Response to "Solutions"

As we have kept reading Andrew Keane's work, I have found that his thoughts on Wikipedia disturbing. Apparently it has "destructive consequences" which I find to be a very extreme view. I understand to a certain extent his thoughts that Wikipedia is not necessarily a scholarly source. The thing that I don't think he realizes is that the majority of the population know that already. Wiki's are user generated content, and do to that fact, yes, there may be some mistakes. However, I have found in my personal use of Wikipedia, that the site tends to be at least 99% accurate. And how do I know this? I do more research. Wikipedia is very helpful in that it allows people to find something very quickly and easily. However, because it is user generated information it is always best just to look for some other sources in order to back up the information you see there. Most professors do not allow students to use Wikipedia in a bibliography anyway. That being said, pretty much anything you search for has links to where the information came from. So if I'm not certain about the wiki pages info all I have to do is click a few of the links to see just how accurate the information is. So i disagree with the notion that Wikipedia is destructive. In fact, I'd have to say that I have done very well on a lot of papers because I have used it.

My Vision of Web 3.0

When I think about web 2.0, I almost feel as though it doesn't get much better than this. Sometimes people make assumptions that the next generation will be significantly better than the last. While I feel that some improvements can be made to get to Web 3.0, I do not think that we will have virtual interfaces that pop out of thin air just yet.
I think that Web 3.0 will first have some significant improvements in speed, granted a lot depends on the type of laptop one uses and the connections one has. Sometimes though it just depends on the amount of information is being sent from one place to another.
I think that there's a chance that we will start to see the internet show up in other places besides the computers and phones. We even discussed how there is talk that it will begin to show up in washing machines and cars.
I like the idea in the packet about Web 3.0 having making searching for something easier. Maybe we will be able to search for things in groups now, that aren't necessarily related. Imagine how much easier it would be to search for a movie and a restaurant in the same search bar and come up with locations, directions and possible even a menu.
And even though we are starting to see this now, I think that the internet will be smarter, not only giving you options for things that may be related to what you usually look for on the internet, but also just give you more options related to exactly what you tend to look at. Say if i look at a site for a certain game. Maybe my interface will give me a list of other websites with different reviews, features, and paraphenalia for that specific game.

Illustrator Project

The topic for my midterm project was the amatuerish style vs. professional production. In keeping with that I decided to use a few photos from around the web and tweak them to show how an amateur video ends up on a site like YouTube and people from around the word can enjoy it. I used both Photoshop and Illustrator. I like using filter effects a lot so I ended up using a few different ones, the most important being the film grain on the YouTube screen. Most of the time when you see an amateur video it most likely doesn't have a movie quality to it being that it is shot from a personal camera or a webcam so I was attempting to convey that.

Illustrator Proposal

Because my Midterm project was on the topic of amateur style, I feel I should do something to reflect that. While I am unsure of the type of picture I want to depict, I think it should be some sort of wacky picture of me and my friends goofing off. That would probably be in the true spirit of a YouTube video. I think i would use the live trace function and give it some different coloration, then afterward use a film grain effect from the filter gallery so the finished product would have that "homegrown" style

Midterm - Homegrown Style vs. Professional Production

Amateurism vs. Professional Production

As the internet has continued to become increasingly popular over the last 12 or so years, sites like YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook have staked their claim as popular hubs for homemade content. Consumers can upload and indulge in their own amateur content as well as that of others. Due to the ever increasing popularity of these sites, professional business, both private and public, have begun producing advertisements that imitate an amateur style as well, in an effort to emulate the Web. This amateurish style is become so popular, that some think it might eventually outweigh the value of professional production. However, this is not necessarily true. The “homegrown” style is more of an effort to connect with the audience than anything else and even though it still has to grow some more, it may never be as effective as profession production.

Any American with access to the internet is familiar with You Tube as well as social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. The success of these sites comes mainly from the idea that they are pretty much based on the consumer. They all began shortly after the start of the new millennium as contained ideas that were either independent or small parts of larger businesses such as Google or New Corporation. Now they are already among some of the most popular sites on the web. Facebook and MySpace serve as social networking sites and YouTube is a video hosting services. All three are flooded on user generated content. YouTube in particular is filled with media of the “homegrown” variety. While it is true that both Facebook and MySpace allow users the ability to upload their own videos, the immediate function of the sites is social networking. YouTube on the other hand specifically allows millions and millions of people to upload their own videos as well as rate and comment on other user content. YouTube does contain professionally produced media, such as official music videos and episodes of popular television shows, but the real reason why the site has gained worldwide popularity is because it allows users to become involved. Not just by watching or commenting, but by creating their own content. An important thing to realize, however, is that while these sites are known worldwide, and are even at times spotlighted on television venues such as popular sitcoms and the news, they are mostly contained in the Internet.

As a result of the success of amateur content and that fact that it is very internet based, companies and studios have begun to produce ads and entertainment (movies, TV. shows, etc.) that resemble amateur “homegrown” videos. Ads like eTrade’s talking baby have been granted great success. Movies such as “Cloverfield” and “Quarantine” have attempted to bring the amateur style to the big screen. While audiences were interested upon first glance however, the two movies met with very mixed reviews. Then you have movies like the recent “Paranormal Activity”, which did extremely well. With that being said, it would seem that people can enjoy the style, but in small doses, which is why there is speculation as to whether it is the “wave of the future” so to speak. It would seem that it works well if the homegrown style media is short and sweet, rather that long and drawn out, which is why videos on YouTube and commercials for companies such as eTrade connect with audiences better. Not to mention that the success has a lot to do with the actual content of the media as well. One of the reasons for the success of “Paranormal Activity’s” success is the fact that it is of the horror/suspense genre.

Amateur media in the giant scope of things seems as though it is more of a pleasure for the moment. People like it but our culture, as well as most around the world, seem to receive, professionally produced media with tope of the line graphics much better. After all, when you look at the highest grossing movies of all time, the movies that have captured the most people are movies such as the Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, Titanic, and most recently Avatar, which made over 2.5 billion dollars worldwide. None of these movies were done in an amateurish style. Instead, they are known for their use of CGI (computer generated images), amazing sound quality, and more recently 3-D technology, a style that is being used more and more frequently after the huge success of Avatar. This technology has become so popular that electronics companies such as Samsung are beginning to manufacture 3-D televisions. It may be possible to say that 3-D is the wave of the future. Nothing quite like feeling like you’re inside the movie you are watching. But even in this case there are some flaws, due the fact that people tend to have eye issues or motion sickness if they watch too long.

In the long run, it would seem that even though people enjoy the amateurish style used in different media, it ma only be a passing fancy, a fad of sorts. I think it will always be popular, but will never become as popular as the professional production that we have all come to love and enjoy. Nothing beats that high definition, crisp, animated graphics if they are done the right way. I think most people would agree with me.

Live Trace in Illustrator

Let me be perfectly honest and say that I do love the live trace function...it is a very simple way to make an image your own. Here's what i started with.


And here's what i ended with...i used a 9 bit color preset and the the dark stroke effect from one of the artistic galleries. I went with this direction because I like the dark feel to it...kinda goes with the whole idea of a special ops soldier

Midterm Topic

For my midterm project, I would like to continue with those questions that we answered in class, more specifically the issue of Intention Amateurism. I find it to be an interesting thing that I can discuss and I have plenty more to say about it. I also intend to research the popularity and success of this type of media to support my own conclusions

Illustrator CS4

Even though I'm a Digital Media major, I am still a bit new to Illustrator so I kept it simple this time around. I found a picture of Sony Vaio's transparent laptop, thought it was pretty interesting. Apparently its suppose to hit the market soon.

1. I don't think that the level of professional video will drop at all. I think the "homegrown" tactic that professional companies use when producing media is an effort to connect with the audience, not a diminishing standard. They're trying to use this method to make the consumer feel as if they could have made it. In all reality, that professionally mocked unprofessional video is of a better quality than a video the consumer could make with a camcorder or a flip. There is an "industry standard" right now, and if you're speaking with anyone who produces high quality media, they'll easily inform you of what they're using, and why everyone uses it. I think if anything the quality will continue to increase, whether or not the content is a parallel. The effort of a singer in a crowd of singers is similar to a singers video in the internet crowd. If they're good enough, the word will spread because it can so quickly now.

2. Upon reading the article about the Bloom Box, the tags i would've anticipated were more narrowed down than the ones that were actually on delicious.com. I would have thought that the tags would be Bloom box, new fuel cell, silicon valley venture capital. The tags that were used were electricity, fuel, energy, and bloom. These are more broad, but I can see why they would be so they can cross the whole audience and scanning the keywords.

3. Transparency is important in social media because it allows people to have options. After reading the article "The Illusion of Transparency In Social Media" I can see that it certainly plays a big role in people's interaction in Internet environments and on some level, is similar to the meaning of being transparent in the real world. Transparency is certainly debatable, as shown in this article, due to the fact that it may give people a reason change their opinion based on the opportunities that being "transparent" provides them. It certainly brings up the question of whether you can believe everything people tell you about themselves. I personally think that it is more important in the offline world, simply because its what makes the "world go round." Its how we live, its how we survive, its how we gain opportunity. I'm not necessarily saying that people are lying when they are transparent in order to get what they want, but I am saying that there is certain information that you share and certain things that you keep to yourself. In any case the truth comes out eventually. If you are transparent from the start more doors will be opened. And I just think that is more useful in the real world than in cyberspace.

After watching the second part of "Digital Nation" I'll have to be honest I was impressed with the hands on study. This is due to the fact that usually when people talk about technology its usually just some general opinion based on how they think technology is affecting today's youth. But in this video, it shows that some people actually realize that this is the generation that we grew up in. Technology like the internet is what we were exposed to since birth. Granted I personally was born a few years before the internet really blew up, I still consider myself very fluent in using it. That being said, in order to understand why it affects us so much one must first understand that its as much a norm for us as color tv was a norm for people who were born during that time.
I also enjoyed the talk about World of Warcraft. I'm a gamer, and I do play WoW from time to time. Personally I am more of a console gamer rather that a PC gamer but it is an addicting game. I dont play nearly as much as some of the people in the video do, but it was interesting to see how it really connects people. These people can talk to each other for years and never meet each other, but when they finally do its like they have been hanging out in person for that same amount of time. While im not as immersed I can certainly relate to them as far as being a fan of the game.

Thoughts on "Digital Nation"

We've only watched a few segments of "Digital Nation", but from what I have seen, I've personally found it somewhat interesting. To be honest I have been a part of plenty of conversations in which the focus was technology "taking over." However, I have never seen any actual experimental studies done. What I personally found interesting is the idea of "less is more" when referring to brain activity. It was proven that people used more brain power to surf the internet than read a book. At first it may seem as a "pro" rather than a "con". But the doctor who performed the tests stated for correction that it was actually not a good thing.
It was interesting to hear that in surfing the internet, the average human is actually overloading their brain, because there is so much going on, therefore alot of brain power goes into making decisions, rather than being decisive. Reading a book is something that you choose to do, so the decision is made and you are just following through by reading. I would be interested in seeing if this idea is explored further in the coming segments of "Digital Nation"

The Content and Usage of Web 2.0

User generated content - any kind of publicly shared media created by the consumer for other people to enjoy

Long tail- A selling strategy in which unique items are sold in small quantities and more common items are sold in large quantities

Network as platform- when network services are distributed at an internet scale such as WebOS

Folksonomy- in the simplest terms, the managing of ones own content with the use of tagging or annotation

Syndication- when one website's material is made available on other sites, commonly with the use of web feeds

Mass collaboration is a collective effort in which large amounts of people work independently to complete one project or add on to it, such as wikipedia

Computer supported collaboration refers to things such as text and voicemail, things that explore the nature of people's relationships, whether business or pleasure.

Social software refers to things such as the networking sites, facebook and myspace. This type of software allows users to interact with one another and share their own information should they choose too.

Hosted services provide typical IT needs such as web hosting and storage.

Web applications are accessed thru web browsers. They provide entertainment and interactivity to the user

The medium is the message. Apple has made music, video, and internet accessible pretty much anywhere you go by creating the ipod and the iphone. Now, not only can you listen to music and talk on the phone, but you can also record video and play it on your big screen tv at home

Current Mediums in Communication Technology

Touch screen laptops are very recent, they still include a keyboard but hey, who doesn't love a touch screen?























Ipods have been around for awhile but the fifth generation iPod nano comes not only with standard iPod music playing features but it also includes a video camera, for those moments that a photo camera just isn't enough to capture





















Bluetooth has been around about 11-12 years. But is has gained alot more popularity over the years due to its convenient use.