Z.

[zappajenkins]

Transmedia Project cont.

 Flow Chart of interaction with audience - 

This is my flow chart of the interaction between the user and my video. Hopefully they will see the advertisement and then begin to share it as much as possible. If they miss the advertisement hopefully someone else has shared it and they will get to see it via the internet on multiple different sites.

[zappajenkins]

Final Blog Submission

During our first semester of ‘Making networked culture’ we covered a range of areas such as the Internet and viral communication as a whole.  For my final blog I wanted to choose the blogs that also covered a range of different areas when it comes to network media. My first blog I chose was ‘Big Brother is watching you – week 2’ because it was very interesting for me as I had a very low understanding of how networking on the Internet actually works. It was very engaging to see how things form with other networks so everything is linked in someway or another. Also the fact that everything we do on the Internet is tracked engaged me as it really makes you think about what you post and do on the World Wide Web. The second entry I chose was week 3’s ‘Link link link’ as I’ve had personal experiencing in having to hyperlink things before. This topic is very interesting because it shows how so many sites are connected. By the invention of hyperlinking you can now quickly go to to new pages, or sites that allow you to find new information about the same or similar topics in a click of a button. I wanted to blog about this because hyperlinking is a major factor in making a networked culture and bringing everything together. Furthermore week 5’s ‘Evolution of sound communication’ post was another important part of the class ‘making a networked culture’ however was different to the other blogs as they were more focused on the internet side of the class. Sound communication is one of the most vital parts of living nowadays as ‘everyone’ has a phone and for conversation purposes it’s the best way possible. I found it fascinating how far this specific technology has come in 200 years and am very excited to see how far it can go as technology advancement is rapidly increasing. “Effective and efficient or just pure laziness’ is the next blog entry I chose as it was a direct opinion with personal experience behind it. With the rapid development of Internet banking and online shopping, security of passwords and pins are getting more and more important, however I personally believe we are getting lazier at actually keeping this information safe. By having so many different sites and everything connected it can be hard to tell which sites are genuine and which ones are there just to take your money via scams. My last entry that I have deemed worthy of my final blog submission is week 7’s “Viral media – SHARE SHARE SHARE’ which is all about how objects on the Internet get continuously transferred until it becomes all over the internet or fades out. It is possibly the biggest component of the Internet in the past few years due to the massive growth of social networking sites so it was a must to blog about and is a crucial factor in my opinion to this subject. This class has given me a much better knowledge on programs such as iMovie, audacity and of course blogging but also an actual overall understanding of Networked Media as a whole.

[zappajenkins]

Viral Media - SHARE SHARE SHARE! - Week 7

Viral media also known as a viral phenomenon is the concept of an object on the Internet being a virus which spreads it’s way either slowly or rapidly around the internet while growing until everyone has been affected by it.

From this lecture the main part I took from viral media is the viral video side as I’m apart of this everyday, as I love wasting hours of my day to stupid YouTube videos then ensuring I share them so my friends can also waste there day. This topic is very important to the media subject as sharing plays such a huge role I everything that is done on the Internet nowadays as everyone is connected through social networking sites. Its simply amazing how fast and far a video can travel via these sites from sharing, however with that being said you’d think id be talking about those really interesting, important documentary on world issues, or making the world a better place, however this it completely the opposite of what’s actually being shared. Everyone instead (and unfortunately I’m also a part of this) shares the most basic, stupid, silly videos that are all competing to get the most views. The best example of this has to be the most watched video on YouTube – Gangnam Style. Even though half of us have no idea what is actually being said it has grossed over 1.6 BILLION views! Its crazy how many views this video has but I guess people enjoy it (I have danced to many times of this that I’m annoyed at myself).

  Viral media can be great it can spread news all across the globe faster than anything else, people can continually share and spread, however viral media can often become like that of a Chinese whisper scenario. Each time someone shares it they can change things slightly here and there so by the time say the 100th or 1000th person to receive the same ‘message’ it has actually completely changed, all the facts, opinions, and probably the actual whole intended meaning has differed. Meaning everyone has a slightly altered idea of this piece of information.  Viral media can be used positively and negatively just like everything can, its important that we do spread important information across the internet as I believe this is the fastest way to grab the attention of a major percentage of the world at a click of a button as long as the people know the seriousness of the message being transmitted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIbf32YA9z4

[zappajenkins]

Effective and efficient or just pure laziness?

I finally got my debit card the other day as my addiction to buying anything I can online was growing now that I have a little money saved up. In this ever-growing world these debits cards are a great idea how we can actually spend our ‘OWN’ money instead of going into debt from those saving destroyers, credit cards. Another smart little handy thing my new debit card is ‘Pay Pass’ where I can now just swipe my card without entering any details to pay when I shop, this is great as it saves time and is just easy. However if you actually think about this, it’s a terrible idea because these cards are meant to secure our money through our identity and pins, but now anyone can grab our card and shop till they drop without even having to know a thing about us. This was very interesting for me because it reminded me that we were constantly getting told to make sure to never ever tell people our passwords and pins whether it was online or offline.

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/CreditCardScams

Our technology is continually improving trying to make the world an easier place, but are we relying too much on these time saving inventions to the point we are all getting to relaxed and lazy. Soon there might be these smart inventions were when were online they have our credit card numbers saved for us so we can skip putting in our details all the time, then next thing you know your loosing all your money without even being able to stop it. Our generation is convinced that everything is secure and we can post anything we want without anything bad happening, however there is so many frauds and scams out there its ridiculous, people are getting ripped off everyday via the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rL_RIZZ1E8

This is so annoying and frustrates me that we have this great invention that helps everyone while making life so much easier and people just want to feel safe on it however there’s always got to be the people that have to find a cheapskate way to take other peoples hard earned money through these fake sites and fake promises. It’s just so easy nowadays to spend our money online or for others to have access to our money and accounts that the next generation are going to experience it worse than us. And society will continue to get lazier and lazier. People have just got to be very cautious with the sites they use and not just chuck all there credit card details anywhere they please without reading into who they’re actually paying.       

[zappajenkins]

Evolution of sound communication

Week 5

During week 5 our group assignments of manipulating sounds were the main focus for the tutorial as they were due soon. This week during the lecture mainly we veered away from the Internet and discussed the evolution of sound communication, which changed the world dramatically in the 1800’s. Because I have grown up during the times where as soon as you hit the age of about 11 you switch your Gameboy screen to a mobile phone’s screen and stay there until your eyes closed without your permission. This week worked in conjunction with our assignment of trying to communicate and form a particular sound environment by adding different sounds together to make one whole ‘full’ sounding experience of our chosen place.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_communication.htm

This hyperlink takes you to a timeline of the evolution and history of communication.

Probably the most significant part of the evolution of sound communication would have to come from Samuel Morse and the invention of Morse code (1835). This was a huge, huge, huge breakthrough for mankind as it allowed people to contact each other from longer distances at a much quicker rate. This allowed for not only simple conversations but also when people were in serious danger and could contact somewhere so they could be rescued which I find is a great positive of this invention, it probably saved many lives even though that wasn’t its main objective. 

But the biggest impact I believe this invention had was the fact that it started the ball rolling in terms of trying to communicate to people from great distances quickly. Although this was a slow process of eventually getting to our smart phones it is one that has made life and people connected 24/7 changing the world, as we know it. This world would almost crumble if this technology were taken away from us (probably by all the pre teens and young teenagers not knowing to do with their lives). This lecture really represented the whole making a networked culture as people are connected at a click of a button no matter where they are. We now carry all our friends and family in hand held devices and can even visually see them while listening to them via a live stream as if they were actually there with us at the time. To think how far we have come from having to spell out sounds to this in less then 2-3 lifetimes is incredible. I honestly have no idea what the future holds for sound communication as from my point of view it cant get much better without physically being with the person. A star wars holographic image is the best I can come up with. 

[zappajenkins]

Hyperlinking Lecture - Link Link Link

Week 3

This week continued off from the last week with the focus relating still to the Internet side but focused a lot on the hyperlinking feature I had a much better understanding of this compared to the week before which allowed me to easily engage in the class while also adding more knowledge on this particular topic. Hyperlinking plays a major role with how the World Wide Web is constructed and linked together as a whole. The way the Internet uses hyperlinking to join everything together and allows us to continually discover new things relating to what were already looking has changed peoples lives. Hyperlinking/hypertext in computer terms is an interactive reference to data that the viewer can simply click on and directly follow. These links take the reader to a whole new page opening up a whole new area for the reader to search and view. This makes the internet much faster as pages are linked together and from this you can go on a never ending ‘surf’ of the net. 

  From my understanding from being part of the Facebook bandwagon hyperlinking plays a major role in how everyone communicates there interests to others online in hope that they too will enjoy that ‘drunk guy’ YouTube video or the simple Hitler cats and then they will share this until eventually that video has millions of likes and taken up countless hours of peoples lives. The best example I can give due to personal experience is the following – you find yourself bored as anything (or you have too much homework to even start) so you decide to watch some stupid videos on YouTube to lighten your mood and you come across something that made you laugh out loud in a public venue making you redder then a tomato. After the embarrassment fades away you decide that others should also experience that glorious 1-minute. The best way you can think of getting all your friends to see it is by sharing it to your Facebook account so that your world gets to view it. They watch and like away but then suddenly someone comments a link of another video or site in which turned them into a tomato, you instantly check it out and then begin to battle your friends in who can link the funniest thing to each other. You begin to click on every hyperlink trying to find something of interest in which you then realise you’ve failed many classes and all you’ve managed is to have severe pain in your belly and jaw. Surely worth it though that video was not to be missed.

  This is just my explanation on the hyperlinking and what I love about it, however when it comes to actually studying, this tool allows you to quickly find extra information from different sources and different opinions all at a click of a bottom that someone’s placed nicely in a paragraph while giving a hint on where it will take you. Hyperlinking is another smart little but very effective tool that the internet has incorporated making not only my life just that little bit easier but everyone whose used the internet.

[zappajenkins]

Network Theory - Big Brother is watching you.

Week 2

After weeks 1 summary of future learning for the semester we dove straight into the vast world of the Internet and the World Wide Web. We covered different points such as how networks are collections of links that are always changing. These links are always in a constant change while forming in new places, which in the end form new structures. I was completely unaware of this so I found this new topic very interesting, as it was such a major part of the Internet. The whole concept of the Network Theory was confusing as because there’s so many different components and was so complicated as I have a low understanding of how the Internet actually works.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            During this week I also found out something very interesting but also a little terrifying as everything and I mean EVERYTHING we do on the Internet is tracked. This is done so that ‘they’ can revolve things such as individual advertising depending on what you have browsed earlier so that the advertising is suit you specifically as they know what your interests and what not are to maximise there influence on you. You can now go onto your social networking sites, and the ads that appear on the site aren’t just random annoying things selling just anything, the Internet has followed your every move, using algorithms and what not to narrow down specific items that suit what you would actually be interested in giving the sellers the best target audience possible. This frightens me because even though its mainly being used for advertising, the fact that someone out there knows exactly what I am doing at every second I’m on the internet and can track everything I put onto the internet makes me feel uneasy. This tracking idea, although is very important is scary as if this information got into the wrong hands the consequences could be disasters to the whole Internet.

This week was very interesting as it introduced me to a whole new concept and thoughts of the Internet as a whole. This has made me much more fascinated in the subject and excited for the upcoming weeks. 

[zappajenkins]

Story Board Photos.

[zappajenkins]

Transmedia Project.

Living on College - With Andy Rosos

Where I got my ideas and type of theme from - 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTdecCJ1zPE&list=UUUsTSbCLD96-pcWi2Kqaitg&index=4

The way I would communicate this - 

My video could be used to 'sell' living on college, by being a link in an ad for a room thats for rent on college. People would see the ad then visit the link to the video that would then showcase the lifestyle of someone who lives in one of these rooms. This video would be targeting people that like this particular lifestyle such as drinking, partying, living in large groups of people and an overall very social lifestyle. They could find this video via news paper ads, online sites that let people advertise renting of houses. Students intending to go to university would find this video while looking for accommodation and this video might appeal to them so they would then choose to live on residential college rather then a house or apartment. 

Reflection - 

My Movie was a short film that showed a little inside on living on Menzies College. I wanted it to be a comedy instead of a serious film so I could engage the audience more as it will make them laugh and actually enjoy something that isn’t complicated. I chose to make a film like this as it makes me laugh and would make me more interested in the project. By having personal experience of living on college I know how fun it is so I wanted to show that to the audience. I used a normal video camera and iMovie software to actually produce the film. I have had some experience in using this equipment so it made it a lot easier then trying to learn something new. iMovie is perfect for creating films as I could use title shots, transitions and other editing techniques to further develop my film.

  I learnt a lot from making this film that you must get a lot of footage just in case so that you have lots of clips to work with. I made the mistake of not getting enough so I could only use what I had. It is also very difficult to try and be funny on the spot without having a very good story line. When the actor is trying to improvise something funny it often seems forced and therefore not as ‘real’. This made my actual filming time a lot longer because we had to try and come up with things that would make the audience laugh as well. Also by trying to use friends as actors it makes it difficult as you can get easily distracted from the task or they start mucking around. Timing with your actors is also a hard task, as you both have to find time that you are both free so you can film. This can cause a lot of stress when time begins to run out. I was luckily enough that my actor had a lot of spare time and was just down the hall from me, which made everything a lot easier.

  My project was fun to produce and wasn’t too hard, however I’m not fully satisfied with my product as at the end of production you begin to get new ideas and other things you want in your film but its too late to change it. I do think it was funny which I was aiming for and I also like the way its put together as it resembles the look I was going for from what I’ve seen on other ‘YouTube’ comedy.

  My Transmedia component consists of both a Facebook and Twitter account while also having my very own YouTube channel so people can subscribe to me. By having these three major sites my video will be able to spread throughout the world the quickest and hopefully gain major attention online. 

Another Transmedia component is that someone shared it via YouTube on their channel. 

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLEEUHXGm1U4WGjUTH8jLGw

  Overall my project was a success and I am happy with the final production along with the different transmedia components I’ve used. This project has taught me preparation and time management are crucial in creating a good quality product for future projects. 

Visit - 

http://www.facebook.com/andy.menzies.560

https://twitter.com/AndyMenzies1

[zappajenkins]

Networked Storytelling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMQ62DBXppU

[zappajenkins]

A master track containing a combination of all the sounds put together to create a cafe soundscape.

Sound Environment

In our group we decided to represent a busy café with both an outdoor and indoor setting using a series of common sounds found in this particular environment.

We wanted to make sure that the sounds we joined together would create a full atmosphere so that it felt like you were right there having a coffee instead of a bunch of random individual sounds. Our group really wanted to make sure we captured every sound that defines a café from kitchen noises to that almost indescribable sound of fullness and background buzz.

We gathered sounds of the actual coffee being made, kitchen noises, multiple conversations, the busy outdoors, the till being used, door opening with buzzer and even slight footsteps. Adding all these sounds together our group created a very realistic busy café environment represented through a series of sounds.

  I used a website to gather my sounds of footsteps, a door opening with a buzzer and an outdoor café setting. I then had to record those sounds onto my memo app on my iPhone and send that via email to one of our group members so they could have every sound from the group. This way they could upload all of them onto sound cloud in one place, that way it was easier for us to then put them all onto our blog in one go. We found this suited everyone while being effective and efficient.

Overall, our environment sounded like we wanted to and everyone contributed while getting over any obstacles. 

Each individual sounds -

Cash Register

https://soundcloud.com/samglover-1/cash-register

Stirring

https://soundcloud.com/samglover-1/stirring

Cup Rattle

https://soundcloud.com/samglover-1/cup-rattle

Cafe-ambience

https://soundcloud.com/samglover-1/cafe-ambience

Barista-sound

https://soundcloud.com/samglover-1/barista-sound

Entering cafe

https://soundcloud.com/samglover-1/entering-cafe

Sinking-falling-slipping

https://soundcloud.com/samglover-1/sinking-falling-slipping

Forests of ice

https://soundcloud.com/samglover-1/forests-of-ice 

References for my sounds

Footsteps

http://www.soundsnap.com/search/audio/heavy+footsteps/score?page=1

Door opening with buzzer

http://www.soundsnap.com/search/audio/shop+door/score

Outdoor sound

http://www.soundsnap.com/tags/coffee_shop

[zappajenkins]

What is Networked Culture? (Essay)

 Communication is a key to the human life whether it is thousands of years ago or in contemporary times. Network culture is the different ways in which we connect with others, in the modern era this is done a lot through the Internet. The way we communicate between one another or to larger groups is all tied into a network. The way we do it has changed over time due to technology however there has always been a networked culture in society.

With the advancement of technology people can now easily stay in touch with family, friends, colleagues and even people around the world. It has changed the way we interact with others and how we showcase our personal lives. The most common way we are all tied together is through online social networking sites. Instead of exchanging emails or phones people now just say “add me on Facebook”.  People are now displaying themselves for anyone to see and showcasing their personal lives on a day-to-day basis. With the access to the internet in our pockets, people now have an addiction to networking at every spare moment whether it be a quick post of what your doing or a photo of your lunch.

  The idea of ‘friends‘ was once very simple. If you knew someone, hung out with them regularly, and liked their company then they were a friend. While the people who still fit that description are still your friends, so are the people you have connected with on social networking sites apparently. Whether you talk to them, care about what they’re up to, or have any interest in them whatsoever, they’re still listed as friends.

This has muddied the waters considerably. I know several people who have thousands of friends on social networking sites. Do they really? Or do they in fact have a dozen real friends and hundreds of people they have met once and then added to their Facebook or Google+? I suspect future generations will be unable to distinguish between meaningful relationships and casual acquaintances.

  Even though it’s amazingly easy to meet new people and stay in touch with these rapid growing social networking sites it’s also a new simple way for random people to get their hands onto your personal information. In some cases it also provides a barrier for people to hide behind and verbally attack people who are defenceless. In most cases it provides positive interactions but some people use this as a perfect weapon for their arsenals. People must be careful the way they use these sites and always be sure to actually know the person who is adding you.

  Today, digital technology is an unmistakable presence in everyday life and is increasingly inextricable from mainstream social needs and conventions. Network culture is a broad sociocultural shift much like postmodernity, not limited to technological developments or to “new media.” Precisely because maturing digital and networking technologies are inseparable from contemporary culture — even more than the spectacle of the television was from postmodernity — they must be read within a larger context. All art, today, is to one extent or another, networked art.

[zappajenkins]

One day!