CloudNueve

With only an hour to spare, I made a desperate leap for the pidgeon boxes on Level C and with impecable accuracy I deposited my Data Visualisation into the …oh shit! That’s my media production ass..ign..ment…oops..

Well, after I fixed that little hiccup It was time to relax and leave the week to ponder about what to write for this final meta blog. Firstly, I just wanted to review the data visualisation assignment. Honestly, I did not complete everything I wanted to include in the assignment. This was mostly due to the fact that I only figured out what and how I wanted to demonstrate the differnt data sets, what visual imagery I would use and how to show it through the use of Photoshop (as I am not very flash savy). I think I spent about 40 hours on Photoshop over the last 4 days before the due date creating the proposed visual aspects of the ‘hypothetical data visualisation’. The issue surrounding my assignment, is one that I believe needs much more attention and would benefit from a proffessionally constructed data visualisation. Overall, I enjoyed the assignment thoroughly and I tell you it is quite a rarity for that to happen :) The in class exercises were also very beneficial and would have struggled with the assignment if we hadn’t done those.

I’m not quite sure how to analyse my own blogs/writings over the past semester. I suppose my blogs are apart of networked media simply because of the fact that I have utilized a blogging platform and there is at least 1 person reading them. (I hope) To argue whether they are interesting or effective is a completely differnt story. I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs the significance of the diaries of Samuel Peyps, which entailed his daily experiences and outtings thus revealing to anyone with an interest a person of his nature, exactly what he did during 1665. Perhaps in another 300 years, there will be someone wanting to know what a student of networked media production was studying, granted that the internet and tumblr.com is still utilized/accesible. I suppose it is these ideas expressed in my blogs that reveal a certain culture of people alike.

So I have just been looking at some crazyyyyy ass data vis this week. So many diverse and interesting ways of projecting information, interaction definitely makes for fun learning! Going on from what I was talking about 2 posts ago, interaction is vital for human interest and is a large part of many internet applications today. Having the ability to alter the data sets and sub categories is a much better way of gaining information and you find out so much more through corelating data.

Going into the lecture extremely tired last week did not make for beneficial learning, however I did manage to squeeze out some notes which helped me greatly during the in class excersise. And with the help of wikipedia I was able to understand the whole approach to data vis’, with a more in depth of knowledge. For the in class excersise I found a website (http://madrid.citymurmur.org/) based on the location and popularity of certain media topics, typologies and its impact on the public’s perceptions, in the city of Madrid. Kind of similar to the OaklandCity crime locator site but with differnt algorithms and structure. Personally, I found this a very worth while excersise and very important for constructing our own data visualistaions for the assignment.

So in regard to the assignment, I have been thinking about demonstrating the impact of a current issue, which is in the back of some of our minds but at the forefront of ecological sustainability and possibly survival. This, in which i am referring to is indeed the emission of Carbon. Something that struggles to make its presence felt, due mostly to the ignorance and disregard of many human beings, would definitely benefit from a very effective Data Visualisation. To whether i can create such a data visualisation is another question :) But basically the data vis will be a measurement and cost of emissions from certain sources. E.g consumption of meat, travel, house hold emitors etc. Then possibly correlated with demographics of age, income, commercial etc. The analyst would enter their personal information and they would be positioned on some sort of data visualisation. From the information prestented, hopefully the analysts will be able to make changes to their lifestyle ecologically based on the usage and cost of their emissions. Hopefully other information gained from the data vis will demonstrate the source of main contributors, who they are and also fluctuating predictions of the earths health will change depending on the amount of carbon emitted.

This is all still in the thought process but is to some extent what I have in mind for project B.

This weeks lecture inspired some brilliant ideas for the in class excersise. I was quite amazed by the ideas produced within such a short period of time. Honestly… our groups idea was fairly weak and i doubt it would spark much interest amongst ..well anyone really lol. Despite this, it did retain aspects of multiplicity which was based mostly around wisdom of crowds and collaborative filtering.

Web 2.0: loosely used jargon which signifies the stage of evolution in which the internet currently inhabits. Web applications, social networking sites, blogs and any sharing orientated webpages, basically make up the un-official newest version of the web. Collective intelligence, AJAX and cute..shiney…slidey stuff?.. I guess they haven’t really thought of a technical name for that aspect of Web 2.0 ..hmm. Well my understanding of all of this is that it’s not so much a technological upgrade of the web but more to do with accumulative changes and how we utilize the internet. It is this revolutionary use of the internet that has enabled software and web designers to be so successful. In this technological society, filled with ipods, ipads, touch screens and virtual video games, interaction is essential for human interest. Generally, you are subject to stagnant information with little to offer to the user but now designers are starting to place more emphasis on the users, allowing them to morph and control webpages, blogs, wikis etc. The success in this practice is clearly evident in applications like facebook, twitter and various blogging platforms. Something which I have noticed is how gaming companies like Mircrosoft and Playstation have incorporated the internet to maximise their consumers gaming experience…such as my self :D this has allowed patrons like me to interact, share information and play online with people around the world. Users ability to interact with each other then forms a collective intelligence, adding to a social knowledge pool.

It’s amazing how people have commented over and over about how technology is disadvantaging humans on a social communication level and we are segregating ourselves to the point of no return but with this new approach to webdesign and influx of interaction on the internet, we are becoming these symbiotic beings with shared philosophies, opinions and philosophies. It’s amazing what you can learn about someone on Facebook from watching their updates, comments and what groups they join ;)

The real time updates with AJAX are also a type of disintermediation, removing all the processes involved in a piece of information getting from one point to another. MAYBE if there was a universal News webpage similar to the concept of Twistori, then there could be real time updates of current events around the world minute for minute, second for second. You could find out about something in an instant which you wouldn’t generally find out about until you watched the news or heard on the radio. I’m sure there is already something like this but it just gives some idea to how effective and useful Web 2.0 is!

I believe the ideas expressed in this weeks lecture were about structures, patterns and how we categorise everything so we can extract meaning and understanding of how and where these things belong. These understandings form into conventions and they become the structure of what we know, how we function, the ways we learn and the way we teach to continue this cycle. Using taxonomic and folksonomic classifications we can determine what categories certain things fall under, which i will try demonstrate here :) Soooo something with a Taxonomic classification may be something like a food chain. for example (i think) lol:

Dominant Animals: Humans; Lions/Bears/Sharks/Snakes(larger, more dangerous animals); Medium Sized Animals: Eagles/Deers/Cows/Dogs/Cats etc; Smaller Animals: Crabs/Pigeons/Koalas etc; Smallest Animals: Insects/Parasites/Small Fish.

Not exact terms but some idea of Taxonomic classification.

Folksonomic are more generalised categories so a bit like this:

Mammals; Reptiles; Birds; Fish; Insects.

Grading things into categories and sub-categories is how we make sense of the world and same principles can be used when creating web material.

First things first, project A is running smoothly so far. Any discrepencies i’ve had with html and css have been dealt with…sort of haha. An extremely frustrating process of trial and error which has taken up the majority of my time resulting in a minor accomplisment. I am beginning to understand how everything works depending on its situation in relation to headings, paragraphs, divs and so on. It does help that I have done some basic encoding for the Canberra Times for local sports results as at has a similar process to html formatting. Ok so with that out of the way, almost, I have time for my other subjects haha, oh and writing this blog of course in which we have been asked a few questions about semantic markup, privacy and APIs. So my understanding of semantic markup is basically that it is a simplified format of html/css, where by tags almost have a literal trasnlation so its easier for someone (like me) can understand it instead of becoming lost in all the abbreviated code. I think it is used to make adjustments easier, so instead of changing everything individually you can alter the code but in a centralised manner. Now i think the cascading in CSS refers to its ability to run over mutliple html documents, it can be applied to everything instead of individually styling each, page by page. If we jump to censorship now there is a lot of debate currently about privacy and what the goverment thinks we shoud or should not be exposed to on the internet. Personally, I think there is soooooo much crap on the internet and there is way to much freedom in terms of accesibility and what can be placed on there. I think the cybersaftey plan is a vital in the protection of children. Children have wild imaginations and the extent of those imaginations are almost limitless on the internet. You can pretty much search anything and there is guaranteed to be a mulititude of websites associated with that search. If they do use the same RC classifications as television does then the web will be much cleaner. The goverment definitely has a responsibility to protect us from these things just like they have a responsibility to protect us from physical threats of terrorism, pornography and violence. If someone runs around flashing people in the middle of civic they are likely to be arrested, if someone is walking around promoting and endorsing terrorism they are also likely to be arrested as is the likelihood you will be arrested if you are fighting out at a nightclub. The same laws should apply to the internet as the viewing or reading of such things is as serious and influential as the physical act of these offenses.

After last week’s lecture my head is still spinning, trying to bring together an understanding of HTML and CSS. It is essentially what it says it is: A markup language. It’s hard enough that I fill my head with Spanish four-five times a week, now I am taking on a completely different dialect on a hyper-geeky level. This is not something I would generally be interested in or take up as a hobby however I cannot help this unrelenting urge to learn and create my own webpage/site. Instead of being out and about of a weekend I have found myself locked in my room, gazing into a screen for hours and hours slowly and painfully discovering more and more information about web design. Once again I would like to make reference to www.w3schools.com because its extremely helpful tutorials have assisted me continuously throughout my HTML/CSS learning journey. Seriously good stuff! Ok, now if we head back to lecture theater 9A01 its start to get a little hazy. APIS and Mashups kind of threw me off the boat here, it was all fairly smooth sailing up until this point. I have to agree with my fellow class mate and make reference to Bryan Pike aka Tom Cruise who recently commented on the difficulties in taking on all the information presented in the lectures. I too, and i’m sure many others have found that the information’s context is more of a “what’s in it” than the “how to” of HTML, CSS and APIS. But as we were told in the initial lecture, “we are not here to teach you, you are here to learn.” I think Michael has done as much as possible to “point us in the right direction” and he is relying on us to take some initiative, do some independent research and locate the “how to” aspect of the process. If lecturers maintained a step by step guide of HTML each lecture we would probably find ourselves at APIS by the end of …ooo say the end of semester one? So if you are in struggle town like I was, just hit up w3schools.com and get your geek on! Anyway back to Project A, I have established a concept which is pretty basic and personal. Essentially the site will be made up of a video gallery which will be the focal point of the page, a short description and contents page. With references to the content and links to other pages. I chose video as the medium as i believe it contains all aspects of sound, image, text and is possibly the largest form of media used today. It all seems to be going well at the moment so we will see where I get up to next week! :) peaceeeeeeeee

So after I just wrote roughly a third of my blog for this week, oooo say about 10 minutes ago.. I accidently hit the refresh button and lost all my work :) sooooo lets start again shall we? ok so this week we have been learning about HTML and CSS which has been very interesting as I have always wondered how internet pages/sites were manifested and I have now realised how simple it is! :D The lecture was pretty full on and there was quite a bit of information to digest. I thought spanish was the only language I was going to be studying at uni but now I’ve got to learn this one too! lol So with my very limited new found knowledge of html I went home and attempted to create my own page. I found a website called www.w3schools.com which consisted of mostly html and css tutorials and was extremely helpful. However, until the tutorial with Sharon I had no idea how to incorporate the style sheet into my html doc. I’ve also looked at a few sites and viewed their sources like ZenGarden.com and other random websites. This gave me some insight to how they were created but was still quite confusing with all the layout and commands. So with a bit more practice I can start to figure out what I’m going to do for my Project A. I also need to work out what mediums im going to use to express the idea I choose and the best way to go about that. Soooo hopefully for my next blog I will be able to write about the process and what direction im heading in with my project.