Monthly Archives: September 2012

What in the world is C.R.A.P

Posted on September 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

SUMMARY:

If the website developer follows the idea of C.R.A.P they will have an easier time guiding their user’s eyes throughout the website.  Using the idea of C.R.A.P allows the website developer to guide the user through items on the webpage without having to use boxes or arrows to point to the next element.  Contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity is also visibly appealing to the user.  Pages seem to flow and are easier to understand when buttons are the same size.

key terms:

Contrast – Use separation for unlike elements or elements that need emphasis

Examples of contrast:

  • Bold
  • Italic
  • Color of font

  • Size

Repetition – Repeating aspects of design, keeping the same customization for elements that are alike

  • Creates unity throughout the website

Alignment – Justifying to emphasize key points

  • Creates a visual flow for the user
  • Easier to connect elements visually

Proximity – Elements that are alike should be close together

  • Easier for user to spot unrelated elements

connections:

After going through a few of the resources dealing with C.R.A.P I’ve realized that it could potentially be very beneficial in the long run and can also be related to other things outside of website development.  Being an English major I can directly relate this to the same process that I go through when writing a paper.  My introduction paragraph acts as the alignment because it emphasizes main points and shows the reader the direction I’m going.  The body paragraphs are developed around the proximity feature because each paragraph only deals with one or two related elements.  Contrast is not as obvious but it is used when citing a source, quoting, and also to distinguish the title from the rest of the paper.  Repetition is not as easy to relate to, but it can be seen in the layout because each paragraph will start with an idea and then be followed by supporting details.

resources:

CRAP

A CRAP way to improve usability

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Reading Notes

Tagged

Wiki Work – September 25

Posted on September 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

Edited the ‘Digital Writing and New Media’ page.  The original post listed that there were six principles for Manovich, but the article only stated there was five.  I also uploaded a video that helps explain make the idea of the principles a little easier to understand.

I also added information on the circulation page which discuses the difference between circulation and distribution.  I also included a link to the original webpage where I found the information and a video on his lecture.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Wiki Work

Wiki Work – September 22

Posted on September 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

I added a new page dealing with copyright which talks about fair use, creative commons, and what is not protected under copyright laws.  I felt this page was appropriate since some of the articles we have read so far talk about remixing and sharing media it is important that we know what is copyrighted and how to avoid breaking these laws.

I worked on the appropriation page adding more information on Henry Jenkins article and talked about how appropriate fits into our society today.  I also briefly touched on some issues with appropriation which included copyright laws.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Wiki Work

Blog Comments

Posted on September 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

After reading my fellow classmates blog posts on the articles and discussions in class I feel as though I’ve got a better understanding on many of the articles we were assigned to read.  I also found a few blogs that posted some awesome pictures and discussion questions which caused me to analyze the article a little farther and find a connection.

blogs visited

La bella vita

Janae Cherry

Digi Writing 307

Romanes Eunt Domus

Blogage

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Homework

Tagged

The Language of New Media

Posted on September 18, 2012 | 2 Comments

summary:

The article tries to establish and explain what new media is and how it differs from old media.  According to Manovich, new media is any media that is distributed and displayed using a computer.  This includes, but is not limited to, DVD, online articles, photographs, and books.  Manovich suggests that there are five main principles of new media; numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability, and cultural transcoding.  Along with going into greater detail with the five main principles he also talks about how new media got to where it is, and how it has evolved over the years.

key terms:

Numerical representation – new media objects are all created from digital code which consists of numbers

Modularity – the idea that new media objects have the same modular structure and are all made up of discrete samples such as pixels, polygons, or characters

Automation – numerical representation and modularity allow for the media creation, manipulation and access

Variability – the idea that new media is not fixed but can actually exist in different versions

Transcoding – translate something into another format

old media/new media:

After reading Manovich’s article it seems to me that without old media new media would have never made it’s way.  According to the five principles; numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability, and transcoding old media develops into new media.  These five principles seem to relate to the way that new media can be created from old media.

other information:

While I was working with the material I came across the YouTube video below which explains Manovich’s five principles in lamer terms.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Reading Notes

Tagged ,

Wiki Work – September 18

Posted on September 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

addition one:

Today I worked on the McLuhan Wiki page.  I added a picture of McLuhan which I found using Compfight.  The next thing I added was the YouTube video which we were required to watch when we were first introduced to McLuhan.  Following the YouTube video I was able to find an outside article which also relates to his idea of the medium is the message.  There are links to the original article about Twitter and to the McLuhan The Medium is the Message article as well.

addition two:

My second contribution was on the multitasking page.  When I began the page was completely empty but I updated it with links to the Jenkins article along with a little summary of multitasking.  I also talked about the possible negative effects of multitasking and included an article and YouTube video as supporting materials.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Wiki Work

Wiki Work – September 11

Posted on September 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

On September 11 we broke up into groups and worked briefly on the class wiki.  My group was tasked with the McLuhan page which we wrote a brief description of his article The Medium is the Message.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Wiki Work

The Medium is the Message

Posted on September 13, 2012 | 1 Comment

summary:

McLuhan keeps repeating and demonstrating throughout the article that “the medium is the message,” but what does that phrase actually mean.  What he’s trying to say is that the medium used to deliver a message may actually be stronger than the message it’s self.  Well now that we’ve got the main point what does it actually mean?  Basically McLuhan is trying to say that the way a person chooses to deliver a message may be more important than the message.  Or in even simpler terms he’s saying that the way we receive information could be more important than the information being received.

 connections to course outcome:

This article relates in a few ways to the course outcomes we hope to achieve in Digital Writing.  One outcome is the ability to network which means we have to be able to search for and pick out information that we are presented.  Another outcome is appropriation which is achieved when one knows how to remix content in order to develop new content.  These two outcomes relate to McLuhan because they deal with the way something is presented and being able to decipher the message being presented.

connections to other readings:

After a couple Google searches I came across an interesting article about Twitter. The article gives ten examples of Twitters that are perfect examples of McLuhan’s main message which is the medium is the message.  In order to understand this article you first need to understand that Twitter actually has two definitions.  The first definition of Twitter is that it is an application, or website, which is used to post tweets.  The second definition is that a Twitter is a collection of posts by one person.  For example Russell Brand’s Twitter is @rustyrocket.  The article’s main point is that Twitter, being used as an application, is a medium but is also a message when referring to a collection of a person’s post.  So in this case the medium is exact same thing as the message.  Even though the article was short it really brought up a good point.

works cited:

Syllabus 

McLuhan

Twitter, the Medium is the Message

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Reading Notes

Tagged

Re.Media.tion

Posted on September 10, 2012 | 2 Comments

Wow! Bolter really knows how to take a potentially interesting subject and bore you to death with a trillion examples, but really the article could have been shorter and gotten the same point across.

key terms:

Remediation – The idea of taking old media and “remixing” it to produce new media for the audience

Webcam Jukebox – According to the article a webcam jukebox allows the user to take a photo with different backgrounds which can include, but are not limited to, world wonders, nature, or different types of weather

Immediacy – The idea of presenting/sharing something with someone instantly

Borrow – When different types of media borrow other broadcasts/stories from

“Borrowing”

websites, newscasts, or newspapers

Hypermediated Events – An event that has been over mediated possibly due to other medias borrow or due to the event being seen on different types of media

new media/old media

“Old Media”

The article draws a connection between new media and old media by saying that through a cycle old media is “refashioned” in order to develop the new media.  “New digital media are not external agents that come to disrupt an unsuspecting culture.  They emerge from within cultural contexts, and they refashion other media, which are embedded in the same or similar contexts.”  This statement found in the article states that new media is not really “new” media, instead it is just old media which has been remixed/changed in order to revisited.  A perfect example of this is when a news site takes photos, interviews, or pieces of an older article and then includes the “old” information in the new article to be reposted.  The new article may contain new information, but it may also contain “remixed” information from an old article which is now being presented to the target audience.

“New Media”

summary:

After reading the article and re-reading sections of the article I have finally come to the conclusion that it was remediation.  Remediation is where old media is taken and transformed into new media which now appeals to the same people once again and hopefully appeals to a newer crowd as well.  By revisiting and revamping old media people are able to transfer their experiences and opinions to others by appealing to different “senses.”

 

Bolter, J. D., & Grusin, R. (1999). Remediation: Understanding new media. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Reading Notes

Tagged ,

Oh no! Am I breaking a copyright law?

Posted on September 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

 

 

I’ve always known there were ways to work with copyrights to obtain the information/work you wish to use, but after reading the articles and watching the video it has become obvious that there may be more ways around the vicious copyright laws.

What surprised me?

The one thing that surprised me most was in the YouTube video “A Fair(y) Use Tale” where they took clips from Disney movies in order to get the point across that since the clips were so short and were used for education purposes Disney is unable to get them for copyright infringement.

What empowered me?

One thing that empowered me was after watching the video when I learned that all of the video was movie clips and Disney was unable to come after them legally.  Another empowering moment was when I learned about the fair use part of a copyright and creative commons.  The fair use and creative commons allows people to use pieces of work in order to recreate newer pieces or to teach about a subject.  Fair use and creative commons allows society to grow and continue to improve.  Without them there may not have been another piece of art created, book written, movie developed, or lecture conducted.

what frustrated me?

The most frustrating fact about copyright is the time which it is active.  I knew that a piece of work could be copyright for many years, but I was unaware that come copyrights last much longer than that.  Although the time period in which a copyright is active can be long it is reassuring knowing that once the copyright runs out it goes into the public domain and it can never be taken out of the domain once it has entered.

examples:

I was required to write an argument paper for an English course which required me to research and use statistics from articles.  When it came to using the statistics from the articles I had to be sure that I used quotations when needed and cited the source correctly at the end of the paper.

A more recent example is from this class where I was introduced to creative commons.  I recently used Flickr to find photos that had creative commons licenses to use in my blog.  Once I found the photo I just had to be sure to give credit to the publisher/photographer.

articles/video:

“Creative Commons.” If I read another bad paper, I’ll scream. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2012. <https://sites.google.com/site/ifireadanotherbadpaper/legal-considerations/copyright/creative-commons>.

Faden, Eric. “A Fair(y) Use Tale.” YouTube. Web. 06 Sept. 2012

Ede, Sharon. “Shareable: Public Domain is the Rule, Copyright the Exception.” Shareable: Sharing by design. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2012. <http://www.shareable.net/blog/public-domain-is-the-rule-copyright-the-exception>.

“Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Scholarly Research in Communication | Center for Social Media.” Center for Social Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2012. <http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use/related-materials/codes/code-best-practices-fair-use-scholarly-research-communication>.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Reading Notes

Tagged