.........Curious.

Creative mind dissecting the norm.

[femishine]

► Play Zeega ►

by shine

What is your news?

[femishine]

I am the ''APP''

I am the ''APP''

In this ever evolving world of emerging technology and the already overwhelming internet of things, I have come to note that for innovations to exist there has to be a need. This need is very vital in the equation of innovation . Using myself as a case note , before I left the shores of my country I had an iPhone with the popular apps such as Facebook , Instagram , Twitter and a couple of games download on it and my life didn't revolve around them . But as soon as I stepped into this shores of this country I quickly realized that my life and how I live it will begin to rely on devices . I had become a persona , a variable in the equation and a vital element in the code . I became a target without my own will playing any role , in short I didn't have an option in the decision making process , the decision had already been made and I was left with the choice to either have these apps or be ready to ask a lot of questions from people . In a generation where human-human interaction is on the decline and human-device interaction is on the increase , stopping people to ask them directions might not be the best approach.

I had the following apps dictating my life to be averagely on the daily .

Rocketman :  this handles my transportation needs ..bus schedules based on my location.

Weather network app : the need to have this can't be overemphasized ..I know when to wear my boots and warm clothing.

Google maps : it tells me where everything is except helping me to find where my socks are in my  wardrobe .

I go into a mild state of panic whenever my phone battery becomes low and access to charging isn't nearby . At what point did I step away from being a conventional user to being over reliant on apps to decide and chart all my activities ? Here's where the idea bulb light up. I am the app , I created the need , I am the persona that was created to validate the need for the innovation to exist .

Persona + Need = Innovation

I was a target from the moment i arrived and there has been content tailored particularly for me . I became the human app , I am the end user of all the hours of coding and strategy . I take all the information provided in these innovations and decode them according to the need they serve in my space , this is the price i have to pay for my liberty and the comfort they provide for me . As long as the elements of my equation above continues to exist then i don't think there will be a decline in the amount of apps to be discovered and launched. Do note that i am just one persona and a lot more can be created and their needs met. The Itunes store is a good example of that,the amount of apps on their store is overwhelming , it isn't a surprise that they make billions and will continue on this part for a long time .

Follow me on twitter @FemiShine

[femishine]

Pulse-LinkedIn Terrible Security Captcha !!!

As an avid reader of different news articles to keep in touch with the outside world , I find that Pulse satisfies this need. I am able to have the news links and blogs that I am interested being synced all in one place. I recently downloaded the app on my Iphone5 and I didn’t know I could also sign into Pulse using my LinkedIn account so I saw no harm in doing that. The user experience for this process didn’t really work for me. At a point after I signed in with my LinkedIn username and password I encountered the security captcha and that was where the problem began. The captcha words were terrible; it is basically a work of art and not words. I wasn’t able to figure out what the words were supposed to be. I tried several times to get in and couldn’t.

A CAPTCHA is a program that protects websites against bots by generating and grading tests that humans can pass but current computer programs cannot. In other words, it means it confirms that you're a human being when you type in the given words .Here are a couple of the captcha  I got.

I believe as popular as Pulse is, issues like this should be seriously addressed. I don't have any issues with my eyesight and still couldn't figure it out. What about people with issues with their sight? This user experience for me is not encouraging. I am an avid user and would appreciate if they can do something about it. I still can’t complete the process so anyone who knows someone should please forward this to them.

Thank you 

Follow me on twitter @FemiShine

[femishine]

CamCode Travel App

Public displays have become a norm in our environment, ranging from small public advert displays to large commercial LED displays along our roads, in our train stations and even in schools.

  This piece of technology has developed on a fast pace from the conventional paper print to large displays at the super bowl and airports. Public displays basically works as being the medium for transmitting information to people therefore there is a market need for this medium of transmission to be brought directly to the user interacting with it on their devices

  Imagine walking into a large airport such as Dubai International airport or perhaps the ever-busy London Heathrow Airport and having absolutely no idea where to find your check in counter, gate or even the washroom.

Imagine having to rely on vague information from passersby who might just be as confused as you are or even the airport security with a foreign accent you can’t comprehend?

Have you ever wished you could get more information from airport public displays conveniently?

  This a new and exciting innovation bridges the gap between the user and the information contained on the public displays to the barest minimum by displaying the information on public displays into our smartphones. .

Camcode is a mobile travel application designed using HTML5 that relies on the latest emerging technology to interact with public information and bring it closer to the end user.  This app allows any user who walks into the airport to scan a QR code, which automatically syncs with the user’s electronic ticket that has been scanned into the app and displays airport information such as

Check in counter

Gate number

Weather

Map of the airport showing coffee shops, washrooms, duty free shops and Wi-Fi hot spots

Gives mapped direction from the user’s exact location to the selected destination within airport

Count down to departure time

User can select language preference for the information to be displayed

  Camcode uses already existing technology such as camera, QR code, GPS and LED displays to access information on public displays and sync it to device .It works on all mobile platforms such as Iphones,Androids,Windows and Blackberry.

  Components

QR code: QR code encodes information in a visual pattern that a machine can read. The combination of black and white bars (elements) represents the different text characters/information.

The app contains an embedded QR code scanner, which reads this pattern of black and white using the device camera, it then displays the information contained therein on the device screen.

GPS or Global positioning System is a network of orbiting satellites that send precise details of their position in space back to earth. The signals are obtained by GPS receivers, such as navigation devices and are used to calculate the exact position of an object.

Limitations 

How to get airlines and ticketing offices to accept embedding their information in QR code and including them on their public displays.

Getting airports around the world to sync their information into one hub, which is then transferred into QR code that can be read by this app in any part of the world.

Getting people to actually use the app by studying their behavioral patterns

                                                   Further Areas of Development

Applying this innovation in public admin offices and skyscrapers where the user can gain access to the map of a building and be able to access information such as map/layout of the building. How to get from one point to another and facilities directly on their device.

In areas of marketing and advertisement where the information on public display adverts can also be represented in QR code that the passersby can access with ease on their devices.

Please do contact me with if youre interested in further discussions about this innovation 

[email protected] 

@FemiShine

[femishine]

Embracing the World of Web Development

My venture into the world of programming began some years back with C++, which basically gave me nightmares and opened my eyes to the reality of what developers go through before giving the users different innovations. That being said fast forward a few years and i am confronted with HMTL5. Reading the course outline gave me goose bumps literally. I had to come to terms with it being imperative to at least have the basic knowledge of how it works to be able to meet job requirements in the digital world.

So the question is why HTML?  HTML is used for website design which involves the look and feel of the site such as graphics elements, the languages and server resources it will use, the programming and data structures involved, the time and programming abilities needed, My foray into this territory has opened my eyes to the importance of HTML and the role it plays in bringing content in a more presentable and rich medium.

First of all, it is very rapidly becoming a standard. Developers want to use HTML5, which in return makes it all the more popular and the driving force in the developer’s world. Modern browsers all support HTML5 allowing developers to use all the new and exciting features it offers in order to create more dynamic end results. Being the world wide accepted standard if you are a developer on a project, you want to, or should want to, do it in HTML5.

I have discovered that it is now easier than ever to develop a web site or a web application in HTML5 that can run on both desktop and mobile devices. Content can be easily developed with the latest trends; it doesn’t matter if you are browsing on your desktop machine, on your laptop or on your smartphone. 

[femishine]

Social Media “A Platform For Change”

Social Media “Platform For Change”

  Social media today has bypassed the  of conventional means of passing information across through word of the mouth, TV, radio and public announcements it has dived into uncharted waters with the way information is being passed across at tremendous speeds and allowing it create follower-ship which therefore leads into group formation by people who share the same goals, areas of interest and political views.

The recent Arab spring with focus on Tunisia in 2011 was a case worthy of note, where the use of social media to organize protests and pass across information to people who share the same grievances against their leaders. Creating a uniform voice to pass information to one another and the rest of the world without having to go through their state controlled, government censored media channels. Protests were planned and details such as concentrations of police in a particular area, how to evade arrests, advice on what to do when tear gas were used were passed across to one another through twitter, Facebook and blogs thereby attracting global attention.

All of these vices increased the pressure the protesters were trying to pass across to the government. The government in Tunisia was very unhappy about the often bloody images of repression of the protests by government security forces which were being showed to the rest of the world. In response , the government tried to block the social-networking sites. In Tunisia, the effect was to increase the size and power of protest demonstrations and the Tunisian president, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, was forced to change his approach. He apologized for blocking the sites and reopened them. He proffered to open talks with the protesting groups , but by that time it was too late to save his administration. He resigned on January 16 and an interim coalition government was set up!

Amnesty International acknowledges the importance of digital technology in the success of the civil uprising in Tunisia and Egypt (in its April 2011 report) but it also warns that the same technology can be used by threatened regimes to suppress civil unrest. Dissident groups can easily be infiltrated and the same technology has not been so successful in Yemen, Syria and Bahrain.

This trend has lead to other areas of interest popping up using this tested medium to voice out their grievances on any particular topic, from the gay communities fighting for their rights through social media against their discriminations to widely publicized the occupy wall street.

In conclusion, looking at the Tunisian context, social media use proved to be much more political and effective – not social networking, just networking people while focusing its strengths on organization of events and follower-ship cutting across all media barriers of ethics, government restrictions and carving a niche for itself as a voice to be reckoned with in areas of broadcast of information to a wide audiences and getting feedback at the same time.

Reference:

Amnesty International Report 2011 ; State of Human Rights In The Middle East and North Africa

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/POL10/012/2011/en/a31cf35a-0d47-4374-82ff-a4d440398861/pol100122011en.pdf

[femishine]

3D Printing And The Road Ahead

The Innovative Uses Of 3D Printing

1. Prototyping

The most common use of 3D printing technology is for engineering prototypes. 3D printers can provide designers with easy access to models they can use to test ideas cheaply before they commit to expensive bespoke machinery and processes.

2. Designing for home printing

As the technology becomes more common and cheaper, chances are that savvy designers won’t even need to use the printer to manufacturer items – the buyer will be able to download designs and print objects at home. Just imagine, you’ve lost the back off your TV remote or need a certain sized screw while doing DIY. There’s no need to pop to the shops when you can find what you need online, pay to download the item and print it instantly.

3. Confectionary

UK scientists have created a prototype chocolate printer. In the words of Dr Liang Hao, lead scientist of the Choc Edge company in Exeter, “You just need to melt some chocolate, fill a syringe that is stored in the printer, and get creative printing your chocolate.” Other companies around the world are developing similar printers.

4. Bones

Engineers have found a durable replacement for bones that have been destroyed by illness or in accidents – titanium that is shaped using 3D printing. In 2011, an anonymous Dutch woman was the first to receive a new titanium jaw. Design technology was used to ensure it fit the patient perfectly and even included areas where nerves could be attached so she could maintain sensations such as touch.

5. Drugs and medicine

Researchers at Glasgow University are currently working on a new method of creating medicine using 3D printers. Their research has resulted in a printer that can not only print the casing of a pill, but also deposit the chemicals inside of them. This would allow for bespoke medicines, allowing treatment to happen much more efficiently.

6. Cars

The worlds first 3D printed car was prototyped in 2011. The ‘Urbee’ has a slick futuristic design and uses a petrol and electric hybrid engine. It is one of the greenest cars in the world and can be charged for next to nothing from a plug socket. The team behind the Urbee are raising funds for a second prototype and it will be some time until the Urbee is available to buy, but the process of its creation is set to revolutionize the industry.

7. Buildings

Italian Enrico Dini, founder of Monolte UK has created the D-Shape printer, which is the worlds largest. It bonds sand with a special binding material to make a sandstone style product that can be used to create large structures. There are many benefits of his system, as it allows for easy production of Gaudi-esque designs and the ability to either create buildings bit by bit off site or in one go on site.

 8. Jewelry

Many jewelry designers have started to use 3D printing to create intricate designs out of materials such as plastic and titanium. As the technology becomes more sophisticated people should be able to commission their own designs, which provides great potential for bespoke wedding rings and gifts.

9. Personalized toys and gifts

Ever fancied being your favorite superhero or wrestler? Several online toy manufacturers are now using 3D printers to manufacture bespoke action figures that have the facial features of the customer based on photographs that are sent to them. Disney are also in on the act at their Hollywood Studios, allowing Star Wars fans to step into a booth where cameras map out their features and allows their image to be ‘carbonized’ in 3D like Han Solo in the Empire Strikes Back. For non Star Wars fans, this essentially means that mini statues of their form can be printed out for them to display at home.

10. Entertainment

Independent film makers take heed, everything from Iron Man’s suit in the popular Avengers movie, to parts of the plasticine characters in Aardman’s The Pirates has been created using 3D printers. As the technology becomes more prominent, it will play an important part in creating new special effects, props and costumes in your favorite films, TV shows and theatre productions. Is there a gap in the market for bespoke costumes for role players and fancy dress shops?

The current trend of 3D printing will see more advancements in areas of science , technology and most especially in the manufacturing sector of the global economy . I foresee more automated processes in manufacturing as models and measurements can be made from 3D printers thereby leading to a lesser manufacturing process time for deadlines and these can lead to loss of jobs over time as industries will want to save costs.

@FemiShine

[femishine]

Let The Treasure Hunt Begin !

Geocaching is a worldwide treasure hunt where people use GPS-enabled devices, such as mobile device and other navigational techniques to look up coordinates of a hidden treasure also known as a cache. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. After signing the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little financial value

 Who Hides the Treasure?

Anyone can create a cache and it can be made of almost anything. Generally a cache fits into the criteria of being a waterproof container (such as Tupperware), an ammunition container, or some other repurposed container. Within each cache, the treasure hider stores a logbook, a pen or pencil, and generally a few trinkets. 

Once the cache is created, it is then hidden. Sometimes caches can be simply hidden in a local park, but they can also be hidden in very elaborate ways, such as underwater or atop a mountain! Once hidden, the creator logs its GPS coordinates and then posts them on the geocaching website www.geocaching.com for members of the geocaching community to find. There are over 1.8 million active caches hidden on all seven continents and even one on the international space station!

Astronaut Rick Mastracchio logs the International Space Station geocache.

How do I Find the Treasure?

To find a cache, you need a device that can receive a GPS signal. In the early days of geocaching, this meant that you needed to have a GPS worth a few hundred dollars to even get started. Nowadays, your standard smartphone has this capability. In fact, the geocaching apps has been developed and available for download from its website for every major smartphone on the market such as IPhone and Android. These apps range from free to around $10 but open up a whole new world for the avid geocacher. With one of these apps, you can easily search for caches around you, see a satellite view of the coordinates with your position and the location of the nearest treasure, and even get a few hints about the cache if the owner of it felt it was necessary. But don’t think for a second that these phone apps will do all of the work for you. Generally, they will get you to within 15-20 feet of the cache, but after that it’s up to you to roll up your sleeves and start searching high and low, all while avoiding any muggles  that might be watching. If you’re familiar with the Harry Potter books, then you would know that a muggle is a non-magical person who is completely unaware of the magical world. So how does this relate to geocaching? Well, geocaching started around the same time as the first Harry Potter book was published, and the geocaching community adopted the term “muggle” to refer to anyone who is unaware of geocaching. So when you are handling a cache, make sure the treasure doesn’t fall into muggle hands. -

What Happens When You Find the Treasure?

When you open up the cache, you’ll see a small notepad, a pen, trinkets and a bunch of odd objects. These are generally objects of little monetary value, but unique to the area. Treasure hunters have reported finding trading cards, foreign currency, and even a flash drive. The general rule of thumb is to never take something out of a cache without putting something of your own in. Once you’ve selected an item you want to take, sign the logbook and note the date when you found the cache. Then put something of your own into the cache, seal it up, and hide it right back where you found it for the next treasure hunter to find. 

Geocaching is an interesting and engaging IDM project because it combines technology and the outdoors. It encourages people to use technology in a positive way and gets them away from the computer screen to explore the physical world.

  References

Geocaching 101

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/tech/computers/geocaching-101

Geocaching 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching

[femishine]

10 posts!

[femishine]

Emerging Digital Media Trends "Joining The Band Wagon"

In our world where changes are occurring at a fast pace, business and organizations need to get on the band wagon of emerging trends or risk being left behind. These changes come with lots of advantages and do lead to overhauling of the current system of doing things to a more innovative direction. The media space is changing at very fast pace, new emerging trends such as the following needs to be strongly considered.

  •  Web and Social Media Presence: The Importance of this tool cannot be over emphasized, a company’s social media profile needs to cut across different social media platforms, engaging their audiences online and producing content that is tailored for them and also for the general public that might come across their content online.

  • Mobile Usability: Worldwide growth in smartphones was 31% last year! The average user reached for that little pocket computer 150 times a day, therefore tailored apps and content needs to be made for those set of users providing an avenue for them to access the same information available on the computers more conveniently whether at home or on the go.

  • Content Format: The type of content format has changed from our conventional text and images to videos, live streaming, audio, podcasts and more formats are still being developed .The rate different tools have been designed and still currently being designed to make the sharing of these formats easier, faster and more convenient.

  • Global Perspective: Having a global perspective to online presence provides an avenue for tailoring content knowing that it can be viewed from any part of the world, paying attention to terminologies and also creating language selection preference options across all the platform where your content is present.

  •Data Mining: Using data mining and analytic tools to find where your audience are on the internet, when they get online and what they are doing is also an ingredient in this age and time. their online interactions and using the data to influence your content is important , taking note of what your competitors are doing and where their online presence is mostly felt.

  Innovative: Technology driven innovations while making sure the innovations are user centric and should provide interactions across all forms of media formats, social media platforms, mobile usability and above all making sure it cuts across all type of user, from the inexperienced to the experienced and also the professionals.

  To keep up with these trends, the technological & innovative arm of a business or organization needs to be strengthened by employing the right kind of skills set needed to cover the areas mentioned above .

[femishine]

Setting eMail Tone

Setting tone for email is an important way of communicating the writer’s attitude. Different types of email content call for different tones. You wouldn’t want to crack a joke when you’re telling someone his or her order is out of stock.

  Using myself as an example on what happened to me recently, my cell phone network was suspended due to my inability to pay the due bills which wasn’t entirely my fault because their online payment option was through a credit card which I didn’t have and preauthorized bank debit which I used. This happened on a Friday and I found out there isn’t much I could do over the weekend till Monday. Immediately my account was suspended I sent them an email fuming with anger and the email was as follows;

  Message: I have made a payment for my phone bills using my bank account PAY BILLS option on my online banking and the status shows completed. My account seems to have been suspended and would like to have it reconnected .I would also like to have my pre authorize option i made for this on your website to be cancelled since the payment has already been made from my bank.

  My tone in this email was "Angry Customer"

  Note: I got a pop message after using their Contact us option on their website to send the above messaging saying  “Please allow a working day for a representative to reach you” Now this being a Friday it only made me angrier. A preferable tone for the pop up message would have been “Thank you for using our complaints center, we sincerely apologies for the issues you have encountered and a representative will get in touch to assist you as soon as possible”

  Reply Message

  Hi (Name Withheld)

  Thanks for contacting us. I'm happy to assist you with your inquiry.

I am sorry to read that your account is suspended, please note that if you recently made a payment; you will have to contact our payment department to report your payment at #000 from your X Mobile phone or (Number Withheld)

In order to restore your account the minimum required payment on the account should be $xxx

  Our hours of operation are:

Monday – Friday: 9am - 9pm

Saturday: 9am - 7pm

Sunday: 9am - 7pm

I hope you will find this information useful.

Sincerely,

Name (Withheld)

X Mobile Customer Service

  The tone used for the email was apologetic and helpful which enabled me as the user to focus on the information I was given at the same time calming my anger which had swelled up inside me for not being able to make or receive calls over the weekend.

  Another example for setting tone for emails would be an email to a school administrator from a concerned parent who’s child is being bulled consistently in school and is very reluctant to attend classes as a result of this.

  The tone for this email would be the following :

•        Powerful but not complicated

•        Direct but not Imposing

•        Concerned but not overbearing

  This allows the school administrator to understand the gravity of the situation and attend to it with levity.

In conclusion, close attention needs to be placed on the kind of tones for different kind of situations to enable the writer get the message across to the reader in the most effective way while also paying attention to how the email will affect the reader's mood.

[femishine]

Fall Tour Interactive 2013

Fall Tour Interactive 2013

This year’s Fall Tour Interactive FTI has been motivational and at the same time an eye opening event for new comers like me into the interactive digital media space, giving me a purpose driven steam to chase my passion and how to fully maximize my potentials and skills set in the right part of the industry.

The highlights of the 2 day event was the opportunity to hear directly from the horse’s mouth on industry standards, personal stories, experiences, knowledgeable advice and most of all the chance to create a network of professionals, sharing contacts with those who share the same passion as I do which is a very important ingredient in forming friendship, mentorship, seeking internship and job opportunities as a whole. On the first day of the tour we were split into different color groups, I was placed in the purple group, which focused on Interactive advertising and gaming. Day 1. Interactive Advertising Studios visited included: Derooted Bensimon Byrne Byrne Lotus Leaf Communications S-Trip Two of the agencies, which stood out for me on Day 1, were Derooted and S-Trip.

Derooted

Derooted is a concept driven agency that pushes the boundaries of creativity to the outmost edge, this agency’s way of projection mapping onto surfaces to create a radical and step out of the norm approach to advertising is very engaging and at the same time a mind blowing experience, with client portfolio including major names such as Nike,BMW,Atlantic Ballet of Canada. Their project with BMW is very captivating and you can find the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zM62YpeNv8#t=54

S-Trip

S-Trip! Is a leading expert on student travel in North America, organizing and managing trips for student from High School, University & College and Everyone, their work and play office environment is very warm for creativity and surrounded by a team of passion driven experts in various fields. I was able to have a chat with their social media expert Derek , a knowledgeable expert in social media interactions, engaging their online community across all the social media platforms with a listening ear and foresight on managing the company's online profile. During the chat we had, he was able to engage and give insightful advice on how social media works in terms of analyzing and managing online audience and also actively engaging their attention

Day 2. Gaming

Social Game Universe

The Social Game Universe team is a Toronto-based social games innovator comprised of a small group of passionate and talented game makers who love to build innovative things that delight, inform and challenge the player founded by veteran digital media entrepreneur and game designer Nathon Gunn, they are currently working on a social media game which is about allowing Jordanian children to build their city and actively engage in all the activities that influences the development of their city.

Presentations Top industry professionals gave several presentations and workshops including Oddly Studios Helios Design Labs Art & Science Lamin Martin ( Concept Artist) Asteriod Base Bento Miso Dames Making Games Andy Smith (Production Manager Getset Games)

A discussion session was held to give an insight into internships with focus on why internships should or should not be paid and industry practices as regards to internships,what to do and what not to do as an intern and a presentation from our very own Centennial college Coordinator of the Interactive Digital Media post-graduate program Sasha Boersma of Sticky Brain Studios, who gave us detailed insight on how to pitch and present ideas to an audience using the right words and terminologies for different types of audience. She also gave samples of good, bad and very and examples of real life pitches.

In summary Fall Interactive Tour 2013 sets the tone for career direction, creating an opportunity to come face to face with local industry talent who have shown me the numerous opportunities that exist in Toronto’s creative industry. I have learnt from good people, made new friends and questioned industry leaders in the fields I am interested in. I look forward to more of this event and will implore new comers to come and join in on the fun, come with an open mind ready for learning and I believe you will leave with a clearer vision of what you want to do the in the interactive media industry.

[femishine]

Interactive Public Displays "Engaging The User"

Large interactive displays are becoming increasingly widespread in urban public life. This is due largely to rapid developments in display and projection technologies, input methods that enable different types of interaction mechanisms, and our expanding understanding of the potential for interaction variations and scenarios. Large displays are now in public spaces such as museums, libraries, plazas, and architectural facades, where they present information and enhance experiences in a highly visual and often interactive way. Researchers from disciplines such as human-computer interaction, architecture, social sciences, design, art, and media theory have started exploring public-display installations' potential for educational, entertaining, participative, and evocative experiences and marketing purposes particularly advertisement. Public settings have unique characteristics and therefore impose unique challenges. Public spaces attract diverse audiences who differ in age, interests, and experience with technology and who will engage in spontaneous and often unpredictable activities, individually and in groups.

Public-display installations range from large-scale media facades that people can interact with only from a distance to direct-touch interactive kiosks in plazas, coffee shops, or community centers that provide information of local interest. The public nature and diversity of these installations present different requirements and concerns regarding interface design and interaction techniques. In addition, public settings' spatial layouts, sizes, lighting conditions, and social connotations affect which display technologies and interaction techniques are adequate and how people will interact with and experience an installation. The public nature and diversity of these installations present different requirements and concerns regarding interface design and interaction techniques. For instance, a large body of research presents unique technical solutions for display installations, designed for particular public settings and display technologies. However, interaction paradigms and techniques often don't generalize across different public settings. In "Making Public Displays Interactive Everywhere," Sebastian Boring and Dominikus Baur address the challenge of designing interaction techniques that apply to a variety of settings and that maintain some independence from the particular characteristics of the public space, people's activities, and the display technology. They've devised a conceptual framework and have implemented techniques that leverage cell phone cameras to enable from-a-distance interaction with any public-display technology.

In "Beyond Information and Utility: Transforming Public Spaces with Media Facades," Patrick Fischer and his colleagues discuss how to enable and promote from-a-distance interaction with public displays from a design perspective. Considerations regarding expressiveness of interaction, performance, and participatory experience influenced their design of an electronic slingshot that lets people send messages to a large-scale media facade. On the basis of their experiences deploying the installation in a variety of urban settings, they describe how different urban spaces' contexts, sizes, and spatial structures influenced people's behaviors and experiences with the installation.

However, for some scenarios such as community settings, a public display might offer options for multiple applications (for example, local events and attractions, news, and weather forecasts). This implies that the display interface must enable users to choose between the different applications

New Research Directions With the exploration of different types of public-display installations in a variety of real-world scenarios, research in this area has expanded from addressing just technical concerns to examining topics such as participation and engagement. As the number of large public displays increases, the need for interaction techniques to control them is emerging. One promising way to provide such interaction is through personal mobile devices. However, although much research has covered this topic, it hasn't yet brought those technologies fully into the public that is, by allowing for interactions in a variety of public spaces. A proposed tracking technology has led to several prototype applications that employ mobile devices to interact with large public displays. Mobile devices, as interaction gateways to large displays, may be used for interaction as they widely adopted by people and can be relatively easily customized for the purpose of interaction with large displays.

A part of surface computing research at the University of Sydney, reveals that despite holding important information or relevant subject matter such as train timetables, flight arrival and departure information, weather updates and news, it is hard to make realise they can explore interactive PIDs. Lead researcher Professor Judy Kay, from the University's School of Information Technologies, says for interactive PIDs to be more useful they need to alert users to their presence and their interactive capabilities - they need to help people really engage with them. "They need to convey to users that they are not just conventional displays and that people can interact with them. Fundamentally, they need to help people realize what they offer and how people can make them do the job they were deployed for in the first place," says Professor Kay.

The study identified ways in which users are significantly more likely to notice an interactive display, such as using spotlight and follow-me visual cues in combination with dynamic skeletal representations. What is important, says co-author and postdoctoral researcher Dr Rainer Wasinger, also from the School of Information Technologies, is that interactive display designers effectively communicate the "interactivity" of PIDs to end-users. Without this communication, people are likely to assume the display is non-interactive and will often just walk straight past them, says Dr Wasinger.

Reference

Interactive Public Displays Published by the IEEE Computer Society: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-interactive-full-potential.html#jCp

University of Sydney 

Interactive public displays not being used to full potential, says research

http://phys.org/news/2013-06-interactive-full-potential.html

Types of Public Interactive Display Technologies and How to Motivate Users to Interact by Neal Buerger

http://nealbuerger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Neal_Buerger_Types-of-Public-Interactive-Display-Technology.pdf

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Issues In Leadership " The Yahoo Context"

Leadership, what is leadership? According to Merriam Webster dictionary lead·er·ship noun \ˈlē-dər-ˌship\ : a position as a leader of a group, organization, etc. : the time when a person holds the position of leader : the power or ability to lead other people

Wikipedia describes Leadership as "a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task"

Leadership challenges vary by organization, but many of the most common have to do with motivating, encouraging, and effectively managing people. This is particularly true in business settings, where employees must learn to work together in order for a company to be profitable. So-called “good” leadership is often a lot easier to describe than to actually implement. Many of the most common leadership challenges arise when leaders are either unaware of common pitfalls, or are inattentive to developing problems.

10 of the most common leadership problems 1. Lack of Feedback 2. Not Making Time for Your Team 3. Being Too "Hands-Off" 4. Being Too Friendly 5. Failing to Define Goals 6. Lack of Motivation 7. Hurrying Recruitment 8. Not "Walking the Walk" 9. Not Delegating 10. Misunderstanding Your Role

Once you become a leader or manager, your responsibilities are very different from those you had before. However, it's easy to forget that your job has changed, and that you now have to use a different set of skills to be effective. This leads to you not doing what you've been hired to do – leading and managing. Leadership as a position of influence do carry with it a tonne of responsibilities and in the process of executing these responsibilities to the better gain of the organization, different issues arise and can affect the progress of the organization even though this is not the aim of the leader or leaders of the organization. Take for instance Yahoo over the years has experienced changes in leadership. Chief Executive Officers • Marissa Mayer (2012–) • Ross Levinsohn Interim (2012) • Scott Thompson (2012) • Tim Morse Interim (2011–2012) • Carol Bartz (2009–2011) • Jerry Yang (2007–2009) • Terry Semel (2001–2007) • Timothy Koogle (1995–2001 A leadership issue worthy of note in the case of Yahoo is current CEO Marissa Mayer’s decision that Yahoo’s 14,500 employees have to drive into work every day — otherwise they could be fired. “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side,” Mayer wrote. A leaked copy of a Yahoo memo from its head of Human Resources, Jackie Reses, that proclaimed, “We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.” She argues that in-person meetings boost the quality of decisions and business ideas. As she wrote, “Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings.” And telecommuting slows down Yahoo and cuts into the quality of its services. According to Reses, “Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.” These moves sent ripples throughout the web with some in favor of the decision and others against it .

There have been a number of news reports suggesting that Yahoo employees exploited the company’s work at home policy, which might explain why the company is in the situation that it’s in. If that’s the case, you can understand that Mayer is looking for a solution. Looking at the trend of Yahoo changing it’s CEO has perhaps put Mayer on a lot of pressure to deliver and this tends to lead to disaster as critical thinking is sometimes pushed to the background and drastic decisions are made without looking at the long term goal and bigger picture.

References: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leadership http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership

10 Common Leadership and Management Mistakes http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/leadership-mistakes.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo

Memo To Yahoo's Marissa Mayer: Leaders Admit When They're Wrong http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2013/02/26/memo-to-yahoos-marissa-mayer-leaders-admit-when-theyre-wrong/

4 Reasons Marissa Mayer's No-At-Home-Work Policy Is an Epic Fail http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/02/26/4-reasons-marissa-mayers-no-at-home-work-policy-is-an-epic-fail/

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5 Analytic Products and examples of Big Data Visualizations

Klout allows you connect all your social media sites in one place and extracts your data from each site such as influence , comments on pictures or status updates on Facebook , picture likes on instagram, retweets and awards points for it.

1.These point can be used to claim gifts such as movie tickets,phones,camera

2. You can become an expert on a subject and become ’ go-to person on a topic

3.You can use it to understand how what kind of traffic your content attracts and help you to focus on the right audience

Tweroid is a tool for Twitter that helps you work out the best time to send out tweets

1. It will analyse your account and produce a graph showing when your followers are online.

2.It can then tell you the times of day to tweet in order to get maximum exposure

WolframAlpha is a "knowledge engine" that generates reports and data on a wide range of topics.

1.It has now acquired a Facebook analytics tool that looks at your account and gives you a raft of information showing where your friends are located

2.It allows you know how popular your friends on Facebook are and what they talk about.

3.You can also see when you most use Facebook and who are the most important people in your network. The report is free and you can, of course, share the results on Facebook.

Social mention is rather like Google Alerts, but instead of monitoring the whole web it concentrates on social media sites, and you can choose to focus on particular areas, such as blogs.

1.You can monitor for the appearance of particular keywords and it will give you information on related users, hashtags and more.

2.It enables you to search via the website, receive alerts via email or download a browser plugin.

3.There's also a JavaScript widget that you can use to display Social Mention results on your webpage.

Viral Heat aggregates all of your social media traffic into a single stream for easy access, and you can sort this using filters.

1.It also enables you to schedule posts, and there's an analytics dashboard.

2.You can use the Explorer tool to search for user names or hashtags.

3.The free personal service supports up to seven social media accounts, and there are paid options for business users. 

Big Data Visualization

World bank poverty data visualization for countries

http://povertydata.worldbank.org/MAPvisualizer/DVMap.html

Global arms visualization for countries over the years

http://balder.prio.no/armsglobe2/index.php

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Interactive Digital Media …”My Journey”

Interactive digital media is here to stay and in one way or the other it has become a driving force to be reckoned with in all areas of industry , from journalism, to film production, smartphone applications e.t.c Looking at the rich content projected by big media houses like CNN and Aljazeera and how their content has impacted our world and our view of different topics ranging from human trafficking, child labour , natural disasters and coverage of crisis regions , how this information is spread across all forms of media from social media such as twitter and Facebook to video sharing platforms like youtube .Phone applications have taken a role in our lives like a personal assistant , applications like Trello keeps one organized , Pulse brings updated news articles from websites we enjoy reading from ,Facebook keeps us updated on whats going on around us, in our community, gives us updates on our friends and what is on going on in their lives.

"A strong part of interactive digital media is the development of new and innovative ways of communicating and learning to work as a team while also learning to be a successful member of a design team, I will be able acquire skills to influence digital technology, communicate ideas, create design proposals and manage information"

The desire to see the way interactive media affects decision making in our daily activities , how to add more value to content , how content is sourced and how it is been projected has fueled my passion for this course and has placed me on the path to new exciting discoveries which i believe by the end of this course i would have achieved the desired knowledge in areas of content management , content strategy and user experience and how to use this knowledge to open doors to a successful career and be able to influence the world positively through posts,pixels and clicks.