Feedback on Research Project Outline

** focus: Collaborative Authorship**

1) Just focus on one Jenkins - Collaborative Authorship , environment, dynamic involved...who's doing it , and how

2) What exaclty is Reflexive Practice. ... maybe can it.

3) Weakness: how to identify the difft authors? have seperate tumbler blogs...then the combo blog. authors as chars.

// look at the pp1 blog for links.

// authors are characters eg. mim = traditional media, jen = new media something like that. authors as symbols of evolution of storytelling/narrative. IN A STORY FORM exploring evolution. * this will be our thematic response to Evolution...what we actually post to the blog

// our outcome (tumblr blog) is a creative response to the topic.

Research Project Outline - Where it stands now

//Reflexive Research practice, evolution of our Project aspect.

1) Original Topic: The evolution of Narrative, giving old archival footage new life in an online space...trying to show the evolution process through remixing and video on Ezedia for users to use

2) Change in Topic:
Hurdle 1: Ezedia is now a defunct publishing tool - Company no longer developing it. - had some problems using 'dead' technology
Solution: What can we use instead, that's very now? Tumblr.

So we're doing our project backwards, What is Tumblr good for? Where does it sit in the evolution of Online Communication?

We discovered that there's a evolutionary trajectory to the way people are communicating and sharing online that's lead by Technology & Human Behaviour.

The Evolution of Online Communication looks a bit like this, (trend-wise):

Websites =>

Blogs =>

Social Networks (Web 2.0 Platforms like Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Flickr) =>

Micro-blogging (Also a Social Network/Web 2.0 platform, Twitter & Tumblr) (this is the new frontier so to speak)

So Micro-blogs are a hot new development, ie. evolution of the way people connect to each other, and rather than making a website that talks about the evolution of online communciation, why not use Tumblr itself.

..::OUTCOMES::..

EVOLUTION THEME: Two-Fold
1) The Evolution of the social, online - how people connect and communicate online (as above)// what behavior and technologies survive? Why? What has to adapt, tech or humans?
2) The Evolution of the Story. How does storytelling, 'narrative' had to adapt to the online environments, ESP THE INCREASINGLY FRAGMENTED online space, to still 'tell a story'. does 'storytelling' have to change to survive in these spaces?

Production outcome:
** We'll use Tumblr as platform for an experiment in Collaborative Multi-Linear Storytelling: Collaborative Authorship: 3 Authors, 1 Space, Fragmented Story Boxes, Dynamic & Evolving over time. We still need a unifiying theme evolution-wise.

Through this project given the research of mapping how people connect online, what technologies have emerged, what kind of human behaviour dictates what emerges and develops,..will allow us hopefully to even predict future trends in how we share and connect.

COVERGENCE CULTURE CONTEXT:

- Tumblr is alot like a 'convergence platform' (it brings in elements of Youtube, Flickr, Blogging) & also Users can be connected to like-minded people. (This is how we're tackling the Convergence Culture theme)

- Because of these qualities, Tumblr can be many things, there are also things it doesnt do very well.

Tumblr isn't perfect, in our research part we address it's short comings. Perhaps we can predict what the next development in online communications will be as well.

- And he also mentions "Collaborative Authorship" when central author of franchise opens it participation from other artists to shape it in ways consistent with its overall coherence but allowing new theme to emerge or new elements to be introduced

Mim & Ange hash it out, clarifying the new topic

Mim & Ange, Our Idea revisited

** This conversation took place 3 weeks into the project, after we had changed our topic drastically (after discovering that our publishing platform was now defunct) and confusion was in the air.
**
me: Hey mim, hope the new notes make better sense of what we're doing.
miriamlwallace: yes they do!
thanks for that..was looking at it last night and it had no direction.. but now its all good
me: I was getting confused too so had to chat it out with jen

miriamlwallace: i couldnt find the assignment sheet for the presentation..
its not assessed as such..
me: Lemme check. Brb.
5 minutes
me: hey again mim..well i went lookign in my bundle of papers
miriamlwallace: hmmm i have looked too
me: and i can't find it either. u already checked blackboard?
miriamlwallace: but nothing,
nothing on there and nothing on the blog
me: cos perhaps since its not assessed there is no sheet.
miriamlwallace: yeah i think kyla said it was more about the class critiquing where we were at
and i suppose a good way of knowing where we are at ourselves!
me: ok that's cool. so we can just explain to the class how our projects taken a different route because we've realised that some of technology is defunct (ezedia) and we're adapting to that (ha-ha). then explain our new topic and what we're doing to tackle it
miriamlwallace: yes! good idea... it was a big shift in direction wasnt it? But i think the idea of not using Ezedia is a good one as it was so last year :)
i bought the convergence culture - jenkins book... i want to go through it and find where our project really fits
me: i think when it comes to they way ppl communicate online, esp with the social network apps...it's not just about technology evolving but also what we demand as humans. so its like a frission of technology evolving but also human trends. like the need to be social, and connect etc. its an interesting topic
thank u! that would be great
i'm not sure yet actually which one fits ours best.
haha yes, ezedia was so very last year. and its scary how technology just evolves and things don't make it anymore. we should also talk about that. like i remember friendster, i used that first. before myspace. and it couldnt compete. i wonder if its still around
miriamlwallace: i think friendster is still around! i keep getting emails!
i want to find out whats after tumblr?
more than ever people want to be connected but to me its not so social.. everyone updating what they are doing 10 times a day.... when do you actually spend time being social??
that mocumentary was pretty funny.. that guy narrating saying he was going out to play "touch football"
me: yes exactly and we should talk about that...that is this jsut a phase..will ppl abandon twitter
will ppl abandon facebook??
great qs we should bring that up too.
in our research and our talk on wed..how we're interested in the future trends...if we can chart the evolution of tech and human interaction/connection...maybe we can predict what will happen next.
miriamlwallace: we could make some predications yes!
i think people are starting to abandon facebook
already
me: im glad these chats get saved..i'll ddvelop some of these ideas more. hey apparently friendster was the FIRST social networking site..we could examine why it lost marketshare to myspace..apparently its the most popular in asian countries
OMG SOCIAL NETWORKS HAVE A COLOUR? jk
miriamlwallace: most popular in asian countries!?
why????
http: //www.internetevolution.com/default.asp?kw=gglwh_internetevolution_ie
me: but what i think that points to human behaviours in packs..like they like to congreate around the same thing that their peers are doing. if friendster established strongly in asia first, it might be about ppl just following what everyone else was doing, and before u know it u have a whole community built.
i mean we'll find out after examining why some sites adapt to the environment (technology andwhat users want) and survive whilst others don't.
(one sec am checking out link_
miriamlwallace: nah it was nothing
just a crap link selling something
oh my god i just found my friendster profile from 2004!!!!!!!!!!
me: great website thnx for linking. this woman talks about how crap twitter is for business communication. http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=625&doc_id=174314
miriamlwallace: i forgot about it and have 1 friend!
me: OMG no way. i bet its hilariously lame
share with me..haha
miriamlwallace: really!? see i skp through things... didnt get that.. thanks!
me: i deleted mine becos i was disgusted by the lameness. this was years ago
miriamlwallace: no its nothing... obviously this is my pattern! i did this with twitter too.. im not into it so dont update http://profiles.friendster.com/9927494
no picture or anything
me: i wonder how important profitability is of social networks, like eventually are they meant to make money? if they don't...will they die out. this might have to do with which ones manage to stay alive. that site is had dfeinetly a more busineness minded approach to web 2.0 whcih will be great for our reseach too
see the thing is mim, and i think your behaviour shows this...we only join something most of the time because other ppl we know are doing it, because we feel compelled to belong. dont want to be left out. left behind. i mean that could be a big part of why 'social networking' has taken storm
its hard to not be a facebook member...u'd feel kind of left out of modern society (unless that was your aim).
like if no one u knew was using twitter...u wouldnt tweet.
miriamlwallace: well exactly... i was really into myspace and then facebook is the ultimate progression..
but maybe this is why i dont tweet.. none of my friends tweet and i dont see the point
what if the evolution of social networking is a revolt in social networking?... hmmm i doubt it
me: well thats a good point to bring up, the users ultimately will decide if these stay around or not, and the sites will have to adapt to user's needs and behaviours, through using better or more sophisticated techonology.
what was your last point, can u rephrase it
i dont quite get it.
miriamlwallace: well i read this article on the weekend "trying to find it" it was about this guy who had had enough of social networking and mobile phones and didnt even connect to email
but he was in advertising and he was making a stand at being so connected
but it there was no point i am just kind of rambling..
: )
me: ahh isee! you're saying that u think social networking is going to reach/or is reaching a stage when ppl are turning their backs on it?
like u were saying u reckon facebook is on the decline?
miriamlwallace: yes yes yes!
but you could go either way...
me: interesting..we need to find stats if we can to back up these trends. it could be true u know, and also its animportant issue, how much bloody social networking and updates and info can a human handle?
before we lose it and drastically cut back.
miriamlwallace: exactly.. soon we wont have to talk to each other because everyone will be informed as to what everyone else is doing!!!!!
me: oh oh oh, it might be that this very era in time we live in is the beginning with all these new social networking platforms like facebook and twitter etc, and an era of youtube, flickr etc.. and new stuff being launched like it..and its the whaddya call it..creative BANG stage
and after a while..natural selection/evolution will settle out what is actually going to stay with us...
creative BIG BANG stage. lol
miriamlwallace: yes! its all going to get too much for everyone will just cut back and simplify things.
i love the creative BIG BANG stage!
me: we'll incorporate that into our presentation and project! but yes..after a while..surely we'll all realise that only some things actually add value in our lives. look it could be that ppl feel that way about facebook. or twitter. if we know how these things come about we can prob make predictions
for me things like that aren't actually that important. i dont find facebook important at all
miriamlwallace: no i dont anymore.. but i DID! i was addicted! it was crackbook for me.. really bad.. but then i just wanted some privacy and i wanted to call my friends and hear there voices and catch up for coffee...
thats why i loved that mocumentary on tumblr
me: OMG thought of another thing...remember in that pp1 lecture there was that scientist saying that we do eveyrthing to make ourselves more attractive, like a primal thing..i can so see how these social network sites are based around creating and expressing a better image of yourself.
miriamlwallace: of COURSE they are... people who are projecting this persona.. especially apparent in myspace...
its an extension of your louis vuitton and whatever shoes and little white shitzu puppy... the whole 15 minutes of fame thing extended
me: but if we can incorporate that into our research..that is is a MAJOR reason why social networks have succeeded .. we can explain that if things that develop allow humans to share themselves (ie. share how great they are, what wonderful things their doing)..they might have a better chance of surviving. i think twitter started as that. ppl talking about themselves and the shitty things they do..
but its more useful now. as the users get more sophisticated and use it more productively then saying 'just took a nap. man need to wash sheets'
yep totally mim i hear u.
and then there's the otherside we have to think about is that if these are the big trends happening now, social networks and microblogging, how can creativity and media practioners get their works out, etc. hence our tumblr direction. seems better suited to that then say using facebook or twitter
the problem with just putting your stuff on a website, is that there isn't a huge userbase already built into the platform. ur website lives alone .
miriamlwallace: of course.. we really have to discuss the evolution of it more than anything to stick with the framework of the assignment...
and your blogs... which is what david karp was saying in that interview
which really made sense to me
me: yep jsut thinking of the produced outcome part..what we're making. that's all
and have to justify why.
sorry what about blogs? maybe i'll go read that article first
miriamlwallace: no no what you were saying about websites just being out there on their own.. its like blogs.. they just exist on their own.. with tumblr its all there in one platform
tumblr makes sense in that regard
and david karp was saying how he had all these blogs but they werent reaching his target audience
so our produced outcome part... that will be all on tumblr?
i think that will really work!
6 minutes
me: yes it will be on tumblr, just had an idea. we could make our tumblr about our project on the evolution of online communities/communication. i mean use tumblr to post what we find, articles, videos, images anything.
like a visible reflexive practice .
miriamlwallace: yeah that could work.. will it be messy?
i suppose we could put it in the google doc first?
then post?
me: no i dont mean that. we'll still need a formal google document for our submitted research i believe. ok maybe my idea is too messy, i can't picture it very well. i'm reading david's article and he's explaining features of tumbleblog eg. "while you're doing research you can grab those links and share them transparently. "
that made me think we could use tumblr to show our research proces as well. but hmm maybe thats not good enough on its own. that could go in but we should really share some creative media content too. i mean thats what its about i think. sharing creativity
miriamlwallace: im sure we could
of course we could.. we could show it via the blog and then upload media content too...
i must admit i am still yet to look at tumblr in depth...
5 minutes
me: same here. have just emailed the group with our tumblr address , username and password
i'll have a tinker later or tomorrow. find a theme and post somethings
miriamlwallace: great!
we're on a roll...
im blogging.. will look at tumblr after that
what else do we need for our presentation.. i think we came up with some good points just now
8 minutes
me: probably just our topic, how we're approaching it and what we're exploring and talk about the stuff we came up with just then as examples.
we should probably just have a rough framework with dot points as a page in our googlegroups
and project that on the screen on wed. that way we dont have to remmeber anything and can talk off it more casually
miriamlwallace: sounds good...
we'll have your laptop to project it yeah?
me: yep cool. kyla's got one too
argh bloody blogs, thnk god its due next week not this week
miriamlwallace: the blog consult yes.. due next week...
and we have to blog for MI1..
does MI1 have a blog?

Tumblr, what is it good for? Let's start backwards

http://www.vimeo.com/1181715?pg=embed&sec=1181715 (satire on tumblr, a critcism on microbloggin)

>> RESENTATION TODAY...which mind you is just meant to show class where we're at, and u know what, we should ask them what do they think this space would be good for tumblr, what kind of stories<<>> let's just clean this section up abit..add more links our own words..we'll show class our tumblr page so far... and some discussions. talk about reflexive practice visible on tumblr as well as using it as a way to tell multi-linear stories..fragmentation. maybe a great place for the fragment-aesthetic, abstration, which supports our shorter and shorter attention spans these days.

MAKING SENSE OF THE FOG:

Ok we had a chat in the editing class before and this now I think we've managed to clarify our project: (I think what's happened is that we have totally changed our topic and thats where things got confusing)

We are looking at the Evolution of Online Communication and seeing how people have used the internet to share ideas & come together, over time. (This is how we're tackling the Evolution theme)

The Evolution of Online Communication looks a bit like this, (trend-wise):

Websites => Blogs => Social Networks (Web 2.0 Platforms like Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Flickr) => Micro-blogging (Also a Social Network/Web 2.0 platform, Twitter & Tumblr)

So Micro-blogs are a hot new development, ie. evolution of the way people connect to each other, and rather than making a website that talks about the evolution of online communciation, why not use Tumblr itself.

Tumblr is alot like a 'covergence platform' (it brings in elements of Youtube, Flickr, Blogging) & also Users can be connected to like-minded people. (This is how we're tackling the Convergence Culture theme)

Because of these qualities, Tumblr can be many things, there are also things it doesnt do very well.

Tumblr isn't perfect, in our research part we address it's short comings. Perhaps we can predict what the next development in online communications will be as well..

Our Tumblr page could very well be filled with old archival footage mashed and juxtaposed against new vidoes that ppl have made now to get across the evolution theme more strongly.

But we're going to tackle the problem of 'how would a visitor to your tumblr page actually know it was about evolution?' by making a Big link at the top that explains our project in a summary. we'll also have links to our formal research.

/////Does this make things more clear? And how does it sound in the first place for the project?

1.0) So how did the Social evolve Online. How has the internet and all its associated platforms evolve communication? Or did we evolve the internet to suit the way we wanted to communicate. First though lets characterise the main traits of each online evolutionary phase that we mentioned above.

1) What’s good about this platform specifically? - what have people said about it.

this is quite a short, but concise look at Tumblr, from a user perspective

http://mills.tumblr.com/post/29729116/tumblrs-social-network

Quite an interesting and detailed interview with the young creator of Tumblr, David Karp

http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a10281.asp

2) How are people using it? What are they doing what are they showing, what are they sharing? (post links)

3) Compare and contrast to other forms eg. traditional websites, blogs, twitter, facebook, myspace. ...CONVERGENCE??

After our late night chat Angeline, I found this really interesting article on Facebook, it turns 5 this year, and how the new layout is really dividing the audience as it's layout is very much like twitter and many mature users or users that are using facebook in a business networking context are finding it "juvenile" Facebook at 5 - Is it growing up too fast?

This is a simple but interesting look at who is using what type of social networking and why.

http://beenovation.blogspot.com/2009/02/twitter-facebook-tumblr-and-all-that.html

Interestingly, sites like Facebook and Myspace are labelled social networking sites, however that’s not what they are often used for. Most users of these sites use them for socialising within their pre-existing social networks, rather than networking.

Friendster was one of the earliest ‘social networking sites’ designed for online dating. While it was an initial success, it came into disarray when some artistic minded people began creating fake characters or profiles. The Friendster company attempted to remove these people from accessing the site around the same time that indie rock bands saw the site as a potential means of connecting with fans. It wasn’t long before they too were banned from the site, which also saw many of their adoring fans leave too. The problem with Friendster is that it didn’t understand the power of networks.

MySpace is mainly used by teenagers and is all about showing off a persona. Many people spend a lot of time decorating their profile pages and filling out their ‘About Me’ section in order to create some sense of who they are or how they want to be presented. The number of “friends” you have is also an important factor of using MySpace. It’s basically one big popularity contest.

Unlike MySpace, Facebook is much more self contained. While it was initially created as a Harvard-only website, it took the social networking world by storm when it was opened to the pubic in 2006. Reports say that the average Facebook user is between the ages of 25-34. Adults and youth use social networking sites in very different ways. While teenagers use MySpace as a chance to be seen and heard, adults tend to use Facebook as a chance to communicate with others, especially those from the past. Twitter is one of the newest crazes at the moment, most popular with the adult market. Unlike Facebook and MySpace which are primarily used for communicating within a single community, Twitter is about communicating within a large public sphere, which is the reason why many teenagers have shied away from it, preferring to stick with their social networks.

Then consider....What kind of stories work in this form?
eg. Multi /single narrative ?
Long drawn out episodic stories? Or shorter '24hr' stories?

How do communities get created around these platforms?
Community interaction? Level of interaction and participation, strength lies in connecting like minded people, accessing ideas .

Do critical deeper research of what makes this platform effective ie. What works well for it, then work out what story we can tell from it.

CONVERGENCE CULTURE THREAD
Build the theoretical framework around it, where convergence culture comes in. How does it express convergence culture. (I personally think that this form itself is an expression of convergence culture it its materiality - combining flickr, facebook, twitter, youtube). You can post UGC on it...it supports that, gives a platform to it. Online Communities...(mim get that book out)

EVOLUTION THREAD
Web 1.0, web 2.0, evolution of social networks, maybe evolution of media sharing/distrubution. Jenkins says the media doesnt change, the distribution does. yes no?

Need to focus on the evolution of SOMETHING....

Well done why not start from this premise of why this form, this platform is so hot right now..what did it arise out of. Social networking – the evolution of.

So ask find whats it good for? What kind of story? Then tell this kind of story in this space.