The Network's Final Entry: Meta

My 3 nominated Blogs:
Week 3 Blog

Week 6Blog

Week 12 Blog


Dear Diary,
This is in fact my last entry...I know, sad isn't it? I'm just going to look over what else I have written over the last 14 weeks and see what I wrote because honestly, I have forgotten!

Hmmmm......oh....yes yes....i completly agree...oh that's interesting!....mmmmm...what!?.....that's unusual...

Ok, thanks for waiting diary, now I can give you my overall opinion and outlook on my entries over the past few months. Now, as you know this is a public diary so anyone, and i mean ANYONE, can view. Does this bother me? Not really...that material I publish to the world only applies to a small amount of people and there is nothing personal in the diary...well nothing I don't mind sharing with the public!

So I counted up how many followers I have and I now have....none. Unfortunalty my Blog did not appeal to as many people as I would have hoped having advertised it on my Facebook page and emailing it to certain people who may have had an interest. But sadly, no one has been following my blog - there have been no comments or any outside communication with my Blog at all! Oh well...such is life...maybe people have been reading my blog without my knowledge and if this is the case, I hope my Blog has proved most useful and enjoyable to them.

Because that is what a blog is! It's about educating people on certain subjects which interest you personally and you believe will interest others soo you make it accessible to everyone! Therefore, people you don't even know can benefit from your blog. Blogs, websites, social networking sites, YouTube and opinion poles have allowed people to become more interactive with each other! It is actually amazing that people can be beneficial to others over the internet. The website I made in Week 7 was demonstrating just this! It collected related sources all over the internet and deposited them in one webpage to help people navigate through the massive amounts of information on the internet.

So this is what my diary was...kinda. I wanted people to become knowledgeable about information such as HTML+CSS, data visualisation and web 2.0 because it was what I am interested in! Although I did not find anyone following my blog I bet you someone somewhere out there read my blog and it helped them! This is why blogs are so important! It is REAL people with REAL opinions and experiences wanting to help and share their knowledge with others...and the internet drives this on and will keep encouraging this until the internet dies...which will be never.

The reason for writing a Blog which was never read? To contribute to the network...to me. This attitude helps me expand and affect everyone with access to me. So if you ever feel like writing a Blog but are worried about no one reading it...who cares? write it for yourself...and you never know...there are alot of people out there who could be interested in the same crap that you are into.

My blog will continue to live while the internet lives and will be there for anyone to access and I might even update it with other content I am interested in and help people navigate around the internet to the information which is relevant. Until that day comes I bid you good day diary...and Blogger.

My URL...

Oh I forgot to put my URL in:
http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=112963965759063978017.000485d3348e206f19dff&z=12 - ENJOY!


View Private Investigator Bloomsbury in a larger map

Rationale for Project B

I decided to create a geo-narrative for this project involving a fictional story about a Private Investigator. The story begins as a typical P.I. story but I have created the map so it links to other maps so the reader can choose what the protagonist does. Therefore there are four possible endings to the story depending on the reader's decision. I wanted to create a more involved story for the reader so it would be more entertaining to read. The reader has more control over the story and has the ability to go back and see what other endings were possible. I believe this makes my story more enjoyable and involving. The concept for the story came to me when I read another geo-narrative on-line and I wondered how to create multiple maps which link together.

I began my project on Google Maps which was practical and helpful about how to create maps. I found Google Maps quite easy to use once I figured out how to add pictures and connect other maps. Project A really held me in good stead when doing this assignment. I found I needed to use HTML and network my map as much as I networked my webpage. Having experience with my webpage and learning from my mistakes, I was much more comfortable adding videos, images, article and maps to my project. I had some trouble at first adding my images to bits of my story. I tried adding the URL link to the placemark on the map but the image never appeared. On Flickr, there was a tab for images marked "Share This" which was fantastic help so I copied the HTML link and posted that in the placemark tab and the picture appeared. I didn't have to worry about size/parameters of the picture because Flickr automatically does it for you. This is similar on YouTube when attaching video links.

My main purpose for the geo-narrative was not only telling a compelling story to interst the reader but to also let them navigate around the internet. I linked websites to each of my placemarks which are relevant to the content of the story shown in the window. I added blog posts, video trailers, real estate websites, on-line games and news articles to the windows to connect the internet with my story. Although it is a fictional story I wanted to add an element of reality by linking it to the rest of the network. I believe that every website/geo-narrative/blogpost should contain other elements of the internet to not only support their idea/opinion but to introduce people to similar ideas and help connect people with more information.

I believe my geo-narrative is different because it shows everything that can be shown on a map. I have stayed within the confines of Australia but I wanted the narrative to relate to Canberrans. For example: an inside joke about Queanbeyan being a hotspot for tourists. However, I have made the narrative relevant for Australians by showing Australian websites, news videos and Australian movie trailers. Australia is a large part of my cultural context and understanding and I believe writing to that context make the story more believable and relevant to people of my culture.

The Network using Google Maps

Dear Diary,
I worked out how to make a geo-narrative by using Google Maps! I'm so happy that I worked it out because once I got the hang of it, it wasn't that hard...now all I need to do is come up with a story then take the pictures to link with it! Like I said before, I think I'm going to do a detective story and use my friends Flickr and Delicious to see if I can find some photos and locations I can use.
Google maps is so good and helpful I just found out how to put photos, videos and links onto my map AND I can also change the icons and paths the characters take!
So basically with my detective story, it's going to be a "choose your own adventure" thing I think but I'm no sure how it is going to end..or if the protagonist ends up in the same spot or he dies in one scene and survives in another...I'm still fleshing out ideas for the story but I'd like to have it written up in the next few days so I can get the appropriate photos and then get with Mr. Google and begin plotting on his maps. Flickr will be a great help because I need to publish the photos on a site that supports photos and seeing as I'm already friendly with Flickr it will be pretty easy to access my photos and maybe even use some other peoples.
I'll let you know bout any further progress! See ya diary
The Network

Geo Narrativing the World

Dear Diary,
I have just received this big assignment which is about geo-narratives. I really can't wait to make one because I can make a story (fiction or non-fiction) and link it with google maps, relevant sites and photographs to make an interactive story!

My idea is basically a detective story but I'm not too sure about the details. I really want it to have a twist at the end but think it that may be too cliche... So I've been looking at photos from flickr, delicious and the creative commons to link with my idea.I'l either use photos from these sites that don't have copyright or I'l take my own photos, edit them in photoshop and display them. I think I may do this because I want to get a black and white look for the story - a kind of 1940s New York style Private Eye detective thing...I may even set it in New York! I know the place very well and could have the main character walking up and down 42nd street or Broadway looking for the bad guy.

My google friends are going to help me composite it all so it is accessible to the public and easy to use. But for now I'm going to concentrate on the story and get a good idea and plot so it will not only be visually interesting for the reader but mentally stimulating.

I'll write soon to tell you all about my wonderful idea!
Take care
The Network

The Network understanding data visualisation

Hi Dairy,
It's been a pretty tiring week this week with all this data analysis I have to do. I haven't been able to have anyone over for dinner because I have been trying to comprehend all this data on the internet and it has been exhausting!

I don't think I would have survived studying it without some very helpful people who made it much easier to read. Michael Honey (a very clever friend of mine) let me look at some of the data illustrations on his delicious website. I found some fascinating illustrations of data and am very keen to learn how to do them myself. The ones that grabbed me the most were the ones that were interactive and animated. Michael explained to me that there are five main ways to visualise data: colour, size, shape, movement and position. All these factors are ways to help people visualise the data and determine what is "out of place". I was looking at some of the sights that Michael showed me and there were some illustrations that were amazing! There was so much data packed away into such an accessible way! Why can't all data be that easy to interpret!?

There was this fantastic graph that I could interact with and it showed the world's growth throughout the century. It began in 1897 and continued until 2006. The vertical axis was the average living age for a person and the horizontal axis was the a persons annual salary. You could click on what country/ies you wanted to see and could see where how they rose through the century. Japan had a massive decrease in people in WW2 and Australia had a massive boom in people throughout the 50s! It was just really interesting how the data was displayed so patterns can be found and otehr information can be linked to it. Anyways thats all from me diary, night!
Network

The Network and Multiplicity

Dear Diary,
I have had this fantastic idea for a website that collaborates everyone's intelligence! I had another two people help me come up with this idea but I think it would be a great way to help large groups of people connect and share ideas...after all isn't that what the internet is all about??

So this fantastic idea is......a virtual building with virtual rooms which groups/companies or firms can design! You see..how it works is that there is a collective group which runs the website and they basically have say over all the final decisions but people can submit their plans and designs. So first thing is first! People can submit their ideas and designs for the BASIS of the building then once the building is formed people can start adding and creating their own rooms.

Of course, this website is going to be marketed to architecture and design firms...maybe even university students and graduates who have an interest in architecture and building design. And then what happens is that groups of people create, design and style a room and put it onto the building depending on the size of the room. The room is then put on "sale" and people can go and buy the rooms! If the person is interested in the style and design of the room, the website can also be used for advertising companies so people can see what the companies "style" is.

So basically the website would be a virtual building where people can build and create rooms and link them on to one massive building. And the building would have a "rank" system depending on how good/popular your room is determines how far up the building it will go. If your room is poor and hasn't had much effort put in, it will be down the bottom.

So there you have it! Yes, you can say it...I am a genius! What a wonderful idea, but I do have to thank my two colleagues who did help come up with the idea. I think in no time we will have it up and running (with us being the deciders of which building will be the basis and which rooms go where)in no time! What a great way to illustrate multiplicity! The internet really is the primary source nowadays for multiplicity and people working together and forming new ideas for the future!
Thanks for listening diary, will write soon!
The Network.

The Network having dinner with Dr. Web 2.0

Dear Diary,
I haven't seen Dr. Web for ages!! It was really interesting catching up with him because he was telling me all about how everything is connected on the web and how one thing an influence another. There was this thing he mentioned called the Long Tail Theory which is when a book or movie or anything new enters the world/web there is a huge spike in popularity and then it just goes downhill from there. But sometimes another issue or thing can influence the long tail of the original object and there can be another popularity spike! So Dr. Web 2.0 continued to say that without him things on the web wouldn't be able to connect with each other and that the huge shift from webpages to webpages which are connected to everything and everyone has influenced culture so much that people form the other side of the world are finding out the same information at the same time as the people in the location! I, as the Network, think we as a system are very lucky to have Dr. Web 2.0 in our lives and are so pleased that he has evolved over the years to make me connected to more people and more information. I was telling this to him last night but he is so modest and doesn't realise the monopoly he has over me and how much he influences my work and viewers and for that I thank him. Without him I would not be able to evolve.
Night Diary, The Network

Rationale for Project A

Project A Rationale

I chose to do an online exhibition of William Shakespeare and adaptations of his plays and other works. I enjoy William Shakespeare's work and fear that others have been restricted to his work because of the language. In my website I attempted to make Shakespeare easy for those who are studying his work or are just interested.

My website included:
*A list of Movie Adaptation for his most famous plays
*A miniature dictionary for Shakespearean language
*Video links for pointers on how to read Shakespearean language
*News Articles about Shakespeare
*The Shakespeare Globe
*The Bell Shakespeare Theater Company
*The Shakespeare Center Group which I linked an RSS feed

I also included links to Facebook groups, Flickr, YouTube and my blog.

I made the website interesting and useful by including photos, web links, videos and social network links it would engage the reader and help them find their way around the relevant sites.

My technical processes used include:

RSS Feed

Video Feeds

Div Class

Table

I found a website (Feed Informer) that allows you to upload RSS feeds and transfer them into the HTML file. I used this for The Shakespeare Research Centre which has a blog on blogspot. I thought an RSS Feed was appropriate for this website as it is constantly being updated.

I used Video feeds for my website because I thought it would make the website more engaging and entertaining for the reader. I found these two videos on YouTube and thought they were appropriate for my website. One was a short clip of a rap song about all of the Shakespearean plays. I thought this took the edge off Shakespearean plays in a humorous way. I found the embed code on Youtube and copied it into my HTML file. The sizes of the videos were appropriate and both played without any complications.

The div tags I used were helpful especially while using CSS. I found that I could adjust my information in CSS and not have to change it again in HTML. I mainly used my div tags for columns and spacing out my webpage. I thought this gave the webpage more structure to make it easier for the reader to access the information.

I wanted to put a table in to give my movie adaptation information so it would be easier to read. I looked on the internet for the right code and was pleased to learn how to do it myself and customize it to how I wanted it to be.

Cultural Context

The reason I picked to do Shakespeare was that he has had an impact on my life and I have studied many of his plays. They all interest me and I have come across so many people who will not even try and understand the basic plot because the language is so difficult. In fact, the language wasn’t even understood when Shakespeare wrote the play but was considered to be an entertaining aspect of the plays so no one in the audience (including the royals and upper class men) could understand. His plays were more of a visual and expressive piece of work and should be performed to understand the stories. The movie adaptations I suggested are just as important to understanding Shakespearean plays. Although not all of the movies follow the language or the exact storyline, it helps the audience understand the basic plot and makes it more enjoyable for people living in the 21^st century. Because people have adapted Shakespeare’s plays, it makes them last longer and become relevant to modern society.

Design Patterns

My design patterns were very simple for the website. I am not a design student and preferred to focus on the content rather than using a lot of colours and textures. I used a website called Colour Scheme which helped me identify what colours contrasted and coordinated. All the codes for the colours were available on the website which was helpful. My font was a reference to the “Medieval” time Shakespeare which I thought was appropriate with the theme.

Overall, I learnt how to source sites, videos and blogs to my website to make it more useful and accessible to the reader. My website has multiple links with reference to different Shakespearean ideas and facts. I enjoyed making this webpage and hope that whoever reads it will find it useful and entertaining.

The Network Carving up the World

Dear Diary,
Yesterday I carved up the world...well not literally of course but I did learn a lot of cool words and how the world is viewed by different people. Actually I was listening to this lecture and viewing posts online which gave me a very wide view on how different the world is and how I (yes I personally) link it all together!

I, as the network, never realised how much I link different people together and no matter how big I get or how varied I am there is always a link to the people using me...for example: everyone who accesses me has a computer and the internet. So I thought that was interesting because although everyone is very different in their own sense such as race, culture, religion, sex, age etc. everyone who has access to the network in connected to everyone else in the network!

And because this information is so wide and varied people are constantly labeling subjects and trying to force them into categories. Two of these "labeling techniques" are called taxonomy and folksonomy. Ok Diary, I know you're not that smart so I'll explain these terms for you:
Taxonomy is defining a subject by what it is so for example a Yellow submarine. The submarine is yellow so is defined with things that are also yellow. It is also a submarine so is defined by machines that can transport people underwater. But this is very limited because there are different types of yellow and there are different types of submarines. The Yellow submarine could also have a lot of other qualities which link it to other things.
So Folksonomy ASSOCIATES The Yellow Submarine with yellow things and associates it with submarines. There is a lot more variance in Folksonomy so people can accept that the subject is associated with the term.

So now I am very busy Diary so I am off to work on my assessment. I know that you are probably not very interested but my Motion assignment is taking alot more time and effort than I thought it would and I would assume many other networks would sympathise with me!
Cheers Diary and Happy St Paddy's Day!

The Network writing in his diary

Dear Diary,
My companions canceled on me! I'm so offended that I don't think I will have anyone else over for a while...Instead I'm going to talk about what I have been doing with my time this week because that is what diaries are for. You sit and listen to me while I rant on about what I have been up to and you can be a good friend and silently agree with me. SO! This week has been mainly busy because I just helped some students make a film within ten days for Lights! Canberra! Action! They were so busy for those ten days trying to write the script, storyboard, find extras, props, boom mics, music and then the editing came!!

Phew so busy but now they both have to focus on doing a web page for a subject they are doing at uni. One of the was thinking of doing current affairs but found that too boring because she did Journalism last year and switched to Media mainly because she wasn't interested in current events. So I think she may do the Shakespeare language and how people can interpret his language and plays. I was reading her blog and she said she was going to try and put up a mini-Shakespeare language dictionary and then post a few of his plays/sonnets up separating them into Comedy, Tragedy, History and Sonnets/Soliloquies. She also mentioned she may have a few lists up on Shakespeare interpretations (such as 10 Things I hate about you and The Lion King) and then show which plays are coming up in Canberra and Sydney. I think it will be good for people who are interested in Shakespeare but don't have the energy to learn the language but want to get a sense of his writing and stories.

Now all she needs to do is try to find time creating the web page. I might ask my friends Mr HTML and Mrs CSS to help her out because I have a feeling she will need them. She will have to try and find time to make it between her filming for Drama Production, her Motion Graphics assignment and her creative research exam coming up. But I think she really likes Shakespeare and enjoys so hopefully she will power through HTML (because sometimes he can be a little annoying and fiddly) and create a web page!

The Network having dinner with Mashup and API

Evening Diary,
As the Network I have to constantly have friends over for dinner and learn about their connections and functions but in the end it is really exhausting! Application Program Interface also known as API was explaining that if someone makes a webpage and uses someone else's API it is cheaper and better! It's not stealing but more like "sharing data" and people use APIs in different ways and change the way people interact with the webpage for example: Twitter and Flickr.

Mashup was explaining that two APIs "mashed up" was used so that multiple things could be used at once. So that different things can be correlated together and be made into feeders. Websites that do this is News Map, Neave TV and Everyblock Chicago. Mashup seems to be so useful to people because it means that a person can do everything on the one webpage and therefore the website gets more viewers!

I need to start havign so many people over and focus on a project coming up. I need to get a good idea on what type of webpage to build. I need HTML and CSS's help but I think I should be ok. I'm tossing around a few ideas on a current affair topics like the Olympic games or Garrett's insulation scheme.

Storm - Tim Minchin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujUQn0HhGEk
This is fantastic! Check it out!

Dinner with Mr HTML and Mrs CSS

Dear Diary,
Tonight I had dinner with Mr HTML and Mrs CSS. They are lovely programs to use! They were telling me tonight how well they go together. Before CSS came along HTML was so fiddly and annoying if one page on the website needed changing. But CSS is a styling program so HTML and CSS can coerse with each other to make a stylish webpage! CSS actually stands for Cascading Styling Sheets! I never knew! I'm so glad they came over and helped me understand more about webpages.

Throughout dinner, HTML was trying to explain how he works and it sounded pretty simple but there were alot of codes and conventions to know. Like HTML always needs little brackets that look like this <> so it can interpret what the person wants for the webpage. But HTML explained to me that the brackets have to always close and that the tags are to be nested. And I've just realised how lucky HTML is! he can go anywhere in the world and every computer can use him! So many other programs (like Flash ha!) can't do that! Although HTML was telling me that the programs he does prefer to be worked on is TextEditor, TextWrangler or Notepad.

I'm so glad I learnt so much from this dinner! I feel like after every dinner with all these different programs I'm learning that little bit more about the Network (although I am the Network haha).

Next Week Remix, API and Mashup are all coming to dinner (I really hope they bring dessert because I don't think I can cook for that many!)

The Network having dinner with Mr. Blog

Hi Diary the Network here.

I just finished having dinner with Mr. Blog and I am astounded at how many other "Mr. Blogs" there are! Mr. Blog is always getting confused with Mr. Blogger, Mr Blogs and Mr Blog.com! I mean it's insane they are completely different! People just don't understand how different Blogs are! Delicious, Word Press and Technorati understand but they don't have that problem even though they are in the same department as Mr. Blog.

However, Mr. Blog was telling me about this one blogger working for him at the moment and it was her first blog. She was just trying it out and decided to do something a bit creative. Mr. Blog was telling me she had to have blog for her university unit called Networked Media Production (i like the name hehe). Mr. Blog told me that all the people from her class had to join but she chose him because he looked easy and fun. Mr. Blog was very flattered because there ARE so many to choose from. She did admit that she looks at other blogs that were more relevant to her interests but Mr. Blog will always be there for her and she will always write for him.

Next Tuesday having dinner with HTML at 7pm.