Interactive Design Week 9 – Final Presentation

“OurStories” online oral history project by Suna Gurol, Helen Pitlick and Amy Rainey.

Link to the full presentation:

http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dvbt498_0fxr55khs

Interactive Design Week 5 – Project Proposal

Project Proposal

Team: Amy Rainey, Helen Pitlick, Suna Gurol

Background

The origin of our project came from an idea Amy had to use multimedia to document her grandmother’s history. This reminded Suna of an oral history project for high schoolers she knew about. After productive brainstorming, our group expanded the idea to create a web site that would help people create and find oral histories to use in student projects. This is an idea we’re all passionate about and interested in. Plus, this project encompasses several topics we cover in MCDM, including online storytelling, video, interaction design and media literacy.

Our Idea

Create a nonprofit educational website that helps people create and share multimedia history projects. Our mission is to help people document family history and stories. The site will offer resources for documenting stories and serve as an online community for these projects.  Students will use the site to gain knowledge about how to create multimedia history projects and to share their projects online, as well as watch and learn from other projects.

Possible names
Hidden Histories
The Multimedia Storytelling Project

Preliminary wireframe of the home page:

Hidden History home page wireframe

Preliminary wireframe of a video project page:

Hidden History sample video page wireframe

Why?

As older generations pass on, it becomes increasingly important to preserve their stories so we can learn from and remember those eras of history. Our site will help people document and share important stories that might otherwise go untold. It’s easier than ever to create and edit videos, audio recordings and slideshows. We want to help students use inexpensive technology to tell their families’ stories.

Based on our research, this project will fill an importance niche by providing a multimedia platform for documenting and sharing historical stories. There are other sites that feature oral history projects, but we haven’t found a site that offers an online community for creating and sharing these projects. The focus will be on video oral histories, but projects on our site will include video, audio, photo slideshows and documents, allowing students to share any information they compile.

Scope

Our final deliverable for this class will be the concept for a website, with all the pieces in place for an engineering team to create a functional product. This will include the following components:

• detailed description of proposed project
• sitemap
• wireframes
• comparison/analysis of sites that offer oral history projects to show why ours is different or better
• usability plans for the web site
• list of features to include, such as tutorials, tags, links, suggestions and resources
• proposed partnerships with other organizations

Because we are starting from scratch and do not have the time to build such a complex site, we will not produce a live product at this stage.

Design Principles / Creative Direction

• Audience paths clearly defined
• Easy to use
• Not too school-ish
• Encouraging, positive
• History is fascinating, not boring
• Using multimedia tools like a Flip camera is fun and easy; anyone can do it
• Lots of clean, white space
• Ensure users aren’t overwhelmed by too much detail

Who is it for?

The project’s intended audience is secondary school, college and graduate students, as well as their instructors. Teachers often assign oral history projects to teach students how to conduct first person research; many students connect with their own backgrounds in the process. Because of the highly personal aspect of this content, we will also allow anyone, enrolled in an academic program or not, the freedom to create a profile and upload material in order to preserve and share their stories.

We want to ensure that our target audience is comfortable using the site, as creating video content can be intimidating for people who have never done so. With this in mind, we will include relevant tutorials on video recording and editing technology.

Evolution & Trends Week 8 – Reading Reflection Questions – Feb. 24, 2009

1. In the Afterward of The Media Monopoly, Bagdikian states that
“Television produced a radical transformation in the way American families arranged their lives.” How is this different from how mass radio changed people’s lives?

2. Will websites ever have the requirement to “act in the public interest” like television stations do? Is it possible?

3. Have attitudes changed toward archiving of media, now that media has become more electronic and thus more ephemeral? Is it necessary?

Evolution & Trends Week 7 – Reading Reflection Essay – Feb. 17, 2008

“The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Garrett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” is an article about the dangers of human over-population. Hardin uses a metaphor of a common land used by farmers. As soon as one farmer adds more sheep to this common land, it affects the community. If farmers keep adding sheep, then the commons cannot be sustained.

The “commons” as Hardin explains, is the communal space that we all occupy. To keep the commons from failure, everyone should feel responsible for maintaining this space. Everyone should sacrifice to keep the commons from being overrun. They should also be conscious of their own actions and how their actions affect others. Because the commons is a finite resource, if everyone acts selfishly it will doom the community to failure. But inevitably someone will act in their self-interest  and the commons will be overrun. In addition, our society is built upon personal freedoms, which run against the requirements of maintaining the commons. There is no technical solution to this problem or “the tragedy” of the commons.

This metaphor can be applied to many other societal issues. Listed below are two examples: 1)  smoking in public places and 2) internet security.

Thank You for Not Smoking

As a society we believe in responsibilities and in certain rights and freedoms, but it gets a complicated when the action becomes more personal. Smoking is an example of an individual action that affects the community. Until recently, smoking was often cast as a personal choice that only affected the smoker and their pocketbook, when in reality smoking affects everyone around the smoker as well… not only with the unpleasant smell, but the amount it costs a society in health care bills from the second-hand smoke, decreased worker productivity (because of illness and death), and government regulation (How much should a pack of cigarettes be taxed? Who should be allowed to smoke? Where can cigarettes be sold?, etc.)

In this case the commons is being used as a trash can, so gradually legislation has been passed to ban smoking in many public spaces, thus reducing the effect of second-hand smoke on the community. In addition, cultural mores have changed so that it is no longer considered acceptable to smoke. However,  these laws combined with societal disapproval,  has denied someone’s freedom of choice. By adding in another law or another wall to the commons,  personal freedom is encroached.  However, the commons is better maintained.

A New Internet

The article “A New Internet” by John Markoff in this Sunday’s New York Times is about how the Internet is vulnerable to a malicious attack. Never built to carry the world’s communication and commerce, it was originally an academic and research network and expanded rapidly and haphazardly into this tremendous system. It never has had true security despite years of work on the issue. The current method of security is to create strong firewalls, but little else. Unfortunately, this allows an attacker to gain access to the “soft chewy center” once a firewall has been breached.

The alternate answer to this problem is to make a new Internet from scratch, one that is a world-wide “walled garden” of sorts, where a user would have to give up at least some of their anonymity for protection. Privacy, a dearly-held Internet (and American) belief, would have to be relinquished to a degree to have the network be secure. And that would be a big trade-off for many Internet users.

Here is another case where the commons (the Internet) might need to change and new rules and laws will have to be created (by removing anonymity) in order to keep it protected (from malicious attackers).  But the change in laws goes against a strongly held belief system by the users (about online freedom.) Markoff argues that will be hard to change the legacy of libertarianism of the Internet before a devasting attack has occurred. Hardin would argue however, that this triumph of “freedom” will most assuredly bring about ruin. Only by seeing the necessity of mutual responsibility and benefit (he calls it “mutual-coercion”) by giving up our dearly-held privacy in this case will we become truly free.

Additional thoughts

A couple of additional thoughts on Hardin’s essay:

1.  Hardin states that “education counteracts the natural tendency to do the wrong thing” (the “wrong thing” in this case being not being responsible to the commons.) There are plenty of well and/or over-educated people who believe that needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many. For example, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations “invisible hand” theory (refuted by Hardin in this essay) states that decisions made by individuals will be the best decisions for an entire society… which goes against someone doing the “wrong” thing.

2.  Hardin focuses exclusively on people and government’s roles in decision-making. He doesn’t include other influential relationships, such as peers, family and parents, religious organizations, and other societal groups and institutions (like, say,  a motorcycle club) that might have authority with an individual. These relationships are also affected by the outcome of the commons.

++++++++++++++++

Hardin, G. (1968, Dec. 13) “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Science, 162 (3859), 1243-1248.

Markoff, J. (2009, Feb. 15). “A New Internet?”.  The New York Times, pp. 1, 4.

Evolution & Trends Week 6 – Reading Reflection Questions – Feb. 10, 2008 – REDUX

1. How is the government’s response to independent news different today from late 1820′s?

2. How similar is early radio broadcasting to today’s Twitter or blogging?

3. How has the expansion of the West in the United States affected the change in communication in the 1800′s?

Evolution & Trends Week 6 – Reading Reflection Questions – Feb. 10, 2008

Questions on Roger Fielder, “Technologies of the Third Media Mediamorphosis.”

1. My little pony (no, MY little pony)

Samuel Morse, along with two others, started the Journal of Commerce paper in 1827 to “cleanse New York of its moral impurities.” They came up with an innovative way of getting the news to Wall Street faster than any other news organization at the time by using ponies to gallup from Brooklyn to Manhattan.  The US government forced them to give up their equine dispatchers because it “competed with a government mandated monopoly” or, in other words, it made the government look bad. And the government lost control of the news (and the message.)

Question - In the United States today, with everyone having up-to-minute news access and with journalism becoming hyper-local and out-of-control by the government,  could something like this happen today? If a citizen journalist, like say, the West Seattle Blog, regularly scooped news that the government thought that they should be in control of, would they shut it down?

2. Early radio broadcasting

Fieldler says that prior to World War I, radio communication was considered primarily between two points or people though early ham radios operators did broadcast news and music without expectation of a reply.

Question – How similar is early radio broadcasting to Twitter or blogging?

3. Lewis & Clark expedition (extra credit rumination #1)

Question – I’m also interested in how the expansion of the West plays into the expansion of communication. We talk a lot about the railroad and telegraph because of the harnassing of electricity. What if we look even earlier to Lewis & Clark and what new technologies they brought on their trip (including having a universal translator of Sacajawea) ? Is there a direct correlation of the Lewis & Clark expedition and the drive towards coming up with faster ways to travel and communicate?

4. Ponies and Marshall McLuhan (extra credit rumination #2)

Question – What would McLuhan say about the medium of ponies? Is it a hot or cold medium? Would it be the extension of the foot or hands? Are they similar to railroads? Or to a laptop?

Evolution & Trends Week 5 – Reading Reflection Essay – Feb. 3, 2008

Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think” is a visionary article from 1946 that lay the groundwork for a variety of modern communication technology, most notably the World Wide Web (which he calls the memex) and search engines. He also describes a sort of electromagnetic strip (using electromagnetic paper) to replace film, a type of computer mouse, databases, spreadsheets, search engine optimization, scrolling (an important viewing construct in viewing and reading), voice recorders and mini-cameras for scientists.

I am interested in his description of being the reader or specialist being overwhelmed or “bogged down” by the massive amounts of information. Bush was also concerned that the “truly significant will be lost in the mass of the inconsequential.” Certainly in our contemporary times, this is even more of a problem, with out massive amounts of media. In fact, we can look to McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Message” from 1964 and his concern about accelerated media change as a sort of ‘massacre of the innocents’ as comparably old news.  Not only is important content being possibly missed, not only is it overwhelming to the user, but McLuhan’s theory would suggest that eventually the massive onslaught of content is ultimately a sort of dehumanizing death.

Another issue with the onslaught of information is how to archive it or organize it in some manageable way. Bush discusses the “voder” or a primitive voice recorder that he saw at a recent World Fair in the 40′s.  He wonders if this technology is available, then why is the stenotype still being used at public meetings and in court? A stenotype is a machine that is a cross between a typewriter and a word processor (today’s versions are more like computers) (Wikipedia, 2009). A stenographer phonetically types in the words spoken. The print-out (today’s stenotypes don’t just print, but translate and store the transcript on a disk) is then either translated or refined on a computer. It’s much faster and quieter than a typewriter, hence it’s popularity.

But really, why is it being used today in court? A human typing what’s been spoken in a cavernous room (and the resulting re-translation) is much less accurate than a video camera (and gives rise to the comparision to Plato’s Cave story.) Human fallability being what it is, beyond the inevitable mis-communication, there just has to be numerous errors. Are there not better archival options?

Back to the archival question – at this point, online search is one of the best options for short-term archiving of data/content. But search only works as well as the items have been keyworded (or the company that owns the items has paid.) Archiving today is difficult with our ephermal data — photos that get deleted or never removed from their data source (the camera), millions of emails deleted or spammed, twitters lost (or else randomly optimized for search)…

(As an aside, I note the sexist references to the ubiquitous “girls” with  mildly suggestive and somewhat robotic descriptions: 1. a “girl strokes” the Voder’s keys to input the voice data, 2.  a “girl strokes its keys languidly and looks about the room and sometimes at the speaker with a disquieting gaze” while typing on a stenotype, and 3. in reference to a large calculating machine it would “take instructions and data from a roomful of girls armed with simple keyboard punches.”

The content has to be put into the machines by girls for the male scientists to analyze. Despite Bush’s prescience on the future of communications, it apparently didn’t extend to gender roles. Ah well.)

References:

Bush, V. (1945, July). “As We May Think.” Atlantic Monthly. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush

Engber, W. (2005, May 25). “What’s That Thingy Court Reporters Type On?” Slate magaine. http://slate.com/id/2119534/

McLuhan, M.  (1962) “The Medium Is The Message” from Understanding    Media: The Extensions of Man. In Ed. Wardip-Fruin, N. and Moatfort, N. The New Media Reader: MIT Press. (pp. 205-209)

“Stenotype”. In Wikipedia online. Retrived Feb. 2, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype

Evolution & Trends Week 3 – Project Proposal

Thesis

With the advent of the low-to-no cost Web 2.0 and social media tools, organizations can now directly communicate with their audiences and customers. Many non-profit organizations, which are resource-rich with people but resource-poor in capital, have jumped with both feet into the inexpensive and easily accessible Web 2.0 pool. For example, the health-care and scientific organizations Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital all have Facebook pages, YouTube channels, and Twitter accounts.

But how is social media helping these non-profits? Who are they reaching? Are these organizations communicating better with colleagues? Are they able to provide public health information directly to people? Has the audience stayed the same, or has it changed – either in age, technical know-how, geographical placement, ethnicity – because of the use of the tools? Is social media an easier, more effective way of fund-raising than sending out direct-mail letters? Or is social media just another way to send out press releases? What impact has speed had (if at all) on communication in this industry, which typically moves relatively glacially? And finally, when you open up the conversation what are the dangers involved in losing some control over the message?

Statement of Intent

First, I will identify the different constituents that make up the audience of science and health-care non-profits. I will investigate how these organizations have historically communicated with them.

I will also investigate in academic research to see what has been already written on this topic.

Next, I will conduct research by looking at a variety of scientific and health-care non-profits organizations. I will consider their use of social media including Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter and what information is being spread, are they having two-way communications with their constituents, as well as examine both the content and frequency of updates on their site. I will also look at the generated comments, wall writing and retweets. I might be able to get at least some idea of their global impact by investigating their Facebook fans and reading comments left on their Flickr, Facebook wall, or YouTube channel.

I will not be able to get any fund-raising information specifically for each organizations, but can probably find some that give some generically for non-profits on the increase of social media use.

Initial References

Here’s a list of initial references. I will continue to search for more academic papers.

Bernoff, J. e. (2008, Oct. 17). “Metrics for Social Applications in a Downturn.” Retrieved from Forrester.com: http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,47292,00.html.

Crusoe, D. H., Nourse, W., Whitney, E. (2008, March). “Web 2.0 & Social Networking Nonprofit  Survey.” Retrieved  from Public Learning Media Laboratory Web site: http://plml.org/.

Harris Interactive and Virilion. (2008, April). “Polls Finds Donors Interested in “Keeping-Up” Through Social Media.” Retrieved from Virillion Web site: http://www.virilion.com/node/35?n=275&i=1.

Kanter, B. (2008). “WeAreMedia: The Social Media Starter Kit for Nonprofits Web site.” http://wearemedia.org.

Kantor, B. (2008, June).  Nonprofits, Healthcare, and Social Media. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved Oct. 5, 2008 from Slide Share Web site: http://www.slideshare.net/kanter/nonprofits-healthcare-and-social-media/.

Royse, A. (2008, Jan. 4). Is Your Organization Ready for On-line Social Networking? Retrieved from Guide Star Web site: http://www.guidestar.org/DisplayArticle.do?articleId=1192.

Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody : The power of organizing without organizations. New York: Penguin Press.

Stock, W. (2007). “Folksonomies and science communication.” Information Services & Use, 27, 97-103.

Evolution & Trends Week 3 – Reading Reflection Questions – Jan. 20, 2009

Seeing What’s Next by Christensen et al.

1. Question 1 – Christensen states on page XV of his Introduction that “structured, rigorous process of looking at an industry or industry segment through the lenses of the theories of innovation provides powerful insights not readily observable to the untrained eye.” How  important is it as well to have an attuned ear?
2. Question 2 - The law of conservation of integration is also known as the “law of conservation of attractive profits” because companies make attractive money when they solve the hardest problems. Are there examples of companies making money when they solve easy problems? Or when hard problems are solved in a way that are easy to use or understand?
3. Question 3 – When organizations adopt innovations in ways to make sense in their industry, they are guilty of “cramming.” According to Christensen, cramming is rarely successful. Kodak is a good example of cramming in the digital photography market; they invested millions into high-end products and ignored the inexpensive consumer end.  I’m wondering however, if there are any examples of successful “cramming?”
4. Question 4 – On possible example of two companies having asymmetry would be between Yahoo and Google. (Or between Google and Microsoft… or Microsoft and Apple.)  The main technology with both is online search; however, they approached it differently – with Yahoo being initially being human-powered (every site was categorized and analyzed) and Google finding technology to create online indexing. What are other comparable companies with asymmetries?

Evolution & Trends Week 2 – Very preliminary project idea

I’m changing my initial idea of focussing about digital media in academia, and will instead focus on evolution of non-profit organizations and digital media. Many non-profit organizations have really embraced social media and done it quicker and more efficiently than better funded, larger for-profit organizations. I would like to investigate why and where the future might be.