Comics – Week 2
February 7, 2011Draw a moment from your week and present it in 4 different comic narrrative styles:
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- Duo-Specific
Duo-Specific
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- Montage
Montage
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- Interdependent
Interdependent
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- Picture-Specific
Picture-Specific
Comics – Week 1
February 7, 2011Draw a portrait of yourself and then draw as little of yourself and still convey your individuality.
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- Attempt 1
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- Essence.
Thesis Meandering Post
February 1, 2011I have spoken to a some very bright people about my initial thesis idea and the reactions have all been positive, but the ultimate outcome has been mixed. There are several websites that handle one aspect or another of my project and I’m trying to deconstruct: What benefits does BookBoost actually produce.
Greg Borenstein challenged me on how feasible the project is considering how many books are not available and how to present my concept. It took 15 minutes to reach the realization that I ma not digitizing books, but allowing people to turn in qualifying books for ebooks. I believe he’s right in the sense that it would be a better offer to simply say
BookMooch – BookMooch, which also came up in my research is a site that lets you give away books that you don’t want and receive books that you do want. It runs on a point system, so you receive points for every book you mail to other members. Once you have accrued enough points, you can ask for books from other people with your points. I actually discounted the site as non-useful due to the design of the site initially. The site looks like it is stuck in 2005 and I assumed the site was used minimally.
This is only partially thought out. I’ll make a proper post later.
Posted in Thesis | Leave a commentUpdating Wikipedia
January 31, 2011Wikipedia is quickly becoming a de facto encyclopedia, despite gaps of information and gender inequalities. I am becoming increasingly aware of the need to contribute to the overall knowledge base, but moreso that all the smart people I know need to
For my Conversation Spaces class, we were asked to update 2 Wikipedia articles. The most disturbing part of this assignment was realizing immediately the two articles I could update with confidence were the Hackers (film) and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. I immediately found some holes I could fill in with my knowledge. I was going to upload images of my specific changes, but then my neurosis took over. I don’t know anyone specifically that ever updated Wikipedia or Encyclopedia Britannica. Would it be weird to literally know who updated the dictionary? It’s not like I updated the American History section, but still, there is something to the concept of never having a specific face to Wikipedia other than ‘all of us.’
I’m calmer now. Here is one of my updates to Wikipedia:
I recently rewatched Hackers and when I heard the waitress say “Here you are, Mr. Babbage.” at 1:37:44 into the film, I realized that Mr. Babbage was probably a reference to Charles Babbage, who invented the Difference Engine, considered by many to be a computer before it’s time. I have seen one work at the Computer History Museum and it’s amazing. Eitherhow, I saw the omission and decided to update it. But I don’t have a reference for my assumption, but it seems like an intended wink by the filmmakers. But technically, I didn’t have a reference. So, I decided to check the Discussion page.
Some may be wondering “If I’m in a class called the Design of Conversation Spaces, why go where there are no conversations?” While the articles themselves are not conversations, the discussion, update and controversy sections are very much so conversations. When you click on any Discussion(in this case, Egypt), you are prompted by an intermediary page with this on the top.
After which you are taken to the Discussion page. where I found this:
This is much less Wikipedia-like and much more personal. And again, prompts me to have a source cited. How do I cite it? I feel like this is an intuitive choice and I would have loved knowing this when I was 16, seeing the movie for the first time. I ate up all information about hacking, phreaking, blueboxes and attempted my own h4x0r spellology. This would have led me to a far more interesting path. In the end, this is a change that is going with my gut.
Posted in Designing Conversation Spaces | 1 CommentThesis Idea
January 28, 2011I want to create a process to donate your hardcover books to charities and in return you’ll receive the digital copy. I think it would be great for the donor to finally have all those unread books out of your house; great for the eReader device folks cuz it gives everyone an excuse to buy an iPad or Kindle; great for the non-profits cuz if people are donating books they want to read, it’s more likely other people will want to read them.
That’s the short version. I’m not going to get into copyright law, cuz that’s not why I went to school. I am going to focus on the design, the code, the presentation. I need to talk to people more educated than myself on the economics of having such a service. I need to find out all the little potholes: will there be enough incentive for eReader folks to donate the cost of the eBook back to the publisher? Can I really pull off a 1:1 donation or does it need to be a 3books:1ebook exchange(not as magical)? Should I focus on a genre, like sci-fi or romance(both of which go through books like crazy)? I have a bazillion other questions, but that’s where I’m starting.
This is quite laymen and I’ll write the formal version later.
Posted in Thesis | Leave a comment