Article for Specialized Information

The article I chose to focus my practicum on was "Creating an Effective Facebook Post" by Carley Knobloch on the website eHow. The reason I chose this very article is because it was one of the very few with more than a few user comments and its subject matter was something I am fairly familiar with. Carley is a feature tech blog for eHow who focuses on the personal and professional benefits of social media. She has a very broad background of technological knowledge. Her article explained how Facebook has changed and the new updates and features its users have access to. Carley started her article by explaining the new Timeline profile feature. Along with Timeline she explained the new geo-location that can be added to pictures, videos, posts, etc. so persons know where a photo was taken or where you are making your post on their wall. Another feature on Timeline is the ability to add Life Events to your timeline so you and arrive one else can remember and celebrate the important milestones in your life. Besides talking about the new features of Facebook, Knobloch talks about proper online etiquette. She stresses that you and the person you are posting with are not the only ones who can view that post so be careful to make sure comments do not cross the T.M.I. line. One great bit of advice from her is to check your homepage Minifeed to stay updated to your friends so you make sure your friends online stay your friends in real life. Since Carley is a media expert she explains how adding all different types of media to posts can not only enhance the post but show that you know and understand the technology you are using.

Practicum 5

As much as I don't really enjoy going to Migente as a social networking site I must say there are some pretty cool options when it comes to customization. You can add songs to your profiles, change up the layout, and even switch to different color schemes. For me I think the website has become this sort of post-Facebook relic of what social networking sites used to look like, i.e. Myspace. I feel like Facebook has now set the standard for social networking sites, and all the past SNS's are either shattered versions of themselves quietly dying in the far corners of cyberspace, or old relics that are relegated to mere novelties of a once thriving and diverse scene. Maybe it is a good thing to have one centralized website where everyone goes to get there social networking fix, it might make networking a lot easier. 

But then again, sites like Migente cater to a different audience, one that embraces the quirky and sometimes tacky customizations that made Myspace so popular at one time. Danny made a reference in class about how Facebook is like the suburbs; nice, clean, and orderly, and Myspace is like the city, cluttered, noisy, and filled with people of color. Its no surprise that Migente, an obvious offshoot of Myspace, is full of latinos, obviously with a title like Migente thats what it was designed to be. It's a place where people who share common cultural, traditions, practices, and languages can get together, network with each other, connect, and customize their social networking site as an overt expression of themselves.

I will admit, Facebook has sterilized my tastes when it comes to SNS. Regardless, I feel like the reason I think these customizations are so cool is because I haven't seen or used them since Myspace. I would compare it to that feeling of nostalgia you get when you find your favorite toy from childhood. Although you don't really want to play with it because of the social backlash you might receive from society, its nevertheless something you used to enjoy, and it reminds you of your roots. Your SNS roots that is.

Here's a screenshot of one of the customization pages

Practicum Post: We Found Love (In Chipotle)

I've had an ongoing joke for awhile now with my friends about my infatuation for chipotle. That plus listening to house music in unhealthy amounts gets you a We Found Love In Chipotle music video. I've spent a lot a time conceptually thinking of how to write and shot it, even though the idea seems so basic. It's amazing how much you can create your own by remixing others works. Out of all the videos I've seen remix I think its safe to say me and my friends were the first to do it. Being able to shoot was the biggest struggle in the making of the video. After getting kicked out of chipotle 3 out of our first 4 times we soon realized we had to have our filming schedule tailored around whenever the manager wasn't there. The shooting was the easiest though it was the editing and putting the video together that really made it hard. I've worked the entire semester with programs like final cut and even though it has substantially gotten easier, it's still a strenuous long process each time. It was hard for me to match up the lip-syncing with the lyrics while maintaining the concept of the video. The concept of the video was simple enough; that he really did fall in love at chipotle. And not with a person... well you gotta watch to find out.

I told you guys about this during my presentation. I had in my powerpoint the teaser for the music but now I am glad to say its finally finished. If you guys have sometime to check it out follow the link after the jump. Make this go viral!

It's on my website and I also linked it to my youtube account.

http://benroif.wordpress.com/

Practicum 5 - Gameplay Cont.

Currently in DC Universe Online, I am level 14 and my character is nearly unrecognizable due to the vast amount of utilities I have added to my characters physical appearance.

With the addition of each of these new utilities, my character can improve in attack efficiency, attack strength, defensive strength, health, speed, and other character skills. Also, characters can learn different attacks and use different weapons based on the utilities on hand. For example, I originally started of the game with fist projectiles as my weapons, but have since added the battle axe to my weapons in my utility. With the battle axe, I was able to learn an entire new series of attacks while still being able to return to the attacks I learned with fist projectiles. The way at which I attain these new utilities is through leveling up, mission completion, or by stealing it from other users while battling individually, in groups, or in leagues. Personally I have gained the most experience and utilities while participating in group battles, but in this post I am going to specifically discuss missions and how rewards work in PvE. Just a reminder from my earlier posts that PvE stands for Player vs. Environment, where the user is only completing computer generated missions and battling computer generated characters.

A few of the missions I have gone on so far in DC Universe Online were; Save Robin from Joker, Help Superman Destroy Brainiac's Gorillas, Defeat Flash in a Race, and Help Wonder Woman Destory Brainiac's Computers. It should be pretty clear that most of the early missions in this game are with some of the more popular characters in DC Comics, and if one is able to complete the missions in a certain alloted time or with a certain number of kills, the character gains the mentorship of the superhero. For example, after I saved Robin from Joker in under 10 minutes, I received Robin as a mentor and gained Loyalty as my personality.

All of the missions I have gone on so far are relatively simple and I have not had to much difficulty completing them. I have read on chats that the missions do get much more difficult when you pass level 30, but I have a long way to go until then.

Lastly, one of my favorite aspects of these missions is that even though they are assigned to you alone and your results are yours alone, there are sometimes other users who are completing the same mission as you at the same time. For example, in Help Superman Destory Brainiac's Gorillas and Help Wonder Woman Destroy Brainiac's Computers, there was an unlimited number of gorillas and computers to destroy, so an unlimited number of users can be completing this missions at the same time as only 15 gorrilas and 10 computers are needed to be destroyed before the mission is complete.

Practicum 5: Final Cut Pro

As a step further in video remix, I learned about the program Final Cut Pro. As I have mentioned in the class presentation, Final Cut Pro is a video editing software developed by Apple Inc. Luckily my friend had the software in her computer, so she taught me basic skills of video editing in Final Cut Pro. Compared to Windows Live Movie Maker the program had more features and made the editing process easier.

One thing I really liked about the Final Cut Pro compared to Windows Movie Maker was that I had much more freedom in mixing sound with video. In Windows Movie Maker there was only one track that I could edit videos and sound, but you can add any number of tracks into the timeline and mix numerous video and sound clips. Also, as seen in the bottom right, FCP has different types of transitions for videos and make video editing easy and simple.
For video editing I used the clips that my friend had in her computer, which were the video clips of her friend working on printmaking. I explored through various transitions in video and sound to make the video editing as smooth as possible. I haven't uploaded the final production yet, since the file is in my friend's computer. Overall, I enjoyed using the program for video editing and preferred it to Windows Movie Maker.

Soundcloud's remix capabilities

Although the media sharing service Soundcloud is primarily used by a wide variety of both professional musicians and "bedroom producer" hobbyists to post original material, it is worth noting the wide degree of remix opportunities Soundcloud makes available for users to participate in. As we've explained in class, the concept of the remix has far reaching implications for the media objects that define our popular culture. This concept of taking the old and transforming it into something new is very explicitly used in music productions. As I explained during my presentation, the dance/electronic community has emerged as the popular genre that can be found on Soundcloud because of the ease at which electric music is produced and shared. This genre characteristic opens the door for easy manipulation by others to create remixes of original work. Both artists and media companies utilize the marketing power of hosting remix contests and often use the platform of Soundcloud to engage with participants. Through the download function, artists can post the separate multitrack "stems" that make up a particular song such as "vocals" or "drums" which can be downloaded and manipulated by other artists, then re-uploaded and posted to a group for judging.

Practicum 5

Pro Clubs were the next section of the game that I explored, and I can easily say that this was the most interesting feature that FIFA 12 Online has to offer. Users are placed on teams based on their rankings, and teams are composed of 10 members per squad (nobody is assigned the goalkeeper position). The alternative to random selection is you and 9 friends can come in as an already assembled team, which I thought was pretty cool and thats definitely the way I would go. I tried to join a team but I then realized how much of a time commitment this would become, not to mention how serious the users on Pro Clubs take their play. Teams usually play full length seasons, just like the actual professional soccer leagues do, and have 1 or 2 matches a week. Obviously all games are ranked, and not only is a team's wins and losses record kept, but also teams leading scorers, most effective defenders, and best assist men as well.

Although Pro Clubs are only available to North American users (there are 11 regional divisions that are offered), there is an overall leaderboard that includes all users throughout the globe. This way, there is a connection between users regionally, domestically, and even globally leaving no doubt about who is the supreme soccer squad in the world. Another thing this mode allows for is for you to meet and play against different teams from all over the world, each bringing their own style and unique gameplay to the table. This is what makes Pro Clubs the most interactive feature on FIFA 12 Online by far.

Online Interest Group Practicum 5

As I was doing my posts on the MW3 forums today, I noticed that the moderators created a new thread similar to the one I was posting in, but that became the featured one and the current one no longer was a featured thread. Confusingly to say the least, the forum members asked one of the head moderators what's going on, and believe it or not, but there has been so much activity in this single thread that their backend was starting to overflood and couldn't handle the number of posts in it. Therefore, they had to make a new thread to continue it and branch off from the current one.
That shows 2 things right there that I learned. first, an official forum with dedicated fans is truly different experience than my other forum that I go to, where traffic is sparse. Second, I found a real sense of community when I found out about this. Mainly because during our readings, we read how a community wasn't quite a community because no one had an "obligation" to post and contribute to the online groups. But this completely shattered that belief for me. Not only is there a lot of activity and contributions and posts, but people have posted so much that they had to create another thread to continue the community sharing and postings. That right there made me proud to be part of this community.

Senior Citizen Internet Users- Five

Time now for an update on my Grandma's progress in the wild world of the internet.
She is getting markedly better at just about everything that I can see with her email and Facebook usage. She regularly sends me emails telling me about her day and asking about mine, and we converse quite often this way. We used to send physical letters back and forth in the mail to keep in touch, but it seems that my Grandma is comfortable enough with the internet to take our conversations online. It's cheaper and less trouble to send emails instead of an actual letter, though the loss of our business is just one more chink in the armor for the postal service.
She also more regularly posts on Facebook and seems to spend most of her time on there looking at pictures of family and friends. She always enjoyed seeing these types of pictures whether they were sent in the mail or viewed in a scrapbook, but it's just another activity that she has found is more easily done online.
I am impressed with how quickly my Grandma picked up on the things she now knows how to do. For someone who almost never used the internet for the vast majority of her life, she has definitely grasped the concepts quickly and allowed it to be a part of her life. She's doing a lot of the things she did normally offline now on the internet, and it seems like she enjoys the increased efficiency that comes with it, as well as the constant availability. She said that she will go a few days without using the internet, just because she's not completely used to depending on it yet, but when she does use it, she uses it for long periods of time. So possibly, senior citizens are at first wary of using the internet, but once they see what it can do they become more and more comfortable with it over time.
Now that she's conquered the internet, I just need to teach my Grandma how to take a picture with a cell phone, so I don't end up with anymore pictures like this:

(sorry, Grandma)

Practicum 5-Foursquare

I just replied to one of the comments left on my last practicum post about how "creepy" the idea of Foursquare really is and that it is a bit concerning. I do agree with this statement to a certain point because checking in everywhere you go is kind of dangerous when you think about it. Anyone can know where you are and locate you at anytime. Yet I do think there are a few arguments that could be made:

First, you do not have to share your location with anyone if you don't want to. There is a choice to share it on Foursquare, Facebook or not at all. So basically if you check-in and do not share your location you are just checking in for the check-in points.

Second, you choose who are your friends on Foursquare. Obviously you would not friend some random person on Facebook that you don't know. Well the same goes for Foursquare-I do not friend anyone who I don't know and I only friend people whom I've comfortable with and don't really care if they know where I am.

Yet, I understand that this does seem risky to some and that the fact that people are constantly updating where they check-in could get a bit annoying, but I don't see much of a difference between checking in on Foursquare and updating your status on Facebook. Do you? 

Practicum 5 - Wikipedia Post

While trying (and so far being unsuccessful) at making contacts in the more social regions of Kongregate, I took some time to contribute to their Wikipedia page.  I have never contributed to a Wikipedia page in a way that was meant to be a real contribution.  When I first visited Kongregate's Wikipedia page, I was taken aback by how short and simple it was based on the amount of traffic that I am assuming it generates on a daily or monthly basis.

Because I have never had much experience editing on Wikipedia and not knowing the proper community standards, I did a really limited posting.  My contribution was the second paragraph under "Developers Community."  I also tried to keep it limited because I was concerned that maybe my post would be deleted (my history of fake posts always got deleted immediately).  I did a bit of research on their developer page and added a brief bit that seemed to be a relatively recent update that was not represented on the Wikipedia page.  It also seems like that this page receives attention pretty sporadically since there are a bunch of sources from either 2007 or 2011.

Social Networking Sites - Post 5

Since the semester is coming to an end I decided that it was a good time to talk about what I found most interesting about Google +, especially since I haven't dedicated an entire post to this social networking site. While Google+ probably won't be a site I am active on once this project it over, it's definitely brought a few things to my attention. First off, the one thing that really stands out is how easy it is to connect people. Even when you are not active, the site is constantly giving you suggestions on who to add to your circles. In this screenshot I am showing you how easy these connection are:

The suggestions box shows me 100 people at a time and even allows me to "add all to circles". In my opinion this is not really connecting with people but rather just adding people that you may have the slightest bit of acquaintance with. Also, it was interesting to notice that Google automatically suggested two people from my Gmail address book as "people you may know." When I looked further neither of these people even had a Google + account but Google wanted me to reach out and invite them.

With all this being said, it became apparent to me that it is not a very active site, currently. While the user base is high, many people, including myself, aren't constant "posters" but rather use it to connect with people and see what they're doing. This is completely different than say Facebook, because on Facebook I am constantly posting or commenting on what is being posted. I found that Google + was a pretty passive website compared to others. I do think that this could change. Who knows what will happen in the future?! Let's be honest, with the Internet it is just too hard to predict!

Media Fandom 5

I am so close! I have only several more posts to make before the online aspect of my project is considered complete! In honor of this, I have decided to take my project in a bit of a different direction. I have always wanted to become a troll online. J I decided that this was my chance.  Furthermore, I saw it as an opportunity to test people and their reactions to negativity.  What I found was that I was not only testing others, but myself as well. 

I discovered my own threshold and questioned how my perceived actions online were observed.  For example, I decided to ream out the television show, “Once Upon a Time”.  One reason I chose to do this is because I sincerely hate the show but also because I have trouble believing anyone actually likes it.  With this sentiment, I was able to muster up the courage to say something about it on the message boards.  I thrust myself into a message board anticipating the last three episodes of the show.  I burst that person’s bubble when I declared my distaste for the show exclaiming that the last three episodes would be bad because the entire show was bad. 

What did I find?  Thank goodness I am not the only to hate the show.  My trolling brought in another and it made me exceptionally happy.  For some weird reason it lifted my guilt for bringing someone down while also giving me gratification.  Thus I grew more confident in my responses about the show. Check out the interaction here:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843230/board/reply/198042800

Practicum Update - Post 5

Hallelujah! Today I finally saw some news articles on the front page of reddit! Well, two articles anyway, one from CNN and the other from usnews. As I mentioned in my presentation, reddit is not exactly a site I go directly for to get news. In this case however it seems some relevant news made the front page. At this point I still feel like I am not part of the community though, and it seems like the community is a little tough to get into. Actually now that I think about it, I don't really detect a sense of community on this site...I don't feel like anyone really knows each other or continuously interact with each other. After observing the comments for so long, I don't really see any true connection or people sharing a sense of community. Sure, people will share sympathy or discuss similar situations, but it's only a temporary thing I believe, not any sort of lasting community bond. Recently I read a front page post by someone who had just lost their daughter and in the comments there was an outpouring of sympathy and offers to meet up, buy drinks, etc. You can get a sense of safety or support, but never really community.

Digg is very much the same from the last time I posted, though I don't think I mentioned it too much then. However, I did download the Digg app for iPhone so I'll look into how that changes any perspectives I have on the site. I don't think it will really do much, but I couldn't find a legit or official reddit app so I feel Digg wins out in the mobility/access/functionality category, unless I just couldn't find the one for reddit. I mean you could access reddit through a normal browser on a phone, but I feel like an app is a little more convenient. Again, Digg shows more connection with outside websites like facebook, etc, in that you can log in both on the Digg website and through the app using your facebook login or just Digg login. At this point I feel Digg might be a little more user-friendly, and a less intimidating experience in terms of posting, based on userbase and atmosphere.

Social MOO post 5

At this point, having found no players on the MOO to talk to and struggling to find something to do, I turned to the blogs. I was interested in seeing what other peoples' experiences with LambdaMOO were and what they used the game for. What I found was actually mostly other students who had been assigned to look at a social MOO as a project, just like me. These sorts of bloggers seemed to have similar experiences to mine, not finding anybody to talk to and struggling with navigating around the game. There were expressions of frustration and all the other things that I have thought while playing the game. Most people said that although it was frustrating and obsolete, it was an interesting experience and something they didn't regret learning about.

I did find a post from one novice player who had started playing just to experience it rather than because of school. At first his experience was similar to others, but he also said that he did eventually find one veteran player who was willing to talk to him. I was a little jealous of his ability to find another player; however, his conversation with the player was interesting, though not unexpected. The player apparently talked about how the MOO was basically a ghost town now where a few old friends would meet and chat, nothing like the metropolis of activity that it used to be. This statement held true with an observation I made within the game; when looking at the list of players currently online, the game will also tell you their location. Whenever I looked at this list I could see that there were a few locations where players seemed to congregate, apparently just to keep up connections with old friends. If only I could manage to find these locations I might be able to have a real conversation with a player.

Microblogging: Sammy Luterbach

While running both my own personal Twitter and CollegeFashionista's UW Twitter, I find myself using them in different ways.

On my personal Twitter, I tend to catch up on news, celebrities, and friends. I'm definitely more quiet on my Twitter. When I do tweet something, it's about something funny or fun. I inject a lot of personality in what I'm saying. I also promote my own online work and tweet fun fashion finds and tips. Although I'm not really saying a lot, I find that more people tend to tweet at me than they do to the CollegeFashionista UW account. I think people connect with me more because I display myself as an actual person with a personality instead of a brand.


On the CollegeFashionista Twitter account, I am constantly trying to remain anonymous and neutral. I try to speak for all of the writers at UW-Madison in my tweets, so I stick to fun and fashion-filled topics. I do try to interact with fashion brands and authorities as well as my Madison contacts. This has definitely started conversations, which is always fun. My boss is very pleased with the way I have been running this account, which is great, but I have only gained fifteen followers since I last blogged about Twitter. This could be for a variety of reasons, but it might have something to do with the lack of a distinct personality. I think people think this is more of a generic, stale, brand Twitter.

I want to aim to be more like @dkny, or DKNY PR GIRL as she is more lovingly known as in the fashion and Twitter communities. Aliza Licht is a PR representative for DKNY, but she has taken over Twitter in a dynamic way. She speaks for and represents DKNY, but she has such a strong, fun personality. We know she is speaking, but to us, she is DKNY. She's just an awesome New Yorker who lives in the brand. My goal is to be more like her on the CF Twitter since she has had incredible success on the site, and she is just plain fun to follow. Wish me luck!