Technology becomes more and more integrated into our lives every single day. Upgrades of iPhones, new Android apps, multiple types of tablets, phones for your tablets, tablets for your tablets... the evolution of technology is astounding and unstoppable. The more new gadgets that come out the more we think we need them, and the more we become engulfed in what we're holding in our hands rather than what surrounds us in our everyday lives. In the Ted talks I watched, Pattie Maes discusses Sixth Sense technology, technology that utilizes our natural body language and gestures to create and control tech.
While watching the video titled "Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense," I paid close attention to the clip Pattie showed of Pranav Mistry using the SixthSence technology in studio and out on the street. I thought the motion to take a picture (framing your index fingers and thumbs to create a rectangle) was really interesting!! As a photographer, I do that on occasion when trying to frame something in my mind, so I thought using that gesture as a tool to take pictures with their SixthSense photography. From that example alone, I have a clear sense of what their goal is as a technology producing company. Is it realistic? That is something I'm a bit less clear on.
The post processing work that the SixthSense technology seems like a step backwards, in my opinion. If someone is out with their smart phone, they can take a photo, edit with apps, and post online literally within minutes of taking the picture. With SixthSense they have to take it back to the studio in order for any post processing (photos for this example) to happen. It draws out the 'sharing' time which is often the reason people take the photos to begin with - to share online with their friends, expanding their handheld technology onto social networking technology and more.
The biggest drawback about where our culture is going with technology is the idea that reality is more interesting when it has some type of technological correlation. Facebook has given us the tools to continuously keep in touch with our friends and encouraged us to share with multiple mediums. When I was out for dinner the other night, I paid attention to how often my friends and I would bring up something Facebook related, "Oh I saw your post about that band coming into town! We should go!" or "Your pictures of your new apartment are so cute, I saw them on Facebook!" Conversation redirects to include one of our most frequently used communication tools, which can be good or bad. It's good because we can share with a broader audience, it's bad because the information we're giving our audience is less intentional and more passive.
Technology as a whole has definitely redirected our growth, market, and social focus for our everyday lives and our futures. We're using our bodies less and our minds more. With SixthSense is trying to do is give people back the ability their body has while still having it be involved with technology in some way. I think the concept is brilliant, but the execution of it must be solid and compliment the fast technology market in order for it to take off.
Sources:
The Thrilling Potential of SixthSense Technology. Perf. Pattie Maes. TED Talks, 2009. Web.
Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense. Perf. Pattie Maes. TED Talks, 2009. Web.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Week 8 :: Wix
Last week in class we had the opportunity to use online website builders to create a group website pertaining to Western Washington University. My group chose to use Wix which is what I will be writing about in this blog. I've had previous experience with Wix for my photography page, but I have never finished a page with the builder until this group assignment. While I found their format and look to be more ideal than Weebly, the customization interface was a bit confusing and inconsistent. I will explain the pros and cons about using Wix in this blog post.
Wix had really intricate and interesting templates that had the 'wow' factor for what a lot of pages want. Between interesting flash-style slideshows and a large variety of fonts, the customization ability with Wix was impressive. You could choose a template and change enough of it to create something completely new and unique. The interchangeability of the templates were definitely something I desired when creating a page, having it look exactly like the template it offered every other free Wix user wasn't a way to catch someone's eye, even as visually stimulating as they may have been.
From the Wix page, you can find many great tutorial videos which clearly explain the functions and tools of Wix sites and how to start, edit, add, and change elements of your Wix page. This webiste: http://www.wix.com/support/main/flash/getting-started/video-tutorials-step-step-help has video tutorials from Getting Started to Wix Editor to Saving and Publishing to Support Tools. I found the Wix Editor video to be most helpful because of how difficult I found the editing interface to be, which I explain in the following paragraph.
The cons about Wix is that it is ideal for only one person to use at a time. When using it for the group project, we had trouble with saving multiple changes from different computers. We had to prioritize our time in segments to allow for each person to access our conjoined Wix account to be able to edit, change, add, and save pages. Because companies can have more than one person running a site, using Wix wouldn't be the most ideal due to the fact that it's very 'solo user' based. I also found some of the interface options to be a bit confusing and hard to get used to. When changing pages, instead of clicking on the links on the page, you had to go over to the edit bar to switch to the page you desired to edit. This caused misclicking which moved items you didn't want moved, added other elements, or added features to other pages you didn't want anything edited on.
Overall, using a webpage builder like Wix gave me the great opportunity to see what a 'real' website could look like with the right knowledge and tools, but I would recommend Wix as a solo project based site, rather than using it for group projects one may encounter. To check out the page my group and I made, visit this link: http://trybeforeyoudie5.wix.com/kickthebhambucket
Wix had really intricate and interesting templates that had the 'wow' factor for what a lot of pages want. Between interesting flash-style slideshows and a large variety of fonts, the customization ability with Wix was impressive. You could choose a template and change enough of it to create something completely new and unique. The interchangeability of the templates were definitely something I desired when creating a page, having it look exactly like the template it offered every other free Wix user wasn't a way to catch someone's eye, even as visually stimulating as they may have been.
From the Wix page, you can find many great tutorial videos which clearly explain the functions and tools of Wix sites and how to start, edit, add, and change elements of your Wix page. This webiste: http://www.wix.com/support/main/flash/getting-started/video-tutorials-step-step-help has video tutorials from Getting Started to Wix Editor to Saving and Publishing to Support Tools. I found the Wix Editor video to be most helpful because of how difficult I found the editing interface to be, which I explain in the following paragraph.
The cons about Wix is that it is ideal for only one person to use at a time. When using it for the group project, we had trouble with saving multiple changes from different computers. We had to prioritize our time in segments to allow for each person to access our conjoined Wix account to be able to edit, change, add, and save pages. Because companies can have more than one person running a site, using Wix wouldn't be the most ideal due to the fact that it's very 'solo user' based. I also found some of the interface options to be a bit confusing and hard to get used to. When changing pages, instead of clicking on the links on the page, you had to go over to the edit bar to switch to the page you desired to edit. This caused misclicking which moved items you didn't want moved, added other elements, or added features to other pages you didn't want anything edited on.
Overall, using a webpage builder like Wix gave me the great opportunity to see what a 'real' website could look like with the right knowledge and tools, but I would recommend Wix as a solo project based site, rather than using it for group projects one may encounter. To check out the page my group and I made, visit this link: http://trybeforeyoudie5.wix.com/kickthebhambucket
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Week 7 :: Social Media & Social Change
Facebook. Twitter. Google+. YouTube. Tumblr.
Chances are you have an account with at least one of these social media sites, if not more. Social media is taking over as the main way we communicate with not only our friends, but with people we've never met. It has expanded the channels of communication by inviting non-exclusiveness, anonymity, and interaction for people who would never had the opportunity to talk or share content with before. YouTube has it's own 'celebrity' vloggers and entertainers. People find their news on Twitter. Facebook allows interaction with businesses. Social networking and websites has become so dominant in our culture that it's even integrating into our everyday discourse. It's an important movement to recognize because of its mass increase in traffic and volume each and everyday.
According to the YouTube video "The Social Media Revolution 2012," the number of people on Facebook would make it 3rd place for highest populated country, winning over the United States. Having this many people from so many different places and so many different demographics allows for a much more open discourse and accessibility to others. I remember initially hearing about the Occupy Movement through Facebook and Reddit before ever hearing about it on the news. People would post Occupy forums on Reddit encouraging other people to Occupy their cities and share tactics, signs, photos, etc. Having the tool of social media to communicate to people you'd otherwise not be able to speak to allows for information to travel fast. It's difficult for government to regulate it and keep up with what is being posted. This explanation goes along well with Malcolm Gladwell's article titled "Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted" which explains how social movement nowadays is accelerated and amplified compared to pre-internet days. For example with the equality movement for blacks back in the 1960s used a body rhetoric tactic for social movement by sitting in places they were not allowed to be at the time due to segregation. The way word got around for doing this was through telling people about it, but it was mainly localized due to the limited access to spreading the word elsewhere. The difference now is with social media the limitations are minimal and the information is fast.
Social media can induce social change with viral force. An example of this is the Kony 2012 video. If you haven't heard of it before, the Kony 2012 movement was started by a man named Jason Russell highlighting the children being mistreated and put to war by a man named Kony in Africa. The video was 30 minutes long and had an immense amount of Pathos being used to invoke an emotional response to donate money to Invisible Children to help the kids in Africa featured in the video. I remember being on Facebook and all the sudden seeing at least 30 posts by Facebook friends linking the Kony 2012 youtube video and telling everyone they "HAD" to watch it. The video is extremely well done and definitely invites participation and initiation of a social movement through it's well formulated organization and content. The controversy was its legitimacy due to rumors about Invisible Children not using all the donation money for the movement to save the children under Kony's reign. Another issue was the supposedly 'dated' information about Kony and his whereabouts, because according to some sources Kony had already been arrested. I found out all of this information through social media - not necessarily my friends posting the information themselves, but them sharing links of sites telling this information. Without social media, I don't know how much I would have found on my own.
It's amazing being a part of this millennium social media uprising that my generation is so engulfed in. Having these socials tools is what I've known and become so used to since I was 13-14 years old and first had dial up internet and AOL Instant Messenger. My involvement with online social networking only snowballed from that point and has definitely integrated itself into my daily routine. The majority of my news comes from posts on Facebook or Reddit and it's a rare day when I have to google something to find out what it is all about, since information is so quickly posted and explained on social media sites. Social media and social change are intensely connected and will continue to be due to the fast growth of the online population. This is not just a fad, like the video questions, it is most certainly a solid revolution.
Sources:
Gladwell, Malcolm. "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted." The New Yorker. 4 Oct. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell.
Kony 2012. Dir. Jason Russell. 2012. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc
Ngak, Chenda. "Invisible Children's "Kony 2012" Viral Video Stirs Emotion and Controversy." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 8 Mar. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57393346-501465/invisible-childrens-kony-2012-viral-video-stirs-emotion-and-controversy
Chances are you have an account with at least one of these social media sites, if not more. Social media is taking over as the main way we communicate with not only our friends, but with people we've never met. It has expanded the channels of communication by inviting non-exclusiveness, anonymity, and interaction for people who would never had the opportunity to talk or share content with before. YouTube has it's own 'celebrity' vloggers and entertainers. People find their news on Twitter. Facebook allows interaction with businesses. Social networking and websites has become so dominant in our culture that it's even integrating into our everyday discourse. It's an important movement to recognize because of its mass increase in traffic and volume each and everyday.
According to the YouTube video "The Social Media Revolution 2012," the number of people on Facebook would make it 3rd place for highest populated country, winning over the United States. Having this many people from so many different places and so many different demographics allows for a much more open discourse and accessibility to others. I remember initially hearing about the Occupy Movement through Facebook and Reddit before ever hearing about it on the news. People would post Occupy forums on Reddit encouraging other people to Occupy their cities and share tactics, signs, photos, etc. Having the tool of social media to communicate to people you'd otherwise not be able to speak to allows for information to travel fast. It's difficult for government to regulate it and keep up with what is being posted. This explanation goes along well with Malcolm Gladwell's article titled "Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted" which explains how social movement nowadays is accelerated and amplified compared to pre-internet days. For example with the equality movement for blacks back in the 1960s used a body rhetoric tactic for social movement by sitting in places they were not allowed to be at the time due to segregation. The way word got around for doing this was through telling people about it, but it was mainly localized due to the limited access to spreading the word elsewhere. The difference now is with social media the limitations are minimal and the information is fast.
Social media can induce social change with viral force. An example of this is the Kony 2012 video. If you haven't heard of it before, the Kony 2012 movement was started by a man named Jason Russell highlighting the children being mistreated and put to war by a man named Kony in Africa. The video was 30 minutes long and had an immense amount of Pathos being used to invoke an emotional response to donate money to Invisible Children to help the kids in Africa featured in the video. I remember being on Facebook and all the sudden seeing at least 30 posts by Facebook friends linking the Kony 2012 youtube video and telling everyone they "HAD" to watch it. The video is extremely well done and definitely invites participation and initiation of a social movement through it's well formulated organization and content. The controversy was its legitimacy due to rumors about Invisible Children not using all the donation money for the movement to save the children under Kony's reign. Another issue was the supposedly 'dated' information about Kony and his whereabouts, because according to some sources Kony had already been arrested. I found out all of this information through social media - not necessarily my friends posting the information themselves, but them sharing links of sites telling this information. Without social media, I don't know how much I would have found on my own.
It's amazing being a part of this millennium social media uprising that my generation is so engulfed in. Having these socials tools is what I've known and become so used to since I was 13-14 years old and first had dial up internet and AOL Instant Messenger. My involvement with online social networking only snowballed from that point and has definitely integrated itself into my daily routine. The majority of my news comes from posts on Facebook or Reddit and it's a rare day when I have to google something to find out what it is all about, since information is so quickly posted and explained on social media sites. Social media and social change are intensely connected and will continue to be due to the fast growth of the online population. This is not just a fad, like the video questions, it is most certainly a solid revolution.
Sources:
Gladwell, Malcolm. "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted." The New Yorker. 4 Oct. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell.
Kony 2012. Dir. Jason Russell. 2012. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc
Ngak, Chenda. "Invisible Children's "Kony 2012" Viral Video Stirs Emotion and Controversy." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 8 Mar. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57393346-501465/invisible-childrens-kony-2012-viral-video-stirs-emotion-and-controversy
The Social Media Revolution 2012. 2012. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Week 6 :: Social Media
Social media is a tool I use multiple times daily not only for communication, but for news and knowledge. Out of the list supplied in this week's blog assignment, there was only one social media site I did not know: Digg. Since I already had memberships or knew about the other sites, I chose Digg to join and research from both the inside and outside of the site.
First, and overview is in order, since that was the initial step I took before digging in (hah..) Digg is a user-submitted content based site that allows for users to vote to rank importance or interest in posts that are submitted. Top posts become featured on the main page so more Digg users see them. The name Digg came from the slang "dig" which is 'to like,' and when users vote on posts they either Digg it or Bury it. The only way you can create a Digg account is through having a Facebook or Twitter account, which limits the amount of people who can use it, but encourages interchangeable content between those social media sites.
There's much comparison between Digg and Reddit, which is another user-submitted content based site with a voting system. I, myself, am a regular Redditor, so I was surprised I hadn't heard of Digg before especially as it is a competitor to one of my favorite websites. Criticism and praise about Digg comes from a variety of sources, but Rachel Metz from MIT Technology Review had the most thorough and well stated comparison of the two sites. Between January 2010 and May 2010 Reddit gained over 7 millions unique users, whereas Digg's number of users dropped significantly. A main complaint about Digg is the interaction interface - there is a limited amount of interaction you can have with other Digg users, despite the site being driven by user-submitted content. Commenting on stories, according to Digg's site, is not yet an option because they "are a hard problem to solve." For being a dedicated Redditor and not having the comment option on Digg, I feel restricted to the community Digg could potentially have if they allowed users to interact more readily. Also, while browsing through Digg, I noticed there are only a few main monitors for ALL content. These are not monitors from the Digg user community, but rather hire-ons working for Digg. Much of the time they are the one's deciding what content ends up on the home page, which almost defeats the purpose of a voting system all together.
My overall impression of Digg was that it's a fantastic idea that didn't quite develop in the most enjoyable way from a user standpoint. The concept of democratically run content is fantastic, but when the site limits their user interaction with the content they post it puts a barrier between where Digg is and the potential it could have as a user-based community, like Reddit. Besides the function of the site, I did enjoy the layout of the content. It's far more image based in comparison to Reddit, which for someone who tends to favor visuals versus reading text, I was diggin' that aspect.
Sources:
"Frequently Asked Questions." Digg. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. http://digg.com/faq.
First, and overview is in order, since that was the initial step I took before digging in (hah..) Digg is a user-submitted content based site that allows for users to vote to rank importance or interest in posts that are submitted. Top posts become featured on the main page so more Digg users see them. The name Digg came from the slang "dig" which is 'to like,' and when users vote on posts they either Digg it or Bury it. The only way you can create a Digg account is through having a Facebook or Twitter account, which limits the amount of people who can use it, but encourages interchangeable content between those social media sites.
There's much comparison between Digg and Reddit, which is another user-submitted content based site with a voting system. I, myself, am a regular Redditor, so I was surprised I hadn't heard of Digg before especially as it is a competitor to one of my favorite websites. Criticism and praise about Digg comes from a variety of sources, but Rachel Metz from MIT Technology Review had the most thorough and well stated comparison of the two sites. Between January 2010 and May 2010 Reddit gained over 7 millions unique users, whereas Digg's number of users dropped significantly. A main complaint about Digg is the interaction interface - there is a limited amount of interaction you can have with other Digg users, despite the site being driven by user-submitted content. Commenting on stories, according to Digg's site, is not yet an option because they "are a hard problem to solve." For being a dedicated Redditor and not having the comment option on Digg, I feel restricted to the community Digg could potentially have if they allowed users to interact more readily. Also, while browsing through Digg, I noticed there are only a few main monitors for ALL content. These are not monitors from the Digg user community, but rather hire-ons working for Digg. Much of the time they are the one's deciding what content ends up on the home page, which almost defeats the purpose of a voting system all together.
My overall impression of Digg was that it's a fantastic idea that didn't quite develop in the most enjoyable way from a user standpoint. The concept of democratically run content is fantastic, but when the site limits their user interaction with the content they post it puts a barrier between where Digg is and the potential it could have as a user-based community, like Reddit. Besides the function of the site, I did enjoy the layout of the content. It's far more image based in comparison to Reddit, which for someone who tends to favor visuals versus reading text, I was diggin' that aspect.
Sources:
"Frequently Asked Questions." Digg. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. http://digg.com/faq.
Metz, Rachel."Why Did Reddit Succeed Where Digg Failed?" MIT Technology Review. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428520/why-did-reddit-succeed-where-digg-failed/
Nations, Daniel. "A Review of Digg." About.com. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. http://webtrends.about.com/od/digg/gr/digg_review.htm
Nations, Daniel. "A Review of Digg." About.com. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. http://webtrends.about.com/od/digg/gr/digg_review.htm
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