The End and Beginning

The Virtual Environments Module came to an end yesterday as student's stood for the last time in front of the class to tell them how their making a charity go global went. Everyone did an out standing job and all though we all had different outcomes and different ways of doing things it was all a great success. It has been a every interesting time that I have spend exploring new forms of technology, virtual worlds and social networking platforms. Although at time it has been a challenge over all it has been a really great learning curve and experience. Its been a pleasure to be lectured by such knowledgeable and passionate people that have also been extremely welcoming, warm and easy to approach. Even though Second Life has not been quite for me and I am still deciding weather or not to stay on it, but you never know the day that I might understand its appeal more. The module has ultimately given me a greater knowledge of social networking, virtual worlds, collaborating and on-line branding and identity. I feel that this is something that will really benefit me not just now but in years to come. Its only the beginning of gaining more knowledge and understanding of technology and worlds with in worlds. 

From Me, My Avatar, and I, It's Over and Out. 

Group Project Update

Today my group for virtual environments module met up in Second Life to finalise our presentation for making a cause or charity go global. We discussed setting up out presentation but found it difficult as we had no presentation board to start putting our slides on. Because we are new to this software it had been a challenge in trying to put things together. Elly (ellymariec)  said that she would contact Dudley (dudleydreamscape) in hope that he would be able to send us a presentation board. In the mean time we have all started to put slides together for our presentation. Once we have the presentation slides, the group will meet again to put them together and practice our parts together. Elly is going to introduce the presentation and give background information on our cause and charity, Kerri (kbm27) is then going to speak about the social networking platforms we used, I am going to discuss the challenges we faced and finally Sophia (simonesh19) is going to talk about our success and failure. Here is a sneak peek of some of the slides that I put together today: 

The Only World We Will Ever Know

No matter how many world's we create, develop, aspire to have, no matter how much technology forms virtual worlds. There is only one world we will ever know. Without the world we live in nothing else can exist. Without our world their is no second life. 

"That's here, that's home, that's us."

Carl Sagan

Technology

Like everything in life technology has its negative and positive attributes. While taking the module virtual environments its started to make me think more about how the development of technology has contribution to our lives today. A lot of the time I feel that my generation and the generations below me take technology for granted. We have been brought up immersed in it and its hard to remember a world that everything wasn't at our fingers tips. However, technology has contributed far beyond are day to day life and has supplied enormous help in disastrous situations. Earlier in the the semester the group of students from virtual environments visited 'Virtual Disability Island' in Second Life (www.virtualability.org). Virtual Disability Island is a support system for cross disabilities and those who are effect by individual's with disabilities. It has nearly 1000 members from a cross the world and their members may have physical disabilities, mental, emotional, and developmental. The community helps people with disabilities or effected by disabilities thrive in a virtual world. For instance a platform like this allows for someone that cannot walk in real life run free and explore in Second Life. Such technology has developed a tangible effect upon the real world. Through this community members can take place in a variety of educational and entertainment activities throughout the day. But one of the biggest things is encouraging members to explore in a world that is endless and provides a place where disabilities can be obsolete. This technology is enriching the lives of people that might not have the same opportunities in real life. 

But technology goes even further than this. When hurricane sandy hit the United States in 2012 many technology platforms helped in relief efforts for the devastation that the hurricane left "Mobile technology, web apps, and mapping software have become enormously helpful in sharing news and spreading information about relief efforts after Hurricane Sandy."(1) Technology that we would not even considered to be helpful in such circumstances like Twitter and Instagram provided a great amount of information and communication during the devastating time. Such platforms also helped raise awareness and money for the cause. The Red Cross used mobile technologies to set up an app that could be used to find where the nearest shelters where, "Mobile technologies can help people find shelter information in time of need. The Red Cross hurricane app uses GPS to find the nearest shelters."(2). An article from Irin News discuses technology that can be used in disaster situations similar to that of hurricane sandy and how they can be beneficial for such circumstances. 

Footnotes 

(1), (2) Forums.techsoup.org,. 2015. 'Technology's Impact On Disaster Relief'. http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/community/b/tsblog/archive/2012/10/31/technologys-impact-on-disaster-relief.aspx.

Presentations Kicked Off

Presentation kicked of this week with a bang. Four groups from virtual environments module showcased their aim to make a charity and cause go global. However, this was without a few glitches. A lot of the class are novices at using Second Life this resulting in some technical difficulties at getting the pretensions up and running. The class was a little slow to start as using technology is not always as straight forward as one would like. Many unforeseen problems can arise when working with such software, audio often can be a problem as people's connection might not be as good as others and because most of us are new to Second Life presentations where hard to set up. None the less their is also many benefits for using presentation's in a class room environment "Excellent resource that can introduce, enrich or encapsulate the material you present"(1). After some tweaking and fiddling around the students finally got a hang of it and started of setting the standard for the rest of us. 

The students executed their presentations really well. Each of them where clear and insightful. It was nice to see how each different group had collaborated and found the experience overall, but also to observe how they tackled the challenge differently. Yet I noticed something that each of the individual groups had mentioned within their presentation's, they had all made the point that the group project would have been easier if it had been in a real life class room. Although I understand why they thought this I also disagreed with the point. Although communication has been hard I don't necessarily blame this on the fact that the class is based in a virtual world and everything that is done for it is centred around technology. I would put the challenge of communication down to time. Time is the best thing you can give someone, the ultimate gift. We spend most of our lives on the go, working, eating, sleeping, walking, breathing, using all bits of energy we have. In this day and age we rarely stop. We have become so used to having everything at our finger tips when it comes to communication, its nearly always quick, fast, abrupt, no time to slow down, a quick message and fast phone call and we are done. This causes a lack of time for things, a lack of time to stop and give all your energy to one thing for even just an hour. Even when we try we have fifty taps open on our laptop, a phone by our side and one arm in a pot trying to throw dinner together. It is time we forget to dedicate to things. Our downfall with communication can not be blamed upon not having a real classroom. It was because we as people with a hundred different things to do in a day, just didn't take the time to all soulfully and mindfully give a 100% of our time, whether it was to reply, or arrive to a meeting on time. This is what caused communication difficulties and of course sometime it is just not possible to give all your time to something. But how I feel about the success or achievement of any of the projects is down to the time and dedication that each individual put into it.  Taking an on-line class has been a lot easier than going to a real life class at 8 o'clock on a Thursday evening,  Although each student has experiences their own downfalls and successes within the class I don' think this can be blamed on the fact is was because we didn't have a real life classroom. In fact I thing if we had of their would be another excuse.."someone didn't show up, they missed a meeting". It essentially all leads to the same thing, the time we have to give something. For each project to have run and achieved perfectly it would of taken an equal amount of time from each individual and sometimes that isn't possible. Although everyone has tried their hardest at making a charity go global, Going global takes TIME. 

Working online can have huge benefits for business and people now a days. With a bit of research I found some interesting Apps that provides an easy access for business meetings to take place on-line http://www.webex.com/, https://www.anymeeting.com, www.join.me. These new technology is not just connecting more business around the world but also reducing travel cost and expenditures. This also results in less time travelling and more time to do with what you like. This is also something that the class has benefited from, students are able to connect anywhere and save on transport money and ultimately save time. Another perk is been able to take the class in the luxury of your own home (or really any where you want) unfortunately, if your household is anything like mine, swarming with people, the class can end up being a family affair....

Footnote

(1) 'Presentation Software'. 2015. http://www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie/en/Training/ICT-in-Classroom-PDFs/ICT-in-the-Classroom-PDFs/NCTE-Presentation-software-focus-on-literacy-numeracy-12-11.pdf.

Its All Coming To An End!

This semester is coming to a an end, which can only mean one thing the presentation day for virtual environment module is only a few days away. Preparation has started to create the best possible presentation we can to inform the class and lecture's how are journey in trying to make a charity and cause go global has gone. As mentioned previously that our project aim is to raise awareness for the charity www.tlc4cf.ie and awareness for the disease cystic fibrosis. We had planned to use Second Life as a base as we wanted to encompass a part of out virtual environment module. In hopes that it would not just include a community that is often over look in society but also to broaden our knowledge on on-line interaction, using digital worlds and participating in a virtual reality to help us mange and create content within it. The idea of 'holding a rose for cystic fibrosis' and continue the challenge on to another person/avatar we felt was appropriate and thought that it would of gained more feedback and interest than it had. However, by doing it we have obtained information on how to brand, mange and create content on-line more efficiently. Things that could of benefited our project;

• The group didn't get in contact with individuals from the charity (as we didn't realize we could), this could of helped to spread the word about the idea. 
• Should of interlinked all sites and really designed them to look and appear the same to create a better on-line identity.
• More time could of been dedicated to building on-line connection. Even making more friends in Second  Life could of help spread more awareness or given us further knowledge on where to spread the rose. 
• Could have contacted second life radio's/broadcasters to try and air our idea. This could of created a bigger platform from to use. 
• Could have contacted other charity's within second life to see if they could of interlinked with out idea or given our group suggestions. 
• Possible could  have set up a charity bucket in certain locations in second life.
• Tried to reach out to a wider group of societies/organisations within second life 
• Interlinked all form of content on-line (such as adding links into any content that was on-line about the project) 

As none of the group is very familiar with Second Life's software it has been a challenge for the group to figure out how to put together our slides and imagery for the presentation day. For idea's on this to be shared we met up in Second Life to have a chat and see whether we could figure it out. We had a discussion and decided that we would probably have to ask one of the lecture's to help us create 

our slides. Kerri (wordpress.com/2015/04/27/reflections/) kindly offered to contact Dudley and see if  he could help us or give us advice. We also went through breaking up the project in to four different sections so that we could each take apart and expand on it. I wrote out the sections while doing this, Elly (ellymariec.wordpress.com) did some searching on presenting in second life and found this http://www.pechakucha.org/faq that discuses a way of presenting images in a, show and share work. It seem like it could be helpful to use for the project and even if not it is yet another on-line programme that I have learned about through this module. This will will be the last push to try and get the presentation together as we are presenting in-front of the class on the 7th of May. I just hope that even though it hasn't gone to plan the effort that was put in pays off. 

Unfortunately for our group our 'going global' hasn't gone as smoothly as we would of liked as we received very little feedback from any one when handing our rose's out. However, I have definitely learned a lot from the module. My computer skills have improved and even my anxieties about talking to stranger's on line has slowly broken away. This has ultimately allowed me to communicate with in a virtual environment, create my own on-line identity (my avatar and blog), mange a social networking site, gained a greater knowledge for personal brand identity, work collaboratively across the world, and gain more information about on-line content and creating ones own on-line content. Before this module I would have given little thought to such things but as our global society grows on- line it is important to understand how one is contributing to this. The module and project has definitely developed more of an on-line confidence within me. And as our world is becoming ever more immersed in  technology it could ultimately help me in years to come. Although at times it has been frustrating with communication difficulties and trying to wrap my head around new software it has expanded my appreciation for the time and effort that goes in to such things like Second Life and on-line content. Even updating twitter or tumblr to keep up with ones on-line identity takes up more time than I would have ever thought. I am grateful that I was able to take the module and develop a greater knowledge of the technical world. 

Finally Found What I Was looking For!

As I have mentioned previously in this blog, I am not the most technical person. Only in the last year I got a smart phone and still don't have vast amounts of on-line social media accounts. However, I do enjoy a good computer game from time to time and ever since I went on to Second Life, I have been trying to find somewhere I could drive a car or motorcycle. But have found it nearly impossible. One thing which I have found to be a barrier for the group project (making a charity go global tlc4cf.com, Raising awareness for Cystic Fibrosis  ) was the not knowing where to go in Second Life. Because the virtual world is so vast (much like our own) its hard to know where to start, or who to talk to. There is little information on where to go when you are looking for something specific. I have found my self numerous time's roaming place to place and giving up, as I get bored with just roaming with no purpose, or right destination ahead. Well finally after a good while of searching I found a place which allows you to have a demo of a car for free. The controls are slow and don't really give you great accuracy but it was a bit of fun all the same. By far my favourite thing to do in Second Life (FUN DRIVE & THE STREETZ, Ethereal Cove - Moderate check it out). 

A Never Ending Answer or A Never Ending Question?

"Is one life enough?" was the question we opened with, at the start of this semester. A question that can't quite be openly answered, a question that has no right answer, and a question that could perhaps still be up for debate generations beyond our own. After watching a documentary on Second Life (Life 2.0) I started wonder about identity, perceptions, and living a second life. I myself have never been a technology, social media, or on-line enthusiast and rather shy away from on-line interaction with people. Perhaps this is just in my make-up. I rather being out doors, on a motorbike or just generally finding new adventure's in the mountains (quite literally as I live in the Wicklow mountains). I enjoy the company of my friends and family and have never felt the need to be anything other than I am. Honestly, communicating with someone that I have never met in person makes me uncomfortable. To be true, this Second Life, Virtual Environments, module centred around technology, has left me completely out of my comfort zone and something I would of never have considered before. But what if this was not how I felt? What if I found it hard to communicate with individuals in RL, or just rathered being on-line than out side? What if I felt the need to create an alter ego? Would one life simply not be enough? Or would real life become the second life? I engrossed my self in the documentary Life 2.0, asking my self all these questions and wondering what separates Second Life users needs from my own. After watching I decided once again to explore the world of Second Life, this time teleporting to anywhere and everywhere from fairy lands, to shopping centres, city's to country's, swimming in the sea to riding a bicycle on land. Yet, still I did not get the appeal and the entire time I roamed and talked to people, I felt their must be something I was missing. There must be more to this that draws people in and allows them to become consumed. As I could not find my answer in Second Life I decided to do a bit of on-line research.

'TED Talks' hosted a presentation on Second Life in 2008 (www.ted.com/talks) where Philip Rosedale talks about the virtual community he founded and the hidden involvement it has had on human creativity. Explaining how, as a child, he was extremely creative and how later in life he became interested in computer programming. He discusses when the internet came along he just wanted to create a world that would, in some way, recreate the laws of physics and the rules on how things came together. His idea was about "being able to make things." He also discusses the appeal of discovering space, like the child's dream of exploring space and becoming something new. In Rosedale's eyes, virtual spaces allow this to happen. Allowing us to recreate ourselves "in the disembodied world of electronic communication, identity floats free of the stable anchor that the body provides in the real world"(1) it contains anything and everything. Within Second Life there is the possibility to be anyone without the RL restrictions; "there is no body to anchor identity. One can have as many electronic persona as one has time and energy to create."(2). For those who do not feel comfortable being just themselves there are endless possibility;

" A single person can create multiple electronic identities, their only link their common progenitor, a link which is invisible in the virtual world. A man can create a female identity; a high-school student can claim to be an expert in virology"(3). 

This is an appeal within Second Life perhaps because, their is no stigma on appearance, age, gender or culture stereotypes. Similar to this, Howard Rheingold in his article A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community  explains, because of his job, how he was alone for the majority of the day and had little opportunities to expand his circle. However, although psychically isolated he feels less alone because of his virtual community explaining "I have participated in a wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating, professionally rewarding, sometimes painful, and often intensely emotional ongoing interchange with dozens of new friends, hundreds of colleagues, thousands of acquaintances."(4). For Rheingold, virtual spaces has opened a doorway for him to communicate and interact with others. Another appeal of Second Life is creating, consuming and exploring information which is explicitly and inherently social within virtual environments. 

There is not one thing to pin point why Second Life and virtual environments appeal to certain people and not to others. What seem to be prevalent in all sources of information I found was that for certain individuals, it was a way of interacting, creating, learning and experience with other people. Whether they found it easier because of their schedule, their personality or finding people similar to themselves, it was their way of communicating and finding friends and a community that suited them. I have not gained the ultimate answer to whether or not one life is enough. I think no amount research could ever answer it definitively, but what I have learned is, one life is enough for me. For others, the same cannot be said and that is completely and utterly OK! If we were all the same, life would be a very boring and lonely place.

Footnotes

(1), (2), (3), Donath, Judith S. "Identity and deception in the virtual community."Communities in cyberspace 1996 (1999): 29-59.

(4) Rheingold, Howard. "A slice of my life in my virtual community." High noon on the electronic frontier: Conceptual issues in cyberspace (1996): 413-36.

Taylor, Tina L. "Living digitally: Embodiment in virtual worlds." In The social life of avatars, pp. 40-62. Springer London, 2002.

http://www.ted.com/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life?language=en#t-1426060

Life 2.0 documentary

The End is Coming...

Yet again another week has come and gone. Classes are slowly becoming obsolete as project and assignments deadlines merge their ugly head upon us once again. The long summer evenings become the ultimate tease, luring us away from the ever pressing piles of work. Students itch at their desk dreaming of their long awaited summer holidays but somber mood quickly sticks to their wide smiles awaiting the dreaded exam hall. For some it will not be the last time, for certain lectures it will be a lifetime, for others it will be the end, as they step out onto the world with new prospects, new dreams, and a new future at their cusps. But first we must take all academic confidence, every piece of sweat, blood and tears that we have immersed into our work to prove that all our energy was worth it. For this module (virtualenvironmentsmodule.com) it will be a very feared presentation as we stumble, stutter and stammer through ours words. The challenge increased by the lectures expectations of an auditorium full of avatars that we have supposedly become 'friends' with. We'll ramble nervously about our group project that has taken a turn for the worst with little to no response from anyone spoken to. So the next few weeks remain the last bit of time to merge all efforts, all energy, all knowledge to create something that resembles the work, hardship and endless endeavors that have gone into the past months.

The Endless Endeavour

The endeavour today was to try and spread red flowers with the motto 'hold a rose for cystic fibrosis' around Second life and try to make awareness for, not just our chosen charity, but cystic fibrosis in general.  I was all ready and had figured out how to share the rose faster than I was able to last time, I had my speech all written out  and was ready to find a place that was full of people to start sharing awareness, knowledge and insight into cystic fibrosis and our charity tlc4cf. But unfortunately it didn't all go to plan. Firstly I couldn't find anywhere that had people that would talk to me. They where so completely endorsed in their own conversation that I didn't seem to exist. However, I did just so happen to bump in to Dudley Dream Scape a lecturer of ours for virtual environment (see blog here  https://dudleydreamscape.wordpress.com/) and he was my saviour, advising and suggesting places that I could go to talk to people. So my hopes where lifted again and off I went on my adventure to spread awareness... 

But no....Smash, bang, boom, it all came crashing down in a petty poof of smoke. As I wandered around place after place, sending my message and sharing my rose. Not one person spoke to me or even made an attempt to acknowledge me. Until.. My conversation bar turned orange (which means I had a reply) after all the time I had spend roaming and trying to share I actually felt a little excited that someone had responded. This excitement was quickly stomped on, burned bright like a match only to turn to ashes. As I opened the message all I saw was a hateful message from a hateful person. 

'I DON'T CARE' 

was the only miserable, remorseless and hard-hearted message I had got all day.  

Consumer and Producer

As discussed  previously in the this blog technology and media is virtually everywhere from smart phones, laptops, computers, ipads, to on the go or at home. It seeps into nearly every aspect of our lives " Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it"(1). Along with this new and ever changing technology comes social media, a way to connect, to brand, endorse, be something new, create, collaborate, consume and produce.  Although these forms of media can contribute and expand to our existence at times they can have devastating effects on our lives. For instance in 2013 a British first youth police commissioner resigned from her post after homophobic and  drug related tweets that she had posted between the ages of 14 and 16 were released (uk.news.yahoo.com).  A survey conducted by Northon by Symentec in 2011 showed that “more than half of UK adults would remove everything they had ever posted online about themselves if they could” (2). A similar situation arose with an employee of IAC that tweeted a racist and inappropriate comment. The employee was subsequently fired for her a actions (www.theguardian.com). People become the producer of their own social identity because of these social platforms that are made available to them. However, neglect to understand the consequence of their actions. This freedom of speech becomes blurred by these ignorant comment, certain user of these sites saying what every they want with out basic concepts of the social repercussions. Weather or not a tweet or comment was made at the age of 14 or not it should not be accepted into society for a, public figure or not, to make racist or discriminatory comments on social networking sites. Harsh actions should be taken to allow for people to understand that they cannot say what they want on social media it is an aspect of live that should be taken seriously. If one is to become the moderator of their own social networking site they should have the sense to know that every action has a consequence.

The point was made in the article uk.news.yahoo.com that privacy and protection of ones profile should be made. Although, in tern is a good thing, it also posses the question on whether or no employers have the right to look at these profiles to know what kind of person one is? It could be argued that if unsocial, racist, discriminatory or sexist comments are being made by someone an employer should know as not to promote these behaviour in a workplace.

Ending Here

Footnotes

(1) Heidegger, Martin. "The question concerning technology." Technology and values: Essential readings (1954): 99-113.
(2) Waugh, Rob. 2015. 'How To 'Clean Up' Online To Land That Job'. Yahoo News UK. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/tweet-paris-brown-controversy-how-to--clean-up--online-to-land-that-job-103722398.html#WuqMcf9.
uk.news.yahoo.com

It Takes Time..

Its been a hard few weeks since the american students went on their holiday break and a week later  in Ireland we did two. So communication has lacked somewhat for the project that we have been assigned to make a charity go global.  Maybe because lectures seem far from the picture when your on your holidays, you can relax, enjoy the sun and leave your worries far behind...or maybe you're desperately cramming to finalise your dissertation, studying for upcoming exams and letting the long sunny days watch you while your head deep in a laptop (I know I was anyway). Although its been hard to keep in contact with the group and constantly work together on the project. The two girls Kerri and Sophia were hard at it getting the red roses ready to hand out in Second Life to help our charity and cause go global. Finally, the time had come to get the long awaiting ball rolling and start handing out the roses.  But not without some glitches. Because the time difference between American and Ireland can become a bit of a hassle and ultimately results in the group having little time to actually spend together (which is really not ideal when trying make something known worldwide) which is no fault to anyone. However, this resulted in myself missing a meeting with the group and trying to figure out how to hand out roses to other avatars and endorse the cause. Not an ideal situation as my Second Life knowledge is really not that advance but thankfully I got there in the end. The hope is now that they it gets some kind of recognition. Although, I think even creating awareness to a few people would be worth it in the end.

The last few months has really shown how hard it actually is to get something out there for people to see. Even with the vast amount of technology that is out there the time and dedication it takes to endorse, brand and market something is never ending. The project has shown how much time it really would take to truly globalize something and the time that would have to be put into it would be immense. Its has shown how a group really has to come together and form a solid plan, applying resources and knowledge together to achieve the goal. As each of the team  members was given the responsibility to set up and manned a social networking site that was made for our charity http://tlc4cf.com/ I was given the responsibility of the http://cysticfibrous.tumblr.com/ . It really showed me how much effort it takes to keep on marketing something through social networking. I had never been a big social networking fanatic and never really understood the addiction to it. However, I have found a new form of respect for people that continuously brand and market themselves or products on social media. It is a lot harder than it looks.

Ending Here

Branding.... It's Harder Than it Looks

One of the first classes we took in Second Life was about branding and personal branding (link to reading;  http://chrisbrogan.com/branding-basics-2011/ ). This links in with the project that we have assigned to do as we have to make a charity global and in doing this we need to brand the chosen charity/cause, as " branding is important"(1).  A long with setting up social networking sites for this charity (http://cysticfibrous.tumblr.com/, http://ie.linkedin.com/pub/cystic-fibrosis/b5/b7/404, https://twitter.com/tlc4_cf?lang=en ) we are planning on running an event on Second Life as we wanted to link our project into our class. However, branding for the charity I feel has been quite difficult and although we have set up networks to connect the charity to broader audience it has yet to develop any sort of following. This I am afraid will cause a lack of interest in our project and could affect the success of the event. Right now the group is working on how we will be able to approach and market our event idea* so it can gain Second Life users attention. We hope that by using the logo that incorporates the rose and connecting it to handing out roses that this will help to develop a brand identity. 





Ending here 










Footnotes 

(1) Mudambi, Susan. "Branding importance in business-to-business markets: Three buyer clusters." Industrial Marketing Management 31, no. 6 (2002): 525-533.

*The event idea is to  hand out roses to avatars in Second Life and ask them to walk around with it and give out 5 other rose to other people they meet and ask them to continue the challenge.

Is the Medium the Message??

Last weeks class (class 8) started off with a little bit of a blunder. As mention in the previous blog the designed reading for week 8 was  ‘From Prosumer to Produser: Understanding User-Led Content Creation‘ by Prof Axel Bruns was a faulty linked and resulted in the class having little info in what was supposed to be discussed. Instead, the conversation was turned to Marshall Mcluhan’s idea that the ‘medium is the message’. This idea formed a debate round the class questioning whether or not the medium mattered. (Quite ironic seeing as the link we were sent didn't work....perhaps adding to the argument that the medium does matter? ). The question was also posed whether or not technology was an extension of the human body. It has been said that "An extension occurs when an individual or society makes or uses something in a way that extends the range of the human body and mind in a fashion that is new"(1) . When we use smartphones to connect to people, broaden our knowledge (web) or help in our mundane day to day functions we are therefore directly connected to the digital world through our finger tips. It becomes a part of your very being, whether acknowledged or not.  "The spade is similar to the cupped hand, only it is stronger, less likely to break, and capable of removing more dirt per scoop than the hand. A microscope, or telescope is a way of seeing that is an extension of the eye."(2) this idea reflects similarly to digital technology. 

Most of the class agreed that the medium did matter, with smart phones being the dominant example of a medium. Some of the class referring to how a texts messages can be perceived differently from how the messenger intended it it to be read. Face- to - face communication being lost because of the vast communication platforms we have today. However, it remains to be the best form of communication as it can immediately be understood or explained. This also sparked conversation on how certain mediums are targeted for different audience. This means that certain medium platforms are used for a different range of messages. http://blog.hootsuite.com/beginners-guide-to-social-media-advertising/ explains how certain social media sites are used for different forms of advertising and gives a guideline on how to use social media advertising.



Ending Here




Footnotes
(1) (2) Kappelman, Todd. "Marshall McLuhan:‘The Medium is the Message’." Probe Ministries International (2001).

User - Led Content

The reading for class seven was ‘From Prosumer to Produser: Understanding User-Led Content Creation‘ by Prof Axel Bruns. When I first looked at this I found the content quite confusing and only found out after that the slide show was supposed to have sound with it (for some reason this was not an option for me when I went on to it). As the sound didn't work  for me I decided to research and find out what ‘User - Led Content’ meant as I had never heard of the term before.

What I understood from the research that I did was that ‘User-Led Content’ is a base that the normal consumers become prosumers. A consumer consumes a product that already exist for instance a game player of ‘Halo’ plays the game that has already been programmed to have a set of step by step objective/task/goals to complete the game, therefore they use what is available to them within the software but cannot change this or add to this. A ‘User-Led Content’ allows for a consumer to become a prosumer, ‘Minecraft’ allows for users to add to the already existing software and contribute their own ideas, designs and programming (mods). Similar to Second Life people can build their own spaces and products. This allows the consumer to become involved in designing or customizing products

“the prosumer is clearly not the self-motivated creative originator and developer of new content which can today be observed in projects ranging from open source software through Wikipedia to Second Life, but simply a particularly well-informed, and therefore both particularly critical and particularly active, consumer.”(1)

This ‘User - Led Content’ allows for consumers to become engaged in building and extending pre existing  platforms “These produsers engage not in a traditional form of content production, but are instead involved in produsage – the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement.”(2). Do this furthering their involvement and perhaps inspires prosumers to further add to the content.

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Footnote 
(1) , Bruns, Axel. "From prosumer to produser: Understanding user-led content creation." (2009).
(2) Bruns, Axel. "Beyond difference: Reconfiguring education for the user-led age." (2007).

Selecting The Subject For Our Project

The group that I have been working with to make awareness of cystic fibrosis and the charity TLC4CF  (visit page here http://tlc4cf.com/) selected the chosen subject pretty quickly. I had researched a few charities but was most interested in using a charity that supported cystic fibrosis as it had affected someone in my life. I proposed the idea of choosing a charity that did this and possible using Cystic Fibrosis Ireland  (https://www.cfireland.ie/) to the rest of the group. Immediately all the girls seems interested but posed the question whether Cystic Fibrosis Ireland was already too well know and already had a lot of the communication and social media platforms that we wished to set up established. Elly, a first year Creative and Cultural Industry student, put forward the idea of using TLC4CF a local charity that supported cystic fibrosis and everyone was in agreement.

Although this was an efficient and time benefiting decision I feel it would of been beneficial to discuss the possibilities of what we could do for this charity (as in events, social media coverage, followers, branding etc ) and contrast it to what we could of done for another charity. It was  positive that it was a unanimous decision. However, it felt that it was the easiest decision as the group seemed to lack enthusiasm about discussing other possibilities. Perhaps, a better group discussion on different charity would of opened up the floor for different idea's but because of the pre-existing information on cystic fibrosis it dominated the discussion making. A more in-depth form of research on charity’s and everyone's contribution to this would of been more advantageous. I feel that more analysed, researched and prepared plan of action would have developed a better project. Rather, than a head first approach.  

Although there could of been some changed made to the initial development process I think the charity /cause we chose was a great decision and feel that the entire group is happy we made it and is making progress on the project.


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