- which is a long shot…even if I had started at the beginning of the semester.

On a side note, I was in Barnes and Noble the other day and found this book:

Project Update.

arturo — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:24:19 +0000

Let me start off by saying that the link was not as advertised (instead i got some religous/computer science website and couldn’t find anything on Illich.) So for this blog, i’ll give an update on my project instead. After realizing that facebook was not the best medium to try my project, i decided just to do a montage/anthology of the history of new media (as broad as that may sound)…but that has now become my fallback. now, i have created a wiki much like the one we have for the class except that it’s not focused on reading as ours is…im still in the process of making it…any ideas as to how to go about actually making people aware of it as well as making it as intereting as possible to contribute and be a part of would be appreciated.