Critical Studies

2010-01-12T02:20:00.001-08:00

Systems that are used to communicate information to society....

1) Brief
2) Initial Ideas
3) Research into these ideas
4) Development of Ideas

5) Final Idea & research

6) Development of my Concept (2d)
7) Prototype (3d)

9) Links & Resources

My finished leaflet!

2009-12-27T12:05:00.000-08:00

This is the leaflet which I will hand out with my presentation, it will have two pairs of 3d glasses attatched to it so that users can visit the site and make use of it.
I have personalized some of the 3d glasses so that they are custom made for my website.

(seen below)

Left side

Right side

I have also recived my 3d webcam now and have been uploading videos onto My Video Diary 3d I will take the webcam in with my presentation so that people in the class can try it out!

links

2009-12-23T10:18:00.000-08:00

Images used in Powerpoint

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/07/09/email-the-first-social-network/ 21:30 4/11/9

http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/07/ning-logo.gif 21:22 4/11/9

http://www.brightthings.com/images/social_go_02.gif 21:19 4/11/9

http://www.dbtechno.com/images/CES_2009-tvs.jpg 20:57 4/11/09

http://numiko.com/blog/images/3d-specs.jpg 20:50 4/11/9

http://www.esv.org/assets/blog/2007.01.nt.social.network.big.png <10:59am 3/11/9

http://www.problogger.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/network.jpg <11.01am 3/11/9

http://natewhitehill.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/socialnetworking.jpg <11:03am

http://blogs.oracle.com/jobsatoracle/images/SocialNetworking.jpg <11.04am 3/11/9

http://criticallychatting.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/social_networking_among_youths.jpg
< 11.06am 3/11/9

http://www.terracotta.org/attach/img/solutions/social-networking/social-networking.jpg <11.07am 3/11/9

http://www.thedigeratilife.com/images/online-social-networking-2.jpg <11.07am 3/11/9

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44523000/jpg/_44523332_socialnetworking512.jpg < 11:08 3/11/9

http://www.bizzia.com/files/362/2009/01/social_network_luclegayflickr.jpg <11:10 3/11/9

Links used in research

http://www.minoru3d.com/ 13.08 9/12/09

Wikipedia - 13.22 09/12/09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleconference 11/12/09 2.33PM

www.appsandhats.com/

http://mobileinc.co.uk/2009/10/nokia-ovi-store-gets-10-million-app-downloads-in-3-months-apple-app-store-gets-2-billion-downloads-in-14-months/12:38pm 04/11/09

http://www.infopackets.com/news/business/google/2008/20081104_google_android_off_to_a_good_start.htm
12:42pm 04/11/09

http://www.sofake.com/

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/07/09/email-the-first-social-network/ 13.34 04/11/09

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/07/09/email-the-first-social-network/ 13.40 04/11/09

http://www.bing.com/

Final Idea

2009-12-08T11:05:00.000-08:00

For my final idea I will be looking into social networks and where they are likely to be progressing.
I think this will be through the usage of 3d. So I will be creating a 3d concept social network. To my knoledge there are no 3d social networks out there so my prototype will be a first.

Development of ideas

2009-11-04T09:49:00.000-08:00

Apps -
Apps/applications on your phone started out as the basics such as calculator, calendar and maybe a memo area if you where lucky! But now we have the full use of technology and can download what ever we want for our phones be it tools to see what the weather is like, see the news, play an instrument or even find your car. With stores such as the Apple App Store, Nokias OVI and Googles Android we are spoilt for choice. Some applications from the stores require you to pay for them whilst the rest are free, there as been so much development of this over the last year and now with the SDK softwares you can create your own apps!
How you can create an app
The future of this is quite possibly now, all it can do is get bigger and bigger and adapt to more and more features such as phones with motion sensors.
Applications are communicating information to people because you can download news apps, weather apps or log into social networks where you can find information within your social group.

Social Networks -
Social networks mainly include the features
-add a friend
-add applicaitons (which takes us back to apps)
-send an email
-post a comment
-add photos/videos or music
-instant messaging

the main way you communicate is through posting comments to each other or talking through the instant messenger system if the network has one. So social networks as in the name, let you access information about your friends or people in your social group through photos, videos and comments its like an in personal phone call.
But I think social networks have the the social aspect or personal aspect taken out of them as you aren't talking to a person as such you are almost talking to a virtual person, some people on social networks meet through the internet and never actually meet. So I think that future developments of social networking will be through 3d form.
This would be really easy and simple to do basically you will post messages to each other through the form of video but with a 3d web cam (just 34.99) your away!
Social networks have been around for a good couple of years now and are still growing strong! So I don't think they are just a fad evidently since after a few years they are still growing strong.
You can create your own by going to a website such as ning.com which lets you create simple social networks for just about anything.

Research Into These Ideas

2009-11-03T07:47:00.000-08:00

I started some research into each of the categories to find out as much as I could before I could

Teleconference-

This is used by businesses, education facilities and even social networks through the likes of MSN - the instant messenging site.

It basically means to communicate via webcam.

"A teleconference or teleseminar is the live exchange and mass articulation of information among several persons and machines remote from one another but linked by a telecommunications system. Terms such as audio conferencing, telephone conferencing and phone conferencing are also sometimes used to refer to teleconferencing." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleconference 11/12/09 2.33PM

____________________

____________________
The App stores -

In previous years if you wanted to write in a text document you’d need one device, if you wanted to send a text you’d need another, but now with advances such as i-phones and smart phones this is no longer the case. And with the addition of ‘app stores’ such as the ‘apple app store’ the Nokia ‘ovi’ store we have access to so much more than we would have ever expected, take the musical instruments for example with these you can blow into the microphone and press the virtual keys on your i-phones screen and you can actually make music!
The first ‘app store’ was by Apple on the launch of their smart phone the i-Phone, so that you could have almost anything in one place! This took off by storm with over 100,000 developers in their first year with more than 65,000 apps created generating over 1.5 Billion downloads in just the first year! There are apps for all kinds of things as demonstrated in the i-phone review website - www.appsandhats.com/

(above figures taken direct from the apple website on November the 4th 2009)

Ovi is Nokias answer trying to break into apples amazing success they posted the statement: “Nokia World confirmed that since May 26th, users have downloaded 10 million pieces of content from the Ovi Store. Compare this to iPhone App Store which surpassed 100 million downloads in the first two months and 1.5 billion after a year.” However how correct this is compared to the apple app store is unlikely as Nokia are saying ‘pieces of content’ which also includes the downloads of ring tones & phone wallpapers so how many downloads out of this 10 million are actually apps? We don’t know.

Source: http://mobileinc.co.uk/2009/10/nokia-ovi-store-gets-10-million-app-downloads-in-3-months-apple-app-store-gets-2-billion-downloads-in-14-months/
12:38pm 04/11/09

Another app store is the less talked about Google Android app store, The Android store has far less apps than the Apple store yet a statement read: “While the Android system launched with around 10% the number of applications available as the iPhone, a media research firm says nine applications had between 10,000 and 50,000 downloads in the first day. That's compared with just two applications doing in the same range on the iPhone Apps launch.”

Source: 12:42pm 04/11/09 http://www.infopackets.com/news/business/google/2008/20081104_google_android_off_to_a_good_start.htm

___________________
___________________

E-Portfolio's

E-portfolios or online portfolios are a relief for anyone in the design industry, previously when applying for employment the majority of the design world will have found it difficult to show case their works. But now with the help of the web Artists can publish images or links to their works so that employers can view their potential before meeting them in person.

A Great example of this is the design company http://www.sofake.com/ who have created flash videos inside of flash videos to create their design portfolio, to navigate around their site you need to press the grayish looking squares under the image.

_________________
_________________

Blogs

I have been looking at the different ways of which blogs are used.

The main category’s I looked at where personal blogs and corporate blogs.

Typically when I think of blogs I think of some one sat at home typing into a pre set template such as Blogger or Word Press, creating almost an online diary.

But through looking into different blogs you soon get a true in sight of what people use them for.

They range from online tutorials, show casing work, sharing tips, ideas, views and opinions, rating movies and music and having online discussions.

Two great examples of these are Lauren Luke who created video pod casts and posted them online of her passion/hobby for make up and colour, she showed examples and tips through her pod casts so that others could follow. She now has 3 million hits and has been offered her own makeup range.

The other great example is of a Gary Vaynerchuk who has a passion for wine and so did pod casts and entry’s about different wines, he now has celebrities featuring in his blog.

In corporate use they are used so that customers can have more a personal insight not given by their professional websites, these blogs tend to look completely different to the commercial sites where they sell products or services.

They tend to have links to groups such as twitter and social networks which you may not associate big company’s with. And can be really in formal which you may not find through their big website, such as a recent blog post I read reading: ‘sometimes we suck’ which was an apology to customers after the company’s server went down for the day.

Famously they will tweet or tell us about new products coming out or updates but they have to be careful about what they are posting, recently a manager of a large company sent out a message how he was ‘dreading today, because I have to fire one of my employees’ which obviously all the employees saw online and felt on edge at work. The media got a hold of this and created a huge story about how it was unfair to post such a comment. So they have to be a little reserved when posting comments

_____________________
___________________

Social Networks

Social Networking is the connections you have with friends, family and colleagues

Social Networking Sites or SNS is a website developed to link you all in one place,

There are now millions of social networks avaliable and its even questionable to which the first one was!

Jeremiah Owyang quote “I just asked my friends on Twitter what their first social network was (see their responses), and most gave a varying degree of responses of web based communities, a few claimed early BBS systems –I didn’t see anyone claim email”

Quote Taken 13.34 04/11/09

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/07/09/email-the-first-social-network/

Jeremiah Owyang went on to say:

"People often make the mistake that Friendster, Tribes, or some early social site was the first social network. People also make the mistake that Facebook is the largest social network to date, in reality, the largest social networks are email. Let’s run the numbers: Microsoft told me that Hotmail has 375 million active accounts worldwide, Yahoo mail is reported at 280mm, and Facebook only has 200 million but growing.

Email is the First –and Largest– Social Network
Well if you agree that Facebook, a private community of your friends is a social network, then so is email.

They both have the same requirements

1) profiles (emails have signatures),

2) Ability to connect to each other (the act of emailing, and often responding,

also, take for example a great deal of Facebook, Twitter, and Plaxo messages enter into our email inboxes, I can read Twitter DMs, and Facebook messages in my email –then choose to respond. What’s the difference?

Quote Taken 13.40 04/11/09
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/07/09/email-the-first-social-network/

After voicing his view that email could have been the first social networking site he does have some good logic, because your email account is like your 'home' online its the place where everything is posted to, its the main website you go to because you can recive all of the feeds from other sites that you are joined up to and you do visit it every day.

* So whats the largest social network?

Immediately I'd think Facebook, but looking at the above theory I am thinking towards email in a new light!

Microsoft reported Hotmail has 375 million active accounts worldwide,

Yahoo mail is reported at 280mm, and

Facebook only has 200 million but growing.

But what about Google? Some think that it is making a huge network under our noses! They are the first point of call when people want to find something out! such as when Microsoft launched their new search engine http://www.bing.com/ it was ironic that millions of people went looking on Google to find out about it !

But back to the point, websites such as Blogger require you to have a Google mail account to sign in or sign up!

From 1997 to 2001, a number of social networks took off!

Brief

2009-11-03T07:06:00.000-08:00

Learning Outcomes

On completion you should be able to demonstrate the ability to:-

LO1 Analyse and evaluate current practice in digital communication

LO2 Select, develop and communicate appropriate evidence identifying future career aspirations

LO3 Identify and evaluate their preferences for learning and self development

LO4 Critically evaluate learning including work related learning
_____________________________________________________________________

BackGround Scoop
This exercise is a way for you to research and examine around 5 or so systems that are
used to communicate information to society.

Because this module will explore how new technology is changing and developing
the way society uses information. (Examples include but not exclusive to include
Wikis, RSS feeds, podcasts, e-portfolios and blogs.) You will use current practice to
inform a reasoned debate as to how these technologies might develop in the future and
develop a response as to how it will affect them as a designer.

See the recommended resources at the end of this document for some areas of study
that you should consider. You will need to experience and evaluate these technology
areas in order to appreciate the technology. From that you will need to write your
experience and issues you had (how were they solved, or how could they be solved)
and this can be done on your technology blogs.

Brief
Look at some systems that are being used. You need to try these systems and write
your evaluations about them on your blog. Make sure you are in the correct category.
* Note: This could be slanted towards future career aspirations

You will be presenting your outcomes / findings / predictions in a 10 minute
presentation. This will just be you talking through what you used and your observations
of the systems.

This will be very casual in nature and will take on more of a discussion / seminar feel
about it.

DELIVERABLES (what you need to hand in):

PRESENTATION
A 10 minute professional presentation which includes your theory for where the
developments for these systems may be headed, how society uses the information,
how it is changing (or will change) society.

BLOG
Your blog will be checked and included in your feedback which should demonstrate
your research and opinions as you test / evaluate the system. Essentially this is your
rough notes or sketchbook to support your learning.

NOTE:
You need to keep a backup copy of your work, see statement of assessment,
re. Regulations in the course handbook.

Initial Ideas

2009-11-03T06:15:00.000-08:00

to research and examine around 5 or so systems that are used
to communicate information to society....

* Video Conference - For instance usage fo webcams and web chatt

*The sort of media we can have in one place - ie. apps on the i-phone,

*e-portfolios - Designers, Gamers, animators, People involved in tv and film ~ can now have online show wheels,

*Social Networks - nearly everyone uses them so they add greatly to the communications of society,

*Blogs - different ways of using them,