My favourite chatting environment so far would have to be skype. I love being able to see and hear my peers taht are all ove rthe globe! However we are connected at the same time, talking to each other with minimal delays in speech. Skype not only allows for voice and video chat, it is a great easy to use tool! The buttons are large enough and a heuristic evaluation by myself and my friend (both first time users) have proven it is easy to use and navigate while also not lacking in visual appearance. It was great this semester slowly getting to know each other each week.
My least favourite chatting medium was Google talk. Now, look, it WAS only a beta, but google should know better before reaeasing that stuff! It was terribad. The video only worked one on one, it was hard to use, you had to have a gmail email account to use it, the text functionality was hard to navigate, and DO NOT get me started on trying to add users to a conference! BAH! the colour scheme was terrible, and plain, and i couldn't navigate my way around at all.
Facebook i like, as i used it everyday anyway. It is easy to use and great to catch up with people that are all over the globe, or even for finding people you havn't seen in years. Facebook chat however is an abomination, and i think people should stick with msn chat or even skype without the video and audio. Face book chat is terrible, but for learning more detailed descriptions and seeing pictures of my peers it is a great tool.
The interact Chat tool is very very easy to use, and read. Each person was able to log straight in and post comments, however we did run into a wee bit of cunfusion after all the colours (one per person in chat) were exhausted. It got slightly confusing when two dark blue people were typing.
The first thing we did in our pod groups was enter a chat changing website. This was a great learning experience especially for the poor lady in my group who didn knot you could edit text!
All in all, the weekly tasks have been fun, informative, and a good learning experience.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Essay
Assignment 1: ITC213
The boom of the Web 2.0 has seen many new online technologies that bridge the gap between geographically and time-wise dispersed persons, bringing them together in aid of a common goal or objective. Two people that have helped revolutionise web 2.0 in today’s society are: David Winer and Adam Curry.
David Winer, - the protoblogger - a software engineer, is widely known by peers and web entrepreneurs alike as a father to podcasting and blogging, and making great contributions to RSS, (Winer, 2007). Winer used to create software projects to be sold to large organisations. The major works include : –
1:- Creating one of the first blogs called Scripting News, and creating the interest for people to USE and VIEW blogs on webpage Dave-Net (Oxyegen Inc, 2009).
2:- David created a Really Simple Syndication technology that paved the way for RSS news feeds, and blog updates to subscribers, (Winer, 2007). RSS was given life by David in 1997, which allows users to create their own custom home pages for subscription feeds to be fed to. RSS was improved my David to bring RSS 2.0, making 1 obsolete. RSS is a blog tool, aiding the development and usability of Blogs.
3:- David was a keen problem solver, and after being asked by Adam Curry, he developed an RSS element that would pass an address of a media file to an RSS aggregator. In David’s web-blogging tool Radio Userland, which had a built in aggregator, the components were able to be sent and received, creating audio blogging, (Wiki, 2009).
The evolution was for David, firstly after becoming so sick of Microsoft, to play his own game, and help define the Blog. Once the blog had caught on, the emphasis was on how to improve blogs, and extend the blog usability to many new different areas that were yet to be defined.
In my opinion, there were two lightbulb moments for Winer – the first was creating this blog tool for users to describe daily angst or any other daily activities they wish to publicize. The other tool was the RSS tool, that is used by websites, and news feeds, online magazines, and by blogs. David really helped emphasise and extend the usability functions of Blogs. I think David is a good manager for his work group. He has responded to Adam Curry’s want and need for audio-blogging and together they have created podcasting. David has realised that other users may have wants and needs that will help make blogging become a better tool. Winer has profiles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Flickr, making use of other web tools that strive to bring together online communities.
Adam Curry – Otherwise known as the Podfather – was an MTV radio host for around 7 years and was one of the first celebrities to run and administer their own website (Wiki, 2009). Curry was one of the first people to create a successful podcast show, called Daily Source Code, and his heart is truly with audio-blogging and podcasting, (Wiki, 2009). Adam has spent his life as a broadcasting personality and also as a young internet entrepreneur aiding and changing the way users receive information. Adam also used his time to script and record promotions for other podcasting websites, and was heavily involved with a few of these. Adam was so into getting audio out to subscribers that he created a domain mtv.com around the time of the internet first appearing for general use, that got all mtv related information out to subscribers. Although podcasting was around before, it was Adam that synergised the way podcasts were created, (wiki, 2009). Adam brought his radio host expertise to podcasting, garnishing it with proper scripts, proper audio content and mixing this with RSS for subscribers, changing the way podcasts were going to be created completely.
Adam worked with David Winer to get podcasts and RSS to run hand in hand. Together, They synergised a way to get podcasts to download and transform to play on mp3 players, and ipods, (Wiki, 2009). It seems Adam also has a big head, since he has been caught changing the podcasting history wiki page to include more information about himself being the frontier to wikis, (Workbench, 2005).
I think Adam is a good change manager, changing the emphasis of written blogs to audio blogs and even changing the way that podcasts are created, as everyone followed suit with how to make them. I have done extra-curricular podcasting work myself, as i prefer to listen than to read, and i think it is important to synergise a set of rules to follow when creating podcasts. There must be a bench mark to follow, and it seems Adam has helped set this.
Both men have been entrepreneurs to the way users gather and follow information, David with creating the ways to do things, and Adam in setting guidelines on how to deliver the information. Each has played a major role in online community development and the development for new online technologies that are becoming or have become commonplace.
Wikipedia. (2009). Dave Winer. Retrieved 13th September from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Winer#Podcasting
Winer, D. (2007). Dave Winer bio. Retrieved 13th September from http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/02/21/daveWinerBio.html
Oxygen Media Inc. (2009). David Winer. Retrieved 13th September from http://ecommerce.hostip.info/pages/1086/Winer-David.html
Wikipedia, (2009). Daily Source Code. Retrieved 13th September from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Source_Code
Workbench. (2005). Adam cought in sticky wiki. Retrieved 13th September http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/2818/adam-curry-caught-sticky-wiki
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Topic 5
Where do I exist? – Interact, CSU email, Hotmail, MSN, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Forums, Gmail account, Online Games.
None of these have exactly the same information, and i believe that they shouldn’t! I don’t want people finding out too much about me, as im afraid of identity theft. My persistent identity shows that im a young female and my first name shortened, plus my lastname. That is about all that is common place across the board. I don’t think that anything else should be displayed across the board as i wish to protect my identity, however if people want to know something about me they should feel free to ask! I will either say yes or no!
Q2:-
A social architect is a person who plans, devises or contrives the achievement of a desired result for human interaction and behaviours. They facilitate interactions and lead communities online, by planning for interactions. They aid sharing and enabling between users and a site.
Shuffle brain – Objectives, to find embedded icons in a picture, and to do it in record time! Rules of engagement – to upload facebook accepted decent pictures of your choosing and submit them to play with. You can use default pics also. Unique features – it doesn’t just choose the game for you, it lets you create one yourself using your own photos.
The Social architect here is Facebook. They are indded social architects as they have set up the facebook site and facilitate usage, as long as users comply with rules. They have also created a how to guide for how to use the system for first time users.
Whyville – Objective – Design your face, and earn clams (the currency in whyville). You also desing your car and make friends using this avatar. Rules of engagement – im sure appropriate language would be a big one here, but other than that you have free reign on what you look like, and what items you have. There aren’t too many unique features here, as there are many games that do similar, if not the same thing, take neopets(playing games to earn neopoints), facebook fluff friends, the sims, second life etc etc. They all do basically the same thing. Im not sure ‘WHO’ is the social architect, but i believe they still are one, as they have facilitated the use of whyville, with logins and password, and also have guidleines to stick with.
None of these have exactly the same information, and i believe that they shouldn’t! I don’t want people finding out too much about me, as im afraid of identity theft. My persistent identity shows that im a young female and my first name shortened, plus my lastname. That is about all that is common place across the board. I don’t think that anything else should be displayed across the board as i wish to protect my identity, however if people want to know something about me they should feel free to ask! I will either say yes or no!
Q2:-
A social architect is a person who plans, devises or contrives the achievement of a desired result for human interaction and behaviours. They facilitate interactions and lead communities online, by planning for interactions. They aid sharing and enabling between users and a site.
Shuffle brain – Objectives, to find embedded icons in a picture, and to do it in record time! Rules of engagement – to upload facebook accepted decent pictures of your choosing and submit them to play with. You can use default pics also. Unique features – it doesn’t just choose the game for you, it lets you create one yourself using your own photos.
The Social architect here is Facebook. They are indded social architects as they have set up the facebook site and facilitate usage, as long as users comply with rules. They have also created a how to guide for how to use the system for first time users.
Whyville – Objective – Design your face, and earn clams (the currency in whyville). You also desing your car and make friends using this avatar. Rules of engagement – im sure appropriate language would be a big one here, but other than that you have free reign on what you look like, and what items you have. There aren’t too many unique features here, as there are many games that do similar, if not the same thing, take neopets(playing games to earn neopoints), facebook fluff friends, the sims, second life etc etc. They all do basically the same thing. Im not sure ‘WHO’ is the social architect, but i believe they still are one, as they have facilitated the use of whyville, with logins and password, and also have guidleines to stick with.
Topic 4 parts 1,2, 3 & 4
How would I manage my blog or wiki?
I would manage this with respect to the user. Obviously people are going to have their own opinions, and wants and needs, but these should tie under a specific purpose to the blog, such that, if the wiki was about dogs and someone started changing the information to include cats, it would sway from the general community bias of dogs, and the user’s postings would need to be undone, or removed with warning. An online discussion forum must also be prepared for debatable topics, such as religion or politics, and each member of the forum should be given rules to comply with so that things can be discussed freely without nonsense of name calling and direct attacking.
Q2:- My blog site is blog host Blogger.com. The purpose of my community is to post answers as a submission. These answers are tasks in the subject ITC213, and a few of my colleagues are following my blog. My vision is such that my colleagues can come and see my point of view, or my opinion on topics they have a different, or even similar opinion to. The community is easy to work with. The hardest part is finding each other in the first place, as we are constantly asking for email addresses on the forums, and the postings get lost somewhere towards the bottom of the forum. There is a description, or profile that bloggers can fill out about themselves, however this isn’t for everyone. A lot of people wish to remain anonymous on their blogs, however for the folk who don’t mind, they are able to submit a thumbnail picture of themselves, along with a brief description and their likes and dislikes, giving back ground info on the user. Community rules have been developed in that i will never reveal the company i work for, or my name. Lucky for my name is androgynous, so people may think i am either sex until they read more about me. I expect that as rules go, no one would leave inappropriate or rude comments on my blog, as i am definitely the leader on my page. Regular events do promote relationships with my followers, and there will come a time where they might feel they ‘know’ me without having even met me. If i do not post for a while, subscribers would become less interested and may not be willing to play ‘catch-up’ on my online life. I am only one person, with 4 followers, this is not a large group, hence no need for subgroups, no is there a need for people to have roles on my blog.
As for the 3 underlying principles:-
- My blog allows for growth and change, as I can create more pages and topics, follow others, and change the appearance, or details on the blog. I can edit pre-existing posts, change the colour scheme, and the layout of my page.
- Community feedback can be created with the comment button. It can also be deleted or maintained, with me being able to delete unwanted comments.
- The blog does not allow for my followers to have more control. The only thing they can do is subscribe to my blog, and comment on it. I prefer it this way, seeing as it is MY page... J
Exercise 2:-
3 Ways a user can have more control in an online community are:-
- Be given more accesses – some users a part of an online forum may have read accesses only until they have served a certain amount of days on the forum, when they are granted write accesses.
- A user can become the leader of an online community and coordinate members – for example a guild leader in an MMORPG or online multi player game, who coordinates other members to attack the enemy.
- A user can make friends in an online community and be more comfortable in posting and expressing themselves, or conveying their opinions.
Q2:- 3 tips/rules i have learnt from online meetings and interactions:
- Steer clear of any conversations that involve religion and or politics, as they always, always, always end up messy.
- Do not criticize or attack people, as it always, always, always, ends up messy, especially when you are new to that particular online community and the person you’re attacking has been there longer.
- Always, always, always, re-read your words BEFORE you post. If something can easily be misconstrued, change the wording, or omit the sentence altogether.
Q3:- Social networking sites must develop a guideline for usage, not only to guide and assist newcomers to the community with acceptable behaviours and practices for usage, but to aid existing members and remind them of acceptable behaviours and social policies of how to treat other individuals. A main reason why is because people have grown up in different cultures with different belief systems, and when you put these people in a room together you are likely to get clashes, and differences of opinion. The guidelines provide a law to abide by and any member that doesn’t comply may be omitted from the community. The laws are there for people to check what is acceptable and what is the norm.
Q4:-
Sites for learning:
Have challenges for learning - Ning, Deli.cious, RevYu, Digg, Bubbl.us.
Don not impose challenges for learning - Yahoo, Bebo, FB, YT, LinkedIn, TeacherTube, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, SocialGo, Reddit.
Sites for challenges with professional development in the workplace
All sites impose issues with professional development in the workplace because people tend to forget that once the information is up there it can be retrieved by anyone, and you may have posted something that shows you as inapproriate or gives your workplace the impression you are noty professional.
Topic 3 parts 1 & 2
Battle for wesnoth!
.....And it indeed was a battle! I got temprarily addicted to this game! I battled with a friend online. My goodness... the points, the money, the citizens........the.......the.......WOW! Best. Assignment. Ever.
This was a great game to play online, and i found alot of people talking to me, wanting me to join up with them, and buy things off them - usually overpriced! - but no one wanted to be my friend :( (naaaawwwwwwww)
I found that everyone wanted to play the game to their own advantage and no one was willing to be my friend like they were in say second life, or even on FB, so wesnoth was disappointing in that regard. Still a great way to join up with a buddy and kill off some boredom!
Part 2:-
What id the educational value of mobile social network access?
- Mobile applications using GPS/MCS
Many new types of hand-held devices are becoming commonplace technologies at school, work and in leisure. The benefit of each of these tools, or the aim of them, is to make life, simpler, information gathering faster, and ultimately for ease of use for things in everyday life.
One such device is a GPS, or global positioning device, that uses satellite navigation technology to locate a person, place or thing’s current location, normally within metres. As Wyryzowski (2009), explains, A GPS device can track the location of an object or person, so if a family was spilt up in territory they were unfamiliar with, by using GPS, they would be able to track each other down. However, the GPS device has sparked debate on how educational it actually is. Sure, it’s convenient, lightweight, and gives you a degree of social network access, however, it is replacing the use of conventional maps in cars world-wide. Just as texting seems to have ruined generation Y’s ability to properly use the English language, it has been forethought that GPS will ruin Gen Y’s ability to read a map, and convey the information to find their destination, (Hoell, 2009).
GPS does give the upper hand educationally-wise, with generation Y being able to use technology, interpret a GUI, decipher information and convey messages, or even listen to instructions from a recorded voice on how to reach your destination. It also can determine terrain, and can re-navigate your path for you if you missed the next turn, however, what will it do for you when you are out of range, there is heavy cloud cover, or you are in a tunnel? Hoell, (2009) states that the GPS signal will be lost, and unless you know how to read a map, you’ll be lost too!
Hoell, K. (2009). Will global Positioning Systems (GPS) ever replace conventional maps? Retrieved 5th Sept 2009 from http://www.helium.com/items/1191770-gps-replace-conventional-maps
Wyryzowski, S. (2009). 12 Practical uses of GPS for everyday people. Retrieved 5th Sept 2009 from http://ezinearticles.com/?12-Practical-Uses-of-GPS-for-Everyday-People&id=74085
Janai!
.....And it indeed was a battle! I got temprarily addicted to this game! I battled with a friend online. My goodness... the points, the money, the citizens........the.......the.......WOW! Best. Assignment. Ever.
This was a great game to play online, and i found alot of people talking to me, wanting me to join up with them, and buy things off them - usually overpriced! - but no one wanted to be my friend :( (naaaawwwwwwww)
I found that everyone wanted to play the game to their own advantage and no one was willing to be my friend like they were in say second life, or even on FB, so wesnoth was disappointing in that regard. Still a great way to join up with a buddy and kill off some boredom!
Part 2:-
What id the educational value of mobile social network access?
- Mobile applications using GPS/MCS
Many new types of hand-held devices are becoming commonplace technologies at school, work and in leisure. The benefit of each of these tools, or the aim of them, is to make life, simpler, information gathering faster, and ultimately for ease of use for things in everyday life.
One such device is a GPS, or global positioning device, that uses satellite navigation technology to locate a person, place or thing’s current location, normally within metres. As Wyryzowski (2009), explains, A GPS device can track the location of an object or person, so if a family was spilt up in territory they were unfamiliar with, by using GPS, they would be able to track each other down. However, the GPS device has sparked debate on how educational it actually is. Sure, it’s convenient, lightweight, and gives you a degree of social network access, however, it is replacing the use of conventional maps in cars world-wide. Just as texting seems to have ruined generation Y’s ability to properly use the English language, it has been forethought that GPS will ruin Gen Y’s ability to read a map, and convey the information to find their destination, (Hoell, 2009).
GPS does give the upper hand educationally-wise, with generation Y being able to use technology, interpret a GUI, decipher information and convey messages, or even listen to instructions from a recorded voice on how to reach your destination. It also can determine terrain, and can re-navigate your path for you if you missed the next turn, however, what will it do for you when you are out of range, there is heavy cloud cover, or you are in a tunnel? Hoell, (2009) states that the GPS signal will be lost, and unless you know how to read a map, you’ll be lost too!
Hoell, K. (2009). Will global Positioning Systems (GPS) ever replace conventional maps? Retrieved 5th Sept 2009 from http://www.helium.com/items/1191770-gps-replace-conventional-maps
Wyryzowski, S. (2009). 12 Practical uses of GPS for everyday people. Retrieved 5th Sept 2009 from http://ezinearticles.com/?12-Practical-Uses-of-GPS-for-Everyday-People&id=74085
Janai!
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