Random Rambles and Rabble Rousing

My three nominated posts:

• A Pause for Reflection – March 10, 2010
• Web 2.0 – April 9, 2010
• Progress on Project B – May 6, 2010

During the course of the semester in Networked Media Production, I have generally followed a pattern of blogging after each lecture or tutorial. Therefore many of my blogs are reflecting on these and what I learnt each week. In these blogs, I covered many things, such as difficulties I was experiencing during the course. These were mostly when I didn’t understand a certain concept from the lecture. I also posted any thoughts I had on my assignments, such as ideas, complications, progress etc.

My audience was actually mostly aimed at myself, as not many other people would understand the content, unless involved in the course. I used my blog as a place where I could type up any thoughts I had for assignments or anything to do with the class. This way I could access it easily, and at the same time I had something to say in my blog posts.

My blog didn’t get a log of traffic. The few comments that people were posting were irrelevant to the topic. However, in my blog roll I listed the blogs of three others who I thought were quite interesting.

Overall my blog wasn’t too detailed or very long, but I wrote enough that I could read it later and remember any ideas I was having.

Click to see the PHOTOGRAPHIC TOUR.

For Project B, I chose to do the geo-narrative, as I couldn’t think of any sort of data I was interested in communicating to others. My first idea for the geo-narrative was to do an historical timeline. However, I researched many different historical events and was unable to find something suitable for the assignment. I then considered doing a fictional story, but came across another problem. I wasn’t able to obtain the photos I needed to do this. Finally I decided to do a photographic tour, as I already had a lot of photos that I could use. At first, I was going to make it a tour of several countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Italy, England and France. I soon realised that this would have been too much, and I already had more than enough photos from just one country, Egypt. There was also too much of a stretch when I added paths to other countries, therefore I chose to stick to just one. I then went about picking out the most famous sites in Egypt to use. I chose 15 and located photos from my collection. As I discovered, it was much easier to add photos to Google Maps if they were already uploaded somewhere else. I therefore made an album in Facebook to upload these photos to, as I don’t have a Flickr account.

The next thing I did was located the sites on the map. I started at location furthest north and worked my way down. Once I had all the sites marked on the map, I drew lines between them. Red lines indicate road travel, blue lines are short distances that can be walked, green indicates flight is necessary, and yellow indicates travelling by boat. For many of these lines, I snapped them to the roads so that the distance would appear in the side bar on the left. For the lines that are not along roads, I added the distance in the description section so it would also appear on the left side bar. The next step I undertook was adding the photos. Starting at the top once more, I chose ‘rich text’ and was able to add the photos simply by copying the image address and pasting it to Google Maps. I did this for all 15 sites, and added a second picture for some of them. However, one site, Aswan Dam, does not have a picture because the dam did not stay the same for very long, and is also not one of the ancient sites. I then did some brief research on each of the sites to include a short paragraph explaining the history and significance of each site.

Some problems I encountered were mainly due to the lines that can be drawn to each location. For a while I wasn’t able to draw the lines. Another instance was when I could draw the line but was unable to move or edit it. I wasn’t sure why it did this but after closing the window and reopening it, it started working again. Another problem I experienced for a while, probably due to a slow internet connection, was the maps weren’t loading, and I couldn’t see where I was placing the markers.

Nonetheless, once I was able to resolve these problems and get used to the overall running of everything, I was able to finish it with little trouble.

For project B, I was going to use a story and take photos to create it. However, I couldn’t get a hold of the photos I needed, so I decided to instead make use of photos that I already have. I am now in the process of making a photographic tour on Google Maps. This involves a tour of countries such as Egypt, Italy, France, England and Jordan. I may add more, depending on what photos are available to me.

Once I started making the map, it was a little confusing. I realised it would be easier to have the photos uploaded somewhere so that I could simply use the URL. As the photos were scattered around a few places and most of them were not uploaded, I created a Facebook album for them where I can easily access the URL.

So far, I have part of Egypt done. I had some problems drawing lines between locations though. I figured out a way around it though, and am on my way to finishing it.

This week we were shown examples of some things we could do for our assignment. At first, I was going to do a historical timeline of some sort. But after reconsidering, I’ve decided to do a fictional story which can be traced in Google Maps. I’ve started looking through Flickr for some photos and also coming up with ideas for the storyline. I am thinking of having the story run through either Canberra or the university campus itself.

Datavisualisation was relatively simple to grasp after all the examples and pictures shown. They made it a lot easier to understand. The way datavisualisation can be used by governments or other organisations was really interesting, I didn’t think it could be used so lightly.

Yesterday’s lecture was probably the most interesting one this semester. The topic was multiplicity and Michael used a lot of cool videos to demonstrate what it is. The new technology in one of the videos was quite astonishing, and definitely something I would like to see more of in the future.

For our group activity, we came up with an online system which connects to members of parliament. This system is a way by which ordinary members of the working community can come together in one place and actually have a say in the new laws which are passed through parliament, rather than simply skipping the general population and only deciding on what is important to the members of parliament. This could be formed in the way of a forum or discussion online, with tags for convenience.

This week’s lecture was pretty interesting. The activity in the tutor helped me learn a lot about certain websites and their competition. I myself was comparing YouTube and Vimeo. It was an interesting comparison, but it was also very obvious why YouTube is smashing all the other competition. We found that Vimeo is far less popular for several reasons, the main one being that videos must be original and made by the person uploading it. Any other videos will be deleted. However, Vimeo also has some highlights. For example, you can choose to share your videos with everyone, keep them private or share them with certain people. Nonetheless, YouTube is still way ahead of any competition, with millions of users logging in every day, viewing movies and uploading their own.

I also found others interesting, such as social networking websites and music websites. Various social networking sites, such as IMVU, are gaining a reputation as a popular site where young people meet each other. However, there are strict rules in chat rooms, such as no swearing or your account is suspended.

This research, and listening to the others, helped me gain a lot of insight into various sites on the internet, their purpose, how they work and their popularity. Some of the sites I had never heard of, but I soon learned just how big they are.

As this was a class free week, I don’t have much to write about.

I’ve started thinking about Project B and which one to do. I’m leaning towards the second option with some sort of historical time line. I’ll have to do a bit more research before I decide however.

Technical Processes:

To start off this assignment, I first had to decide on which of the two choices to do. I decided to build a reference page for a current affairs topic, as I already had a fair bit of knowledge on one. I considered writing it in HTML, but found that using a host website was much more flexible. I therefore used Weebly, which I found very easy to use. I began by choosing a theme for my page, followed by a basic layout on the home page. I then made a navigational bar on the left hand side to link to different pages on the website. I gradually added information, links, images and a video to build up the site. I had some initial problems with things on the website, such as the Google Map. Whenever I tried to change the default location to Darfur, it would stop loading. Instead, I had to use a custom HTML, and added a link from Google Maps. After that it worked fine.

Cultural Context:

The main reason I chose to do my assignment on the genocide in Darfur is because I was previously interested in the issue, and it falls under the classification of a current affairs topic. I was also urged to do this as I noticed that many websites based on the crisis in Darfur primarily focus on donating money and campaigning, and don’t so much include any background information or the main causes of the conflict. Websites such as the ‘Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur’ provide many videos, images and information on the campaign. They also provide facts and statistics on happenings in Darfur. However, they do not provide any real information on the background to the conflict or the conflict’s progress. My website therefore prompts the intended audience to gain intricate knowledge on the subject, rather than simply a brief overview. However, I also provide many links off to other websites such as Amnesty International and the International Rescue Committee, so that the viewer can receive a broader view of the issue.

Design Patterns/Conventions:

For my website, I decided to use a very simple layout, as anything too extravagant would have been inappropriate for the subject of the website. I therefore chose a layout which uses mostly brown and grey colours. It has a simply navigation tool on the left hand side for getting around the website. In my website I have also included a Google Map to show the location of Darfur in relation to the country of Sudan. I was also able to incorporate a YouTube video to show the extent of the conflict and a discussion form. The reason for the discussion form is so that visitors to the site can leave comments related to any part of the issue. I was also able to create links in the pictures to lead viewers onto other websites of the same cause. In the photo gallery, I used the pictures as links so that when clicked, a larger image will appear in a separate browser. My work is different to others in the field because it is a much more simple way of getting across the information. It does not ask for donations or aid, but simply gives a background to the conflict in Darfur.