Reflecting on Screen capture/Screen cast

The screen capture/screen casting assignment was a great way to give back to the internet. So often, I use the internet for my own good, to search recipes, workouts, tutorials, directions etc. and I never contribute as much as I take from the web. This project was a great way to see how easy it is to give back to the other web users. In this way, I have experienced what it means to be a "prosumer" or producer and consumer. It was wonderful to learn how easy it is!

Providing feedback and tutorials for both Seashore and Remember the Milk has taught me quite a bit. I learned how to effectively shoot a tutorial video from my laptop and how to review web products. Luckily, these products were well-worth my time investigating because they are two great tools that I have use for everyday!

When I brainstormed for this project, I chose to do a mindmap to organize my thoughts. The mindmappng process has been an invaluable tool in the creation of all of my web based projects because it helps to organize thoughts in a visual format. I found the mindmap to be most useful when deciding which areas to include in my screen casting of Seashore. There are so many tools to use and adjustments to make, choosing just a few basic ones was essential to fit the video into the 5 alloted minutes.

Lastly, going into this project, I thought that this would be another typical assignment. It really was the exact opposite. Like I said, giving back to the internet is a really wonderful feeling. Hopefully this will start a new trend within me to be a more active prosumer and exchange some of my consumption of the internet with producing new works for others to learn from.

Freeware: Seashore (Mac OS X)

Seashore is an open source image editor for the Mac platform. Created by Mark Pazolli, it strives to be an easy-to-use program - perhaps for those individuals who are looking into image editing as a hobby or for a profession but do not want to jump right into the complex world of photoshop. Seashore, however, is not to be understood as a watered down photoshop, it is in itself, an image editing freeware program.

Seashore has some great features, including:
- brushes
- multi layer support
- text input
- gradients
- cloning
- stamping
- simple copy/cut/paste

Almost every feature (where applicable) has adjustment capabilities. This creates for easier customization and creativity. Really, while it is relatively basic, Seashore is packed with some very essential and just-for-fun tools. In my opinion, it is easy to use and with a few web tutorials, you will find yourself creating custom works of digital art in minutes.

Further, for those individuals who are concerned with downloading freeware for fear that it will bog down their computer system and slow operations while it is in use, Seashore takes up only a small amount of space.  In other words, it leaves a "small footprint" on your computer. Seashore is a straightforward program and is worth a try!

For help getting started, please check out my screen casting of Seashore for Mac OS X.

Webware: Remember The Milk

Remember The Milk is a web-based task entry and organizer. It leverages superb input techniques as well as general user-friendliness that make task-remembering very easy.

To use RTM, one needs an account. The standard version is free. Once signed up, you are able to type in, organize, and share your tasks with others. Each task has a number of attributes that can be edited, such as date due, duration, meta tags, URL, and notes.

One of the most useful aspects of Remember the Milk is the ability to use keyboard shortcuts to quickly enter and edit your tasks. For example, selecting a task and pressing "C" will complete the task and it will disappear from your list. Pressing "D" will allow you to change the due date, and RTM is intelligent enough to recognize date formats such as "2/25" or "Feb 25" or simply "Thur".

One of RTM's shortcomings is the $25 it charges for upgrading to a "Pro" account, which among other things lets you access RTM from a mobile device such as an iPod or Blackberry. For Remember the Milk to be a truly user-friendly web service, I feel it should allow its users free access on mobile platforms so users can create and edit tasks on the run.

Creativity Made Easy: Creative Commons and Copyleft

The Creative Commons is devoted to the building upon of ideas for sharing. Creative Commons issues licenses to the authors or creators of the work so that their work is protected, these are called "creative commons licenses". The author of the work is able to tailor the license to their needs and restrictions.  The work can then be sent out into the world wide web for other creative minds to build upon and enhance or simply play with.  This benefits the original creator because they can get their work out into the public but they have ownership over the product because of the Creative Commons license. What makes "CC" unique is that it is free. In a way, you can understand the CC license as a "watered down" and customizable copyright license.

The first time I noticed the CC license or logo was in Flickr. The photos have the signature CC to protect the photographer's image as their own and ensure that there is no chance for copyright infringement. I also learned that Wikipedia uses CC. It is a way for users to share intellectual property but also place some safe-holds on their "products".

CC is an element of a greater movement known as "copyleft" what copyleft essentially strives for is a more free copyright system where "all rights reserved" can be interchanged with "some rights reserved" as it is decided by the individual product or idea owner and creator.  What CC and copyleft now allow us to do is open forums for communication, experimentation and honest feedback.  The web is headed in an interesting direction and I see this trend towards open communication becoming more and more prevalent. Websites like www.quirky.com allow users to post ideas or inventions and receive feedback from engineers, artists, designers and homemakers (anyone who wants to comment) that can provide them with great feedback and a general sense of whether or not the idea would work in the end.  This open sharing of ideas is truly innovative and I hope it continues to develop!

Check out the video at the top of this post. It is a great way to understand CC. Enjoy!

Beginning my ePortfolio

          In order to begin my ePortfolio, it was necessary to begin brainstorming and organizing my thoughts. I wanted to formulate an idea within my mind to strive to create.  I used a pre-writing model known as FAT-P to determine my message and a tool called a "mind map" to visually organize my thoughts for the layout of the site.  I was able to stick with my original FAT-P outline well and my mind map was an effective tool for arranging the site. 

Here is my FAT-P information:

FORM: multi-paragraph story narrative for "About Me," friendly letter for "Welcome", lists for "portfolio/professional work"

AUDIENCE: employers, family, friends, networking connections, professors

TOPIC:  my polished personal and professional identity, the work I have done, why I should hold a job after graduation, my goals and aspirations aka my past, present and future

PURPOSE: to inform and persuade, to get a job

I made my mind map on mindmesiter.com, a great tool for mind map building! Here is my mind map:

With the help of these two tools, I was able to being my site.  The FATP helped to determine my style of writing and to think a bit deeper about how I wanted to project my image based on who I would most likely be sharing the site with.  It challenged me to remain consistent in my message and how to incorporate a level of friendly personality into an otherwise relatively serious topic; my professional goals and aspirations. 

The Mind Map was a tool I had learned about in a previous class so I had some experience using it before. It is a great way to think about layout and organization of a site. If the image of my mind map above showed all information that is in the map, you would see nodes being emitted from each category to identify what kind of information would be included within each area. Contact includes all of my email addresses, LinkedIn and Twitter, Professional includes my resume and relevant work done through internships and classes at Saint Mary's, Personal includes information about me and my family as well as how I have come to study communications.  The Other site tab is a link to my HTML website which is similar to this site. I tried to ensure that the two would complement each other in content and layout/theme. 

 I stayed true to my original plans, besides some small deviations from the mind map. It is still a work in progress, but please feel free to check out my ePortfolio and if you have comments or suggestions, please let me know!

Twitter and social awareness

This video is an example of the many ways that social media and in particular, Twitter, have changed the way we communicate.  Access to firsthand information is now very informal.  The idea of citizen journalists can sometimes have a negative connotation; the idea that your "average joe" is creating and authoring "news" for others to read and believe. In this case, citizen journalists, like the people taking the photos and posting them on Twitter are helping to get information out as soon as possible so that aid can be sent. In this way, Twitter is an incredible tool and is a testament to the way in which technology has helped spread social concern and awareness. Check out the video below....