Walk of Fame

The time I had checking out Google maps, and the interactive Mymaps feature, was actually pretty cool. I can see how this would be a very handy thing for people who are perhaps looking to travel to a place that they have never been to before, and can check out what other people like to do in certain areas. By allowing user generated content like this, I believe that many small business's, that would normally get over looked, pick up a lot of "word of mouth" customers. Outside of business advertising it is always good for people who are new to a city, or area. By putting in key things like hospitals, fire stations, police stations ect.. people are able to get a stronger bearings on their neighborhoods. I actually really liked the way that Google maps set this up. It is very intuitive and has a very low learning curve. Unlike the timeline assignment I believe that Mymaps actually has a use in the real world. The timeline seemed pointless, and outside of a few very small specialty situations, I would not imagine a situation in which I would use it. While I ended up using mymaps for something as minute as a pub crawl, its appeal comes from the fact that it has a very diverse range of functional use.


View Bar Crawl in a larger map

Dipity Doo-Dah, Dipity Lame

My god, I am not one to bash upon innovative web ideas but wow. Dipity was probably the worst site I have ever had the misfortune of having to use. It comes across as a means of making people watch home movies, online. Granted I can see how it could be used for say, following a presidential campaign or something but the interface was so awful I do not think that I would even bother. To be honest I think that a site promoting information design, should probably be designed well. The interface was confusing and left me feeling annoyed at the set up. Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning but as far as dipity is concerned, I would recommend a complete overhaul. I can understand what the creators were going for, but the whole timeline idea I foudn to have been poorly executed.

http://www.dipity.com/Rubick?msg=signup_done

Future of Social Networking

Following in the on the success and failures of its predecessors, I believe that the social networking sites of the future are going to be much more all encompassing. Think perhaps of a fusion of Youtube and Facebook. A site that not only offers a lot of real time picture, chat, and status updates the social networking of the future will, I believe, also bring together video chat in a new way. While many companies have dabbled in the realm of video chatting, and video conference calls, I think it will be the social networking sites of tomorrow that perfect it and introduce the world to a brand new way of giving feed back. In addition to text comments, friends will be able to leave video comments on a users status, or friends from all over the world will be able to discuss days happenings real time face to face in a virtual coffee shop. The water cooler of old will once again be morphed into a fully digital, fictional place on the web, taking the role of meeting place. To me this doesn't even seem like it is very far off, it seems like this is a possibility for Facebook 2.0. But who knows, perhaps this is not the direction that social networking will head at all, but one thing is for sure, what ever does come will be revolutionary in the way that we interact with one another and the social networking sites of today will be the template of which to build on. To quote Sir Isaac Newton, "If we have been allowed to see farther than others, it is because we have stood on the shoulders of giants."

Design Analysis of Bebo

For my jump into the water of a foreign online social networking was Bebo. Bebo, like its american counterparts, is a general all encompassing social networking site targeting European and Latin clients. It's process of joining and setting up a profile is nearly identical to any other social networking site. You pick a screen name, put in an email, fill it with your birth day, pictures, hobbies, and favorite movies ect. Perhaps the only draw back in signing up for this site specifically was that it kind of defeated the purpose it was built for. For myself, the only reason to build and keep up a site like Bebo, is that I would not even have the slightest idea how to go about adding friends and networking. By picking a site based on a European market is that I had no anchor to start with. For most people who join social networking sites, they are prompted to do so by some real life person. Thus having a starting place in which to add people from. Bebo reminded me a lot of Facebook in how it is set up with live feed updates and lay out. However it does look a bit sleeker, and I do actually prefer their black lay out. I can see why it would be appealing to people.

Networking, Socially

I have been using social networking sites since about 2003. Like a lot of people I was not one of the Friendster people, but rather I came onto the online social networking scene with the rising popularity of Myspace. While Myspace was a great starting point for using online social media, I no longer really use it, and have moved on to using Facebook as my primary internet addiction. I, again like most people, probably check my Facebook so many times a day that it is inscribed into my fingers as the first thing I type in into any empty search cell. While it is kinda staggering, it does allow me to keep in touch in touch with people that I otherwise wouldn't get to speak to very often.

I am Avatar

For my adventure in a virtual world I have chosen Kaneva as my realm to satisfy my digital wanderlust. Representing my analog self is Rubick, a precocious little scamp with a devilish grin, blue eyes and a bad ass in your face attitude who takes no ones grief and calls no man mister. Rubick, as the name may suggest, is a puzzle wrapped in a form fitting t-shirt. While he is a smart guy, he has no real goals for himself other than to get out of bed and who's only real motivation comes from the idea that he will win the lottery three consecutive times even though he refuses to buy a ticket. While some may think of him as a digital burn out, he is a smooth talker and can squirm out of many a dicey situation. This probably comes from his easy childhood in which both parents were to busy running their internet prostitution ring in order to instill any values or work ethic into young Rubick. How ever after hitting it big on the penny slot machines in Reno, it would seem that our hero has scrounged up enough money to move into his nice little place on Kaneva st. Welcome to the good life, and so our story begins...

I started with a dance party....this for better or for worst is what happened..

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Questions:

1. Chat box, Event Box, and Task Manager. All three of these are designed as boxes that float over your screen, you interact with them by typing into them or clicking on events.

2. Your house, the shop, and event places. These three features are more of an areas of the world that you explore. Thus you interact with them by roaming the world.

3. Color and Pattern play an key role in customizing your avatar's clothes and house. Both of these are expressed as things you can buy to improve the look of your house and avatar. Music comes into play when you go to event parties. People can stream youtube video's real time to give a party feel.

4. The tasks begin as simple things such as "Chat with some one" or "Attend an event". These reward you with points that can be used to purchase things for you avatar in game.

5. The 3D interface give you a feel that you are really in the game, you can explore it and thus it puts you into the game a bit. Chat bubbles and goal bubbles break the games feel of realism.

6. I basically attended a party and claimed to be the best dancer. While I think that I was, it was limited because every one had the same dance moves. However I did have more heart.

7. The economy revolves around points you gain in order to purchase things for your avatar in game. The insentive is to have the coolest place.

8. Dance parties babbbby. Because who doesnt like a good ol pants off dance off?

9. The in game guide tells you how to interact with things.

Half man, half machine, all cop

George Ball. That's my grandpa, and though he may not know it he is not a typical grandparent. Why you ask? Well grandpa Ball, at 85 years young is known for three things in my family: His crush on Beyonce Knolls, his copious emails and of course texting. Yup, Grandpa Ball is quite tech sauvy it would seem, he even bought a phone with a full qwerty keyboard in order to text faster. My grandpa is the prime example of technologies vice grip on this knew age. Now, while it is indeed entertaining to receive a text from my Grandpa, I can't help but think how deeply my own electronic addiction seeps into my every day life, and really makes me stop to think:

What did I do while waiting for the bus before cell phones came out?

It is still crazy to think that cell phones were not around when I was growing up, or even how the internet was still really in its commercial infancy. Yet now I cannot imagine a day devoid of my electronic distractions: iPod, laptop, cell phone, digital camera, playstation portable. Come to think of it I think I spend more time staring at some sort of screen than looking at the world around me. This is the dawning of the fully digital age. While Don Norman argues that we are Analog creatures in his article, "Being Analog", I would have to say that idea is shifting towards a digital mind set. How can we remain Analog beings if everything around us becomes digitized? In my own typical day of commuting I will wait spend my time waiting for the bus on my cell phone browsing the internet, followed by some video games on the underground, watching TV on youtube between classes, and repeated all the way home .....sigh....I am more machine than man.