Website Development: Reflection

I'm fairly happy with my website in that it successfully brings together all of the work I have done throughout the course, and helps me to realise just how much content i have produced, as well as how much I have learnt. While there are still a lot of ways in which I could improve my website and opportunities to continue developing it, when I put it in the perspective of what I would have been able to create before doing this course (probably nothing) I'm fairly satisfied with what I have achieved.

There is, however, a lot of room for improvement. With more time and a bit more knowledge I probably would have liked to develop this from scratch using HTML, as I sometimes had trouble with the placement of text and images in Google Sites. While some of this could be fixed by editing the HTML it didn't always work, as I discovered when trying to put in the background (I discovered way too late that there was a way of doing this, but it would have been incredibly difficult to place images over the top where I wanted them). I would have also liked to make it a bit neater, a bit more interesting visually, and it would have been better if I had found ways to continue the desktop theme throughout. I did attempt to create some visuals in Illustrator to enhance the look of my site, but was unable to finish these due to time constraints.
I think that Google Sites did make it difficult in some ways to achieve the aesthetic that i wanted, as many things functions like including background colours and images were not made available when editing a page. I found these functions today when doing the finishing touches on my site, and I think that this is a flaw in Google Sites' design which should be resolved to make it more user friendly.
To further improve the site I would also try to develop my own images to accompany the links and information, so that there would not be any copyright concerns. I don't think that the website particularly constructs an online identity, but does work as a central place to store my work and give basic information about myself.

I didn't develop my Facebook page in the way that I planned, as I found it difficult to construct a purely professional identity through it. Instead I kept it quit plain, and just provided my work history and basic details. I don't think it really adds anything to my project, except fpr the few links in my profile HTML, as any information on it could be found on my Myspace and website, but it was useful throughout the course as a tool of communication and collaboration, as well as a medium through which I could develop my HTML skills.

I used my Myspace as an interactive outlet to show my favourite bands, films, television shows, and a couple of videos. I was going to post the same videos that are on my website as they were more relevant, but felt that there was no need to double up and the personalised nature of my Myspace meant that any videos I wanted to put on there were relevant to what I was trying to achieve.
In order to improve my Myspace, I would change the background image and text colour into a scheme that was clear and easy to read. As it is, it is possible to read everything on the page, but the background needs to be lined up with the text in the right places in order to do so. I would probably like to make my background an image that I had created as well.

Overall, i'm satisfied with what I have produced, but think it would benefit greatly from continued development and improvement

Week 12 Second Life Workbook Exercises

Part A.

1. Use the search Function to find a location that interests you. make a landmark there, and then return to your original location.













This is taken at the Summersville water park. I got really excited about it before logic took over and I realised I couldn't actually go on the slides myself. I did score some free bikinis though. I also went for a swim and got stuck under water for a really long time before I remembered my avatar could fly. Also at this point I was wearing at least two skirts.


2. Enter a public space in-world and strike up a conversation with someone (not from our class). See if you can add them as a friend and then send them an instant message. See how many friends you can make in the time alloted.













I had trouble making friends at first, because I kept going to places where there were no other people. I finally found some people to talk to in an Irish bar, but they didn't seem to interested in talking to me (I blame the fact that I was wearing a bikini at the time). I managed to find more friends later on, at a jazz club, and at Bipond's Pondi beach where I found some Australians.


3. Cmd-click on your avatar and select 'edit appearance'. Use the tools provided to alter the standard appearance. Also edit your clothes using the same function.

I edited my avatar's clothes so she had a purple skirt and yellow top, but later found a freebie shop and got a cool umbrella skirt and hot pink shoes (among other things). I also edited my avatar's actual appearance. You can't actually see it in my photos, unfortunately I managed to make her a bit ugly but at least she was different.

Part B.

Socialisation and Communication in Second Life...

Second life provides several modes of communication for its users, who can chat publicly, or message each other privately using the IM function. There are also options for voice chat, and 'postcards' can be emailed from second life to other users or non-users.

Second Life is well equiped for socialisation, as it offers a huge range of bars, clubs, and other social areas. These include the Summersville waterslide park, other theme parks, and the bowling park, which offers users the opportunity to bowl, play pool, and drink with friends.

I tried to find people to make friends with in this area, but unfortunatley there was nobody there, so I tried one of the dance clubs. People were partner dancing in this particular club and I thought it would be strange to start talking to anybody, but one of them struck up a conversation with me and added me as a friend.

This function helps socialisation in Second Life, as it helps users to continue to find each other within the program, and allows them to share the new discoveries they make in-world.

Week 12 E-learning post

"Think on some of the experience you had in-world and consider the reading by Dibbell, "A Rape in Cyberspace". Contribute to the discussion about the social lives and communities that form in virtual worlds, and how they have their own standards and norms of acceptable behaviour. What do you think of the LambdaMOO community's decision to kill the character of Mr. Bungle?"


I found second life really interesting, particularly in that I started almost immediately to think of the virtual space as real. I did things like get excited about the water slide park, and felt really inapproproate turning up to a bar wearing a bikini.I think that when you enter a virtual world like second life, if you don't know the social conventions of that world you try to stick mostly to those in real life (I did anyway).I found the concept of LambdaMOO difficult to grasp, and because of this I can't help but think the people willing to put the time and effort into participating in it would be fairly emotionally invested with that world. Even if this isn't the case, the Mr Bungle character was being offensive both in world and in real life, and because of this some form of punishment was called for. A real life punishment would definately be over the top, but something was required to give those that cared a sense of justice.While you could argue 'killing' Mr Bungle was a bit pointless, as a new account was easily created, it served a purpose in that it made the LambdaMOO community happy (for the most part), and acted as a form of censorship against offensive behaviour.

Website Development

I decided that rather than starting from scratch I would go to Plan B in terms of my desktop visual idea. I'm still going to have the desktop, but I'm going to create the entire image, including icons in photoshop. This will mean that I can't make each of the icons be links like I wanted to, so the homepage will act more as a contents page than anything. I will try to link the image just to go to the links page, and then navigation can be centralised there. There is also a navigation bar so I will see what I can do with that as well.

Week 10 e-learning Mobile phone culture & regulation

Social dynamics have different effects in different mobile content cultures. As outlined in Goggin (2006), different cultures have developed their own ways in which they produce, distribute, and share mobile content. This centres on text messaging in many Asian countries, especially in Japan in which mobile phones are used to distribute novels in short chapters via sms- a fairly unique use of the service. Mobile phones encourage sharing as they combine cameras, and video and sound recording capabilities with the ability to instantly send any content produced via multimedia messages. This content should definitely be owned by the person that creates it. Although there may be copyright violations when uploading content to Youtube, I think it is a good thing as it offers another way to share content with a broader audience without the charges of sending it via sms.
Regulation
Politics
Culture
Philosophy
Usage
Social Dynamics

Website Development- Google sites

I started making some actual progress with my website, developing a desktop image to use on my home page, and some icons that I was going to use as links to the other pages, such as employment history, and my links page.
When I tried to put the image into my website, I realised I couldn't layer images. I thought that this wouldn't be a problem, as I would set the screen image as the background. For some reason I couldn't get Google sites to do this. I checked the HTML tutorial, and got it to work in there, then tried it in notepad and saved it as a HTML document and it worked there, but for some reason when I put the same code into my Google site it wouldn't save the code. It was very strange. I checked on the help pages but couldn't find anything useful in there. I'm now considering abandoning Google Sites and hosting my website through something else but I'm not sure if I will.
I also had some strange problems with colours, some of the icon images i had created in Adobe Illustrator changed colour completely when I uploaded them to the site. I thought that this was because I had created them in CMYK but when I converted them to RGB nothing changed. I resolved this by hosting the images on Photobucket instead of uploading them directly from my computer. Since this worked I'm a bit confused about what the problem actually was, but its fixed so I'm not going to question it too much.

Mobile phone content production Part 2

I finally got the pieces of our video onto the computer by sending them via bluetooth to my boyfriend's phone, then connecting his phone to the computer. Once on there, i discovered that the file type that the videos were (something like .3gp) couldn't be edited with windows movie maker. It was only a minor set back and i downloaded an unactivated version of AVS video converter (it was the first thing that came up on my google search). while it coverted the files successfully to avi format, it also insisted on leaving its watermark logo thing in the middle of the video, but it was only small so I decided not to worry about it. Unfortunately I then discovered the conversion caused the end of the sound to be cut off some of the videos. I tried converting the files to different formats but it did the same thing. I had no idea how to fix this so I just breathed a sigh of relief that I had kept both takes of the video and made a somewhat mashed up version of the song using 5 different clips of video. I got most of the song in there but had to cut a line that I lost from both clips. Its very dodgy but I'm still proud of our work.
Enjoy!

Change is not always good

I hate the new Facebook.

according to all the group invitations I have been recieving on my social Facebook, I am not alone.
I did originally only moderately dislike it, finding its tabbed navigation only mildly inconvenient.

That was before I saw what it did to my profile HTML.
It ATE it.

Its still there. But its mangled. And there doesn't seem to be a way to fix it. I tried expanding it on my profile, and giving it its own application tab. Facebook pretends these things have actually happened, but when I come back its reverted to its 'new Facebook' messy remainder of what USED to be some nicely set out, brightly coloured links and images.

Mobile phone content production process

Melissa & RomiConcept-
Original ideas- rapping to polyphonic ringtone, but found 'Under the Sea' from the Little Mermaid and decided to sing it instead.

Costume-Using the materials available (pens, highlighters, etc) we coloured our hands into the characters Flounder and Sebastian- used the Internet to locate pictures of these characters to help us

Content-Song lyrics were downloaded and printed from a Disney song lyrics website to help us with our production

Location-Difficult to find an isolated location, which would allow us to record without any interruptions. Eventually decided to record against a purple wall, which we used to symbolise the sea.

Production-Utilised both phones in our production- one to provide the polyphonic audio sound, the other to record the video. Took two takes to maximise the production quality of our piece

Post Production-Were not able to post onto the computer using bluetooth, will continue later and attempt to edit the 3 scene music video and post it later for inclusion on our websites

Wk 9 e-learning post: from telephone to mobile phone

"Contribute on the e-learning site some personal history about the use of phones in your household and the integration of the mobile phone into your everyday lives over the last 15 years. "

In the last 5 years I have come into contact with just about every phone that has ever been made. This is mostly due to having a boyfriend that has managed to lose or destroy an amazing number of phones- at least 20 in that 5 year period. He's had flip phones, slide phones, keyboard phones, camera phones, old phones, new phones, red phones, blue phones. Ever looking for a phone charger? He probably has the one you need. To his credit though, he did manage to hang onto his phone when someone attempted to mug him- apparently it was an interesting experience for the person he was on the phone to at the time.My own experience with losing a phone earlier this year was an interesting one. I decided not to replace it for a while in order to punish myself for the stupidity required to lose it the way I did (really it was more to save some of the money I lost along with it but you get the idea). I held out for about 2 weeks. I added the "upgraded" model of the phone I had lost onto my plan, only to discover that "upgraded" really meant "we took away some of the best features and made them be extras that you have to pay for separately. sucked in." I was a little annoyed, but at least it came in hot pink. The thing is, being without a phone made me less dependent on it, so I was able to lower my cap- losing my phone ended up saving me money. At my house we still have a couple of those really old brick phones with the tiny screens floating around somewhere. If mobile phones are anything like fashion they'll be super cool in the next couple of years. I find it really funny that my dad's work gave him a super-phone with everything you could possibly imagine on it, but he doesn't know how to send a text message. I think he would prefer to still be using the brick phone.

wk 8 e-learning post: the Blogosphere

Link to results of me & Romi's investigation into blogging about the paralympics:
sports blogging

Website Development

I went through my Myspace page and adjusted the links so that they opened in new windows, and added links to the Myspace pages of all my favourite bands. I had a bit of a problem when none of these worked, but eventually realised that it was because I left out the http:// part of all the addresses so that was that solved.
I also realised that a lot of my Photoshop and Illustrator work that I was planning to put on my websites was on a USB drive that I lost, and I'm not sure how I would work in the stuff that I still have. If I have time I might develop some new work to include on my website, or just concentrate on developing the visual navigation of my website.

Wk 6 E-learning post - Blogging

"Either construct a post that critically considers some of the phenomenon that are exemplary of the cultural production thesis: conversations that have turned into online chat, web sites that are expressions of the self, videos submitted to YouTube, and multiplayer online gaming are all good examples. Or consider to what degree blogging has become a naturalised activity: does it feel easier or harder to write a blog or an email - why? When does your blogging anonymity become a become a mirage? To what degree is blogging useful as a form of surveillance?"

I think blogging has become a naturalised activity for some, because of the different possibilities it offers. In some cases blogging can be a way in which talented writers can reach a fairly broad audience without needing to first find someone willing to publish their work. In other cases people are able to seek the opinions of others in an anonymous way- having a blog can be like having a diary that talks back. On the other hand, there are still plenty of people that do not find blogging natural or even comfortable - it can be daunting to write for an audience, whether it is real or imagined.
i find it difficult to compare blogging with email as I do not use either extensively and when i do its for very different purposes, but I guess with email you have a greater perception of control- you know who you are sending it to, and generally trust that it won't be forwarded on if you don't intend for it to be. You also generally know what is appropriate as you know who your audience is, but then in blogs I guess your work generally dictates who your audience is so basically anything goes.
Although anonymity is a possibility in blogging, it is not always a reality. Bloggers can be careful about what information they give about themselves, but may be recognised by people they know offline if they describe certain people or events, or even write in a certain way.

Website development (imagined)

I have been completely neglecting to actually work on my website, but I have been thinking a lot about how I can improve it and make it interesting while including or linking to all of my other work. I really like the way Audrey has set up her Myspace as a sort of digital corkboard so I started to think about ways I could make my website more interesting by including lots of visual elements in the navigation.
One idea was to set it up to look like a journal, and have things like work info, education history, blog links, other links, etc on separate pages. That way I could have an interesting Home page that I would set up to be the 'cover', and link it so that you could click on it to open the next page, which would continue throughout to give it a linear feel.
My other idea was to set it up as a computer desktop, and create my own images in Photoshop and Illustrator to use as icons that will link to the other pages. I think I am going to go with this idea, as it has more relevance, and will make more sense when it comes to putting in links and including videos. My only problem was that maybe it would be a bit lame to have a computer within a computer but I guess I will try it and see whether it works or not.

Further Website Development

I abandoned Kompozer and set my webpage up using Google Sites. I found this to be very user-friendly, and easy to move between WYSIWYG and HTML, so I could adjust the code for things such as the text for links, which default to the URL. For now I have set it up with my links for facebook, myspace, and my blog. To compliment this i made a simple picture in photoshop to have as a common element on all of my pages. I will eventually replace this with a better image. One idea that I had was to create an image of myself using Illustrator, and using this to replace photos. This would be more appropriate, and give me a vague sense of anonymity (despite the huge amount of information about myself I have already posted).
I also provided my work and education histories, with links to all the relevant websites, and created a secondary page to put some sort of CV on. Using Google Sites means I can easily create further pages, which may be a good way to separate the personal and professional aspects of my site. I attempted to post a video using the 'add video' function, but I couldn't make it work. I also attempted adding it manually in the HTML section, but it was removed due to "dangerous tags". I would have made further attempts, but the video was really more of a space-filling idea. It is something that I will work on more when I have a specific video in mind.
I also attempted to use the "add gadgets" function, but couldn't get them to work properly either, as I wasn't able to move or resize or adjust them effectively. This again is something I will make more attempts at when I have a more specific purpose in my mind. At this point the site looks very basic and not at all interesting. I think my next step will be to attempt to add a background, or at very least some images, and continue to expand from there.
I have also begun adding to my Myspace. I started to list bands, films, etc, but decided it would be more interesting to set each one up as a link. I have done this with TV shows, but need to look at setting it up differently to ivercome the problem of navigating away from Myspace (I plan to look into whether I can add something in the code that will make it default to a new window). In music I will probably overcome this by linking to the band's Myspace pages. I also added my photoshop image, and linked to my other pages. I plan to work a lot more on the background and format of my Myspace to turn it into something much more unique (and easier to look at).
I still haven't done much work on the actual profile of my Facebook, as I have been putting my time into my profile HTML. I want to explore this further and look at what else I can do with my profile HTML to make my Facebook more interesting.
I've also customised the appearance of my Blog, attempting to follow a similar colour scheme to what I've used on my other pages, to hopefully keep tying everything in together. At this point I'm feeling like at least I have made a start, and have some ideas to continue developing.

kompozer

I started working with Kompozer this week, which I think forced me to put more thought into what I want my website to look like and what it should include. This is because while I have been working with HTML progress has been slow, and every little thing I get right feels like an acheivement, but with WYSIWYG I can put the basic elements in place very quickly, which means I need to start thinking more about the actual content.
I have decided that I will make my own website, but will continue expanding and refining my Myspace and Facebook pages, as my website will link to these. I still plan to make my Facebook a more professional type page, and my Myspace more personal. This will be much easier with Myspace, as I can post anything that I feel reflects my personality (or an online version of it), whereas with Facebook I will need to consider more carefully what should be included or excluded, and develop the right sort of persona.
My current thinking around my web page is that I want it to fall somewhere in between those two profiles, and reflect both a personal and a professional persona. I have had several ideas about what I could do to acheive this- personal by including images, videos, and links, professional by possibly including details of my qualifications, or possibly links to websites of previous and current employers. At the moment these ideas seem to be a bit random- more ideas for the sake of ideas, but they are at least a starting point from which I can start making real progress, and continue to edit as I refine my ideas and build my concept.
One idea that I have considered is to incorporate previous digital work from my fashion design course, which involved a lot of work in Photoshop and Illustrator. I was initially thinking that I might create some sort of display of my digital artworks, but started thinking more along the lines of applying those skills in creating new content for my pages. In doing this I could develop a visual theme that will be present on all of my pages, which would help to unify my ideas and personas

Myspace & Personal Webification

I have decided to use my Myspace to present a more personal side of myself than what is on my facebook page, as i feel this is something that Myspace promotes. By allowing users to post songs, videos, and personalise their page, Myspace facilitates the building of an identity than Facebook, which seems to promote more networking and interaction.
After a difficult start on Myspace (my profile also completely disappeared- strange) things improved and i was able to create my own background and contact table (although I will probably change the images that I used as they make the page difficult to read). I have also added a song and have some ideas about what I would like to do to expand the page further, by adding videos, images, and my own text in order to create an identity. I also plan to work more with my Facebook page to make it present a more professional persona.
In terms of actually using the sites, I found Facebook much easier to work with. I have had a Myspace in the past, but still found it slightly confusing to navigate- mostly because the advertising is so intrusive. I also like all the different features that Facebook offers, as they allow users to vary the ways in which they interact and make the experience more interesting- I think Myspace is lacking in this respect.
I'm still having trouble making up my mind about what I would like to do for my own web page and what sort of image I would like it to present. If I decided to use one of my social networking pages I think I will use my Myspace, as there seems to be more potential to create what I want.

HTML

I have been working on my HTML and adding tables and links to my Facebook profile. It is interesting because there is so much trial and error involved. While it can be frustrating when one little thing screws up the whole appearance of what you are trying to do, it can be quite rewarding when things go right. It certainly makes me feel smarter when i manage to figure out a problem and correct it. In terms of working on our group assignment I've been playing around with the code more so than actually creating my blog. I'm slightly nervous about it because I have never blogged before so I don't really know what to write. This has been kind of a good thing though, because it has led me to experiment with images, video, colours and more and helped mke to build my html skills.