High Fidelity

The concept of datavisualisation at first confused me slightly but the more i looked in to it, the more i understood and was impressed with the notion.  The idea that we can use this kind of tool to completely change our attitude to information extraction is phenomenal.  A particularly interesting tool "Pivet" was extremely interesting.  The idea that we can stop browsing from a page to page system and start encompassing all types of content simultaneous would never have occurred to me, nor would i have been able to coneceptualise the reality of it.  I like Flake's reference to the whole being greater than the sum of it parts, and i can certainly see how a program like Pivet demonstrates this.  But also we can learn more about ourselves through this process and start to observe patterns that we might have not previously been able to see.  As Flake said, the way and amount of knowledge we consume will change but with that the wisdom will come as well.      

Alive

I propose a web program that creates video based on the the collective videos of others.  The main concept is to create a music video using segments of other peoples interpretation of particular song.  The idea would be that the each contributor would up-load their video on some video sharing network such as youtube, and then my web program would create a random generator of all those collective videos to create one complete music video.  I envisage the program to disregard all video that has past the used track time, that means that a part of one user's video clip before the 1-min song clock time could not be shown after that point in the song has been payed on the random generated video.  The idea is to use a collective of peoples work even though they may not follow the same general theme, to create a unique and interesting video clip.  In our fast paced ever evolving technological society its easy to see how our trends and preferences change so quickly.  This program would mean we could enjoy music videos in new and constantly changing ways, that also would cater for a variety of peoples styles. It also gives users an opportunity to display their work to the world.    

Revolution 909

Web 2.OK nothing much special here.  Lets face facts, although the appurtenance of web has increased immensely, and new technologies have evolved around it, we are pretty much looking at exactly the same thing from the 90s.  Text and images!  They come across pretty much exactly the same way too, html still being used.  I get the feeling that web 2.0 sells itself as some super artificial intelligence type phenomenon that will think for itself when it comes to web management and collective intelligence.  The fact is the web is an evolving entity that adapts to new technological environments.  Placing titles such as "web 2.0" over the changes is a useful as recording the changes books have made over the last 400 years.  Sure today books are sleeker, neater more accessible and more intelligible, but nether the less not really that different from the early stuff.  Still text written on pages that we use in a fairly common manner.  Needless to say I'm not that taken in by catch phrases or buzz words of the current trends.  Call me a sceptic.        

Project A Rational

Essentially i have used blogger to post my assignment for a couple of reasons.  For one it is a very user friendly blog host that is easy navigate and edit on.  I was able to create my information site, in the way i wanted with one of the preset layouts and with minimal changes.  As my site is a guide for people, having it on blogger allows more of a potential for a number of users to come across it.  Blogger is a very popular blogging site and the chances are i will reach a greater audience by using the service.
There are a number of hyperlinks within the text that send the reader to relevant information sites about the specified topic.  Although i tend to explain most of what might be difficult to understand, i still placed the links so that an intelligent reader has the opportunity to a. clarify what iv said, and b. have an opportunity to further learn about the topic.  To begin with i manually coded in the relevant HTML to add hyperlinks in the HTML editing option on blogger.  Later did i realise that there was an more efficient tool in the basic editor option.  Thus ended my HTML coding.
There exists are very comprehensive website dedicated to Freeview already, however i feel as if my blog page and the website www.freeview.com.au offer different information.  My stand point was to inform the reader about what Freeview exactly was, and how it applied to their television watching.  As well as this i also give consumer advice about relevant products as well as background information about the technologies.  The blog page design is in my opinion is very simple, however well laid-out with clear readable text, easy to navigate and clear of clutter.  My goal was to give the reader and opportunity to learn whilst avoiding confusion and distraction.  I have included also videos of interest and list of websites of recommended brands relevant to Freeview.  This gives the reader an opportunity to further research products discussed in my blog site.
Blogger is a very dynamic and useful blogging site for those who are new to blogging, however offers the opportunity for an experienced coder to customise to his or her delight.  For myself minimal coding was needed, and i mostly relied on the gadget tools as well the basic editor to post images, videos and slide-presentation that ultimately gave my site a professional and intriguing design.                      

Something about us

A taxation officer walks into bar to order a drink, the bar tender turns to him and says: "Im sorry we don't serve your folk around here ." To which the the taxation man replies: "The world would be a better place if we stopped categorising everyone. For all you know i may be into the same things as you."

"True," replied the barman, "but then you might be out of a job."

So this fairly lame story represents my understanding of Taxonomy and Folksonomy. It depicts the problem with hierarchal categorisation, however there still is a need for it on cognitive basis. I like the idea of folksonomy in terms of the way it networks with things and gives more of a basis of familiarity. I also see the advantage of a hierarchal system in which we can navigate through content efficiently and categorically. In the end they both have their uses in society and certainly in the digital realm.

Face to Face

Internet Privacy.

I'll brake it down as far i see it. The more you submerse yourself online, the trickier it is to hold onto privacy. Much the same as the real world. A more sociable person will be an easier person to track down as a pose to a more reserved, secluded person. The real issue is that prior to the digital age and the implementation of the internet, very few people were privy to mass scale recognition. The fact of the matter is that now days as we associate most of our day to day living through the internet, we are more susceptible to privacy infringement. The obvious is social networking sites where we seemingly pore out our lives through text photo and videos. As is stands, close to 400 people can know, right now as i write this, that i have a craving for steak and that recently i attended a certain birthday celebration. And that number is only due to the fact that i implemented certain restriction on my FaceBook profile settings. Many people allow almost anyone to view there social networking pages.

Further our privacy is not just in jeopardy on social livelihood, but also with our very intimate private details such as banking and consumer purchases. Internet banking is an ever growing trend in today's society however what few realise is how potentially risky it is to have online access to your banking details.

The idea of privacy ultimately comes down to the decisions we make. However needless to say the internet has given us the gateway to loose this privilege.

Oh yeah

Having a further look at code. Well iv seemed to grasp the idea of using "div" tags, which is great for layouts. I was fairly disapointed to find out that dreamweaver is now very dependant on your coding capability. I have made a website in the past, paid domain and all, and essentially built it through dreamweaver using tables and such. I thought this was still possible but apparantly thats not the case. So the bottom line here is that i will have to become some what fluent with code to write websites. Damn.
On to the lecture, im sorry Michael, but i know of no student who commits, or even can commit 40 hours a week to uni work. The reality is we work paid jobs, as well as do full time study to keep ourselves sustained and so could never commit ourselves to the suggested amount of study time. Anyway i do try an learn all the same. API's! Application Programming Interface. Well i sort of understand how they apply to web sites. As i understand they are HTTP send and recieve messages that act on each other to keep a more cohesive or interactive site. So using XML new applications can be interfaced with existing platforms fairly cohesively. Also known as mashups i believe. I may be way out.