AvelisNMFall09

Bringin' It Home

2009-12-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

Forward: Fishing for Stories

To close the semester, I wanted to find a digital story or storytelling site that would surpass them all--something that would stand out among the rest. I was spurred on by Trevor's consecutive weeks of coming up with the most interesting sites we've ever seen. I began as most people do with Google. First, I searched 'Web 2.0 Storytelling.' I faintly remember hearing someone mention during our review of review sites that they would start exploring 'the tenth page,' so that's exactly what I did. I clicked '10' and much to my surprise, this is what I found:

It's my name!! I'm assuming someone created a program, similar to Jonathan Harris's that scans the web for web 2.0 storytelling, and since that was the name of my blog post, presto! The site is simply a page with two links: one to my blog post and the other to a Twitter page or tweet that is also a link (or in this case, a tiny url) to my blog.

After that, I continued to comb the web for the holy grail of digital storytelling. I stumbled upon Teach Digital: A Curriculum by Wes Fryer. It's a fantastic resource for learning how to use all different kinds of digital media. It had plenty to say about digital storytelling, without actually hosting any stories. So I marched on...

Eventually I came right back to the place where I started for my previous post. I could not catch the big fish. To Trevor I admit defeat. However I found something that while it may not push the envelope, it pushes the right buttons for me.

Going to Clifton

Going to Clifton is the story of a town tucked away in the ___ mountains of ___. Its also the beautiful story of a small, modest family making a convincing case for the saying, "home is where the heart is." We explore the Clifton elementary school, the Greenlee County courthouse, and the North Clifton RV Park. Normally I would hate simple slideshows like this with nothing more than poorly taken digital photos and and stock background music. But for once, that's exactly why I like this digital story. I think it might have something to do with the time and place or mood I watched it in, because I felt transported. I didn't look at it from above and scoff at its simplicity. Instead, I gave in and let it enfold me.

I was offered a look into the lives of complete strangers. I took a vacation to an exotic locale. I had a one-of-a-kind experience in a foreign land, but not just for once in my life. Thanks to the miracle of digital storytelling, I can revisit anytime.

The pace and tone of the story are what do it for me. This slideshow works best without dialogue because it is a very secluded, tranquil place. They even added sound effects to create more atmosphere. I felt completely at peace. I was exported from the unfriendly confines of my stress-laden bedroom to a hillside overlooking the valley. If I had to guess I would say Clifton is in New Mexico. If not, then either Nevada or Arizona, I can't be sure. I suppose I could look it up, but I don't want to. I like the mystery. I understand now what Harris was talking about when he said that sometimes it's better to only have a glance. I feel a connection with this family, but not bound, if that makes any sense. I feel the magic of grazing someone else's soul, and taking a piece of it home with me. I assume this is what Harris experiences when he collects stories. I immediately begin to understand how he could be so addicted to this; why people love to travel so much. In fact, I can even feel myself growing more and more restless--anxious for the open road.

At the end of the video there is a dedication to grandpa Salvador Romero 1914-1985. It's like the cherry on top or the prize at the bottom of the cereal box. Now I can put a face to this uncharted territory and get a better sense for what it means to the people who inhabit it. They are one with the valley. This is a place they have made their own, perhaps with blood, sweat and tears. Maybe not for the father and daughter who visit, but for his father and her grandfather, and everyone they knew in town...this is the place they call home. And I don't care who you are, it feels good to be home.

Out of Darkness

2009-12-16T21:38:00.000-08:00

How do you live when the world won't stop speaking?

This is the story of Kimberly. Unfortunately, hers is a story we hear all too often. She, like many teenagers her age, and a growing number of adults as well, suffers from insomnia and chronic depression. This is a difficult place to climb out of because each condition perpetuates the other.

"...I try my hardest to live with it. But when everything in your head is screaming, you can't sleep, and nothing makes sense. Living is sometimes your biggest problem."

Kimberly delivers this story in the first person. Although, her narration sounds very unrehearsed, which, would normally indicate authenticity--now sounds almost as if its being told in the third person. She stumbles throughout the text and doesn't sound at all emotionally attached to the story. On second thought, she may not be telling her own story.

This digital clip captures a dark moment in Kim's life that she would probably rather forget. Never mind the date and time, the town, the people around her or the color of her shoes--her experience can be wrapped up in one/two word(s): High School. Or, to be even more cruel: Senior Year. With those simple words put together, we needn't even watch the video to have a good understanding of what her story entails. Her story is about all of us; anyone who attended high school knows the bittersweet taste of that special slice of purgatory between adolescence and adulthood. For some, it is a mere bee sting that disappears in relatively no time at all. Others are doomed to play the role of Atlas (from underneath the stage) for forty years.

"Your body aches...Nothing in the world fits into that perfect puzzle you thought surrounded you."

So how does the digital medium change her story? Well for one, it is told in her own words, dubbed over a slideshow containing pictures of herself and other images to enhance the narrative. As opposed to traditional stories, which would either be spoken by word of mouth, or read in black and white text, this leaves less room to the imagination. It does however, make up for it in connectivity. This means that in some way or another, we can interact within her story-reality. Because it is in video format, not only can we can manipulate when we want to hear her speak and how loud we want to hear the story, we could even look at it without sound. We could blow it up, shrink it, pause it, copy it, send it, edit it, etc. But we could even take it one step further...

It is true that the universe is made up of stories--that everyone has a story and that they are all interconnected and overlapping. From the moment I watch her video and listen to her story, it becomes a part of mine; a connection has been made. Just as you are reading this post, it will either be brushed aside as a minor detail, or could be the catalyst in a new chapter. To take it further, I can respond, reach back, whether in past or in the present, to connect with her personally--to join the two subplots together. To demonstrate this, I have asked to be her friend on facebook. Now I've written the author a letter. Not a literal letter or message, but simply an invitation, which depending on how she interprets it or decides to react, contains a story all within itself. That digital invite, just like this post, will either be a minor detail or a major catalyst.

The future (of our story-reality) is unwritten.

Web 2.0 Storytelling

2009-12-13T20:00:00.000-08:00

This is your story.

This is your story on drugs. (aka Web 2.0)

Out of this World

May sound ridiculous, but compared to conventional methods, Web 2.0 storytelling draws more parallels to drug use than one might think. It's more rebellious, more social, and most importantly, it's free; free-spirited, free from structure and authority and academia. Every website, hyperlink, text message, iPhone app--they're all gateway drugs--psychedelics expanding our minds to new levels of consciousness, frontiers of space and creativity, inconceivable before the information age. Web 2.0 is a renaissance of writ. Creative writing and social networking haven't been this cool since Haight-Ashbury.

So have I tasted the sweet essence of endless digital possibilities? Have I succumbed to the temptress of the wiki-blogosphere? In a word, yes. I have seen the light. My notions of what constitutes a story have been forever altered. Like my mind. My mind has been altered by this mind-altering substance that is web 2.0 storytelling. Ok, I'll stop exaggerating.

But in all seriousness, I am really blown away by what new and exciting concepts people are creating all in the name of and for the sake of storytelling. From feather pens to photographs, to phonographs and film. We've come as far in the past ten years as we did the hundred years before them. Now we can actually combine all of those aforementioned elements together and link them to networks the world over. If there was ever a collective conscious shared by all who read the same story, now we can actually contribute to that incredible comprehensiveness.

Crash Course

Of the articles listed for us on Moodle, I was least impressed with the CDS videos and the Alice in Twitterland. I found Lust Bites and Two Million Happy Feet to be, for lack of a better word, delightful. I am really impressed by how dedicated this community of writers, be it professional or amateur, are to this phenomenon. Most enlightening to me were the Timely Raven and the Jonathan Harris TED piece.

The Timely Raven reads somewhat like a blog or journal, but moves like an online puzzle or video game. I never would have thought a google map could be used to tell stories. I love that it gets you not only inside the mind of the raven, but of the other characters involved. It gives you the freedom to roam wherever you want, and decide for yourself which direction to go and whose story to follow. I've always wanted to go to Austin for its arts community, but now I want to go even more.

Extracting Existential Experiences

The Jonathan Harris TED piece is just awe-inspiring. Right away he reminds the audience that there is a story behind everything--a photograph, a rusty coin, a ticket stub--they all hold some amount of sentimental value to someone. Objects are a key to unlocking our memories. Those memories are stored within us, but can only be accessed by these particular objects. When we find other people's artifacts, we are looking to see if they left upon it any piece of themselves. This is what Jonathan calls "a partial glimpse," which he claims to prefer over knowing the whole story. Forest Gump gives a great example of this when he says, "You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes." Pawn shops and thrift stores are somewhat of a memorial commons--a supermarket for sharing our 'soles.' What they lack in income levels they more than make up for in substance. I have heard Oprah say that everyone has a story, but I had never really given much thought to the notion that every thing has a story as well. You might not think that a rock would have as rich a history as that of a tree. But when you consider it was the rock that David used to slay Goliath, it changes the whole dynamic. All of sudden that rock is sacred. We've injected our beliefs into it, to the point that it becomes as personified as the sun and the moon. That rock holds more love and respect than most common men.

The conversation gets really interesting when Jonathan begins to talk about computer science. His "We Feel Fine" project is UNBELIEVABLE. I haven't seen something that fantastic in a sci-fi film! The closest they've come that I can think of off the top of my head is The Architect from Matrix Reloaded, but even that was little more than a man with a million television screens--not a very original concept. It's as if Jonathan's created a visual of our thoughts. He has the world at his fingertips; "the whole world in his hands." At the outset, I had nearly written him off as a dweeb, a nerd, a bleeding heart, half-assed art creep. It wasn't long before I began eating my words with intense shame and urgency. Artist, storyteller, internet anthropologist...the man's a modern day genius.

While I didn't like the slideshow of whale slaughter, I was intrigued by the concepts that came out of it. It's as if Jonathan's using HTML to rewrite the book on storytelling (pun intended). He's recognized that "we are very accustomed to this idea of 'the narrator,' or the camera position--some kind of omniscient, external body, through whose eyes you see the story...In real life, things are much more nuanced and complexed..." So rather than narrate a traditional story line, he's built a program to extract different narratives from a larger, actual experience--a perfect representation of Web 2.0 storytelling. Again, he's combined the older mediums to build a model for what has always been invisible. He's putting you as close to the experience as possible without having been there in person. There are only a few steps left between his model and real life experience: virtual reality and surrogacy, or avatars. His technology is no doubt leading us in that direction. The components (he uses) of a story are essential to human life, neither of which--the story (or at least its medium) and life itself--will ever be the same again.

The Reconstructed Man

2009-12-10T00:02:00.000-08:00

by John Brien

I will start out by saying that more than any blog I've read so far this semester, John's is the most personal, and by default, most heartfelt of them all. Over the course of four months he tells the tale of a man down on his luck, but always looking up. Ok, maybe not always, but even in his misgivings, one can find an enjoyable sense of irony or sarcasm. John talks about shattering his ankle, getting laid off, surviving a recession....and, oh yeah, his cat. (He loves his cat. He even wrote a poem about him) In between all of this, he talks about everything from juice and beef, to geese, to his favorite comic book and rock 'n roll heroes.

John seemed to start out slow, but as the course progressed, so did his work. Like most of us, he went from posting only text and links, to pictures, video's and everything else that makes a blog more presentable. Having established that, I will now use "my criteria for a good blog" to review "The Reconstructed Man."

Content

The content is mostly, but not always relevant to the heading. But any time he tends to stray could be considered a good thing. He was clever to leave the title, "Reflections of a John Doe..." vague enough to fit just about anything under the umbrella. The flexibility allows for some great variety of topics and some very interesting reads. He has an excellent narrative voice and virtually flawless writing skills (excuse my singing hosannas).

The journey wasn't all clear blue skies, though. There were some posts where he lost my interest almost entirely. Mostly due to the subject matter, but also because I rarely felt like he was speaking to me. I assume that John writes for himself, with no intent on attracting a lot attention. However, this is not a valid reason to complain because, well...that's what makes his blog worth reading.

4/5

Design

I feel that the header and plain white background are very suitable for the type of blog John is writing. Unfortunately, the good news ends there. Some of the posts are untouchable, but others are begging for criticism. The text is painfully small and the paragraphs are scattered helter skelter among the column. The worst part though is probably the placement of the pictures. They are usually if not always too small to get a good look at, and they aren't placed well among the text.

2/5

*It's a shame I was chosen to review his blog because I just so happen to be a designophile. Please consider this grade with a grain of salt, as it is merely an aggregate of my criteria, and hardly an accurate account of my feelings towards the blog as a whole.

The Reconstructed Man: 6/10

Making the Grade pt. 2

2009-12-05T12:13:00.000-08:00

When it comes to user-review sites like RateMyProfessors, I feel like you have to be especially scrupulous. This is because A. You are obviously visiting the site due to the huge investment in your education and therefore the need to select a professor worthy of your time and money. And B. Because students tend to be very biased and sometimes vindictive as a result of their grade. It has been my experience that many people will blame others for their faults.

Review Ratings & Rate Reviews

Luckily, there aren't a thousand reviews to sift through for every teacher. Most of the time, you can determine whether or not to take a course within the first ten reviews (if there are that many). This is made possible by the multi-layered ratings system that accompanies the user review.

The ratings allow you to see an overall score for the teacher so you can tell if a negative review is credible or if that person just had a bad experience due to personal issues. Also. . .

Spelling, Literacy and Diction Always Help

These are the most important factors when it comes to user reviews. They help you determine if a review is credible, which may or may not persuade you to read the full article and carefully consider the author's sentiments--which will in turn persuade or discourage you from buying a prodcut, or in this case, a professor (not that one should be reduced to a mere morsel of property for sale).

Reviewing the Review

So how do you judge the author and their writing? Well obviously, everyone will have a different opinion for what they believe to be 'good' and a personality that will determine how easliy they will be persuaded. For me, the latter is dependent on the former; I like 'good writing' because that will help make or break the barrier between the reviewer's opinion and my consideration. If that wall of skepticism comes down, the review makes the grade. If not, "forget about it."

Extra Credit

Two other review sites similar to RateMyProfessor which I like to use on a somewhat regular basis are IndyList.org and RottenTomatoes.com. Indylist is an independent version of Yelp (hence, "Indy") which primarily recognizes local, independent businesses. It is very helpful when trying to find a great local spot, but I mostly use it to review the ones I find on my own.

Rotten Tomatoes is the #1 most trusted site for user-grenerated movie reviews. I can usually decipher whether or not a movie will be worth seeing based on the trailer. But when I cannot decide on what to see with a group of friends, we always consult Rotten Tomatoes for the final word. ie: We thought we wanted to see The Men Who Stare At Goats (54%), but were surprised to learn that Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs would be a much better option (86%).

Making the Grade pt. 1

2009-11-18T22:47:00.000-08:00

What to Do

Right away I was impressed at how hip and well organized RateMyProfessors.com is. I guess for some reason I associate professors with plain white web pages from the 90's. Nevertheless, it looks very sleek, almost Twitterish. At the top of the page there is an option to search for a particular professor or just browse them by school. So I typed in Columbia College Chicago and used the drop down menu to select "English."

Sure enough, there he is, Dr. Schiff himself. Of course, there's no photo, but he has been rated six times, and his overall rating is 4.5 out 5. That's just about where I would put him. So let's grade Jeff Schiff together.

That's him on the left (ha ha)

First question: Easiness

Easiness? I would hate to describe one of my professors as being "easy." Now classmates, that would be interesting. Maybe we can start up RateMySorority.com. Hold on, let me Google that...what d'ya know, there are a few results. No definite site, but there is a blog by that name, and it looks as though someone has purchased the domain. Nevermind. Anyways...Jeff's not too tough, but he certainly isn't easy. I'll give him a 3 on this one. I definitely agree with some of the comments people left in regards to this question.

Second question: Helpfulness

Let's give 'em a 4 in helpfulness. Although I am not very timely with the assignments, I would have to say this class is probably my favorite of this semester. It has helped me become acquainted with writing online, more specifically, blogging. This is something I've wanted to do for quite some time, but never had the motivation. Now it's a requirement. I have learned a lot about how to connect with an audience and make your blog more presentable. Jeff's pretty good at constructive criticism when it comes to commenting on the blogs. Other times, I post something he probably has no idea on how to grade. He's a very smart guy, and the most useful information I obtain from the course comes not from the work, but directly from him. I take a lot of notes, and every week I learn an assortment of new and exciting words and phrases, like "visceral," "ineffable," "flippant," or "more than one way to skin a cat." I play a lot of Scrabble, so I'd say Jeff is pretty helpful. The lowest choice is 'useless,' with the highest being 'extremely helpful.' Until he does my taxes, writes me a letter of recommendation, cosigns on a loan and lifts the financial hold on my account, I wouldn't consider anyone "extremely helpful."

Third Question: Clarity

Ah yes, Clarity. My favorite Jimmy Eat World album. Also an essential part of teaching. Teachers must be able to communicate the subject to the students in a clear and concise manner, otherwise, there is no point in showing up. Jeff does this well. I would argue that one of his best qualities is holding our attention, which a lot of teachers at Columbia, especially in gen-eds, struggle with. Sometimes it's because they don't know what the hell they're talking about, but more often then not it's because they're from a foreign country. I've had someone from Kenya, India, and most recently, Russia. That one's not so hard to understand as it is hard to stop imitating. "I must break you." My only bone to pick with Jeff's diction is that sometimes it's too good. He likes to use a lot of obscure words and phrases that small-minded folk like myself have a hard time wrapping our heads around. But because you can never have too much of a good thing, I'll give him a 5 on this one. "Crystal Clear." Great job!

Fourth Question: Interest Level

This one's for the interest level prior to class. It sounds like they mean before the semester officially begins, however I'll grade it on what I think they mean: Am I interested in the course outside of class? The answer would have to be yes--very much so. I am constantly thinking about what I am going to post in my next personal blog. First, I'll come up with a concept in my head. This usually happens while I am at work. So then I'll get a blank sheet of paper and begin writing. That sheet will get stored away in my class folder until I am ready to type it up into the blog. Though I am very interested in the class, I have a lot of other things on my plate, and I cannot consider WFNM "my world." 4 out of 5.

Fifth Question: Textbook Use

Low. There is no textbook! Woohoo! Thank you for not making me go to the Columbia book store halfway through the semester to pay an arm and a leg for a book I might only use once. Thank you sooo much.

And that's all there is to it. The only other questions are whether or not attendance is mandatory, whether or not the professor is still teaching, and whether or not you find them attractive. I have no opinion from a physical standpoint, but just for fun I clicked "hot" because hey, intelligence is sexy.

My Favorite Social Networking Site

2009-11-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

Fandemonium

What is the most popular organized team sport on the globe? Here's a hint: it's not baseball. To us 'proud' Americans, this sport is known as soccer. To the rest of the world, it is known as football, aka "footy." And if you're an avid (American) fan like I am, you have to look farther than ESPN.

When the season started this year (most leagues begin toward the end of the summer) I got really excited and went searching for a site that would quench my thirst for goals. There are plenty of sites that list results or review matches, but it is very difficult to find up-to-date video clips from the games. They are not allowed on YouTube, and are pulled immediately.

So I found the the football equivalent (or successor) to YouTube: FootyTube. It is absolute paradise for footy fans like myself. Footy's mission is to create the world's greatest online football community, and if I may say so myself, they've done so with flying colors. Who would've thought that a website based around videos of professional soccer matches could be even more interactive, gratifying and satisfying than facebook? These guys, that's who.

Putting the 'i' in 'Team'

You begin by creating a profile like with any typical website nowadays. After filling out all the usual information, you get to select one club team and one national team that you want to represent you. For instance, I live in the United States, so naturally I chose the US national team. For my favorite club team I chose FC Barcelona, arguably the best football club in the world. (Yes, better than Manchester United) The clubs you choose are the first thing that show up in your profile, preceding even your name! This is important because it will help you determine friend and foe as you gain your 'footing.'

After you've made a profile, you can then customize it by adding a list of all your favorite and least favorite football clubs. They show up as little icons on the left side of your profile, which allow you to go directly to each team's videos with just the click of a button. On the right side of your profile are your stats, or ratings. There are your fan traits, fan valuation, and dream footy. Your dream footy is the British version of fantasy (American) football. Here's how it works:

You are the manager of a football club. You are given a budget to buy players for your team. Players are priced according to their talent, success, and popularity. You will probably only have enough money for a couple really good players, and the rest will all be mediocre. Once you run out of money, you run out of players, so you have to manage your finances.

Your players get points based on their performances in real life. If a player gets hurt in real life and stops playing, he's not going to score any points for you. That would be a good time to substitute him. However, there are only certain points during the season when you are allowed to add and drop players. If you want to upgrade to a better player, you have to make more money. You do this by raising your fan valuation by way of your fan traits. And this is where it gets good.

In order to obtain a good fan valuation, you have to be very social; you have to get noticed. People will judge you not only by the teams you represent, but also the comments you write for the videos, and any messages you post in the forums. Based on these writings, your peers will judge you as being either funny, clever, cool, serious, silly, moody, angry or rude. Whichever trait is chosen the most is what you are labeled. I am currently known for being rude (I may have made some sexist and slightly racist comments in one of the matches for a women's international team). I have 3 rude votes, 2 funny, silly and cool votes, and 1 clever vote. The site then takes your fan traits into account and couples them with all your other activity on the site, and through some incomprehensible mathematical equation comparable only to a credit default swap derivative, decides how much money to give you for your dream team. I currently have $1.2m. That may sound like a lot, but its not. In the high finance world of professional soccer, its much closer to one dollar than one million.

Thank You for Watching. Don't Forget to Write Home.

Any time you watch a video, you can vote on who you thought was the 'man of the match,' and how you felt each team performed. You can then comment on the game and see what other people had to say. If you liked it, you can add that person as a friend. If you didn't like it, you can make them a rival. Just as exciting as watching the games is sharing your passion for the game itself with people all over the world.

FootyTube has a staff of about 12 people. In addition to many other things, they post blogs and new discussions within the forums. This is where the majority of writing takes place on the site. While the writing isn't scholarly, it's certainly better than the drivel on American social networks. Footy may not be a very complicated game, but it is certainly an intellectual one.

Paying for Pixels

2009-11-11T15:12:00.000-08:00

Accessorize Me

What happens when you love to dress up and accessorize, but you can't afford the lifestyle of Paris Hilton? Or, if you love anime, but you live in Bumfug, South Dakota, where no one has any clue who the hell Spike Spiegal is? Or maybe you feel like you just aren't marketed to enough on the street or in the every-day social networking site, and you need to find more things to spend your last five (borrowed) dollars on. Well I'll tell you what happens: you leave "the real world" and book a one-way flight to a fantastical realm where anything is possible. Enter Gaia.

Gaia is a social networking site of another kind. It began as an anime linklist site, and then moved on to social gaming and forums. To identify users and give them a more personal experience, they implemented what are called "avatars," a digital representation of one's self. In Gaia, you choose a male or female avatar and then begin to personalize them. Your avatar is also given a car, a house, and even a fish tank.

Hyper Surreal

From there, the site basically attempts to create a dual reality where one can live in a second skin. Your avatar lives in its own little world, complete with different 'towns.' You can interact and chat with other users, and you can participate in games and other special events to collect gold. 'Gaia Gold' is the currency used, and you can spend it to buy clothes and other accessories for your avatar. It is usually given out as incentive for the user to participate in the forums or promote a new product. Gaia actually sells advertising that can be used in the game, so your avatar may want to wear Skittles sneakers or a Stephen Colbert mask.

In 2007, the website took this system to a whole new level and introduced 'Gaia Cash.' This allows users to go to Wal-Mart, Target, 7-11 and Speedway to buy, with real money, currency to use in the game. In essence, its a donation to the company, in return for something completely intangible, or in other words, nothing, hence, "donation." Thank you Capitalism. Something else Gaia put together (in April of that same year) to help promote their sponsors is Gaia Cinemas. It's a virtual theater where you and your avatar can watch anime videos, along with a host of movie trailers and commercials.

Aside from the forums and the occasional chat, there is very little writing done on the site.

I Don't Coo For Yuku

2009-11-04T20:18:00.000-08:00

Idolatry

Yuku.com is a social networking site that, like Blogger, basically hosts your website on their servers. So the same way that I am writing a blog that can be seen by anyone online, but that is not saved to my hard drive, Yuku allows you to set up a "community" site that they will hold on their servers for "free." The community is pretty much a page of message boards centered around a group or dedicated to one subject or topic. So instead of blogs, they host messages boards. One topic I found to be very popular on Yuku is American Idol. As soon as you open the homepage, there is a section for featured communities, most of which have to do with television, primarily previous idols.

All About Yu

The only thing that distinguishes this message board site from any other is the option to create a profile. This is pretty standard for nearly all new sites in Web 2.0, and not just social networks. The new mentality is that if people can't personalize it, they don't want it. Either we really are a nation of greedy, narcissistic bastards, or everyone has caught onto Google and is joining the data farming/mining bandwagon. Because Yuku is free, it has to make money from advertising. And that ad space is much more valuable to advertisers if they know their niche market is going to get the message. It's the difference between a billboard and word-of-mouth: you can either get a little for a lot, or a lot for a little. Another way they get that information is by actually giving you the option to choose which ads go on your site. If you don't want any ads, you can PAY to have them taken off by signing up for a subscription. This is to make sure that one way or another, Yuku is getting a return on their investment.

Hullabaloo

Personally, I don't care for Yuku. It's like Twitter: they get all this hype for being the 'next big thing,' but at the end of the day, they are just a 140-character facebook status update. Yuku is similar in that it looks appealing on the surface, but once you get into it, there isn't much to do other than talk about whatever the topic is within that community of message boards. Some people will probably obsess over it, while others like myself, see absolutely no need for it.

Writing: More Than Messages On Board

2009-11-04T18:09:00.000-08:00

Ducka Ducka Ducka

Yuku is interesting in that it is a social networking site with writing that actually extends well beyond "hello" and "goodbye." Whereas the average message board is usually filled with clever one-liners or a a couple sentences of dissent, it is possible to find not only poems, but short stories and even novels in their message boards. So while I was tempted to "write them off" as just another cesspool of drek, I took a few moments to give them the benefit of the doubt, and here is what I found...

The Kelly Clarkson message boards don't have anything too "out of the ordinary." The one interesting post I found looks like this:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ducka+ducka+ducka

just a cool thing i googled today...

when I google ducka ducka ducka, the first site it gave me was urbandictionary.com and this is what it says...

Ducka, Ducka, Ducka A quote on Austin Powers. Kelly Clarkson made it famous by saying it on the hit TV show, American Idol. "Ducka Ducka Ducka!" "What the heck was that?" "I dunno."

The Bongler Comes to Willow Down

So then I searched "writing," and I stumbled into The Peaceful Pub. This community is surprisingly well-organized. I clicked on a Forum titled Prose at the Pub, which promised "some of the best short stories to be found on the Internet, and a few top-notch novels, too." Once inside, I was moderated by a man called Willow Down, and then consumed by a barrage of fantasy novels. I quickly scanned the page for the cheesiest title I could find. Ah yes, One Summer Day. It was just an excerpt from a romance story featuring a women named Helen. However it's not Helen's name I'm concerned with; it's the author's: Bongler. The author's name is Bongler.

Priceless.

Crystal Knights in the Twilight

This was fun. Let's try another one. How about The Crystal Knights? Its not a bad beginning to an epic swashbuckling adventure. The writing is solid, as is confirmed by Mr. Willow Down himself (Ugly chap, he. Might actually be a women, but I hanth known too many a woman with a beard so coarse as this). While it may be disrespectful, I can't help but take a few cracks at the subject matter. To any of us not living in the World of Warcraft, it can be quite comical to take things out of context. I do it all the time with my coworkers: they'll be talking about the new Dragon Age video game, and all I hear on the other side of the lobby is, "Did you ever come across the gay elf?" "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure he's bi. He seems to flirt with everyone." ROFL copter. C'mon, how is that not funny? Two grown men talking about gay elves and werewolf guilds in the workplace. And then they still feel justified in taking cheap shots at Twilight. Which, in retrospect, is probably justified. I don't know anything at the moment that might be lower in the lore of pop-culture shame. I mean, have you read those books? Just type "worst lines" into the Google search, and the third option in the drop down menu is "worst lines from twilight."

And now a few excerpts from the Crystal Knights comment boxes (and your moment of zen...)

"Always." The dragon nodded. "Give Natalie the talisman. It will allow her to speak the language there until she acclimates."

"where will Blaadfork take young Natalie, I wonder?"

"Roland is soon to meet Blaadfork and Natalie, setting the events of Orlauf's vision in motion."

"I had a friend in Germany called Roland - a fine old heroic name, like Orlando!"

The Cult of the Silicon Valley Antichrist, or lack there of.

2009-10-21T23:37:00.000-07:00

The Internet: It's a free country

My attitude towards Keen's Cult of the Amateur is this: If you don't want it stolen, don't put it online. In "today's democratized Internet culture," it is just common knowledge that once something is posted online, it's fair game. That's just the way it is, and the way it will be.

There are plenty of ways to protect your content, if you just know where to look. You can post your writing in a certain way that people will not be able to copy and paste, without going through the arduous task of taking a screen shot and re-writing it verbatim. Also, in addition to having your work copyrighted, you can now redefine those copyright rules by using an online service called Creative Commons. CC copyrights the works you put online and lets people know what they can and cannot take for personal use.

Get on with it

Keen make some very good points, but he's fighting an uphill battle. I agree with him that there needs to be gatekeepers, people with a long list of credentials who are recognized as experts and authority figures within their given field. But complaining about Web 2.0 is nothing more than white noise. The Internet is here and it's not going anywhere. We can change some of the ways we do business within the online community, but other things he will just have to get used to. People are going to post videos of their cat and their baby, and they may even post a video they stole from CNN. People are going to steal someone else's photos from Flickr and use them in their blog. And in that blog, they may even steal, copy and paste some excerpts from a book of his. That's just the way it is, and the sooner he accepts it, the sooner he can move on to real solutions.

Cutting and pasting, of course, is child's play on Web 2.0, enabling a younger generation of intellectual kleptomaniacs, who think their ability to cut and paste a well-phrased thought or opinion makes it their own.

Original file-sharing technologies like Napster and Kazaa, which gained so much attention during the first web boom, pale in comparison to the latest Web 2.0 "remixing" of content and "mashing up" of software and music.

In a twisted kind of Alice In Wonderland, down-the-rabbit-hole logic, Silicon Valley visionaries...laud the appropriation of intellectual property.

Apples to Oranges (Cut Copy Remix)

2009-10-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

Cut Copy is an indie synth pop band from Australia (wikipedia.org) (Ha! Eat it, Keen!) With last year's breakthrough album, In Ghost Colours, they've been pasted into the clubs and the consciouses of every indie hipster in Chicago. Like a lot of popular dance acts today, they welcome remixes of their music. In fact, it may even be fair to say that they make music to be remixed.

This is a user-made video that won a contest sponsored by Nokia. Its actually better than the official video.

Club culture was Napster before Napster, and believe it or not, Chicago was the catalyst. Its a community built around a commons, otherwise known as the dance floor. People come together there to share each other's music and to experience that music. The DJ chooses songs he likes and mixes them together to create an experience that is truly unique for every person, every time. For beginning and established artists alike, it is among their highest priorities to have their songs played in the clubs. If a smaller group like Cut Copy hear their song being mixed in a club, its a hit; instant gratification.

Before long those songs are being talked about, googled, downloaded, and eventually sold on iTunes. Major stations take notice of the increasing sales of the song(s) and put it on the airwaves. The song explodes and the artist is catapulted into the mainstream, almost overnight. (see Santogold, MGMT, M.I.A.) Once the song hits its peak, it has already been remixed a thousand times, whether by a DJ, another artist, or just a fan at home on his laptop. This is the music industry in Web 2.0, and I don't see anything wrong with it. It not only multiplies the number of times an artist's song is played or heard, but it enhances the user's experience by letting them participate in the process!

Should this process be applied to other areas of the arts, such as literature? Absolutely not. And I think it is unfair for Keen to compare the two. Its apples to oranges. The remix was born from music and has become an integral part of the hip-hop and club cultures. As a music business major, I especially believe in the remix. However, I don't think there is a place for that in the literary world, mostly because I just have a hard time imagining it. How and why would you re-edit a novel? Now a poem, I might understand, because it is closer to song lyrics, which are borrowed and shared all the time. But an entire book of text? How would you even go about doing that?

My only explanation would be this "liquid library," comparable to Wikipedia. So you post a book to a website, and then users who read it can go in and edit it. What is the point of that?? What does anyone stand to gain from that? A song is a moment. It is not a book. A book is usually a complete work, consisting of several phrases and chapters, and much more. It is an entire package to be sold as a single item, like a movie. It can't be broken down into bpm's or scenes or chapters to be sold individually on iTunes--you need every piece of the puzzle to get the whole picture. Whereas songs are little pictures all their own.

Template Talk

2009-10-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

I chose my current template, Rounders 3, because I felt it was most practical. It matches the criteria for what I believe a good blog should look like. Its easy on the eyes. I especially like the color scheme used in the template. Something about it just makes me feel at home in Writing for New Media in the fall of 2009. The page feels like a comfortable, more cerebral place to congregate.

I had two other templates before settling on this one however. The first was Scribe. I thought maybe this would make the blog feel more academic. I was wrong. It might look academic for Aristotle, but not WFNM. It's just wrong.

I quickly changed it to something else that looked more up to date: a template called TicTac. TicTac looks great with my blog, but I ended up changing it because for some reason, I could not get word wrap to work. Rather than continue sifting through Blogger for answers, switching to Rounders 3 was the fastest, easiest solution. And it turned out, I feel, for the better. Perhaps if this were the spring semester, I would go back to TicTac. The design at the top just reminds me of sunshine trickling through the leaves after a cool spring rain.

Top 5 Blog Tips

2009-10-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

So far in this blog, I've talked about how the medium directly affects the message and how the definition of literacy is constantly changing, especially now that we have so many new forms of media and communication. I have also listed my criteria for what I consider to be a good blog, and even put that list to work by showing examples. Piggy-backing off of those criteria, I have devised another list for my Top 5 Blog Tips for new bloggers:

5. Write, Read, Revise, Repeat
A blogger's work is never finished. Whether you write free-hand or systematically, it's always good to double-check your work. This should be a no-brainer. If you're writing something that anyone online can see, the last thing you want (other than incriminating photos) are embarrassing misspellings and typos. Also, if you change your mind about something, or decide you don't want to keep a certain post, guess what...you can delete it! Its ok to go back and make changes--that's why they're blogs--they're not written in stone. In fact, I will probably edit this very post three times by the end of the week. As you progress in your writing, so shall your blog. Like a pokemon, it wants to evolve. So help it grow.

4. Design It Like You Mean It
The design of your blog should directly reflect the subject you are writing about. Period. Now I know not everyone's a graphic or interior designer, but most everyone has an idea of what looks good and what looks bad to them. You don't have to please everyone, just your readers. So try to find something that connects with the focus of your blog and advances your message. Tell the reader what you're all about before they even begin reading. Lastly, the design should be bearable. You might blog about abstract art or the "ugliest designs ever," but even in those cases, you still want your writing to be legible and your audience to stick around long enough to read it.

...unless of course you are blogging for the blind

3. Know Your Audience and Use Your Web Voice
This tip could have been split into two, but they are too closely related and equally important. Depending on who you are talking to, you are going to think and speak differently. You should speak to your audience with the appropriate tone. Don't talk down to them, and certainly don't ignore them. You want to see eye to eye with your reader. If you don't know exactly who your readers are, just simply ask yourself this question: Am I writing what they want, or am I writing what I want? Once you can answer that question, you'll have a much better idea of what voice to use. Generally, that voice should be something likable. It should read like it would sound if we were having a face to face conversation. Picture your audience, and let them know what's on your mind :)

2. The Title Is Half The Battle
The title should be something short and catchy. It doesn't have to be, it just seems to work better. How come? Because the title of your blog should match the url. So if your blog is called "Half the Battle," the url should read: http://halfthebattle.blogspot.com. A good example of what NOT to do is the myspace page for one of my favorite local bands, Ten-Speed. Sure, you could just go on MySpace and search "Ten-Speed." But there are other bands with that name and some of them are more established, and therefore are ranked higher in the search. If you didn't already know the band, you would be lost. But rather than come up with anything even remotley reminicsent of "Ten-Speed," the url for their myspace is: www.myspace.com/theblockofwoodcollective. Yes, The Block of Wood Collective. Now what if you had gone to their show and asked what their myspace page was? Would they tell you Block of Wood Collective? And if they did, would you remember that? My only explanation for this one is that they might have been called that at one time and then later changed their name to Ten-Speed. The point is, name your blog according to the subject matter, and make the url as close to that title as possible. Or in otherwords, don't call it October In The 80's. Especially if you're not going to talk about the 80's.

1. Write About Something You Love
Ok, I'll admit, I stole this one from the Diigo, but that's because it makes perfect sense. If you're not writing about something you love, then you are far less likely to continue writing about it. And if you do continue writing about it, you are not going to be very happy about it. Of course this does not apply to work or school, where you might be writing for a job or assignment. In this/that case, you have no choice. But if its a personal blog, write about something you love. It will only make things better for everyone.

An excellent example of this is showcased in the recent film Julie and Julia. Its about a woman named Julie Powell who discovered blogging when it was still in its infancy (pre-web 2.0), and because she loved food so much, she decided to blog about cooking. The only problem was that she wasn't a very good cook. So in order to challenge herself, she decided to cook Julia Child's entire cook book in a year....and blog about it. That's 524 recipes in just 365 days. She called it the Julie/Julia Project, and it was a huge success.

I love Amy Adams. Hence, I blogged about her.

A+D

2009-10-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

Straying away from the theme of content as king, I've chosen two more blog sites to evaluate. This time they are slightly less related to my own personal blog, but they are slightly more in tune with my criteria than those in the previous post.

3. Agent Lover

Content: 2

Now I understand that this blog is primarily for women, but I can't help but read it every once in a while. The content is very hit or miss for me: I love Marie's taste in music and movies, and I think she has a fantastic sense of humor, but when she gets on her rants about fashion or "ladyboning" Julian Casablancas, I skip ahead to the next post. What I'd like to focus on here is the design.

Design: 5

Right from the start you recognize that Marie's site has a signature look and feel. She created a photo for her header and accompanied it with a font that is very complementary. She then uses that font for all of her titles throughout the blog. She even designed a custom signature to sign each of her posts with. There is a bit of clutter at the top of the page with buttons and banners, but even they seem to coincide with the overall look and feel of the site.

Marie uses a template with two columns that are discernable and easy to navigate. And she uses lots of "white space," which tends to make the images and titles jump out more. Its very easy on the eyes. And again, she maintains the color scheme of black, white and red all throughout. If I had any problem with the design at all, it would be the font size for the body of text. However, it seems that this blog is more geared towards photography, and since you don't want the text to take too much away from that, I feel she made the appropriate choice here.

Agent Lover: 7/10

4. detroitblog

Content: 4

I found this blog while doing research on Detroit last semester and I've been hooked ever since. You would never imagine that there could be so much going on in a city so desolate. Its absolutely and infinitely intriguing to me. To watch one of our great American cities just collapse from the inside out like this is just astonishing. The best way I can describe it is a beautiful disaster.

The blog is written by a local journalist who goes by the pen name Detroitblogger John. He has such a compassion for the local residents and he does a fantastic job of bringing a positive light to many areas that have known nothing but darkness for many years. He is a great voice not just for the city, but for the human spirit.

Design: 5

As my history teacher used to pound into our heads: keep it simple stupid. And it doesn't get any more simple than this. Its must be the most user-friendly blog I've seen to date. Like furniture ought to be, this blog is extremely functional and stylish. It has a beautiful picture of downtown Detroit for the header with the name blended in. Underneath are four simple buttons, and then it gets right down to business. The template is centered, with absolutely no ads or banners to be seen. Its just smooooth sailing. Start reading and put it down when you're content, just like a book. There are no distractions: no sounds or movies or unnecessary titles. Just well-placed pictures to accompany the article and to help you become more involved with the content. He's not selling you anything or bashing your eyeballs with flashing lights; he just opens the door slowly and says, "Welcome. Come on in." Therefore I believe the design for this blog fits perfectly. He really considered his reader when putting together the site.

And just because I always have to mention the text, I will say that white text on a black background can make your eyes a little more exhausted than the opposite, because its simply not what they are accustomed to. However, black backgrounds, minus the white text, can actually help more than just your eyes: they reduce the amount of energy needed for your screen, and therefore can reduce your energy bill, and on some microscopic level, help the environment.

detroitblog: 9/10

Content Is King

2009-10-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

My criteria for a good blog:

Content

Subject matter interests me
Writing is relevant to the topic or heading
Writer has a voice and uses expression
Writer is aware and considerate of their audience

Design

Well organized
Aesthetically pleasing
Clean and comfortable color palette
Nice use of fonts and typography
Well-placed pictures
Good use of word wrap
The bigger the font, the better

Based on these criteria, I will attempt to grade a few blogs I've been following recently. These first two will show similarities to my own personal blog, October In The 80's.

1. DVD Panache
I stumbled across this site while searching for the photo that now resides on the front page of my personal blog. He talks about movies and things he relates to them, kind of like I do.

Content: 4
For content, It's a little too involved and sometimes cryptic for me. But otherwise, he meets all my requirements.

Design: 2
For design, I give it 2 stars out of 5, but only because I like the header and feel sorry for the blogger. The blog design is atrocious with a dull, grey background and tiny, unwelcoming text.

DVD Panache: 6/10

2. J-TWO-O
I realize I may risk failing the class for saying this, but I LOVE J-TWO-O. I am on the verge of being obsessed and utterly involved with J-TWO-O. In fact, J-TWO-O may even be accredited with having the most amount of influence on my personal blog.

Content: 5
Everything she writes I want to read and wish I would have written myself....and would have if my personal blog didnt have to be so focused (so the 80's, politics, sex, sports...cats!) If there was any question of whether or not I really cared to read about George Egg or an article on anxiety, it was quickly overshadowed by the fact that SHE BLOGS ABOUT FOOTBALL. Not only that, its good! She actually knows WTF she's talking about. Aaaand...SHE LIKES TO TALK ABOUT FOOTBALL!

Design: 3
The text is really small, the layout is very thin and vertical, and the overall design is just plain boring. Again, the only saving grace is the header, followed by the fact that every now and then I like a nice white background. That, and she does a decent job of inserting pics and videos.

J-TWO-O: 8/10

Ill Literate

2009-10-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

Literacy is defined as having the ability to read and write, possessing an education, or just having knowledge of a particular subject or field. Meeting any or all of those requirements qualifies you for being literate. However, in this fast-paced, technological information age we now inhabit, being literate doesn't automatically mean you are smart or that you qualify for a job. The definition of literacy is currently changing as our means of communication are rapidly being converted from analog to digital. Teachers and students alike may argue that it is more important to know how to type than to write in cursive. To consider that typing may even become a priority over either writing or spelling is no longer unfathomable. Paper is wasteful, takes up a lot of space, and pens may be thought of as not only messy or tiresome, but downright primitive. Computers are cleaner, faster, and in some cases easier to use.

The most important distinguishing factor of computer literacy is that the medium on which you now write is responsive and interactive. Imagine, your notebook has suddenly sprung to life (yeah, kinda like that annoying paper clip with eyes) and warned you of all your grammatical errors and misspellings! Not only that, its cleaned up your writing so that no matter what, it will always be legible. No more white out, no more erasers sharpeners or big blotches of scribbles and dark matter (Oh no! What ever will become of the pocket protector?!). Not only that, but with the click of a button, you don't even need the envelope for the letter you were writing, let alone the stamp.

So what's wrong with phasing out cursive for typing? I don't know, you tell me. What's wrong with forgetting how to cook, or to catch a fish or plant a tree? Why should we even have to chew our food anymore? Why not just consume it intravenously or just genetically alter our digestive system for perpetual regeneration? In fact, why learn anything anymore? The elections are all rigged and the country is owned by corporations anyway, so we might as well do away with the Constitution and just ignore history altogether.

My point is that by doing away with something even as seemingly insignificant as cursive, we're neglecting a very important part of the learning process which is necessary for growth and progress. Consider the calculator: can you solve those complex math problems on paper? In high school our mantra was, "When will I ever need to know this??" Only now we're finding ourselves in situations where we wish we could remember it or had even learned it in the first place. Imagine, if we still taught Latin in grade school...every American could theoretically be fluent in any number of romance languages, including Spanish and Italian. If nothing else, we could at least recite the origin of the words and symbols we use to communicate with. But no; somewhere along the line someone decided this knowledge was unimportant. So now when we go to Europe we look like bumbling idiots and leave a horrible impression for the rest of us back home. Just as comparable to the scenario of being lost in the woods or caught behind enemy lines. By neglecting those simple and traditional survival tactics passed down from generation to generation, we've left ourselves vulnerable to failure and defeat at the hands of our own ignorance and incompetence.

Will the world stop spinning without cursive? Will our hearts explode? No. But those little things we call "signatures" will become a glorified remnant of the golden age of penmanship; a skill only bestowed upon a select well-to-do and educated few. Jokers, we'll call them, yuppies. The only reason they know how to write is because their parents are rich and they don't have to work for a living--they can spend more time learning useless trades. Hell, their parents probably paid their way through an Art History degree from Columbia College. Pssshh, artists. Who needs 'em? I know who I am. And everyone else knows me too. They know my fingerprint, and my retina, and the IP address linked to the microchip in my hand.

Ha, knowledge. Bunch of jokers.

Materiality: Material Communication

2009-09-29T01:00:00.000-07:00

As I understand it, Materiality is the context and format within something is written. For example, newspapers are papers with news that are printed on what we call, guess what, newspaper. They can have crazy headlines like, "One-Armed Man Applauds Kindness of Strangers," or "Tiger Woods Plays with Own Balls, Says Nike," and get away with it because that's what's expected of newspapers. Those incomplete, fragmented titles wouldn't fly anywhere else except maybe Yahoo! News or Twitter.

So what happens when the medium changes? Now we have electronic newspapers, which are thin, sleek computer screens that allow you to not only display breaking news stories, but can also hold entire books. They attempt to mimic the look of a newspaper, but certainly not the feel.

In this case, even though the medium has changed, the message is still the same. However, this example seems to be the exception when it comes to technology. Ever since the first text messages were sent and the first chat rooms were opened to the public, people have been finding all kinds of creative ways to express themselves with as few characters as possible. The new mediums generated a fresh frontier for 21st century communication, ultimately bringing every english teacher's worst nightmares to life as bad spelling and horrible grammar became an overnight pop culture sensation. This online literary craze would eventually spawn buzz-worthy social networking sites such as Twitter and Digg.

Here is a video that captures perfectly the essence of life on web 2.0

Materiality 2.0

2009-09-29T00:47:00.000-07:00

A brilliant professor of mine once told me, "the message is informed by the medium." So I came up with a couple examples to prove his point.

Here are a few things I found laying around my girlfriend's apartment:

First, are two postcards hanging on the fridge that her roommate brought back from Germany. They say, "Achtung! We are German!"

Next is a girly sample she brought back from a paper convention

And lastly, a couple business cards she brought back from the renegade craft fair

Notice that the design of the medium matches the messages that are being communicated. For instance, these business cards are squeaking in a high pitched voice, "I'm cute, buy me!"

So to test this theory of materiality, I decided to conduct a little experiment. Pay attention to the stark contrast between these two mediums and their respective messages:

Let's see what happens when the roles are reversed...

(Please excuse my awful cursive)

And yes, I also stole that giant sticky note from my gf's place.

Is doesn't take long to realize that once the medium is changed, the validity of the message is seriously jeopardized.

Materiality III

2009-09-28T23:15:00.000-07:00

I found this video lecture on communication technology as material culture. It's kind of interesting...

When you get bored with that, consider this your long awaited distraction, justified only by the fact it has 'material' in the title: