Ho, Henry's CCT205 Blog

P2 Vodcast: Virtual "Reality"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:19:00 +0000

Team Members:

P2 Context

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:00:00 +0000

There have been enormous advancements in computer technology in the past few decades. Going from enormous to micro, sluggish to high speed, repulsive to elegant and unknown to worldwide. Computers and the cyber world has become a part of our culture, livelihood, and existence. Thus our group decided to investigate the space in the cyber world in comparison to the real world’s physical space.

For our podcast we decided to choose three popular online activities and compare them to their non-online counter parts. The three online activities we picked were researching, gambling, and shopping.

We first depicted those activities without the Internet. Each of those activities was done in the physical world. The people involved in these activities had to be in separate places to do them because of accessibility reasons. For researching in the real world, our subject needed to be in the physical library to achieve his research. For gambling, two friends needed to meet at a physical location to gamble. For shopping, our subject needed to actually go to the store to pick her items. We notice that as they are doing it, all of the subjects were situated in different places.

Then we showed our subjects doing the exact activities using their laptops and the Internet. Though they are all doing separate activities that require them to be at different cyber places, they are still situated in the same physical room in real life. By having all the subjects actually being in the same exact room while doing all those activities that otherwise would of required them to be at different locations, we see the large impact of how computers have impacted our lives. Space in the cyber world has brought us closer together in the end and we don’t need to go out of our way in our busy lives to achieve certain activities.

Week10: Video Edit

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 19:13:00 +0000

Week 6: Project 2 Proposal

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 18:57:00 +0000

Part 1:
The web-space is a dimension that gives people the ability to traverse from place to place but without having to traverse any physical distance. We want to closely investigate the perceived efficiency of traversing different places in cyberspace and how this compares to traversing in the physical world.

Part 2:
The pod cast will investigate the online cyber world. Often we feel as if we’re in an actual physical space while surfing online. However we’re still in the physical presence of our home using a computer. For instance a person shopping online can feel as if the person is shopping at a physical store, playing a massive online video game may entitle the person to believe he or she is in a physical fantasy world. Video conferencing may create a very similar atmosphere to an actual face to face conference in a physical conference room.

In our pod cast video, we will focus on the physical experience on online shopping and how it transforms our shopping culture. We would like to question on the several aspects or advantages of online shopping, such as time saving, and to investigate how well we spend our "saved" time on other activities and how our online shopping orders AFFECT our shopping experience as compared to the physical shopping. We might conduct street interviews or survey on how people's satisfactory level of receiving the goods is affected depends on the waiting time.

Part3:
We will use many different research techniques to help support, enhance, and elaborate on our idea. We will include field research such as surveys, questionnaires, and naturalistic observations. This will help us get a large sample of data that we can compile and examine.

We will also use some text books to help support our information such as the text book “Small Pieces Loosely Joined”. This text book offers us insight on how the web influences our perception of time and space. It looks directly at our topic of why we perceive the Web as space and how distance is eliminated by it. It also offers a lot of other interesting information that we may incorporate into our project such as the Web giving us a sense of realism and togetherness.

Other information sources that we may use are articles found on the Internet, newspaper articles and notes from courses that are relevant to our topic. For CCT260, we dealt with similar topics regarding how the Web makes the globe smaller because it helps eliminate distance. An example brought up in a lecture slide was Online Learning, which offers virtual classrooms that help students that live in rural areas be able to attend school without having to travel long distances.

For references, we will use movies such as “Click”, and all our gathered resources from our research. We will try to draw from as much sources as possible to help guide and support our topic and podcast.

Part4:
We would like to make our podcast very precise and informative for our viewers. We would like to make this a short documentary of some sort. Since we are going to conduct surveys by using questionnaires, we feel that it will be important to conduct a few interviews and make this a part of our podcast as well. We will also have a head style segment where the presenter can talk about facts. Narration will be a crucial part of our podcast since a great deal of information will be passed onto the viewer making the podcast informative, enlightening and persuasive.

The podcast will consist of four main parts, each roughly equally in length. In the first part we will propose our question to the viewing audience. For example, Are virtual spaces a good substitute for the experience that physical spaces provide? In the second part we will showcase our process of surveys and interviews. Here we will focus on what questions we asked and why we asked them. The third part will include some interviews and narration. In the fourth and final part we will discuss our findings and the answers to the questions we initially proposed.

Week 5: My Team

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:49:00 +0000

Team Awesome

Initial Concept:

Technology Influences
We love shopping, as there are more reliable online shopping places on the Internet, we tend to shift our shopping spaces from physical to virtual. Our team would like to investigate on the impacts and consequences of online shopping as we will discuss it further in our proposal.

Members:
Chen, Yingjia Rainie:
Editing, Directing, Research

Ho, Henry
Acting, Research

Nath, Saurab
Filming, Write-up, Research

Wang, Ken
Directing, Research

Wong, Cindy Wing Yee
Editing, Acting, Research

Week 4: What makes a good video podcast? A Review of My Fav.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 22:59:00 +0000

The podcast Broken Pixels that is featured at PodcastPickle is one of the funniest podcast that I have watched. It offers a very interesting outlook on horrible and outdated video games that we all have once played when we were younger.

The episode I watched was titled China Warrior and Air Cars. The podcasts consists of three people that judge the game they are playing as they play. There weren't any scripts or guidelines during the podcast, as many of their commentary were from different scenes throughout the game. When something weird, exciting, crazy, or just stupid happens, they will make a joke about it. This podcast attempts to shed light on video games that are no longer around or have fallen off the earth, which also adds to the comedy.

The podcast's atmosphere very simple and reminded me of when I was young. Playing video games on a couch with friends, and cracking jokes as we play pretty much sums up the podcast. For viewers like me that had a childhood that revolved around playing video games (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis), we will feel a connection with this podcast because that is where we spent most of our childhoods. Also, having the cast make fun of terrible games, reminds us of the times we have been tricked by the "hype" of games or the pictures on the cover just to find out the game is plain garbage.

The play by play commentary helped me remain interested throughout the video. But to ensure that the viewers aren't just watching the video game as they play, they would have the cast appear every so often in the background of the game in a light watermark color. This effect was very appealing because you could see both the game and the reactions of the cast as they play the game. Some of the reactions by the cast, like scene where one of the cast's "China Warrior" gets killed by a potato were hilarious.

The podcast Broken Pixel is definitely one of my favorite podcasts because of the content and how they present it. Though there will be people that won't understand because they have never played a terrible game or shared their childhood with crappy graphics, there will always be people like me that appreciate this type of humor. Hopefully they will make reviews on newer games on newer systems that are completely trash.

Week 3: Web 2.0 and Podcasting where is this heading?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:14:00 +0000

The internet continues to evolve but not through any significant technological advances but is evolving through how we choose to use it and view it. Web 2.0 does not refer to anything new as in technical side, as many of the technology components of Web 2.0 have existed since the early days of the Web. Podcasting also uses pre-existing technologies such as video recording and the video hosting. Both are continuing to change the way we use the web.

In the early days of the internet it had many capabilities and potential but it wasn’t performing to what it could until enthusiasts and the community as a whole came together. Now the World Wide Web offers everything you can imagine including online shopping, entertainment, news, and education. Web 2.0 takes advantage of these new capabilities and adds to it through collaboration, creativity, personalization and community building. As the Web continues to grow, sites will continue to revolve around collaborating. By being able to contribute to a Website with your own personal twist, it keeps the visitors interested.

Podcasting also has come a long way. It is no longer just a talking head that goes on and on about their problems. Podcasts can be informative yet entertaining. There are many new uses of Podcasting such as distributing school lessons and lectures, which allow information sharing to anyone at anytime they choose. This is very useful for students that are unable to attend class and also could help the online course learning experience.

There are many Websites claiming that they are Web 2.0 but some use very trivial features that define Web 2.0. It is critical in differentiating between real Web 2.0 websites and websites that are just promoting Web 2.0 but aren’t because it may influence the future development of the Web. Both Web 2.0 and Podcasting have bright future ahead but it will all come down to the people that contribute and the quality of their contributions.

Week 3: Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:49:00 +0000

Week 2: Seeking a best of…

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:56:00 +0000

The blog that caught my eye the most in the list generated in my tutorial was http://www.karencheng.com.au/ due to its cleanness and simplicity. Unlike the other blogs, this one seemed to be the very personal yet retaining a professional look. Advertisements are placed in a spot where they aren’t intrusive. All her topics are categorized and archived so readers can have quick access to what they wish to read. Also navigation really stood out on this site because finding and locating where you want to go is very easy compared to some other blogs.

The blog revolves around the everyday life of Karen (the author), and has a vast range of topics she talks about including fashion, food, blogging, children, parenting, art, design, and blogging to name a few. Karen is a mother of 2, and has a BA in Design and Advertisement. This could explain why I was attracted to the layout of the site initially. All her posts are through first person and her topics are generally supported with pictures, which help keep the reader interested.

Though most of the topics she talks about are generally not in my interest, I find her style and content to be interesting and worth reading. Her content contains a lot of scannable text that allows readers like me to skip though topics that we aren’t interested in and go directly to parts where we find interesting.

As a personal blog, Karen shares a lot of detail and specifics of her personal life that you might not expect. She speaks about her personal problems that she faces such as her difficulty of raising a 2year old child. This allows readers to sympathize with her and also relate to her because we all face struggles daily. Also there are parts where she offers her knowledge of online shopping and variety of products that she has encountered in her daily life. This type of information could be very useful for her targeted audience.

Her ability to talk about a wide range of topics allows her blog to be successful. The pictures she incorporates are very personal, which makes the reader feel like they can identify with her. The layout of the blog is not cluttered and is elegantly designed. Nothing is intrusive and most importantly the blog is updated frequently, which keep readers coming back for more.

Week 1: What is the biggest issue facing blogging, citizenship and the future of media?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:36:00 +0000

Increase and growth of blogs in the past few years has raised many issues regarding blogs. The accessibility and ease of using blogs has contributed to their popularity. People are able to communicate their thoughts and opinions without being restricted by society and norms. But like all types of media, blogs have their share of criticism and problems. Some of these issues of blogging are free speech, anonymity, credibility, quality, bias, and ethics.

I feel that accountability is the biggest issue facing blogging because it is the heart of all the problems. All the issues brought up can possibly lead back to accountability and the ability to state something and not be responsible for it. As we all know, the Internet is extremely deregulated and what we read or view on the Web can possibly be fake or biased. When a blogger says something on their blog, we know very little of their motives or personal view of the world.

By not having the responsibility to be correct and accountable, bloggers can say whatever they please. This leads to issues of quality, free speech, and ethics. If a blogger says something offensive or bias, they can get away with it without having to suffer from the repercussions that journalist must face when they write their columns. In the real world, journalist may lose their jobs due to not being accountable and they must maintain good quality in their columns in order to keep their jobs. However as a blogger, being not accountable and having poor quality posts don’t affect them other than lower visits to their blog. They can filter comments and feedback and edit their posts whenever they please while journalist must stand by what they write.

Though being unaccountable is a major problem, there are many blogs that offer very insightful and though out content that is backed up by reliable sources. The blogs that aren’t accountable can be viewed as a source of entertainment rather than information. Viewers keep revisiting blogs that create controversy and even though they may be bias, it is entertaining and that is reason blogs continue to grow.