Archive for February, 2010
Story Proposal
2010 -
02.22
For my story I wish to talk about myself. I wish to discuss my life, thoughts and opinions. I would like to touch on a veriety of topics ranging from Christian theology to technology dominated mostly by the “stuff” of technology. These are my interests and those things that bring me joy in life and in my relationships with others. I feel that in order to be effective in presenting these items that I would post a minimum of 2 blog posts per week, if not more. And these could not and will not be short. They won’t be novels but they will not allow me to get by without working. The balance of blog post topic will ideal be one tech post and one personal post per week but again this would be a minimum. I would hope that the grading for this assignment would be on content and on whether or not post at least 2 posts per week. However I feel like I should not always just do just two posts, else this while blog would be becoming an assignment versus just plain fun. I would ask that you use your judgment in this sort of gray area. That is my proposal. Feel free to ask for tweaks or just throw it in my face if it is bunk.
Frosty the Snowman
2010 -
02.17
http://www.vuvox.com/collage/detail/01fa4b8c83
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/gQJQMhvYDjRltrDX
And a video of my own creation using Linux video editor tool, Pitivi.
Plans for a Story
2010 -
02.16
I wish to tell a story that is both true to who I am and also fun for me to write. I easily get bored and sidetracked with the work that I do if I do not readily enjoy the task at hand. I have thought about doing some tech reviews however I can see this getting to be a chore versus a labor of love very quickly and see it as a possibility but not the most unique or enjoyable. I have also thought about a story centered around a conversation on materialism and the selfish nature of the majority of American youth. This would most likely be an experiment involving Twitter as a medium due to its segmented nature. It would facilitate the accumulation of enough content to fill a longer segment of time. It would also allow for periods of reflection on what has been posted and room for me to experiment between multiple mediums as well. Just some thoughts…
Alan Levine and Bryan Alexander’s “Web 2.0 Storytelling: Emergence of a New Genre”
2010 -
02.11
I like the way Alan Levine and Bryan Alexander describes digital storytelling. They start exactly where you should when trying to tell the story of digital storytelling– at the beginning. Their history of the progression of Web 2.0 is not deep but hits the core points that explain the “Web 2.0″ part of Web 2.0 Storytelling. It is their insistence on focusing upon examples of digital storytelling that I admire and find the most profitable to myself as a student. They do not go about saying how digital story telling should be but instead shows us examples of what it is and what it could be. It is this characteristic of their writing that makes me more apt to believe and investigate what they are saying and trying to contribute to digital storytelling as a whole (did you catch how digital storytelling, in and of itself, is a digital story 
) One of the examples of digital storytelling that I enjoyed significantly was the amillionpenguins.org site that consisted of a novel written through the use of a wiki page for collaboration. Many of the part of the novel are long so I did not read many of them but found that the collaborative nature of this project shows just how powerful the digital media tools can be for the creation of a compelling and engaging narrative. It is also relatively easy to set up a wiki or similar technology, just like I have found and how Alan and Bryan describe. Definitely a great and enlightening read about the plethora of ways that I and others around me can use digital storytelling tools to tell a new story all their own.
An interesting story of sorts….
2010 -
02.02
So I am sure by now everyone has heard of the long awaited tablet by Apple. for many it ranks up their with the Shroud of Turin, the Holy Grail, and the Michael Jackson Moonwalk. It had many titles before its release into the wild: E-book killer, the bane of netbooks, the end of everything else as we know it? However, now it is out, the specs have been released, the capabilities analyzed and the prices revealed. So far the verdict has been quite underwhelming. Ars Technica, a popular tech blog can be cited saying, ” …the iPad isn’t going to waltz in and just change the world the way that its smaller predecessor, the iPhone, did. It’ll have to fight its way to the top, like the iPod.” in their feature article. The main issues that many are having is the absence of Flash media support, integrated web cam and an SD card slot. Many are narrating the story of their frustration through narrative YouTube videos. Chris Pirillo, a tech blogger, uses a familiar tech narrative style to analyze the uses and capabilities of the device. Another one of these videos is “Hitler responds to the iPad”.
Pretty funny 
I feel that both styles of expression and telling this story are effective in their portrayal of this new device. I like these examples of digital storytelling because they span from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of presentation, narrative style and over all purpose. I hope you enjoy them.
Web 2.0
2010 -
02.01
Web 2.0 is, as the article points out right in the beginning, a misnomer in the minds of many individuals and corporate entities. Many companies fail to realize what Web 2.0 is and often mislabel their products and services as such. I like how the article quickly identifies Web 2.0 as something that goes against the normal paradigm of software engineering. Almost all of the Web applications that could or should be classified as Web 2.0 are applications that use the users as a means of content create or feature enhancement, or go about running their service in a manner that is not based on a monolithic, desktop application like structure. It is because of this method for adding value to a application that the Web plays such a integral part in all of these applications. With out the Web it would not be known as Web 2.0 . The amazing thing is that the web allows these applications to exist. Bittorrent would be useless with out the web and would also be less useful if less people use it. The Web is what connects us and as the article mentioned it also drives many of these companies to develop their applications. They want our preferences, they want our browsing history, they want to know what we will want or need in the future, and are often very good at getting it. The article mentioned Google Adsense. Adsense allows Google to use your browsing preferences and the sites that you visit in order to target adds to you. They find out what you are looking for so they can feed you a link for almost exactly that. The accuracy of their ads increases with each search we make. Facebook also does the same sort of ad targeting but in a bit more of an intrusive manner. They use your own personal information including activities, interests, location and even gender to construct a consumer profile by which they can then target ads not on what you search but on who you are. I find this kind of creepy and often annoying. As a 20 year old male, I am often bombarded by advertisements that revolve around Facebook games involving gang violence, scantily clad women, and Xbox ads. I think that there is a point where Web 2.0 developers are going to far in their plumbing of the depths of information aggregation and exploitation. That is one of the evils and beauties of these technologies. they allow us to do powerful things on the Net but they can also be used to turn us into a dollar sign for corporations. This article focuses on the technological differences between what the Web was and what it has become. I think that we should be most concerned with where it is going and how the here and now affects what that future will look like. Will the systems of the future aggregate the whole of human knowledge and help us better understand ourselves and the world around us i.e. augment our human capabilities or will it be used as a means of feeding us what we are supposed to hear, see, buy, and even believe.