My three nominated posts

Blogs

Monday March 9th 2009

I chose this particular post because of the effect I feel that this type of service has on a person’s privacy and anonymity. To me I think this is a major problem and as I have been a victim of identity fraud, this subject is brought closer to home.

Data Visualisation

Wednesday May 13th 2009

When I first saw this data visualisation I was blown away at how simple yet informative it actually was. For this reason I chose this as one of my favourite blog entries.

Multiplicity

Tuesday May 5th 2009

I found this one not only interesting, but also shed light on a major example of multiplicity. This was probably my favourite lecture pretty much because it opened my eyes as to how much a group of people can do over one independent source.

Production Project B

All Done.....HUUUUUHHHHH...

My project discusses the relationship of user interaction with the YouTube video hosting service.

I thought that it would be interesting to discuss its functionality by only using iconography and not text. So I developed this idea and created a visual style that I would follow throughout the entire piece. As part of this visual style I decided to incorporate a blue print background, as if the entire piece was explaining the YouTube service in its construction. I then replicated a blueprint style of drawing with dotted outlines with some of the iconography. This helps the piece establish an identity.

I decided to animate certain elements of the iconography to engage the audience. The movie reel for example rotates as if it is really playing. As a stagnant object it was not as clear that this movie was actually playing back to the user.

The scene with the multiple user interacting with their computer’s, I used animation of bulging wires to display that these users were streaming video from the same source (The rotating film). They then proceed to make comments of either good or bad. The comments are displayed through the use of the thumbs up and thumbs, down animations, that are icons I previously drew for another segment.

As this piece was to be replicating a blueprint style, I found it was a fantastic opportunity to explain the sign up feature of YouTube. The pencil draws as if it is really writing on the page, and I felt that traditionally that this method is used when drafting real blueprints, you put pencil to paper.

The entire piece follows this same design convention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1PnUBcMrBM

No Lecture

Just putting the finishing touches on my project at the moment. Im pretty happy with were the project is heading at the moment, and the music I chose sounds great. as the clip was very short however I had to loop the entire song, but it sounds ok. I don't think that it sounds repetitive.

No lecture

Just working on the production project this week. Haven’t got much further visually since last week, but I did find some audio that I’m going to use in the piece. The license is to be used for educational purposes only, and being that this is a project for my university studies I feel I am quite qualified.

The license agreement is as follows-

RoyaltyFreeMusic.com offers a diverse set of free royalty free music clips that can be used, without limitation, in Educational, student and personal, not-for-profit projects, free of charge.
* This does not include professional charities or non profits that pay administrative salaries.
The free royalty free music clips on this special page change regularly and can be downloaded by Educators, students and individuals looking for high quality background music, production music, to use in their projects.
The royalty free music clips and free music clips on this page change frequently and represent many different musical genres with varying instrumentation. Free royalty free music clips in the classical and light jazz vein will add the needed touch when used as background music for personal websites or production music in educational videos, while free clips in progressive styles such as Hip-Hop and rock and roll can add flair as production music for film or television productions at educational facilities.
These free royalty free clips have been composed and performed by the same talented artists and musicians that work on all the tracks at Royalty Free Music.com. The instrumentation of these free music clips include resonant strings and woodwinds, powerful brass and even electric guitar, keyboards and exotic percussion instruments, and will give any project a unique and professional sound.
The music clips that appear on this page are rotated and changed every few days, offering a fresh selection of music clips.
RoyaltyFreeMusic.com owns all copyright interests in the music clips posted on this page.
These music clips may be used in conjunction with educational or personal not-for-profit programs and projects at no cost. RoyaltyFreeMusic.com requires that clients using these free music clips must cite Royalty Free Music.com, as the source of the music and - when possible- provide a link to our site.
All tracks are copyrighted and registered as follows:

JupiterImages 
© 2009

http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/

Data visualization: A Map of Olympic medals

I found this data visualisation on the delicious site when I was re directed to the New York Times website in the sports section. The actual content to me as I am not a fan of the Olympics is pretty trivial and useless, but I like the fact that the content indirectly references past world events in it’s data such as the American led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to the soviet union’s invasion of Afghanistan. This is not mentioned in the data but it is affected by it. Cool.

The design might not be great looking but it does the job when trying to covey its data. Unlike most of these data visualisations I can understand it and it is nice to have the numbers lurking in the background to accurately determine the medal count. The idea that the circles are geographically placed is also really helpful when trying to find your countries medal count.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/20080804_MEDALCOUNT_MAP.html

"Data, data Everywere" dah, dah, dah, dum (dramatic music)

Is the idea of the representation of abstract non-physical information.

Large numbers are easy to comprehend for a computer, but hard for humans.

To engage a human audience we need to use tools that spark visual response, and what we can interpret with ease. They include

- Scale
- Colour
- Shape
- Movement
- Change of position.

Also did some work on my project. If I haven’t mentioned this earlier I am doing the YouTube video about YouTube none the less. I have created a storyboard and I am well on my way to finishing it off. I am yet to find some good music that I want to use in the piece. I am going to many, many different sites that have royalty free music to download, but the music is not as comical or cartoonish as I would have hoped. I will have to keep looking I suppose?

Here are some screen shots of the blueprint style I am trying to achieve in this piece.
I think I drew a lot of the inspiration from the title sequences off the television series Mythbusters, but I have put them into a context I believe.

Multiplicity

Multiplicity was well defined with the phrase “combinational explosion” meaning an explosion of possibilities. The digital world is unfathomably infinite, and due to its immensity content does not adhere to physical scale. An application in the digital world can be as big as a hard drive will allow it.

With a multitude of users using one program we gain “wisdom of crowds” this wisdom encourages diversity, independence, decentralisation and aggregation.

Diversity

Of information and opinion.

Independence

Of thought and opinion

Decentralisation

Of knowing local knowledge

Aggregation

Using this information and making something out of it.

Basically the more people that use an application the more intelligent that system will become.

Take Linux for example. It is an operating system that you do not have to pay for and is generated through user contributions and collaboration. If all of the constructive benefactors had not all partaken in their own unique way’s the system might have been a little flat and not as content rich, but due to its diversity the system is a rival to most of the operating systems that are turning a profit.

Web 2.0

The term web 2.0 implies that this is a second edition of a dispersed medium, and in most respects this is true. I know that through personal experience that the web that was introduced to me in 1998 is vastly different to the web of today. Although they are at their core the same technology the new and the old hardly resemble each other any more, and in this way it is like the web has evolved into a completely new version of itself, coining the phrase web 2.0.

Kevin Kelly says that we are the web, so I suppose in this way as we evolve and change so to will the world wide web.

Now with a high degree of usage from right around the world (over 1 billion) the Internet has become on of the worlds most valuable resources. The more people that use a service the better that service ultimately becomes. There is the problem however that if everybody uses one service then it creates a monopoly, but the great thing about the net is that, no one party owns the entire thing.

Production project A

The main reason for choosing the Commonwealth Bank as an assignment piece was based solely on the accessibility of information and the ease at which a transaction could be completed. The immensity of the website was a challenge to explore and document, but due to this immensity the work ultimately benefited. The amount of content, allowed the research to take a direct path through one of the sites particular interactive transaction processes (in this case the transferring of money from one account to another). The transaction process is displayed using screenshots mashed up together in a sequence as a chronological timeline of events and interaction. This directly show’s the viewer exactly what is happening in the process rather than using iconography as in the first page, which is more of a site map which displays possible navigation outside of the content path of the transaction flow.

Colour within the Information flow was based on the colour of the Commonwealth Bank site itself. Although the site had grey within its colour spectrum a decision was made to stick to the main colour of the logo (Black, Yellow and white). Aesthetically and in functionality the site is very boring but extremely slick and streamlined, and on this basis the iconography was created. The icons used are black which is a dominant colour in the logo and would become the dominant colour within the information flow. Upon this choice of colour, a type of glass effect was applied to the iconography to enforce the professional essence of the site. The iconography was then broken up into sections of varying aesthetic quality and functionality. This was achieved using a key at the bottom of the first pages key. All the graphical elements are categorised n this way.

As the transaction process that was chosen was rather brief, the intricate site map/Information flow was created to illustrate the immensity and bombardment of options one faces when opening a site of such complexity. Even with all this information being drilled into you, the site retains its slick and clean approach to its design. On closer inspection of this site it becomes clear how much thought and effort was exerted from the people responsible for the site, and it ultimately produced a wondrous example of information flow and its uses on the web.

As for the functionality a user could not hope for more in a tool to access and directly affect their account information as they wish. So instead of only focussing attention on the bad things that the site does (not anything), what the site does well will have to be discussed. What it does right starts with what was discussed briefly before which is it’ accessibility to information and how it accomplishes this. Clean lines, clear text, high contrast and a visual hierarchy all contribute to a high standard of user interaction and the ability to access important user info. Another factor to the sites success lies within the realm of its content. The site has very brief yet informative articles, which is great when trying to skim through a bunch of information to access one little piece of info.

Carving up the world

Carving up the world

The immensity of the interne is not measureable for it lacks the principles of space, distance, and physical scarcity. Because of this it is hard to measure the web’s actual size. Take a book for example, because that book is a physical object in your hands it is easy to see how much content is left. As for the Internet however the end is only discovered when you reach it.

Typical web design conventions for real world application.

- Logo at top left
- Logo navigates home
- Horizontal nav
- Drop down menu
- Light boxed image
- Radio buttons
- Underlined blue bold links

It is not necessary to follow these conventions, but they can be useful.

Ontology: The study of what is, and dividing the world up into chunks.
Hierarchy: Ordering content into order of importance.
Predicate: e.g. the book is red. The book is the subject and red is the predicate.
Folksonomy: Tagging things on the web e.g. Human = Hair, Eyes, Mouth
Taxonomy: Clinical organisation, and organisation
Machine tags: lastfm:/ event= /613510
Name/predicate/value

A week of reflection (no lecture)

As we had no lecture this week I decided to work on my information flow chart. I have come to the realisation that my choice of site (The Commonwealth Bank) might have been a tad ambitious due to it’s immensity (even though I have chosen 1 smaller and particular path), but I am not fazed. Instead it seems that my work is ultimately benefiting from such an expansive stockpile of information. Ill wait and see what one of my lecturers’ thinks anyway. I have completed a fair amount of the flow chart, but feel that there is still a lot more to be explored.

I have also settled on a design for my work that incorporates the sites colour. The Commonwealth Bank has 3 main colours, white, black and yellow, as shown below. There is some grey but it's actually not present in the logo.



As the Commonwealth Bank site in design and functionality is very slick , I felt it was fitting that the iconography used within the information flow chart matched this aesthetic. The usage of glass buttons and shapes to me looks very clean and is quite striking to look at.

API, Mashup

Week 4 was primarily concerned with API's, and the way that they are "Mashed Up" to form hybrid API's or add content to a user's personal website. API's (Application Programming Interface) allows a user of a particular website to directly interact with the code structure of a website, and manipulate it as they wish. Flickr allows such adjustments to be made, and give's the user an opportunity to better there own creative project by adding applications that otherwise would not have been possible to create by ones self. API's are great at making a somewhat mediocre website's more content rich and more visually stimulating. Another benefit of using such a process, is that all the bandwidth used within that application is the responsibility of the API"s provider e.g. Flickr, Google Maps, ect. In some cases however, this can be a dangerous path to tread , because you are then reliant on the API's provider to stay online in order for users tapping into your website to view the content. This might not be such an issue though if your website is using an API from a Google or Yahoo service, because their business' are pretty solid.

Mashups are basically the process that was discussed earlier, by were a whole bunch of content from different sources is compiled to create potentially more comprehensive piece of data ( in some cases). In truth the entire process can be a bit less productive. Either way a Mashup is a good idea for a website that needs more content , when there is no more room for production.

HTML and CSS

HTML (coding) , and CSS
In the lecture and tutorial this week, HTML and the code involved in creating it were at the top of the agenda. The lecture primarily covered the aspects of how a person is to structure a website. To structure all of the elements on the screen, tags are used to tell the web browser what information it is interpreting, and a CSS page that is linked to the html page works in relation to that content. CSS is not essential in the process, but is a common tool to use when designing a website that requires added and controlled structure.

RSS Reader

I also forgot to mention that I have successfully signed up to a RSS reader, Goggle Reader. It seems to be one of the better options I encountered and it integrates cleanly with my Google Account, and my Blogger service.

I have signed up to a few blogs

CSS Remix
Web Design From Scratch
Typographica
N Design Studio Blog and Design

Blogs

The idea of a blog is quite intriguing, but at the same time how much of yourself do you wish to share with the world. There is no doubt that this is the ultimate medium for publishing and advertising your craft, although a line needs to be drawn as to what is too much information. The fact that people are informing the world about what they had for breakfast is fine, but does this ultimately cheapen and trivialise what a blog is? Blogs are designed to be an expression of self and individualism and are used to satisfy the need to connect with ones peers. With the invention of MySpace and Facebook it has become a more commercial and widely dispersed medium, and this is a good thing, but is this fuelling the demise of traditional blogging. Do people forget why they started blogging in the first place, until the posts people are creating serve no purpose but to fill up cyberspace. It is understandable that people join the major blogging services because of their need to connect with individuals close to them and to maybe meet new people, but the Internet is becoming increasingly harder to navigate through because of all the crap that you have sift through.

Not a very positive entry, but at the same time the advantages of blogging cannot be denied, when attempting to portray self. personal expression is allowed to take a mind of its own when working with these tools.

The content that was discussed in the tutorials and the lectures was extremely helpful in explaining what are the real uses and advantages of a blog.

Kinetic Typography

Kinetic Typography is a style of motion graphics that displays content generally associated with imagery by only utilising audio and text. Although the example provided uses some imagery, it is still a great demonstration of the concept.
I believe that it was accomplished using apples' motion (correct me if I'm wrong). So if your interested just follow the link.

Kinetic Typography (Pulp Fiction)

Welcome To Bloggerama

Welcome to my Networked Media Production Blog. I am a second year Media Arts and Production Student, that has come from the Canberra Institute of Technology to further my education, at the University of Canberra. Illustrated graphics really appeal to me and i like to adapt this fascination to motion graphics, web sites, print, animation and film.

I look forward to adding many more posts over the term.