SOCS-300

SOCS 300 module 9: Individual Freedom

2008-12-15T22:16:00.000-08:00

How do technical or Web 2.0 tools change motivations and free creativity for us as productive human beings?

Firstly, we need to examine just what kind of Web 2.0 tools we now have at our disposal. There are video hosts like Vimeo, Google Video and YouTube, blog publishers like Blogger and LiveJournal, podcasts from artists, directors and Joe Average, forums of all kinds and sizes, a plethora of editing programs like Photoshop, After Effects or even the free GIMP art program, online stores like Etsy, and a multitude of wikis like Wikipedia, and one of my favourites, Lostpedia.

Now, with digital tools like these at our ready, people have more motivation to be productive (online, at least) and creative. Like Benkler described with Rory Cejas' 'The Jedi Saga,' people now have more freedom to create works which may not have been feasable before these tools were available. Rory's twenty-minute film inspired by Star Wars didn't need professional actors, cameramen, sound artists or costly editing studios because people these days can now create quality films using their own cheap film equipment and film editing software.

As an animation student, I'm more than aware of the effects that modern technology has had on the animation industry and my education, and I'm thankful for it. When I hear stories of how animators used bulky instruments (here is a photo of a modern variation) to film the multiple layers in an animated sequence, or of the hours of tracing and painting of cels necessary for using in layers, I can't help but think how lucky I've been to be born in the age of computers, which help me manager layers in a single file and instantly paint 'cels' with no fear of using the wrong colours or running out of paint.

For example, the successful and critically acclaimed online Canadian Flash series, "Broken Saints," was made independantly by a group of people over the course of several years and has been released to DVD. Since it found so much popularity online and in the news, they are now creating a live-action television series and video game based on it. Without the accessibility of digital tools and online promotion, "Broken Saints" might still be a few sketches on someone's napkin.

Another animation outlet available to anyone with Flash and an internet connection is Newgrounds, a Flash portal to which users can submit their own work for the enjoyment, approval, or criticism from the rest of the community, as well as upload their own music and sound effects for others to use in their pieces. Newgrounds user 'chluaid' has impressed everyone with his spectacularly animated and well-written Brackenwood series, which can be seen here at his Newgrounds profile.

Though most of the work on Newgrounds is very amateurish and low-quality, there are a few gems which showcase true animation talent and give hope to aspiring animators like myself, who, if all else fails (knock on wood!) I know I'll always have an outlet on the internet, be it on Newgrounds or YouTube or a blog, to which I can publish my work for everyone to see.

SOCS 300 module 8: Culture, Politics & the Network Environment + Audio podcasting

2008-11-23T23:03:00.000-08:00

How does Benkler counter the charge that popular “superstar” sites simply duplicate the role of the mass media?

In the Olympic event that was reading 'The Wealth of Networks' (which can be read online or downloaded legally for free here) in comparison to 'Wikinomics,' Benkler debunks the idea of popular websites mirroring mass media by bringing in to the equation the role of smaller websites that can also benefit from "superstar" sites. Benkler writes that websites can often be placed into "clusters" of other relevant sites; as a personal example, I'll say that DS Fanboy can be read on its own as a blog dedicated to news and game releases pertaining to the Nintendo DS game system, XBox 360 Fanboy is similar except that it deals with the XBox 360 system, and another one of my favourites, Joystiq, covers a little bit of all gaming news, releases and systems. However, Joystiq can draw upon DS and XBox 360 Fanboy news to distribute to people who may be interested, yet may not necessarily be a reader of either blog. Something further that can happen with these articles is that they can be linked to on a "superstar" website like Fark or Digg for an even broader audience to discover and enjoy.

This process of information 'moving up' in front of larger audiences is something that mass media could not achieve, according to Benkler. Whereas the internet, with it's many clusters surrounding different topics and interests which can feed into a larger funnelling superstar website where people can touch across all clustered sites, Benkler writes:

"The result is that attention in the networked environment is more dependent on being interesting to an engaged group of people than it is in the mass-media environment, where moderate interest to large numbers of weakly engaged viewers is preferable." [Benkler, 13]

So where mass media was able to moderately satisfy a huge group of disinterested audience members in order to make money from intermittent ads and product placement (which may or may not have been targeting the correct audience,) the web is much more particular in satisfying a smaller (but still large!) group of people by presenting interesting pieces to a fully-engaged audience with less obtrusive ads which (thanks to Google!) are umpteen times percent more appropriately targetted to the viewing/reading(/participating?) audience.

SOCS300 module 7: Peer co-creation + building a platform

2008-11-11T15:26:00.000-08:00

(First off, I apologize for my lack of posting; I have been having a tough time keeping up with my animation courses which take up most of my time, though I try to keep up with the rest of my courses.)

This module's reading was centered around the idea of using a wiki or wikis around the workplace to promote and benefit from a bottom-up take on businesses, getting input, ideas and opinions from employees who in the past might not have been given a second glance until after ten years with the company. By becoming transparent on the inside, directors and managers can benefit from opening the doors to the workers on the bottom who may have and probably do have ideas that could help the company overall.

For four years I have worked at a large company where online databases were an essential part of communications. The building where I worked was made up of two smaller buildings and housed thousands of employees in various positions. With so many people working on so many projects, it only made sense to make an internal network to serve as a platform for ideas and discussion. There were several of these databases for different purposes. There was a wiki used specifically for terminologies and techniques, a cross-departmental online dictionary, and even a fully interactive suggestion box where anyone could submit ideas where people could comment and vote on passing. These ideas could be as minor as a change to cafeteria food or a whole new idea for a major project.

I felt as though this system was extremely successful in reducing the number of unanswered questions which could have been easily answered, and also served as a way for people to quickly update any new information which would be crucial to various projects. I can't imagine that workplace without such an accessible system for discussion and answers!

SOCS 300 module 6: Participation & collaboration + creating working groups

2008-10-18T15:41:00.000-07:00

From the course module wiki: How does Facebook function as a platform for participation?

Without participation, Facebook would be another dead website in a sea of many. Its entire basis relies on the participation of millions of users worldwide to keep it afloat as a social networking site. It makes for an excellent grounds for collaboration and interaction between its users, locally and globally, in several different ways. For example, one can create digital invitations to real-world events online in a way that is easy to access, including maps and directions from Google Maps or MapQuest after which attendees can upload photos, video, or post comments on the event before and after it happened.

More than just events can be created though; there are thousands of groups with more being created every day to cater to people with similar interests, hobbies, or causes. People start groups about politics and activism, films and entertainment, even memorial tributes for the deceased. People can meet in these groups and discuss the common ground all while contributing to the overall page.

Something else that websites and companies are doing are adding 'Facebook' buttons to their pages to encourage surfers to add that page to their online profile to help promote it even further through their online profile. So, the next time you see an interesting article, or find a movie that you think your friends would like, there will most likely be a button at the bottom insisting you add that page to Facebook.

SOCS 300 module 5: Mashup, Remix and Hacker Culture + hack this, remix that

2008-10-08T10:46:00.000-07:00

This module has been one of the most accessible and interesting to me as I'm a big fan of mashups (songs, pictures, culture, etc.) and was excited to see what everyone did as their assignments. For my assignment, I collected a few songs which started with a guitar intro and spliced them together into one long guitar intro. It's very amateurish, but it was an interesting experience, and I'd like to make a whole song some other time. You can listen to 'Guitar Stars' here.

I'm always interested to see what combinations can be made by mashup artists, so I follow one of my favourite mashup sites, MashupTown, and am surprised by the amount of work put out by everyone. One of my favourite songs from the site is a mashup between the Queens of the Stone Age's "No One Knows" and Maroon 5's "This Love." I like Queens of the Stone Age, but I could care less about Maroon 5's pop tunes. Surprisingly though, I really liked the juxtaposition between the two musical styles in this song, "No One Knows This Love" remixed by Unkle.

There can be more than just audio mashups, however, as proven by sites like Worth1000, Something Awful, and sometimes even Fark. On Worth1000, challenges are posted for users to manipulate images to suit the theme. For example, take a look at the Photoshop contest where the challenge was to change historical events.

A third take on mashups I'd like to talk about are video mashups. I was interested in AK_Alias' work, and when the discourse turned political, I was reminded of a couple of videos by The Party Party where clips from political speeches are remixed into a song. Take for example these two; George Bush singing 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' and Tony Blair singing 'Should I Stay or Should I Go:'

Something else that has become popular recently is remixing films. This could be editing one film to match a different film's context, or even more interesting, going ahead and changing the context of the original film entirely with new music and specific cutting. Two perfect examples would be the popular parody of "The Shining" called "Shining" which makes the movie out to be a family road trip movie...

...and a horror-themed trailer for Disney's otherwise innocent "Mary Poppins."

SOCS300 module 4: Peer production + wikis and wikipedia

2008-09-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

Open source software, like the Mozilla Firefox web browser I'm using right now, are programs that are built as a foundation and then further expanded and improved by users of the program who may not necessarily be employed to add to it. Instead of just developing and marketing a static program which might be in need of regular updates or even entirely new versions, open source programs are constantly in flux and have additions and improvements made throughout its life cycle.

One of the reasons I use Firefox over Microsoft's Internet Explorer are not just because I believe Firefox to have stronger security, but also because of the freedom I have in modifying it. The tabbed browsing is definitely attractive, but one of the other main reasons I use it is because of the FireFTP program which allows me to quickly and easily publish my websites or access my online school storage space. Applications like these might not be so easy to add to Internet Explorer, which has had multiple versions (including one which appropriated the tabbed browsing feature of Firefox.)

An advantage of open source versus proprietary software is that the program's users are always welcome, if not encouraged, to make improvements or adjustments. What we end up with is a living program; constantly evolving and being shaped by the users that run it, whereas 'boxed' software might need constant updates, patches, and even new iterations.

Another comparison, as made by the authors of Wikinomics in this week's readings, is that between Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica series. Whereas Wikipedia is online, and has no space limitation, there can be many more articles than could ever fit into volumes such as Britannica's. And, as was also mentioned, any errors or inconsistencies can easily and immediately be remedied online in Wikipedia through the vigilant watch of core users, administrators, or even a keen-eyed observer, however with a physical copy of the Britannica books, errors were printed and must be amended in future printings which takes much longer than clicking the 'Edit' button in Wikipedia and costs much more as well.

SOCS300 module 3: New generations, new technologies, new opportunities + social bookmarking

2008-09-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

Firstly, a disclaimer: I would like to apologize for my absence from this course; I just got back from Ottawa Monday morning after having attended the Ottawa International Animation Festival and I'm currently catching up on all of my studies.

I would like to discuss the following question posed by Jody based on the reading of the 'Perfect Storm' chapter in Wikinomics:

"Much of what we do on the web is socializing. Socializing becomes collaboration. Collaboration becomes peer production. You are part of this networked generation Tapscott and Wiliams talk about; what examples do you have of this kind of social collaboration?"

As a member of the Net Generation discussed in this chapter, I was interested in reading how social collaboration was defined and its importance in the online community. Even in just christening the web a 'community' we already get a sense of the significance of the many web users and their impact on the shaping of the web.

Already we're familiar with the blogosphere and even our contributions to it through these class journals, so I would like to discuss collaborative online art and online artists communities. Something I stumbled upon recently was this compilation of artwork from three different artists who created pieces in a series called the 'Digital Exquisite Corpse Project.' Here is the video from YouTube:

In my opinion, the video isn't that impressive and the art isn't particularly engaging, but the mode through which they were all conceived was the most interesting part. Over five years, the three artists e-mailed segments of artwork to each other and the next artist would continue the piece in an online version of the Exquisite Corpse drawing game. Here is an article by one of the artists on his website regarding the project: http://www.ravenswingstudio.com/docs/ecgallery.html

As an animator, I think it would be interesting to see a similar project done with animation. The animators would have to first collaborate on a storyboard and then assign different scenes or actions between each other, or if you were to follow the Exquisite Corpse method, I guess you'd just animate a scene or sequence after seeing the last second or so of the previous animator's work. I would imagine something like that would be difficult to accomplish as there would not be as much ownership to the piece as it would if it were a solo project.

Another online artist community where similar pieces are created (alongside purely solo artwork) is DeviantArt. (There are several large online art websites such as this, but I'll only speak a bit on DeviantArt.) This website is a huge, intertwined web of millions of different artists' galleries. Anyone can sign up and upload their artwork for everyone to see, and for members to comment on. Members can also add pieces to their Favourites and even Watch a fellow artist, receiving notifications when that artist uploads a new piece of artwork. Also, there are communities where artists with similar interests can join, discuss and upload art in relation to the club.

To relate back to the Exquisite Corpse idea, one of my friends who is a member of DeviantArt is currently in an 'Original Character Battle' contest where the members of the community design characters, then in either a comic, animation or illustration, the different members portray a battle between the two using their own styles and ideas. The Original Character Battle Competition can be seen here.

It's exciting to see so much potential online in new ways that artists can and do communicate and collaborate with each other, and it can only get more interesting from here on in as technology continues to evolve.

SOCS300 module 2: Wikinomics and RSS Feeds

2008-09-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

WIKINOMICS

Having had a computer in my life since I was very young, I remember Web 1.0 and how it looked and felt. Like what Don and Anthony say in the Wikinomics reading, it was very much just published information to be read. Now, as most people are aware, the new web is an almost organic creature that can be modified, adjusted, edited, destroyed, rebuilt, etc. at every turn.

In the reading, I found myself becoming more and more blown away by the web and its impact. I knew it was big, but seeing it all (well, not even all of it) on paper was awesome in the literal term. One point I found interesting was this quote from page 26:

"But rather than embrace MP3 and adopt new business models, the industry has adopted a defensive posture. Obsession with control, piracy, and proprietary standards on the part of large industry players has only served to further alienate and anger music listeners."

Now since this was written, there have been bands, both major and independent, who have only released their music online. Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have had wildly successful online releases to excited fans and a disgruntled music industry. Digital albums were given away for free online to fans, then there were also physical copies which could be ordered and purchased. The musicians get to see more of the money, the fans have an easy and convenient way to get the album, and the record industries get their panties in a twist because they've gone down the wrong route and decide to prosecute grandmothers with MP3s on their home computers.

Another exciting form of digital distribution which is only being tested at the moment through an online animated series called 'Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy.' Composed of animated short films, the series is being released weekly through YouTube. In only two weeks, the first two-minute episode has gotten almost four and a half million views. MacFarlane's choice of distribution is an experimental one, from which will be learned if this is a plausible venue for media distribution. This is especially promising for animators like myself, as being able to self-publish work online would save the trouble of going through now unnecessary people and other roadblocks when I just want to share a cartoon.

RSS FEEDS

Although I'm familiar with the idea of RSS feeds, I've only dabbled in it once and have since left it alone. It looks like an easy way to get through a lot of information, and I've already set up a Google Reader with all the other students' blogs through my Google account. It seems pretty easy to use, but one thing I like about going to the different blogs is seeing the different formats and personality. Right now, Google's looking pretty boring as it filters everyone's blogs to me.

I've also made a Yahoo Pipe called SOCS 300 Blogs (creative, I know) where you can see the different student blogs from this class. You can check it out here: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=Pilh6dqJ3RG0QamkBRNMsA

SOCS 300 module 1 Getting started: Read the syllabus + set up your blog

2008-09-10T23:41:00.000-07:00

How appropriate that my first post is about blogs!

While I was watching the blogging podcast, I started to think about my own experience with blogs. I have made several in my lifetime, and I keep a couple now. My first was on a blogging website I can't even remember the name of; I kept it in the early years of high school but then decided to join LiveJournal instead. I wasn't religiously keeping my journal then; I was more in it for the different communities that members could join and post about similar hobbies or common topics. As I explored more of LiveJournal, I grew a bit tired of the immaturity and now I only use it for the communities alone.

One such LiveJournal community that I frequent is the Vancouver Community, which can be found at http://community.livejournal.com/vancouver/. I go to (and sometimes post on) this blog on a semi-daily basis. It's a collection of posts from Vancouverites or people interested in Vancouver who ask questions about the city, post events or news articles, ask for opinions (what's the best restaurant? where can I find these shoes?) or other items related to Vancouver.

After LiveJournal, I joined Blogspot with my first blog here, http://sketchblakey.blogspot.com, which I update with sketches and art that I don't necessarily put on my primary art website, http://members.shaw.ca/blakey.

Along these blog adventures, I have followed (and still follow!) a handful of blogs which I'll detail here for anyone to check out;

Neatorama - Usually a light read; interesting articles, items, places, movie clips, etc.
Drawn! - An art blog based out of Canada (Vancouver?) that posts interesting artists, pieces, and information on exhibitions.
Cartoon Brew - Another art blog, this time about animation! There are posts about new and old animated films and shorts, books, events and news. Lots of information on the history of animation and the animators behind it.
who killed bambi? - Posts about various interesting pieces of artwork. I don't check on it very often, but it's a goldmine for ideas and inspiration.
FUNNY CUTE - The art of Spumco artist, Katie Rice! (Spumco is the animation company behind Ren and Stimpy.)
John K Stuff - John K is the creator of Ren and Stimpy and this is his blog! He writes about projeccts he's working on, as well as post videos and stills of old animations for discussion.
DS Fanboy - A video game blog that talks about games for the Nintendo DS system.
Joystiq - A news blog about video games, video game culture, releases, and the like.
Kotaku - Another video game news site!