Ah, simplicity! Possibly the most strived for thing in my life. Yet sometimes so elusive. Have you ever wondered if there's such a thing as "too simple"? I mean, in a world where choice is abundant with each choice having something "newer" or "better" than the last choice. But is it really "newer" or "better"? Let me paint a few pictures for you:
Picture 1: As you know I am in the throes of planning my wedding. And what is more important in a wedding than the wedding cake? (I know, the dress is most important, but go with me on this...the cake works for the example and I'm trying to keep it simple...) So when I went to discuss the kind of cake I wanted with the cake decorator, I think she was a little flabbergasted that I did not want what a lot of other brides want. For this example, I will use the wedding cake of a friend of mine, I'll call her Princess Puppy Lover (or PPL for short). Now, at PPL's wedding, her cake was beautiful...until it was on my plate. I could hardly distinguish any smidgen of "cake" hiding within all the layers of different flavored ganache. Don't get me wrong, I like ganache as much as the next person, but when I'm eating cake, I expect to taste cake. I don't want to have to hunt and peck for a little crumbly of cake that just happened to fall on my plate among my ganache and fondant (which is a horrible combination, especially when there are multiple competing flavors of ganache in said "cake"). Now, keeping this in mind when I went to the cake decorator, I was very specific. If I'm not mistaken, I think the words out of my mouth were, "I want it to taste like cake. I don't want fruity, nutty, jelly, whatever all up in my cake. I want it to taste like cake." And that's the way I think it should be. Cake should taste like cake. It shouldn't have all that other crap in there that makes it taste not like cake.
Picture 2: For this Ripple of One (henceforth known as ROO) video I really wanted to keep it simple. Focus on one idea and keep it. I kept trying to make hope or future or some other "uplifting" word be the focus of my video. But it just wasn't working for me. Finally, after getting the video from the interview with Larisha, I decided to just sync up the audio with the video and see if something jumped out at me. Otherwise, I had resigned myself to just putting some pretty music, a little talking, some pictures of Larisha and her kids, and the ROO logo at the end and call it a day. But something did jump out at me, as it jumped out at everyone else in class -- the part about statistics. Larisha didn't want to be a statistic. That's it! That's what I'm basing my video on - statistics! But not in the boring math kind of way. More in an overwhelming, faceless kind of way. And though I think the video looks a little blasé and, well, simple, I know there are at least 10+ hours that are going in to making this video. I may be slightly OCD (in an "Oh for the Sake of All that is Good and Pure in this World" kind of way) and that's why I think it will take me a while, but the idea behind it is simple - statistically speaking.
Picture 3: I like to cook. Well, that's an understatement -- Food Network is my favorite show and, aside from those few friends and people I follow for my thesis on Twitter, the remainder of the people I follow are Food Network stars. Oh yes. I was ELATED to say the least when I found Paula Dean on Twitter. I think I almost fell out of my chair. Literally. So, needless to say, I cook a lot. But a lot of times when I'm looking at a recipe, I say to myself, "Why do I need 5 different kinds of tomato for this sauce?!?! When they're cooked they all taste the same! You know what? I'm gonna use cherry tomatoes 'cause they cook faster and they're easier to prep. Done!" So, essentially I'll take a complicated recipe and make it simple. Very few people can tell when I've changed a recipe to make it simple, and of those that can tell, even fewer care that I've changed it. I try to do this kind of thing a lot in life. I get in these stages where there are a few pieces of clothing that I like to wear, so I'll rotate them in about weekly spurts. The only part of life that is not simple for me is shoes. I have, at last count, 59 pairs of shoes. All of them different. If only slightly. Probably have of those shoes are black. I can't help it. It is my one weakness when it comes to being simple. Shoes are not simple.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Significance in Facebook
This week, I'm focusing on Dr. Howard's chapter on significance. I want to first talk about exclusivity in Facebook (because I know Reed loves Facebook soooo much). Back when I first got on Facebook, there was that exclusivity - not even my old college was allowed on Facebook at that point in time. And that bothered me. Yeah, I was in the "in-crowd," but what good was it going to do me if my friends weren't in the "in-crowd" as well? Then that school was allowed to get on Facebook. Awesome! Except now my friends down in P&A can't get on Facebook. Well crap. Again, I'm in the "in-crowd" and my friends aren't. Oh look! They've opened up Facebook so EVERYONE can be part of the "in-crowd!" Score! Oh wait, that means there is no more "in-crowd" -- there's no more exclusivity. So now I'm back to wishing some people couldn't get on Facebook so there would that exclusivity again. Now, sure the entirety of Facebook is open to anyone and it doesn't have that all-encompassing exclusivity it used to have, but that's ok. Facebook still has that exclusivity within "groups" and "fan pages" on Facebook. There you are the first to know. You have that insider look. Maybe that's why I keep Facebook even though I don't feel its exclusivity anymore. Or maybe I'm just too lazy to keep up with my friends in the normal way of letters, emails, or phone calls...
The next part of Facebook I'd like to talk about is Howard's section on "quality vs. quantity." I don't know how many of you remembered advertisements in the early days of Facebook when they were just starting to use them. They were always the same regardless of who you were. It was the quantity they were trying to push. Nowadays, the advertisements on either side of your screen are aimed at you, more or less, and they change whenever you change something about your profile. For instance, when I actually had time to go do swing dancing and those kinds of updates were typical for me, I would see advertisements for swing dance shoes, lessons, outfits, you name it! If it was related to swing, it was in my advertisements. Now, however, I see lots of wedding related advertisements and that happened LITERALLY the day I changed my status to engaged. These advertisements are somewhat tailored to me as someone planning a wedding and they seem to be on rotation so I see the same 5 or 10 advertisements instead of a variety of advertisements that are not related in the least.
That's about all I can think of saying about significance in Facebook without going on a full-blown exposition that could take days to read, so I think here is a good place to stop.
The next part of Facebook I'd like to talk about is Howard's section on "quality vs. quantity." I don't know how many of you remembered advertisements in the early days of Facebook when they were just starting to use them. They were always the same regardless of who you were. It was the quantity they were trying to push. Nowadays, the advertisements on either side of your screen are aimed at you, more or less, and they change whenever you change something about your profile. For instance, when I actually had time to go do swing dancing and those kinds of updates were typical for me, I would see advertisements for swing dance shoes, lessons, outfits, you name it! If it was related to swing, it was in my advertisements. Now, however, I see lots of wedding related advertisements and that happened LITERALLY the day I changed my status to engaged. These advertisements are somewhat tailored to me as someone planning a wedding and they seem to be on rotation so I see the same 5 or 10 advertisements instead of a variety of advertisements that are not related in the least.
That's about all I can think of saying about significance in Facebook without going on a full-blown exposition that could take days to read, so I think here is a good place to stop.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Web Design for Video Newbies
I titled this week's post "Web Design for Video Newbies" because, even though we read about web design, I think we can use these tactics (or at least these ideas) in our videos. I use the term "newbies" because in a world where digital technology (including video editing and the like) is constantly changing, we're all newbies all the time (whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not). Now, on to the actual content of this post. Like I said, I really think we can use the ideas from the reading this week in our upcoming movie project. To keep things consistent (and my A.D.D. at bay) I'm going to be focusing on Weinshenk's Neuro Web Design. This book is such a quick and easy read with lots of really great examples (and pictures to help us visual types).
The thing that got me really excited about taking this information and using it for our video project was the section on p. 81, From a Bucket of Water to a Cash Donation. If we could come up with something similar to this for our video, we could really make a difference in helping Stephanie to reach her goal and garner more assistance. The only problem now is how do we incorporate this idea? In the book, Weinshenk talks about an online trivia game that was used made so that each correct answer by the user garnered a bucket of water for a community in need. Obviously we can't do something of this nature. A) we aren't programmers and couldn't possibly fathom creating something of this magnitude. B) Stephanie needs more than just buckets of water. And C) to do this, we'd need to already have supporters lined up to give whatever we promise a user will be given (i.e. - the clean water game had to have already set up donors to give the water that the game's players were racking up to send).
So, how do we set up something like this? How do we make it resonate with the viewers in video form? We have to go back to the section on p. 75, Want to Cover your Lawn with a Big Ugly Sign? where Weinshenk talks about changing a small part of a person persona so it is easier to change an larger part of a persona. So maybe our first steps when planning the main video we're creating is to A) show a need and B) show how the viewer can do something small to get them to alter their persona. Easier said than done, right? Hopefully not. Hopefully this is a good jumping off point for ideas to circulate in class on Thursday.
The thing that got me really excited about taking this information and using it for our video project was the section on p. 81, From a Bucket of Water to a Cash Donation. If we could come up with something similar to this for our video, we could really make a difference in helping Stephanie to reach her goal and garner more assistance. The only problem now is how do we incorporate this idea? In the book, Weinshenk talks about an online trivia game that was used made so that each correct answer by the user garnered a bucket of water for a community in need. Obviously we can't do something of this nature. A) we aren't programmers and couldn't possibly fathom creating something of this magnitude. B) Stephanie needs more than just buckets of water. And C) to do this, we'd need to already have supporters lined up to give whatever we promise a user will be given (i.e. - the clean water game had to have already set up donors to give the water that the game's players were racking up to send).
So, how do we set up something like this? How do we make it resonate with the viewers in video form? We have to go back to the section on p. 75, Want to Cover your Lawn with a Big Ugly Sign? where Weinshenk talks about changing a small part of a person persona so it is easier to change an larger part of a persona. So maybe our first steps when planning the main video we're creating is to A) show a need and B) show how the viewer can do something small to get them to alter their persona. Easier said than done, right? Hopefully not. Hopefully this is a good jumping off point for ideas to circulate in class on Thursday.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Web Videos that are Made to Stick
This week was, again, very technical in nature. Possibly my favorite part of Bourne's Web Video was the section on continuity. In fact, I spent way too much time looking up continuity errors in my favorite movies stumbling upon blogs and short articles all over the internet about continuity errors (this is a good top 12 list ). It just goes to show how closely people are paying attention sometimes. And let me tell you, being a continuity director is not easy work. I was continuity director on a weekend shoot in Charleston where it was really cold in the morning and blazing hot in the afternoon. I had my little clipboard to write things down to ensure the continuity was correct, but I had a problem not with making sure the talent (and I use that term somewhat loosely) entered from the right direction and each item was discussed in each appropriate scene. Instead, I had a problem convincing the talent to endure wearing a light jacket for each scene because, as is usual when shooting any type of video, the shots were out of chronological order and all needed to look uniform (i.e. all with or all without the jacket). After much debate I realized it was a lost cause, so I checked my list and pinpointed exactly which scene we needed to see the talent take of the jacket and which scene the jacket needed to be put back on in order for the scenes to make sense without a jacket magically disappearing and reappearing.
The other section I found in this chapter of Web Video was the section on green screens. One of the hardest lessons to learn by trial and error is the green screen lesson...or in my case the blue screen lesson. I was told to make sure the subject didn't wear blue. So I told her that she wasn't allowed to wear blue. And she didn't. What I didn't account for was her eye color. You guessed it: blue. When I took the blue background out, I didn't notice any difference in her eye color (mostly because I wasn't looking for any difference in her eye color). However, when I went to put it a different background (in this case a black background with small silver bits "shimmering") I started watching and noticed something was happening with her eyes. If only I had had this section to tell me to check the subject's eye color...
On to Heath and Heath's Made to Stick; I really enjoyed the chapter on credibility...especially the "Where's the beef?" section. I don't know about anyone else, but I remember that commercial despite the fact that that particular campaign was launched the year before I was born...but I digress. I never really thought about that campaign using credibility to sell the product. I always assumed it was the cute, cantankerous old lady asking about the location of the beef. Looking back I can see that they were indeed putting the credibility of the commercial in the hands of the consumer. We can see that this is done a lot of times today. For example, a lot of companies tell their consumers to "come on in and see for yourself" that x, y, z is true about the company, product, service, whatever.
The chapter on emotional resonated with me from the very start with Mother Theresa's quote about helping one, not a much larger group. I find that this is true for just about everyone (especially beauty queens). What I mean by this is that a majority of people from politicians to beauty queens to singer/songwriters are always talking about helping others and world peace, etc. But it really does only start with one. For example, I don't know how many of you have pets or go to Petsmart regularly, but I do. I also see those commercials with Sarah McLachlan asking for donations to help all stray animals and animals and shelters. That's a lot of animals. But at Petsmart, you can help that one animal right there. You can see the animal and touch the animal and you can help it. I don't know about y'all, but I am more prone to give money every time I walk into Petsmart when they ask you at checkout because I know which animal my money is going to (or at least I like to think my money is going to help that animal right there...not some hypothetical animal an untold number of miles away).
This week there was a lot of reading and a lot of information to glean from all of this reading. I know this is a somewhat superficial post about the reading, but I'm afraid if I go on much longer I'm going to go on forever. Not to mention I'm sure someone else has already covered everything else I wanted to say and I'm sure no one wants to read duplicated posts if at all possible. So I think I will end it there and try to post other ideas as comments should the need arise.
The other section I found in this chapter of Web Video was the section on green screens. One of the hardest lessons to learn by trial and error is the green screen lesson...or in my case the blue screen lesson. I was told to make sure the subject didn't wear blue. So I told her that she wasn't allowed to wear blue. And she didn't. What I didn't account for was her eye color. You guessed it: blue. When I took the blue background out, I didn't notice any difference in her eye color (mostly because I wasn't looking for any difference in her eye color). However, when I went to put it a different background (in this case a black background with small silver bits "shimmering") I started watching and noticed something was happening with her eyes. If only I had had this section to tell me to check the subject's eye color...
On to Heath and Heath's Made to Stick; I really enjoyed the chapter on credibility...especially the "Where's the beef?" section. I don't know about anyone else, but I remember that commercial despite the fact that that particular campaign was launched the year before I was born...but I digress. I never really thought about that campaign using credibility to sell the product. I always assumed it was the cute, cantankerous old lady asking about the location of the beef. Looking back I can see that they were indeed putting the credibility of the commercial in the hands of the consumer. We can see that this is done a lot of times today. For example, a lot of companies tell their consumers to "come on in and see for yourself" that x, y, z is true about the company, product, service, whatever.
The chapter on emotional resonated with me from the very start with Mother Theresa's quote about helping one, not a much larger group. I find that this is true for just about everyone (especially beauty queens). What I mean by this is that a majority of people from politicians to beauty queens to singer/songwriters are always talking about helping others and world peace, etc. But it really does only start with one. For example, I don't know how many of you have pets or go to Petsmart regularly, but I do. I also see those commercials with Sarah McLachlan asking for donations to help all stray animals and animals and shelters. That's a lot of animals. But at Petsmart, you can help that one animal right there. You can see the animal and touch the animal and you can help it. I don't know about y'all, but I am more prone to give money every time I walk into Petsmart when they ask you at checkout because I know which animal my money is going to (or at least I like to think my money is going to help that animal right there...not some hypothetical animal an untold number of miles away).
This week there was a lot of reading and a lot of information to glean from all of this reading. I know this is a somewhat superficial post about the reading, but I'm afraid if I go on much longer I'm going to go on forever. Not to mention I'm sure someone else has already covered everything else I wanted to say and I'm sure no one wants to read duplicated posts if at all possible. So I think I will end it there and try to post other ideas as comments should the need arise.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Viral Infections of the Video Variety
The reading for this week, Bourne's Web Video, was quite technical, but useful as a reminder for me. I know I've mentioned that during undergrad here at Clemson I worked at Video Production Services (VPS) as a Video Editor/Digitizer (apparently that's the "official" job title). Reading this week, I see how useful this would have been to me when I first started out (although it is quite helpful now as a refresher course seeing as how I have since been moved to CCIT to work on websites). When I first started out, all of my training was "on the job" - thankfully I had great teachers! A lot of people have no idea that the department is down there or even what the department does. Let me explain what we do: everything; sports, documentaries, morning news-type shows, whatever you can imagine. We even work with big time Hollywood groups from time to time. One thing we didn't do while I was there, however, was create web videos.
Web videos were more of an afterthought for me. When I left VPS I didn't have a Mac (yet) or Final Cut Pro (yet) and had no idea how I was going to save some of the videos I did "for fun" on slow days at VPS. Then it hit me: post them on Youtube. So I did. I got responses on the videos I uploaded that I had done for previous projects, so I started to create videos explicitly for Youtube in my downtime. Some of these videos were created with B-roll that we happened to have around the office and royalty free music that we had in our rather large collection of royalty free music (once I realized Youtube would yank my videos down if I didn't use royalty free music and the artist objected to my video using their song...). My videos did fairly well, but had no clear audience. Then I did what Bourne says you should do: "[T]hink about how you plan to use the video and who will be watching it." (p. 19). It only took me a second to think, "Hey! We're in Clemson. Lots of people like Clemson. Lots of people like football. Lots of people LOVE Clemson football!" And my most successful (although still not viral) video was born. Maybe if I had marketed my video like Bourne says you should (p. 25), I would have enjoyed a larger viewership.
At any rate, I only have four videos on my Youtube channel, but my first video (which I did market to friends via email and on facebook) that was posted 3 years ago now has 35,508 views. Considering that video was made to put in a graduation video compilation my undergrad roommate and I had made to chronicle our years at Clemson and I had no intention of marketing it, it has done fairly well (not viral, of course, but well enough). I tell you this story to illustrate how easy it is to get a high number of viewership on a rather mundane video tidbit that wasn't intended for mass consumption -- now imagine how many more viewers I could have had, had I been able to read this book three years ago in time to properly make and market these videos that I put on Youtube. After reading this week, I feel the need to update my Youtube account and post more videos...except this time I'll market them better and maybe give myself a fighting chance for a viral video.
Web videos were more of an afterthought for me. When I left VPS I didn't have a Mac (yet) or Final Cut Pro (yet) and had no idea how I was going to save some of the videos I did "for fun" on slow days at VPS. Then it hit me: post them on Youtube. So I did. I got responses on the videos I uploaded that I had done for previous projects, so I started to create videos explicitly for Youtube in my downtime. Some of these videos were created with B-roll that we happened to have around the office and royalty free music that we had in our rather large collection of royalty free music (once I realized Youtube would yank my videos down if I didn't use royalty free music and the artist objected to my video using their song...). My videos did fairly well, but had no clear audience. Then I did what Bourne says you should do: "[T]hink about how you plan to use the video and who will be watching it." (p. 19). It only took me a second to think, "Hey! We're in Clemson. Lots of people like Clemson. Lots of people like football. Lots of people LOVE Clemson football!" And my most successful (although still not viral) video was born. Maybe if I had marketed my video like Bourne says you should (p. 25), I would have enjoyed a larger viewership.
At any rate, I only have four videos on my Youtube channel, but my first video (which I did market to friends via email and on facebook) that was posted 3 years ago now has 35,508 views. Considering that video was made to put in a graduation video compilation my undergrad roommate and I had made to chronicle our years at Clemson and I had no intention of marketing it, it has done fairly well (not viral, of course, but well enough). I tell you this story to illustrate how easy it is to get a high number of viewership on a rather mundane video tidbit that wasn't intended for mass consumption -- now imagine how many more viewers I could have had, had I been able to read this book three years ago in time to properly make and market these videos that I put on Youtube. After reading this week, I feel the need to update my Youtube account and post more videos...except this time I'll market them better and maybe give myself a fighting chance for a viral video.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Belonging - From Italy to facebook
**I think they need a pop-up window to let you know that you've merely saved your post and not quite yet published it...**
The chapter on belonging this week was really a fun chapter to read. You never really think about belonging or what it means to "belong" to a group. This chapter made me think back to all the groups I've ever "belonged" to as well as groups I still "belong" to, regardless of my participation in them. One group that I belonged to in real life has become a group that I belong to online through no fault of those of us in the group - we merely live so far away and were only together for a short period of time. This group consists of myself and the eight girls that I lived with while I studied in Italy. Granted, we only lived together for a month while we were studying in Italy and this was in 2006, but I recently received a message on facebook from one of my roommates congratulating me on my engagement and offering her services as a wedding photographer. What's funny about this is the greeting from her message: "Hey Italian roomie!" I have become, and I guess I always was, in the small group of "Italian roomies." I still keep up with some of my other Italian roommates (although not as often as I probably should) but I still comment on their facebook walls and I still "like" their statuses sometimes, but we don't keep in touch that well. Regardless, all nine of us will always be part of the group "Italian roomies."
I share this story with y'all to point out how Dr. Howard's chapter on belonging worked in the real world and is still working in the online world. The first thing Dr. Howard talks about that creates a sense of belonging in a group is initiation rituals (p. 130). This, in Italy, was quite a feat. I was the only one among my roommates that could speak Italian (in fact, I was there to finish up my undergrad foreign language credits....so I was somewhat dangerous with my Italian) and we lived on the non-touristy side of the river in Florence (little-known fact about Florence - once you cross the river, no one speaks English. At all. Period.) That first night together, we decided to make dinner together in our tiny kitchen that holds 1-2 very small people and have a feast and a toast to our time together in Italy. That meant we had to go out in our non-English neighborhood and buy food...from people who don't speak English (or at least pretend not to). This experience (and many like it in the coming days) was our initiation ritual into Italian life (and also made us very good at charades).
The next topic Dr. Howard talks about is stories of origin (p. 131). In our group we discussed what we were doing in Italy (taking classes), why we chose Florence instead of Rome (can anyone say fashion capitol of Italy?), and what we hoped to gain from the experience (which were many varied reasons including the want to learn what it was like to live in a foreign country). We all had fairly consistently similar stories of origin which is possibly why nine girls were able to live in a five bedroom apartment together for a month without killing each other - we were all there for the same reasons and we all experienced it together (which is possibly another initiation ritual).
The next topic of discussion in Dr. Howard's book is leveling up rituals (p. 135). We had none of those, so I'll skip that topic and move on the next which is mythologies (p. 139). This is where the group moves from real life to online life. We all have shared experiences and shared stories from our time in Italy - like the hour and a half to two hours it took us to walk from our apartment to the Palazzo Michelangelo (which, by the way, has the best view of Florence with the worst hike known to man), or the time we all went to the wine tasting in Chianti, or all the times the aforementioned roommate asked us to pose for her around the city for her photography class. Because of these shared stories and shared experiences, we still stay in touch (albeit minimally) through facebook. These mythologies are what we discuss in our online time together - the shared experience of the photographer roommate taking our pictures and later showing us what her pictures look like and how she was able to use Photoshop to create such stunning pictures allows her to offer her services as a wedding photographer because she's photographed me before and I've seen her work. I know what to expect from her as a photographer and she knows what to expect from me as a subject.
The next topic that Dr. Howard discusses is symbols and codes (p. 140). I'm not sure if the rest of the group has the same symbols/codes as I do, but I'm sure we all hold some similar in type. For example, every time I go to Olive Garden, I think back to when we used to go out to eat together in Florence. There was a lovely hole-in-the-wall restaurant down the street that we celebrated one of the roommate's birthday at. The music in the Olive Garden is reminiscent of the music in this quaint, yet sophisticated restaurant. It takes me back every time. Additionally, every time I see a picture or a painting or architecture that looks even remotely Italian, I remember how it felt to explore our city and those around us. Each time something reminds me of Italy, I immediately want to go to facebook and touch base with these girls. I wonder if they're thinking of Italy too. I wonder if they miss it as much as I do. I wonder if they still feel that bond that the group created in our time in Italy.
The final topic that Dr. Howard discusses in his chapter on belonging is protocols, routines, and schemas (141). This made me giggle a little on the inside when I thought about applying it to our group. When we were face-to-face whether it was seeing each other around town or coming back to the apartment after class we would shout "Buongiorno, raggazze!" (Good day, girls!). Now that we're online, its become "Hello Italian roomie!" I'm kind of sad that we've dropped the Italian from our greeting, but we are no longer in Italy and it seems oddly out of place despite using it multiple times every day to greet one another while we were there. But that was in the moment and that was in the country and it was more acceptable. Here, we aren't the same - we're online. It's easier and quicker for us to use the English online because that's what we know (and our computers know it without giving us spelling errors) and it seems more appropriate for how we interact in our new online "group".
Hopefully through this long story of my interactions with the girls I lived with in Italy, I've shown how our group has changed and morphed with our move from living together to online only interactions.
The chapter on belonging this week was really a fun chapter to read. You never really think about belonging or what it means to "belong" to a group. This chapter made me think back to all the groups I've ever "belonged" to as well as groups I still "belong" to, regardless of my participation in them. One group that I belonged to in real life has become a group that I belong to online through no fault of those of us in the group - we merely live so far away and were only together for a short period of time. This group consists of myself and the eight girls that I lived with while I studied in Italy. Granted, we only lived together for a month while we were studying in Italy and this was in 2006, but I recently received a message on facebook from one of my roommates congratulating me on my engagement and offering her services as a wedding photographer. What's funny about this is the greeting from her message: "Hey Italian roomie!" I have become, and I guess I always was, in the small group of "Italian roomies." I still keep up with some of my other Italian roommates (although not as often as I probably should) but I still comment on their facebook walls and I still "like" their statuses sometimes, but we don't keep in touch that well. Regardless, all nine of us will always be part of the group "Italian roomies."
I share this story with y'all to point out how Dr. Howard's chapter on belonging worked in the real world and is still working in the online world. The first thing Dr. Howard talks about that creates a sense of belonging in a group is initiation rituals (p. 130). This, in Italy, was quite a feat. I was the only one among my roommates that could speak Italian (in fact, I was there to finish up my undergrad foreign language credits....so I was somewhat dangerous with my Italian) and we lived on the non-touristy side of the river in Florence (little-known fact about Florence - once you cross the river, no one speaks English. At all. Period.) That first night together, we decided to make dinner together in our tiny kitchen that holds 1-2 very small people and have a feast and a toast to our time together in Italy. That meant we had to go out in our non-English neighborhood and buy food...from people who don't speak English (or at least pretend not to). This experience (and many like it in the coming days) was our initiation ritual into Italian life (and also made us very good at charades).
The next topic Dr. Howard talks about is stories of origin (p. 131). In our group we discussed what we were doing in Italy (taking classes), why we chose Florence instead of Rome (can anyone say fashion capitol of Italy?), and what we hoped to gain from the experience (which were many varied reasons including the want to learn what it was like to live in a foreign country). We all had fairly consistently similar stories of origin which is possibly why nine girls were able to live in a five bedroom apartment together for a month without killing each other - we were all there for the same reasons and we all experienced it together (which is possibly another initiation ritual).
The next topic of discussion in Dr. Howard's book is leveling up rituals (p. 135). We had none of those, so I'll skip that topic and move on the next which is mythologies (p. 139). This is where the group moves from real life to online life. We all have shared experiences and shared stories from our time in Italy - like the hour and a half to two hours it took us to walk from our apartment to the Palazzo Michelangelo (which, by the way, has the best view of Florence with the worst hike known to man), or the time we all went to the wine tasting in Chianti, or all the times the aforementioned roommate asked us to pose for her around the city for her photography class. Because of these shared stories and shared experiences, we still stay in touch (albeit minimally) through facebook. These mythologies are what we discuss in our online time together - the shared experience of the photographer roommate taking our pictures and later showing us what her pictures look like and how she was able to use Photoshop to create such stunning pictures allows her to offer her services as a wedding photographer because she's photographed me before and I've seen her work. I know what to expect from her as a photographer and she knows what to expect from me as a subject.
The next topic that Dr. Howard discusses is symbols and codes (p. 140). I'm not sure if the rest of the group has the same symbols/codes as I do, but I'm sure we all hold some similar in type. For example, every time I go to Olive Garden, I think back to when we used to go out to eat together in Florence. There was a lovely hole-in-the-wall restaurant down the street that we celebrated one of the roommate's birthday at. The music in the Olive Garden is reminiscent of the music in this quaint, yet sophisticated restaurant. It takes me back every time. Additionally, every time I see a picture or a painting or architecture that looks even remotely Italian, I remember how it felt to explore our city and those around us. Each time something reminds me of Italy, I immediately want to go to facebook and touch base with these girls. I wonder if they're thinking of Italy too. I wonder if they miss it as much as I do. I wonder if they still feel that bond that the group created in our time in Italy.
The final topic that Dr. Howard discusses in his chapter on belonging is protocols, routines, and schemas (141). This made me giggle a little on the inside when I thought about applying it to our group. When we were face-to-face whether it was seeing each other around town or coming back to the apartment after class we would shout "Buongiorno, raggazze!" (Good day, girls!). Now that we're online, its become "Hello Italian roomie!" I'm kind of sad that we've dropped the Italian from our greeting, but we are no longer in Italy and it seems oddly out of place despite using it multiple times every day to greet one another while we were there. But that was in the moment and that was in the country and it was more acceptable. Here, we aren't the same - we're online. It's easier and quicker for us to use the English online because that's what we know (and our computers know it without giving us spelling errors) and it seems more appropriate for how we interact in our new online "group".
Hopefully through this long story of my interactions with the girls I lived with in Italy, I've shown how our group has changed and morphed with our move from living together to online only interactions.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Remuneration in Everyday Life
This week is all about remuneration. Most of the examples of remuneration in this week's readings are about online ventures and the remuneration therein. However, remuneration doesn't just happen online; It can happen anywhere! And it does. I'd like to give a few "everyday" situations that remunerate the user (or for the sake of this post, the actor - and by that I don't mean theatrical actors) before I delve into more appropriate digital remuneration examples.
My first example deals with my job off campus at the Japanese Steakhouse I work at. It may seem very simple and somewhat blasé, but going to a restaurant and working in a restaurant are both examples of when remuneration is necessary. If you are the customer, you will feel remunerated if the waitress is courteous and has everything to you in a timely manner as well as if the chef has prepared your food to your liking (and if you enjoyed the show the chef put on if you are in a restaurant like the one I currently work at). As a waitress you are remunerated if your customers make only reasonable requests of your time and attention as well as if they leave you an appropriate tip. Without the payout (tip) at the end of the day, even if the customers were kind, courteous, and not what we would call "needy," a waitress still needs that monetary remuneration at the end of the night. However, for some waitresses (myself included), the money is not the only remuneration we receive at the end of the night. More often than not the owner and/or manager of the restaurant compares every waitresses tips at the end of the night. If a waitress does consistently well, she will receive praise from her superior(s) and will most likely be given more responsibility with less supervision thus making her want to work harder to continue to be remunerated in this way.
A second example for remuneration outside the digital world is for the animal lovers; If you have ever had a really crummy day and have arrived home to see your beloved family pet who is excited to see you simply because you are there, that is a very rewarding (and remunerating) experience. Even if you did blew up the copy machine at work, ripped your pants on your way out the door to head home, and somehow drove your car into the lake and you had to ride the rest of the way home with the questionable tow-truck man who possibly hasn't bathed in the last decade, your pet doesn't care. You are home. That's all that matters. They love you no matter what and, although possibly a small gesture, just sitting near you and not judging you for anything is an amazing feeling and quite possibly the most natural remuneration known to man (and his best friend).
Now that I've set out some "real world" examples, its time for some "digital world" examples. The first example that comes to mind is the blog that each of us is maintaining this semester. Each of us puts so much into reading the material and trying to make sense of it all in a comprehensive way (some more successful than others) that we all read and respond to. The responses we receive from others on these blogs is such a great feeling! To know that others took the time to read our musings and formulate a response is a wonderful feeling. And this started on the very first blog post. If everyone remembers (or at least looks back to) their first "official" blog post based on the readings, you all will remember that Dr. Howard was one of the first to reply to everyone's blog. Little did we know it then, but Dr. Howard was remunerating us by seeding the discussion. I'm sure we all read Dr. Howard's posts and realized that he brought up great points of discussion that related to our specific blog posts and remunerated us to continue posting to see what everyone else had to say.
The second example of "digital world" remuneration I have is in instant chat utilities like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), which has been around since the days of dial-up (which I guess wasn't so "instant" then), and Skype, which has been around for a few years and is a video-chat utility. These utilities provide *instant* remuneration because you get an instant response to a question, comment, facial expression, whatever. These tools are easy to use and very strait-forward so there's no need to learn how to use an interface, etc. One technique that Dr. Howard talks about that these types of tools use is a fun text editor; Both of these tools provide emoticons and, in some cases, will let you customize your emoticons for free (i.e. you can choose different colors, different styles, sound effects, motion, etc.).
Each of these examples shows either a "real world" remuneration or a "digital world" remuneration as well as either eventual remuneration or instant remuneration. Hopefully based on these examples everyone can see how these blogs are a way of remunerating ourselves (and each other) after a week of reading materials. In fact, I wonder how many of you would post a comment if I told you that I would remunerate each post with a bag of candy for Thursday's class. That's right. Start typing ;)
My first example deals with my job off campus at the Japanese Steakhouse I work at. It may seem very simple and somewhat blasé, but going to a restaurant and working in a restaurant are both examples of when remuneration is necessary. If you are the customer, you will feel remunerated if the waitress is courteous and has everything to you in a timely manner as well as if the chef has prepared your food to your liking (and if you enjoyed the show the chef put on if you are in a restaurant like the one I currently work at). As a waitress you are remunerated if your customers make only reasonable requests of your time and attention as well as if they leave you an appropriate tip. Without the payout (tip) at the end of the day, even if the customers were kind, courteous, and not what we would call "needy," a waitress still needs that monetary remuneration at the end of the night. However, for some waitresses (myself included), the money is not the only remuneration we receive at the end of the night. More often than not the owner and/or manager of the restaurant compares every waitresses tips at the end of the night. If a waitress does consistently well, she will receive praise from her superior(s) and will most likely be given more responsibility with less supervision thus making her want to work harder to continue to be remunerated in this way.
A second example for remuneration outside the digital world is for the animal lovers; If you have ever had a really crummy day and have arrived home to see your beloved family pet who is excited to see you simply because you are there, that is a very rewarding (and remunerating) experience. Even if you did blew up the copy machine at work, ripped your pants on your way out the door to head home, and somehow drove your car into the lake and you had to ride the rest of the way home with the questionable tow-truck man who possibly hasn't bathed in the last decade, your pet doesn't care. You are home. That's all that matters. They love you no matter what and, although possibly a small gesture, just sitting near you and not judging you for anything is an amazing feeling and quite possibly the most natural remuneration known to man (and his best friend).
Now that I've set out some "real world" examples, its time for some "digital world" examples. The first example that comes to mind is the blog that each of us is maintaining this semester. Each of us puts so much into reading the material and trying to make sense of it all in a comprehensive way (some more successful than others) that we all read and respond to. The responses we receive from others on these blogs is such a great feeling! To know that others took the time to read our musings and formulate a response is a wonderful feeling. And this started on the very first blog post. If everyone remembers (or at least looks back to) their first "official" blog post based on the readings, you all will remember that Dr. Howard was one of the first to reply to everyone's blog. Little did we know it then, but Dr. Howard was remunerating us by seeding the discussion. I'm sure we all read Dr. Howard's posts and realized that he brought up great points of discussion that related to our specific blog posts and remunerated us to continue posting to see what everyone else had to say.
The second example of "digital world" remuneration I have is in instant chat utilities like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), which has been around since the days of dial-up (which I guess wasn't so "instant" then), and Skype, which has been around for a few years and is a video-chat utility. These utilities provide *instant* remuneration because you get an instant response to a question, comment, facial expression, whatever. These tools are easy to use and very strait-forward so there's no need to learn how to use an interface, etc. One technique that Dr. Howard talks about that these types of tools use is a fun text editor; Both of these tools provide emoticons and, in some cases, will let you customize your emoticons for free (i.e. you can choose different colors, different styles, sound effects, motion, etc.).
Each of these examples shows either a "real world" remuneration or a "digital world" remuneration as well as either eventual remuneration or instant remuneration. Hopefully based on these examples everyone can see how these blogs are a way of remunerating ourselves (and each other) after a week of reading materials. In fact, I wonder how many of you would post a comment if I told you that I would remunerate each post with a bag of candy for Thursday's class. That's right. Start typing ;)
Monday, September 13, 2010
Social Networking Prophesies?
I title this week's post "Social Networking Prophesies?" (emphasis on the question mark at the end) because on page 206 of Dr. Howard's book, it doesn't seem strange to those of us in this age of Internet lifestyles that these observations by Hiltz and Turoff in 1978 came true. But if we all think back to the early- to mid-90s, when watching paint dry was much quicker than a dial-up modem loading your email, you come to the same realization that I did: I thought email was the only thing the Internet was going to be useful for. Never in my wildest dreams in the 90s did I even think that voice- communication from one computer to another one down the street was possible, yet here it is 2010 and I used my computer to "call" those back home while I was on vacation in Ireland this year! To think that these two researchers in 1978 would come up with a list of things the Internet would be able to do by now is simply astonishing! I can't even begin to guess what's going to happen to the Internet tomorrow, much less in 30 years! I'm sure there were quite a few people in 1978 who thought they were crazy with making such grandiose statements of how the Internet would change society and people's lifestyles. I'll bet even in 1988 there were people who still thought these two researchers were a few crayons short of a box for these observations (read: prophesies). But from 1998 until now, I'm sure those who doubted these two are looking back and saying, "Wow! Those guys were right about this Internet thing!"
Reading further, Dr. Howard discusses the "cost of literacy" (209). I wonder if Hiltz and Turoff thought about the cost of literacy for their predictions. Like the CEO of Twitter, Evan Williams, is quoted as saying that he "never anticipated the many, many uses which would evolve from this simple system" (205). I wonder if Hiltz and Turoff thought that the Internet would aid in reporting social uprisings like what happened in Tehran or natural disasters such as the San Diego wildfire. Could they have predicted that the Internet, along with the list on page 206 of their predictions, would allow ordinary citizens (read: users) to have a voice and a presence in the entire world, but that that voice could cost them whatever freedoms they are allotted? Additionally, could they have foreseen what Dr. Howard calls the "Dilemma of Control vs. Creativity" (215)? Before the Internet, plagiarism and ownership of ideas were more or less cut and dry ideas. Yet, with the Internet, "sampling," which according to Wikipedia is "the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song. The wide spread use of sampling in popular music originated with the birth of hip hop music in New York in the 1970s" (Wikipedia ) seems to be taking a new direction - people are "sampling" others writing and editing it (such as on Wikipedia). The lines between authorship (and thus ownership of ideas) and collaborative writing (i.e. Wikipedia) are becoming blurred. Could Hiltz and Turoff have seen this idea of collective writing and sampling in the authorship of ideas blossom into what is today the norm since a type of collective writing and sampling in music was already in use during the 1970s?
Reading further, Dr. Howard discusses the "cost of literacy" (209). I wonder if Hiltz and Turoff thought about the cost of literacy for their predictions. Like the CEO of Twitter, Evan Williams, is quoted as saying that he "never anticipated the many, many uses which would evolve from this simple system" (205). I wonder if Hiltz and Turoff thought that the Internet would aid in reporting social uprisings like what happened in Tehran or natural disasters such as the San Diego wildfire. Could they have predicted that the Internet, along with the list on page 206 of their predictions, would allow ordinary citizens (read: users) to have a voice and a presence in the entire world, but that that voice could cost them whatever freedoms they are allotted? Additionally, could they have foreseen what Dr. Howard calls the "Dilemma of Control vs. Creativity" (215)? Before the Internet, plagiarism and ownership of ideas were more or less cut and dry ideas. Yet, with the Internet, "sampling," which according to Wikipedia is "the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song. The wide spread use of sampling in popular music originated with the birth of hip hop music in New York in the 1970s" (Wikipedia ) seems to be taking a new direction - people are "sampling" others writing and editing it (such as on Wikipedia). The lines between authorship (and thus ownership of ideas) and collaborative writing (i.e. Wikipedia) are becoming blurred. Could Hiltz and Turoff have seen this idea of collective writing and sampling in the authorship of ideas blossom into what is today the norm since a type of collective writing and sampling in music was already in use during the 1970s?
Monday, September 6, 2010
On Technological Advances
While reading this week, I got stuck on Shirky's repeated examples of technological advances. It got me thinking to back when "smart phones" first came on the market. I cannot tell you how excited I was to get my iPhone two years ago (yes, I'm a late adopter, what can I say -- aside from sorry for throwing in Communication theories on a blog for an English class...). I sat in the parking lot and began texting my friends that I had just purchased my first "smart phone" after years of telling everyone I needed to make phone calls and send quick text messages. I didn't need the internet or the youtube app or any of that other fancy stuff. When I showed my fiancee my new iPhone, I thought he was going to be so impressed with all the cool stuff this new gadget could do (I bought the second version of the iPhone right when it came out). However, as I was showing him my cool new phone, he pulled out his phone from his study abroad in Japan. Let me tell you, they have the coolest gadgets over in Japan! I thought we were a gadget-obsessed country, but we cannot hold a candle to the Japanese when it comes to cool (and useful) gadgets!
In Japan, apparently basic cell phones have the capability of doing all of the things our "new" cell phones can do as well as act as portable televisions. Can you imagine?!?! A TV you can carry around with you in your pocket for that early commute to work or school. And these phones have been out for years. It makes me wonder what "new" technologies we have that would be considered yesterday's news, and what we think will be tomorrow's technology that they already have today.
In the Epilogue, Shirky is discussing how everyone was discussing how nuclear power and space flight were going to be the next big thing in technological advances (299-300). I'm now wondering if those in Japan knew it was going to be birth control and transistors (300). Did such a tech-savvy and tech-advanced country see the rise of social media? Could we possibly learn from this tech-savvy country and grow our technological advances at a faster rate to equate to theirs?
In Japan, apparently basic cell phones have the capability of doing all of the things our "new" cell phones can do as well as act as portable televisions. Can you imagine?!?! A TV you can carry around with you in your pocket for that early commute to work or school. And these phones have been out for years. It makes me wonder what "new" technologies we have that would be considered yesterday's news, and what we think will be tomorrow's technology that they already have today.
In the Epilogue, Shirky is discussing how everyone was discussing how nuclear power and space flight were going to be the next big thing in technological advances (299-300). I'm now wondering if those in Japan knew it was going to be birth control and transistors (300). Did such a tech-savvy and tech-advanced country see the rise of social media? Could we possibly learn from this tech-savvy country and grow our technological advances at a faster rate to equate to theirs?
Monday, August 30, 2010
Online Communities - From WoW to our blogs
This week is all about social media - social networks and social communities. Until I read Dr. Howard's book (which is what I will focus on for this post to spare everyone my erratic thought process in jumping from book to book) I was with Buss and Strauss and their definition of online communities. I had no idea there was more to the story.
I have been playing WoW for two or three years now. Starting to play was not my idea and I was forced against my own volition to play. I thought, "Now why do I need to waste my time with some silly game!?" Once I started playing, though, I started making "friends" and I was invited to do things within the game with them. Soon people were counting on me to be in the game at a certain time and I was relying on them to be there too. We had agreed to meet and work toward a common goal. To make a long story short, after playing for just a few years, I have to admit that there is one player I communicate with outside of WoW who knows my real name and what I look like. She and I are "friends" on facebook and she and I text and call each other every once in a while when we haven't been able to catch each other on WoW.
I tell you this story because, 1) I am amazed to find out that people research this and 2) I think this is more evidence of Dr. Howard's point that the connections in online communities versus online networks is much stronger. As Dr. Howard puts it, "in communities, however, the secondary connections are far stronger. Communities aren't just a collection of individuals; instead, members have made a commitment to achieve the shared passions and goals of the group" (16). I think this can also be said of our small network of blogs here. We are not the "normal" bloggers out there writing, hoping (or sometimes not hoping, just writing for the sake of writing) someone will "follow" us because they find us interesting, funny, witty, or whatever they are looking for. Our small network of blogs is a community because we are here to 1) share ideas, 2) cooperate in the learning process and help each other grow from our readings and our [now] shared experiences, and 3) because our collective action (our syllabus) mandates that this is the appropriate outlet for such discussion.
Let me further explain; as Dr. Howard explains in his section on sharing, "it requires the least amount of organizational complexity" (17). Thus, by posting our thoughts, we are sharing with each. It is quite a simple task. It is not a far leap for me to make that claim. The second "rung" in Shirkey's proverbial ladder (I know, I said I'd focus on Dr. Howard's book for this post to save you from mental red-rover with the two readings, but at this point they are both discussing similar ideas, so it is hard no to red-rover...however, I will keep pages numbers and quotations limited to Dr. Howard's book to avoid confusion) is cooperation. Cooperation, according to Dr. Howard, is more complex and requires more effort than mere sharing (18-19). This concept essentially requires a dialogue of sorts. The dialogue for our blogs is simple. Once we've each posted our thoughts, we go around to everyone else's blog and read their thoughts and comments on them. Thus the conversation (and cooperation) continues. The third piece of this puzzle is the most complex of the three: collective action (19-20). This is the puzzle piece that goes on the very inside of the puzzle but you can't figure out where until you pull out the directions. The puzzle directions in this case refer to our class syllabus where our policies and agreements are stated. This lets us know where and when to respond to our readings (on our blogs, by Monday night).
That being said, I think I've made it clear that I see online communities as special places for collaboration. I focused on this small section of Dr. Howard's book because it was the most resonant for me; as much as I love computers and social media, I have no intention of attempting to create a social network or social community any time in the near (or far) future so, although chapter three was interesting, it was not something I could relate to on a personal note whereas I have experience with the information in chapter two (who doesn't, in this day and age?) and thus wanted to write about that. After all, this blog is about how we apply these readings to our lives (and vice versa), right?
By the way, I hope that I have not overstepped my bounds by applying the proverbial ladder analogy to our small group of blogs...
I have been playing WoW for two or three years now. Starting to play was not my idea and I was forced against my own volition to play. I thought, "Now why do I need to waste my time with some silly game!?" Once I started playing, though, I started making "friends" and I was invited to do things within the game with them. Soon people were counting on me to be in the game at a certain time and I was relying on them to be there too. We had agreed to meet and work toward a common goal. To make a long story short, after playing for just a few years, I have to admit that there is one player I communicate with outside of WoW who knows my real name and what I look like. She and I are "friends" on facebook and she and I text and call each other every once in a while when we haven't been able to catch each other on WoW.
I tell you this story because, 1) I am amazed to find out that people research this and 2) I think this is more evidence of Dr. Howard's point that the connections in online communities versus online networks is much stronger. As Dr. Howard puts it, "in communities, however, the secondary connections are far stronger. Communities aren't just a collection of individuals; instead, members have made a commitment to achieve the shared passions and goals of the group" (16). I think this can also be said of our small network of blogs here. We are not the "normal" bloggers out there writing, hoping (or sometimes not hoping, just writing for the sake of writing) someone will "follow" us because they find us interesting, funny, witty, or whatever they are looking for. Our small network of blogs is a community because we are here to 1) share ideas, 2) cooperate in the learning process and help each other grow from our readings and our [now] shared experiences, and 3) because our collective action (our syllabus) mandates that this is the appropriate outlet for such discussion.
Let me further explain; as Dr. Howard explains in his section on sharing, "it requires the least amount of organizational complexity" (17). Thus, by posting our thoughts, we are sharing with each. It is quite a simple task. It is not a far leap for me to make that claim. The second "rung" in Shirkey's proverbial ladder (I know, I said I'd focus on Dr. Howard's book for this post to save you from mental red-rover with the two readings, but at this point they are both discussing similar ideas, so it is hard no to red-rover...however, I will keep pages numbers and quotations limited to Dr. Howard's book to avoid confusion) is cooperation. Cooperation, according to Dr. Howard, is more complex and requires more effort than mere sharing (18-19). This concept essentially requires a dialogue of sorts. The dialogue for our blogs is simple. Once we've each posted our thoughts, we go around to everyone else's blog and read their thoughts and comments on them. Thus the conversation (and cooperation) continues. The third piece of this puzzle is the most complex of the three: collective action (19-20). This is the puzzle piece that goes on the very inside of the puzzle but you can't figure out where until you pull out the directions. The puzzle directions in this case refer to our class syllabus where our policies and agreements are stated. This lets us know where and when to respond to our readings (on our blogs, by Monday night).
That being said, I think I've made it clear that I see online communities as special places for collaboration. I focused on this small section of Dr. Howard's book because it was the most resonant for me; as much as I love computers and social media, I have no intention of attempting to create a social network or social community any time in the near (or far) future so, although chapter three was interesting, it was not something I could relate to on a personal note whereas I have experience with the information in chapter two (who doesn't, in this day and age?) and thus wanted to write about that. After all, this blog is about how we apply these readings to our lives (and vice versa), right?
By the way, I hope that I have not overstepped my bounds by applying the proverbial ladder analogy to our small group of blogs...
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Stories On Storytelling
I title this post "Stories On Storytelling" because I will be telling three short story snippets in response to the readings about storytelling (one story snippet per book). Somehow, this makes me feel as if this post is less A.D.D. by considering it a compilation of three short stories as opposed to a long convoluted story with three miniature, unrelated stories therein. So without further ado, three miniature, unrelated story snippets for your reading enjoyment:
A lot of the story snippets I will share with you all were brought to my mind via Made To Stick. True to its name, the things Heath & Heath discuss in this book really did stick. My first story snippet came from reading about mental simulation (Chapter 6: Stories). If anyone had told that this was an effective way to communicate before starting undergrad, I would have scoffed and told them they were full of themselves. What changed was my Italian language professor from Columbia College in 2004. My friends and I had just started our sophomore year in college and were still "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" and generally excited about being in college. Our Italian professor that year was Professor Pauluzi (he insisted on a 20 minute lesson on the pronunciation of his name: Pow-loot-see), and he moved to America with his family as a small child, so English is his second language and he did not learn it until he got here. While helping us prepare for an oral examination in which we would have to hold a conversation with one another, he noticed some of us had problems thinking of things to say. He told us that, as a child, he would often walk to the gas station down the road to buy candy. Along the way he would hold entire conversations with himself so he would know what to say to the cashier. He did this everyday. He told us all to start doing that. Every day as we were studying we were to mentally simulate any and all possible conversations so we would not have to stammer during an exam to think of things to say. And it worked! We all aced our next exam because of this technique. This long convoluted story within a story is to show that mental simulation is a form of mental stimulation that can help you move past your stress (210-212) or even learn to converse in a new language. The possibilities are endless!
My next story came about while reading "Whyse's Story" (Chapter four) in Squirrel Inc. This story snippet is about my first job/internship at Clemson during undergrad. I worked for a lovely woman who has been in many different industries; from designing lingerie to making a Clemson brand (many of you from Clemson's past I'm sure will remember the bouncing Tiger Paw advertisements from 2004) she's been there and done that. Most of her work is about branding. When I came to work with her during the summer of 2005, she was in the process of trying to generate new ideas for the Clemson brand for the coming football season. She asked me to come up with ideas for 30 second commercials that would say all there is to know about Clemson. 30 seconds! That was it! So I set about my task. I tried to think of all that Clemson was and all that it could be in the future. I thought about what the students are looking for, what the parents are looking for, what donors are looking for, and what prospective employers want their prospective employees to get from their college experience. Its hard to combine all that you are and all that you want to be in a 30 second spot. So we made four 30 second spots. Each of the spots were tailored to a specific aspect of Clemson we wanted to highlight. With each of these 30 second spots, we were telling mini-story snippets. We were getting people interested in who we are (and by "we" I mean Clemson). Those spots were less about a "brand" and more about what Clemson is about. Branding is important and it is a part of who someone is, but that year it was more important to let people know about Clemson through four different commercials highlighting four different, yet equally important aspects of Clemson as opposed to most "branding" campaigns that focus only on the most well-known aspect of a business, school, person, etc. (which for Clemson would have been football, of course.)
My last story is of course inspired by what I read in Neuro Web Design. The Once Upon A Time Let Me Tell You A Story concept. I never realized how important this is to the human existence until we started these blogs. True, this is the first "real" blog post I've made to this blog, but so many of my friends have asked for my blog address to keep up with my story. My musings. My whatever. When we created these blogs last week, I posted to facebook that I was making a blog. So many of my "friends" "liked" that I was making a blog and many even asked me what I was writing about and if they could have the address. It amazed me how these people, some I haven't talked to in years, are now interested in what story I am telling. It amazes me how, if I were to stand on the library bridge and recite this for all to hear during class breaks, I'm sure a good percentage of the students would go out of their way to not have to cross the library bridge and hear me "prattle" on about whatever it is I'm trying to sell them. I know I've done that. When I see people handing out papers or selling things or standing on boxes talking to no one in general and trying to get their story out, I will walk a mile out of the way if I have to just to avoid the "harassment" of my personal "me" time in between classes. However, if those same people put their story up on the web so that I could access it on my own time and it was not thrown in my face unwarranted, I would probably sit down and read and see what it was about. Even if it was the same story. The fact that someone can tell a story and people around the world will listen as long as they have an internet connection baffles me. But I am pleasantly surprised as well because now we can all share stories and experiences and learn from one another the way we did as children: through storytelling. Which, of course, was the entire purpose of this week's readings...as well as making sure we are all now acutely aware of the fact that we do tell stories on a daily basis.
A lot of the story snippets I will share with you all were brought to my mind via Made To Stick. True to its name, the things Heath & Heath discuss in this book really did stick. My first story snippet came from reading about mental simulation (Chapter 6: Stories). If anyone had told that this was an effective way to communicate before starting undergrad, I would have scoffed and told them they were full of themselves. What changed was my Italian language professor from Columbia College in 2004. My friends and I had just started our sophomore year in college and were still "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" and generally excited about being in college. Our Italian professor that year was Professor Pauluzi (he insisted on a 20 minute lesson on the pronunciation of his name: Pow-loot-see), and he moved to America with his family as a small child, so English is his second language and he did not learn it until he got here. While helping us prepare for an oral examination in which we would have to hold a conversation with one another, he noticed some of us had problems thinking of things to say. He told us that, as a child, he would often walk to the gas station down the road to buy candy. Along the way he would hold entire conversations with himself so he would know what to say to the cashier. He did this everyday. He told us all to start doing that. Every day as we were studying we were to mentally simulate any and all possible conversations so we would not have to stammer during an exam to think of things to say. And it worked! We all aced our next exam because of this technique. This long convoluted story within a story is to show that mental simulation is a form of mental stimulation that can help you move past your stress (210-212) or even learn to converse in a new language. The possibilities are endless!
My next story came about while reading "Whyse's Story" (Chapter four) in Squirrel Inc. This story snippet is about my first job/internship at Clemson during undergrad. I worked for a lovely woman who has been in many different industries; from designing lingerie to making a Clemson brand (many of you from Clemson's past I'm sure will remember the bouncing Tiger Paw advertisements from 2004) she's been there and done that. Most of her work is about branding. When I came to work with her during the summer of 2005, she was in the process of trying to generate new ideas for the Clemson brand for the coming football season. She asked me to come up with ideas for 30 second commercials that would say all there is to know about Clemson. 30 seconds! That was it! So I set about my task. I tried to think of all that Clemson was and all that it could be in the future. I thought about what the students are looking for, what the parents are looking for, what donors are looking for, and what prospective employers want their prospective employees to get from their college experience. Its hard to combine all that you are and all that you want to be in a 30 second spot. So we made four 30 second spots. Each of the spots were tailored to a specific aspect of Clemson we wanted to highlight. With each of these 30 second spots, we were telling mini-story snippets. We were getting people interested in who we are (and by "we" I mean Clemson). Those spots were less about a "brand" and more about what Clemson is about. Branding is important and it is a part of who someone is, but that year it was more important to let people know about Clemson through four different commercials highlighting four different, yet equally important aspects of Clemson as opposed to most "branding" campaigns that focus only on the most well-known aspect of a business, school, person, etc. (which for Clemson would have been football, of course.)
My last story is of course inspired by what I read in Neuro Web Design. The Once Upon A Time Let Me Tell You A Story concept. I never realized how important this is to the human existence until we started these blogs. True, this is the first "real" blog post I've made to this blog, but so many of my friends have asked for my blog address to keep up with my story. My musings. My whatever. When we created these blogs last week, I posted to facebook that I was making a blog. So many of my "friends" "liked" that I was making a blog and many even asked me what I was writing about and if they could have the address. It amazed me how these people, some I haven't talked to in years, are now interested in what story I am telling. It amazes me how, if I were to stand on the library bridge and recite this for all to hear during class breaks, I'm sure a good percentage of the students would go out of their way to not have to cross the library bridge and hear me "prattle" on about whatever it is I'm trying to sell them. I know I've done that. When I see people handing out papers or selling things or standing on boxes talking to no one in general and trying to get their story out, I will walk a mile out of the way if I have to just to avoid the "harassment" of my personal "me" time in between classes. However, if those same people put their story up on the web so that I could access it on my own time and it was not thrown in my face unwarranted, I would probably sit down and read and see what it was about. Even if it was the same story. The fact that someone can tell a story and people around the world will listen as long as they have an internet connection baffles me. But I am pleasantly surprised as well because now we can all share stories and experiences and learn from one another the way we did as children: through storytelling. Which, of course, was the entire purpose of this week's readings...as well as making sure we are all now acutely aware of the fact that we do tell stories on a daily basis.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
My First Blog Post
Since this blog has yet to become interesting or fun, feel free to take a look at one of my current favorite blogs: Cakewrecks! Maybe the next time you visit, there will actually be usable content here.
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