Last Day!!!! April 23, 2008

Today marks the last official day of classes. Normally, that means the learning would be over for at least a couple weeks or even months. However, I nkow when it comes to interactive media, the learning never stops. Just today I stumbled upon these two websites, which are literally on the forefront of all things Web 2.0.

TechCrunch.com is a “weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. In addition to covering new companies, we profile existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the new web space.” I surfed the site for a while and found a cool post about “Lightpole” which claims to “illuminate your place world using your mobile phone”. Basically, it gives directions, maps, and information about wherever you may be or want to go. Pretty cool… check it out here!

eHub- “eHub is a constantly updated list of web applications, services, resources, blogs or sites with a focus on next generation web (web 2.0), social software, blogging, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, location mapping, open source, folksonomy, design and digital media sharing.”

I hope you enjoy expoloring these sites as much as I did!!!

Missed Class :( April 17, 2008

I had to miss class today for a doctor’s appointment. Luckily, everything was okay, but I felt I needed a dose of Interactive Media anyway! I decided to do some Second Life searching and was surprised by what I found. Check out these statistics!!!

Population Residents Logged-In During Last 7 Days	414,100
Residents Logged-In During Last 14 Days	538,829
Residents Logged-In During Last 30 Days	781,904
Residents Logged-In During Last 60 Days	1,198,067
Total Residents	13,359,451

Monthly Spending by Amount (2008 March)
Transaction Size	Residents
1 – 500 L$	119,205
501 – 2,000 L$	63,940
2001 – 5,000 L$	48,453
5,001 – 10,000 L$	34,651
10,001 – 50,000 L$	59,092
50,001 – 100,000 L$	12,818
100,001 – 500,000 L$	9,338
500,001 – 1,000,000 L$	769
Over 1,000,000 L$	506
Total Customers Spending Money In-World	348,772

User to User Transactions

Monthly User Hours

Peak Concurrent Users

This is literally a whole world! I still don’t think I’ve truly grasped the concept. Maybe once I spend my first Linden (Second Life currency) this other world will become more real to me.

Second Life April 10, 2008

So many questions, so little time. Today in class, our guest lecturers taught us about Second Life, “an online, 3D virtual world imagined and created by its residents”. I must say it blew my mind. I had no idea that people were actually involved in something as groundbreaking as this. I must admit the idea of spending thousands of dollars on “beach front” property in an imaginary world sounds insane, but intriguing nonetheless. One of the things I find very exciting about Second Life is that it’s another outlet to get your political voice heard. Each of the candidates have their own “islands” where supporters can discuss issues or even buy a button! Pretty cool stuff! Here’s a picture from the Obama island.

I’ve created my own avatar named Laurena Axel (a good friend of mine calls me Laurena and Axel is just one of the few last names provided by Second Life). Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to actually enter this new “Second Life” of mine and start exploring. I’ll keep you posted on my progress as soon as I make some.

More EA April 7, 2008

Fitting with my last post, I found this article from the Gainesville Sun about Erin Andrews and where she sees sportscasting in the future. The story, by campus correspondent Talal Elmasry, is titled “ESPN’s Erin Andrews sees ‘convergence’ in sports”. Read it here.

Erin Andrews April 5, 2008

I had the great opportunity and absolute pleasure of having lunch with ESPN Sideline Reporter and the College of Journalism’s Outstanding Young Alumna Erin Andrews a few weeks ago.  Dean John Wright and WUFT Sports Director Justin Felder also joined us and we had a great time. We talked about sports and the future of the business. The Dean sent me this picture, and I figured, in the spirit of multimedia journalism, I’d put it on the Web!

Since we’re on the topic of Multimedia journalism, I just wanted to point out that ESPN.com does an AMAZING job with presenting its content in all sorts of interesting and interactive ways. 

A few other sports websites that are truly doing it Web 2.0 style:

Gatorzone

Rivals

CBS Sports Line

Just to name a few!

FLASH!!! April 3, 2008

We worked with Flash in class today and I can’t believe how easy it was. I expected it to be much more complicated, but was thrilled to find out I was capable of creating a great Flash animation. Inspired by what we learned, I decided to Google “Flash Tutorials” so learn a few more tips and tricks. Check out the links below.

Flash Perfection

W3 Schools

Flash Designer Zone

NOTE: I’m not saying these are as informative as the tutorials of Flash Pro Mindy McAdams, but they’re still very useful!

 

My Very Own Database April 1, 2008

Hey All,

Check out my first database. Follow this link to find out where all the live music in Gainesville is.

Enjoy!

Advisory Council Visit March 27, 2008

The Telecommunication Advisory Council came to our class today and discussed the future of multimedia journalism. We had the pleasure of speaking with several different professionals, each with a variety of experiences in Interactive media based at the stations they have worked for. Those journalists included Michael Williams (Reporter, WFOR), Donna Bell (Anchor/Reporter, WJHG), Jackie Barron (Reporter, WFLA), and Kim Wilson (Executive Producer, WJXT). It was interesting to see how convergence was playing a part in each of their careers. For Jackie Barron, convergence isn’t anything new. She’s been with WFLA in Tampa for several years and is very familiar with their converged operation. She finds that as long as you keep to a schedule, you can successfully report for a few different media platforms in one day without sacrificing quality. On the other hand, Donna Bell noticed a big of challenge converging in her newsroom. WJHG in Panama City is a smaller station with less resources. Most reporters are young (1st or 2nd job) and are just making it with one or two packages for television a day. She notices a bit of a decrease in quality when the reporters are required to file stories online.

The main lesson I took away from that class session was that convergence is inevitable. Even the smallest stations are having their reporters file work for the web, despite the already strained resources. All I can suggest to myself and future “backpack journalists” is to keep on a schedule, stay cool, and make sure you really love your craft. Another advisory council member said, “You don’t want a job. You want to wake up every day and have fun….and getting paid is just a nice bonus!”

Caspio Tutorials March 25, 2008

I just got an email from a Caspio representative that contains a couple informational tutorials on how to successfully build build your first web form or application using Caspio Bridge.

Check out the tutorials below…

Video 1 - Create a web form in just 5 minutes

Video 2 – Deploy with a simple “copy-and-paste”

Atlas Practice March 23, 2008

Making a map online is way easier than I ever anticipated. Thanks to Joe Black’s visit to our class this week, I now know that databasing and mapping is within the realm of possibilities for our work in our Interactive Reporting course this semester. I’m working on getting a database so I can practice using Caspio. For now, I’ll show you what I came up with when I did a little dabbling in Atlas.

 Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t allow me to embed the code, but I’ve Included the link here.

Gainesville Events Map for March 24th