More Templates

Those are great templates... here is a list of more that I give out in my classes...

• http://www.free-css-templates.com/free-templates.html
• http://ideas.nty3.com/css-templates.html
• http://www.oswd.org/
• http://www.openwebdesign.org/
• http://andreasviklund.com/templates/

web design templates

If anyone's looking for web site design templates, here's a useful site:
http://www.oswd.org/

Smoky Podcast

Episode one -- listen!

Twidiot

Click to Play

It's satire... on twitter... but you gotta wait until the very last line...

[btw the audio is not so great...;) ]

Thanks to Maureen, Lisa, and Lou!

Episode One: Body

Here's our great teaser to our video!

(2 seconds, 428 Kb)

Pasting in blip code

Here's a comment about this video.
Click To Play

Body Clip

Click to Play

A tease at the longer form body video -- shot in class!

Assignment for 07/30/07

1. If you didn't shoot video, shoot video!

2. Work in iMovie or Final Cut to make an edit.

3. Watch all the chapters in this New Media Literacies Profile on Videoblogging.

We will look at compressing your projects and outputting... and posting to your blogs.

We'll also take a look at creating audio podcasts with GarageBand -- I'll post some audio for you all to work with.

USB 2.0 vs Firewire..

So, generally, when I do video editing it's on dedicated machine (read: internal harddrives)...
I did do little bits here and there with external drives, but for sure only minimal amounts with my external USB drives...

As such, I decided to do a bit of investigating after our discussion in class...

Turns out, there are more differences between the underlying architectures of usb and firewire.... so for video firewire is better...

At least according to this article:
http://www.thedvshow.com/faq-pro/index.php?action=article&cat_id=004&id=210

I think for little things (like our little videos) it's still going to be ok... but nonetheless wanted to share this tidbit since I thought they were more interchangeable than they actually are.

Lacie Drives

I bought a reconditioned Lacie drive from their website (250Gb for $80)
http://www.lacie.com/products/clearance/products/?id=10007
which has been great. I recommend you get one with firewire and usb if you ever want to "clone" or "ghost" your hard drive.
http://www.macmall.com
( a reliable vendor) also is having a sale on Lacie right now.

Lacie Rugged Drive

Here's that drive that you can literally kick around. It *is* USB 2.0 -- so could be used for PCs, as well.

It's a nifty little drive.

Final Project Proposals

A reminder that everyone should have a formal final project proposal.

So far I've received hard copy proposals from Lisa, Seth and Maureen.

I received an email description from Bruce (which I've responded to) and Tony and Alina posted their project descriptions.

So that leaves Engin and Tim -- did you post something (or send me?)

I'll meet with each of you individually tomorrow to go over these project proposals.

Tony's proj spec

Video Podcast Animated News Report

Here is an image of a Metrics "Dashboard" website that I'm in the process of building. The site will be used by NU leadership and co-op program advisors to monitor and manage program-performance. In the right column is a scrollable list of "Key Indicators". These are summary-performance statistics (ex. how many students are placed in co-op jobs, how many jobs are available, what types of experiential assignments are being completed, etc.). My project will be to 1) integrate video podcast subscription functionality into the site and to 2) produce a 60-second prototype video podcast of the key indicators. My hope is to produce the "Key Indicator" report using computer animation in the style of a Financial News Network Stock Market Update. Since such a report will have to be updated about once a month, my ultimate goal is to identify best practices for producing the video podcast routinely as an animation, and distributing it as a podcast via the dashboard site.

Please comment on the scope and suitability of this project idea.

Cameras & DV tapes

I still have one of the cameras from Ken. I bought a six-pack of DV tapes today, so if anyone wants one let me know. Ken was ok with the idea of my helping the class get access to the cameras (after hours, etc), because he usually leaves by 3:30pm.

Assignment for 07/23/07

Yikes! There's a reason I usually do this right after class.

Sorry for the delay in posting.

The assignment for Monday:

1. Purchase (at least) one mini-DV tape to use in class.

2. Please try to shoot something to bring into class to work with.

(am I forgetting something?!)

We'll pick up on Monday with iMovie and get into working with Final Cut Express... and perhaps Garageband.

I also would like to meet with each of you about your final project proposals.

Help with video

A project that demonstrates media convergence -- don’t worry if you don’t know how to implement certain technologies. Use each other as resources. As a requirement, everyone should offer some sort of help to at least one other person in class (could be a bit of code or designing a logo or helping with video).

Hello everyone: apologies for missing 2 classes... two monday's in a row where data was needed by the university leadership for tuesday... causing work into the evening. (excuses, excuses..)

I am happy to provide expertise in video production to anyone who would like to use me as a resource. My first graduate work (at BU) was in video production, and following that I enjoyed rather long career working in various producing capacities for video studios here in the Boston area.

Also, if you haven't seen it already, here is a rather effective "rich media" how-to about creating video that you might find an easy way to learn more about it...

http://www.current.tv/make/training

Del.icio.us

This tool is absolutely terrific.. It's really shines when managing lots of source-dependent research. I am trying to figure out how to get the del.icio.us and tag icons to install on a second desktop browser. I successfully loaded it into the toolbar of my browser at work as part of setting up my account. But when I went to my home computer and accessed it, i could not get back to the wizzard-sequence for loading the icons into my browser on my home machine.
Any ideas?

Facebook...

I wish Facebook had a better way for each user to apply some kind of rating on each friend to indicate the strength of the relationship-- something descriptive like:

1) "referred to me by___ "'
2) "I was referred by___ ";
3) "I'm a fan"; 4) "Fan of me";
5) "Appears we're mutual fans";
6) "Sharing first thoughts/ideas";
7) "Completed first engagement";

The user could have control over how much others see of this; would be helpful in prioritizing friends and networks for more refined outreach... you guys see anything like this on the site. I don't see anything...

Tony's Blog

My blog will live as a link within a new website I'm building. I want prospective users to enter the live prototype of the site, click on the blog link, and offer commentary and feedback on the design and usefulness of the site design.

I used Word Press. I guess you have to have a Word press account to post onto the blog. If you don't have an account, you can only comment on exisiting posts by the blog owner. (duh, can anyone confirm that this is, in fact, the case?)

I have posted two items, one asking for feedback on the overall design and navigability of the site, and a second asking for feedback on the reports that are available to users for download.

I'm still trying to figure out how to set up my link to the blog so that when you click on it from the site, the blog will open within the site, and not as a separate window. Any one got HTML skills? that could comment on how to approach this?


www.nueemetrics.wordpress.com

Video Camera Instructions pdf

http://www.dent.umich.edu/informatics/quicklinks/Canon_GL1.pdf

Monday class detail

Hi folks -- I'm going to have to wrap up class a little earlier on Monday -- closer to 8 (Bruce can take a leisurely walk to his train instead of running!)

Data Visualization

I found this site and it seems pretty interesting. It takes a data set and it visualizes it. There are groups to discuss and theorize. It is interesting: Many Eyes

Copyright?

http://www.convergence.blogspot.com/

Assignment for 07/16/07

1. Read the MediaShift post on social media -- I encourage you to leave a comment on that site!

2. Read the handout on shooting video.

3. Based on this specification of a final project:

A project that demonstrates media convergence -- don’t worry if you don’t know how to implement certain technologies. Use each other as resources. As a requirement, everyone should offer some sort of help to at least one other person in class (could be a bit of code or designing a logo or helping with video).

write your project spec for next week.

4. Try out del.icio.us

"Friend Power"

Check out this post on the Mediashift blog regarding social media and social networkings.

Kismet!

Share your thoughts -- based on what we looked at in class and discussed -- in the comments to that post.

Bruceblog

http://whatsthisheresauce.wordpress.com

God help us all!

My blog

My blog's at http://amak2007.blogspot.com

On the article:
It's true that blogs make information more interactive. Notice people feel more free to comment on things, whereas before, if you really wanted to say something, you'd have to send a letter in or call in to the radio/tv stations.

On one hand, it makes it more interesting to see so many views. On the other hand, there can certainly be some really dragged out commentary out there. But as Seth said in class last week, who's to say what commentary is valid and what's not.

Thoughts on Article

I have never spent much time thinking about how you can see if your content is "popular" with a blog and other convergent media. I'm thinking about whether that matters to everyone who creates "new" media... I assume it's a point... I mean if no one read my blog I would probably stop posting to it for sure, but then again it's not about the number of people who read my blog, it's about the fact that a number of my friends and family members read it and stay connected with me in ways other than just blabbing on the phone... so "popular" is the wrong word... but "valued" and assessed by some other sort of qualitative data point is for sure important.

my first blog, take a picture.

I'm bummed that there's another Chinese Maureen out there in the world which I found out by checking maureent.blogspot.com. I wondered for a second if I had an alternate personality that knew how to read/write Chinese. Nevermind that her last initial is also T, but I thought I was the only Chinese Maureen in the world- this really ruins my outlook on life.

Assignment for 07/09/07

1. Take a look at blogger and wordpress and choose one to build your own blog.

2. Read this post by Robert Scoble on Social Media and blog about it.

3. Start thinking of a final project, but we'll discuss the requirements/parameters in more depth next week.

Lisa Tessering

Well, this is super exciting. Here is my first blogging site. I do need to find a focus to it. Rather than just babbling about nothing.

http://tesserwell.blogspot.com/

Seth's Blog - not lisa's blog, mine. Seth. Me.

Well, this is my blog: http://www.sethmerriam.net/blog/



But this is my class blog: http://dm3452sjm.blogspot.com/

Readings

I thought the articles had some interesting points. As someone who had never really heard of convergence before, the readings really makes me think of what's next and where will it come from...?

I'm skeptical about the value of the "social mapping" that Johnson talks about in his article. I agree that it is considerably more difficult to follow along with the plots of shows like "24" without understanding the interpersonal dynamics of the characters, and that because of the complexities of those interactions, one must exercise one's brain more fully than watching most other TV shows. But Johnson also says in his article that when we "play along" in front of these shows "The content of the game you're playing, admittedly, suffers from a shallow premise and a highly artificial environment".
Does watching a "Reality Show" that is essentially a complete fabrication teach us anything about our own interactions? Does interacting digitally with strangers help us learn about face-to-face interaction?

(Rant alert)
I guess part of my skepticism relates to my inability to find any interest whatsoever in the lives, loves, and foibles of Paula Abdul, Paris Hilton, or Jerry Springer. Are these really the role-models that we want to learn social interaction from?
-In Hansell's article he states "The lesson here is that on MySpace there is no distinction between personal and mass media".

I fully appreciate the ability these days of gathering information from a myriad of sources and points of view, and not having to rely only on TV or newspapers for "news or facts", however it makes it increasingly more difficult to parse the "truth" from
opinion, hyperbole, or even subliminal marketing ploys. Quite often it seems to me that people are offering "too much information"

Readings

The content and media are more sophisticated because users/audience-members are more sophisticated...

... of course with lower barriers to entry (media making tools / internet are easily accessed), the content-creation and distribution field is leveled ... thus more competitive than it ever has been.

..and with old lines between content and form breaking down.... producers are now creators of a variety of modes of experience... not one-trick ponies..

So it sort of goes without saying that in such an unsettled and increasingly complex and competitive environment, the creative innovators will be the long term survivors..

Readings

In describing the media companies' fears, it seems those are all actually benefits for the content creators (like us:)
1. Converging media puts the "opportunity" for revenue back into the open hands of the masses.
2. The creative anxiety seems beneficial for the greater good, since the quality expectations and competition for revenue can only catapult the standards of content design and fertile thought.
3. This paradigm shift of control over community and capitalism creates an interesting and "liberating" uncertainty.

In the book excerpt, it was a little hard for me to follow the theoretical commentary on the two narrative shows, since I had never seen either.

I think the Steve Jobs' description was great - [the difference between tv and the web as the difference between lean-back and sit-forward media.]

Also, it's interesting how in both chapters, he refers to the theme of cognitive evolution that is occuring in this digital age with social mapping likened to physical mapping...and later how in the realm of the internet - "probing is a powerful form of intellectual activity."

Example of Convergence

Current TV - user created programs and ads, broadcast on this tv station (and here).
http://www.current.tv/make
http://www.current.tv/watch

Thoughts on Reading

I thought there were many good points in the articles, but one thing that stood out for me, that I think sums up convergence, or at least my thoughts on it, is the following quote from the Saul Hansell article:

"Since the invention of the printing press, mass media have been created for the masses, not by them."

I feel like that sums it up for me because that's really the "power" (if you want to call it that) of all these "new" media formats. It allows all lots of different people to publish lots of different content to reach lots of different audiences. But it still leaves, for me, one question because it's one of those "where do you focus" scenarios (as in the cart or the horse, the chicken or the egg); Is something, like a blog, or content that is on the web and your phone convergent because it's "viewable" in many locations, and on many devices or is it convergent because it's many ideas and or individuals coming together regardless of the medium? Or, I guess, is it convergent because of both?

Example(s) of Convergence

The first example is a company which allows a organization (such as a university) to push out information to its members in many ways, but I did some research a while back specifically on their cell phone capabilities:

http://www.ravewireless.com/

I thought I'd include a second example though, because it's a little more "mainstream" and lets users access it without being part of a community (or at least in theory it does, because I guess you'd have to be part of the "whdh community" to find, and trust, the service:

http://www1.whdh.com/mobile/7onyourcell