Major Assignment [Edited]

Digital media, by definition means it was on a computer at one point. Digital Media is media, it has an audience and a purpose that it is trying to convey. Just publishing the media is not going to attract an audience; the media has to be distributed. I have been creating a personal portfolio website and it is published online at www.kylehashman.com, just because the media is published does not mean anyone will see it. I argue that to have a successful Web 2.0 website, one has to publish it, advertise it, and listen to what the audience is saying about it.

According to Prashant Sharma, Web 2.0 is “not a single line definition but a set of several characteristics”, he later list the characteristics: User-centered Design, Crowd-sourcing, Web as Platform, Collaboration, Power Decentralization, Dynamic Content, Software as a Service, and a Rich User Experience. (http://www.techpluto.com/web-20-services/) In creating my website, I have been focused on trying to prevent any alienation of an audience, keeping the user of the website as the focus in the design. Allowing crowd-sourcing will provide a website that will improve. Tim O’Reilly, President and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc., stated in the article What is Web 2.0, that “the service automatically gets better the more people use it.” (http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what‐is-web-20.html) O’Reilly has a similar is to Sharma, he also mentions how the Web is a Platform. In the creation of a website, trying to prevent the user from leaving the page to view a specific document, or download a video, the website should provide that ability, but also the ability to watch the video or view the document on the website.

“It turns out that we don’t use computers to enhance our math skills – we use them to expand our people skills.” (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/wright.html) This quote from Will Wright influenced where I advertised. Facebook and Twitter have been the only place I have advertised it so far, because it is very social. It provides a less formal way of asking for traffic to a website. This helps because people do not feel forced to go to the website, and they provide feedback. I am also only advertising there because I am not finished with my website. When advertising on Facebook and Twitter, I asked for feedback on my site, I was not gloating or telling someone to hire me. Once I am satisfied with how complete the website is, I will attempt to advertise it else ware. Being someone who is on Reddit a lot, I am thinking about eventually posting it there. If I do post there, I have to make sure that it is really almost perfect. Reddit has over 8 million daily visitors; it is the 145^th most popular website. (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=reddit.com) Because it is so popular, I have seen many websites crash because of the sheer number of people that will view the submissions. With so many people on Reddit, it would be possible for someone looking to hire to view my website. With this being possible it needs to be finished enough to prevent the loss of that opportunity.

Not only would it allow me to reach possible businesses the feedback provided will be invaluable. O’Reilly states, “the software will cease to perform unless it is maintained on a daily basis.” Keeping an up to date website will prevent the audience from getting bored or losing credibility. I think that the website does provide a way of connecting with my desired audience. It is accessible to anyone with the internet. The website acts as an ever evolving business card. Having a website provides access; over 78% of the United States is connected to the internet. (www.internetworldstates.com)

I believe that because of the creation of my website it will allow me to get into contact with interested parties. Advertising on Facebook and Twitter will provide feedback that will help build and maintain the website; it will help keep the design user-centered. Keeping the website focused on being Web 2.0 will help in the future, it will allow the website to manipulate and build for the better.

Video Game Evolution

Video games have often been seen as creators of the violent mind, something that creates a killer. This opinion is usually formed by people who have not played video games, it is formed by an observer. Will Wright stated that if you were to just observe people in a movie theater, never seeing a movie before, "You would conclude that movies induce lethargy and junk-food binges." This type of mentality prevents someone from seeing the art and usefulness of video games.

In 2000, Henry Jenkins wrote an article called, Art Form for the Digital Age, in the article he argues that video games shape the culture and are not taken seriously, similar to jazz, Broadway, and the comic strip were when they were first getting popular. I agree on many of his arguments, but there are a few that are outdated. One that is still true today is, "The compute is simply a tool, one that offers artists new resources and opportunities for reaching the public; it is human creativity that makes art."

One of my professors once said that computers are really quite dumb, they are fast. Computers are created to do simple arithmetic super fast. Everything the computer does it programmed, it is up to the "artist" to program this, to make it what they want.

Contemporary games can pump us full of adrenaline, they can make us laugh, but that have not yet provoked us to tears. Any may have argued that, since games don't have character of human complexity or stories that stress the consequences of our actions they cannot achieve the status of true art.

This is an outdated statement, one that shows how much the development of video games has changed.

This is a recent example of how far the creation of story telling has gone, there is a human complexity, you are going to have to deal with the consequences of your actions.

Another example of how story telling has improved:

The actress in this video game is Ellen Page, a famous movie actress, is acting for a video game. Jack Kroll once argued,

that audience will probably never be able to care deeply about pixels on the computer screen as they care about character in films: "Moviemakers don't have to simulate human beings; they are right there, to be recorded and orchestrated..."

We have reached a point in society that video games are expected to either have an amazing story line, be a multiplayer game, or both. It is important in today's society that you are effecting the emotions of the person playing the game. Games have budgets that often surpass movies now. Video games are seen as an art form, just look at the rewards given out, they include best actor/actress, best story, best graphics. It is very similar to the movie industry as should be respected as such.

Web 2.X

When reading O'Reilly and Boyd talking about Web 2.0 I found it very interesting how much the internet has changed since the were written.

O'Reilly was written in 2005 and the differences were amazing, but the foundation was still the same. Many of the examples used were older and out of date, but it is valuable in showing where Web 2.0 was founded. Having Firefox still not have a large share of the internet and Chrome not even out yet, the competition for browser has reached a state where the Open Source has surpassed the 'For Profit' IE.

W3 schools keeps statistics on browser usage at http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp as of today (June 16, 2012), the May statistics show that IE only has 18.1% of the browser market compare to 35.2% and 39.3% for Firefox and Chrome.

O'Reilly stated "the service automatically gets better the more people use it" when referring to a key Web 2.0 principle. Google is probably the best known for this. Not only does it follow another principle that the using the Web as a Platform, with its Apps (Docs, Youtube, Gmail, Calendar, Maps), it does so in creating Google Labs. A area that allows for Beta and even Alpha testing. With the more people that know about it, the larger the testing group is, thus the more successful the product is. "Users must be treated as co-developers," any good company today will release a beta for the customers, they will provide feedback that will shape the final outcome.

On Mozilla's website (creators of Firefox) they do not have a application tab in navigation. They have a 'Projects' tab, showing that nothing is ever complete on the web, it is ever changing. Again O'Reilly states this, "So fundamental is the shift from software as artifact to software as service that the software will cease to perform unless it is maintained on a daily basis."

The idea of Web 2.0 is the same today as it was when it was first deemed 2.0, but the change of the technology and the culture of the web has. We have moved from many set ideas in the model of business that it is not fair to call the web today the same as it was 3 years ago, let alone seven. I feel like Web 2.X is more appropriate of a name, there is no set web version. It is an ever changing network. It should be treated as such, not as a software device that has a version number.

Troubles

Creating your own website has many difficulties involved, from learning the languages aspect to the visuals aspect.

The some troubles with learning the languages, is learning what is/isn't possible.

An example of what isn't possible is having a background image that has a gradient that isn't linear or radial. The background image I am using is shown a little above, it has a gradient up at the top, and well as downward. I also learned that it is almost impossible to have an image that will cover everything on the screen, which helped when creating the background, I created a background that was large enough to cover most displays, and added a background color to help it seem seamless.

Another example of what isn't possible allowing for transparency in a gradient without having the font transparent. Above is my navigation bar, the middle has a gradient that has no opacity as the ends of the screen are reached. I found that positioning text to be vertically centered with an image next to it, extremely difficult. Which is why, the logo includes the description as-well. The navigation on the right also proved to be challenging. 

When trying to position fonts it was a lot of trial and error, the whole navigation was reworked multiple times to see what was able to be accomplished.

Another trouble is how and what elements should I apply to my website. What would make the website flow better. Building the website by coding is taking a lot of time, but trying to figure out what I need to be on it, is really the hardest part. How do I fill the space? I think that the Home page will be the hardest to create, as it is the one that draws the most attention, and doesn't have a true set purpose like the menu bar shows. It is the 'Home', the beginning of the website.

Planning a Website [Revised]

DESIGN PLAN

 Creating a personal portfolio-type website.

   
     I want to create the foundation of a portfolio website with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript that will allow me to [in the future] finish a website that demonstrates that I am a creative, technically savvy, worth interviewing/hiring student, to a potential HR department or someone interested in knowing more about me - allowing the interested party a way of getting to know me without having personal interaction, without alienating the audience by making the website too technically advanced. I am responsible for a current, up-to-date website that supplies a seamless ability to connect. 



    A foundation for a portfolio website, should be the ground for expansion. It should allow for me to build off of, it should be similar to a template that allows for customization, but the major design is already defined. It should be something that would allow the creation of other webpages, not just the index, to be quick and organized.
    
    To achieve this there are many things that need to be accounted for, from the strategies to how I am going to arrange the work. To create the website, I am going to use HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3. This allows the website to be up-to-date with current technological advances. Creating with those languages allows for the website to be viewed on mobile platforms, this gives a separate audience along with any potential desktop/laptop users. The use of JavaScript is to further allow customization, that is not default with HTML5. This medium (a website), shows that I am creative and technically savvy.

     To be able to convince a party that I am worth hiring, the website needs to be designed in a way that is unique, but simple. It needs to show that I am not just a student, it needs to separate me from the pack. To achieve this there will need to be multiple designs created, and tested. This is were the arrangement of the website is going to be created, there needs to be enough ideas that it forces some of them to be unique. With it being unique it has to be simple, it cannot be too extravagant to make the user feel inadequate. In order to make it unique, I am going to have to stay away from a cookie cutter template, as well as include many of my personal interests.

    Once the designs are created, each should be tested for how fluent and useful they would be by someone other than myself. After one design is chosen, the website will be programmed/built. After the website is 'complete', it should then be tested by people that have never seen it before. This allows for testing with an unbiased base. With the feedback from this, it can be used to change the website to make it better. It should then continue to be tested and fixed, until it is seamless. At this point, it should be able to be released.

Producing a Website [Revised 2.0]

Statement of Purpose

I want to create the foundation of a portfolio website with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript that will allow me to [in the future] finish a website that demonstrates that I am a creative, technically savvy, worth interviewing/hiring student, to a potential HR department or someone interested in knowing more about me - allowing the interested party a way of getting to know me without having personal interaction, without alienating the audience by making the website too technically advanced. I am responsible for a current, up-to-date website that supplies a seamless ability to connect. 

Inspiration

I've been looking for inspiration for creating my website, the following are a few examples:

• http://www.brianjeremy.com/
• http://fredmaya.com/
• http://mikemai.net/
• http://elliottkember.com/
• Has a snake game you read.
• http://www.glingadesign.com/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/26/10-steps-to-the-perfect-portfolio-website/
http://designm.ag/inspiration/101-awesome-portfolio-sites/