South of Market Bars and Clubs

A driving/walking route of many popular SOMA bars and clubs: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=107304162555439024463.0004861b12802d042f03e&ll=37.777838,-122.408638&spn=0.016349,0.026093&z=15&iwloc=0004862a4cb4217a60e97


View South of Market Bars and Clubs in a larger map

Using Google Maps seemed a little difficult and unfamiliar at first, but once I worked with the program for about half and hour I started to pick up just how easy it was; the video was definitely helpful. The potential here is that any organization or individual can create a map easily using this application and make it simple for anybody to find them. If I were to improve upon it’s design, I would make it so one could change some of the finer points like the font type, colors and maybe even a 3-D mode. Another possible idea would to combine this with a timeline, like the one on Dipity, to explain past, present and future events with much greater detail.

Dipity Do Da

Jay Dawg on Dipity.

Dipity is good for for creating a quick and easy time line. It's simplicity is very approachable for the novice user. The looks of it are a little cheap and I would not use this for a professional presentation but for sharing with friends and colleges it would be just fine. Time lines in general are a good way of presenting information in a linear and orderly fashion. This tool if refined would be an excellent teaching tool.

Social Network Exercise

First Entry:
I grew up in southern California in a suburb 30 miles north of Los Angeles and was having trouble meeting anyone like myself where I lived. I first started using social media at around age 20. In 1998 I used a singles site called Yahoo Personals. I used the site because as a closeted gay man I felt I wasn't able to meet people any other way. It was a good way for a young gay man to meet other guys without going to a gay bar. I had my first date with a guy because of this site. After dating for a year I eventually met the guy I have been with for almost 12 years. Even though Yahoo Personals is now one of just many dating sites, I will always think of theirs with fondness. Yahoo Personals was a tool that allowed me to break out of my shell and to meet the truly wonderful guy I'm with now.

Currently the social site I use the most is Facebook. I use it to keep in touch with friends and family even when I am too busy or too far away to meet up in person. Another great use for Facebook is for organizing social activities. I can quickly and easily send out a time and date to my friends about a party or a group bicycle ride around the city. One of my favorite things to do is to organize a group of our friends to ride our bikes over to the Speakeasy brewery. Every Friday they have an open house where you can view their brewing facilities and sample some of their latest creations. About once a month I send out the word on Facebook that we will be getting together to ride over there. There's usually about 10 - 15 of our friends who show up for the ride.

Second Entry:
The social site I choose was Twitter. For some time I have resisted signing up for this site because of all the jokes that surround it. It's commonly known as a place where people post their random and mundane thoughts on the web for anyone who cares to see. "Tweets", as these small posts are known as, are limited to 140 characters in length. I signed up under the name Warren Piece and my first Tweet read, "I just signed up for Twitter. Does that make me a Twit?"




In order to receive tweets from other people, I had become what is called a "follower." I clicked to follow Rachel Maddow, Arianna Huffington, Anderson Cooper, Barack Obama, Conan O'Brien, and some actual real people who don't appear on TV. I found the tweets to be more of a stream of consciousness than a conversation. People kind of just say what ever is on the top of their heads. I guess you could say the goal, if there is one, is to get as many followers as you can. Because the more followers you have, the more people are basically saying, "Hey, I find you interesting enough to pay attention to your psycho-babble."

Third Entry:
What does the future of social networking look like? The future is going to be the broad use of video conferencing software as a means to communicate over short and long distances. It will be even more "iphone" like cellphones, that allow you to be plugged in to a network, chating with people who are in close proximity of the cafe you're at sipping your chai iced tea, and seeing if they'd like to join you. It will be in the virtual realm of your choosing, chatting with a pirate, hobbit, or a knight in shinning armor and discovering within the game environment that you both share a passion for trips to the wine country. The future of social networks will have many different faces to suit whatever your current mood and/or interest.

4/8/2010 Virtual Worlds - YoVille

a) The name of my chosen virtual world is YoVille.
b) The name of my avatar is JayDawg.
c) JayDawg is a rebel against mindless authority. He thinks great rewards are only found by those have a taste for extreme risk. His biggest fault is his passion for excitement makes him live life on the edge. He believes that the only thing worst than death is being afraid to live.
His talents include having a subtle bark but a very mean bite if confronted, being a fearless daredevil, and he can be very charming when he needs to be. He values real friends over superficial scenesters. He distrusts most conventional types and therefore has only a tight knit social network of other likeminded individuals.
He was born on a mountain, raised in a cave, boose, bikes, and being a bad boy is all he craves.


The event I attended was a group of 30 somethings. I walked around chatting to various people. I was accepted in the group. I had alot of people interested in taking about who and what I was about. I asked one of the party goers what what kind of things people did in the party and he said mainly just chat and get to know about people. Most of the interactions with people seemed pretty silly and light, this is after all, a game environment. Mostly a bunch of singles talk, some of it a little naughty. Not too impressed to be honest. Maybe if I had a better computer my cyber interactions would be more in depth than the easy going crowd found in YoVille.
















DESIGN QUESTIONS:

Q1: Identify 3 components in the interface or world provide you with TEXT-based information. How are they designed and how do you interact with them?
A: The characters quote bubbles, hovering the cursor over the icons, and the event listings.

Q2: Identify 3 components in the interface or world provide you with NON-TEXT-based information. How are they designed and how do you interact with them?
A: The icons, the status bar, and the YoCash indicators.

Q3: Give 3 examples of how color, shape, contrast, position, motion, or sound function in the world or interface design? The colors used in YoVille set the mood of the spaces you are in. The placement of furniture can make the rooms easy to move around or seem cluttered depending on their position. Some of the parties have music and really add a festive feel to the event.

Q4: How are various tasks and goals communicated to you at the start? How does this evolve as you gain more experience? Name a few ways that you are encouraged to complete tasks and attain goals.
A: The game displays pop-ups that contain various tasks needed to complete. If you complete the task you are rewarded with things like furniture or YoCoins.

Q5: Which features of your selected world contribute to an immersive feeling (like you are really there) (reading: HOH-Immersion) and which features break it?
A: The live chat feature is probably the most immersive part of the game. The cartoony graphics are what break the immersion.

Q6: Attempt to socialize with other avatars. Describe the basics of what you did and the results. What were the limitations you experienced?
A: I was commenting on what a great party it was during one of the events I checked out. The feedback people gave me in return seemed like they approved of my presence in this social scene. The limitation was that it was all light conversation. There didn't seem like much room for an intellectual conversation.

Q7: What is the basis of the economy of your selected world? Give some concrete examples of ways your avatar participates in that economy.
A: The monetary units used are YoCoins and YoCash. You can earn YoCoins slowly by going to a job within the game or performing a variety of goofy tasks. You can also quickly obtain YoCash by buying products from participating businesses or just by flat out buying it with your real money or credit.

Q8: Identify your favorite in-world activity and why it was your favorite.
A:I liked exploring all of the interesting spaces in the game. The user made spaces were cool because of how personalized and random they could be.

Q9: How do in-world objects tell you how to operate them and/or aid in that operation?
A: A message pops up with instructions on how to perform certain operations.

Q10: Identify 1 aspect of your selected world that relates directly to the HOH-Agency Chapter and explain how.
A: I would have to say shopping. When you get to buy the the furniture you like and want for your apartment, its that kind of control over one circumstances really give one a sense of agency.

227 Week 2 Class Assignment

Here are several technologies I use on a daily basis:

My iBookG4

This is my office, social organizer, news stream, and creative outlet. It is the most invaluable tool in my life. I have become dependent on it's ability to save every thought and idea I have. As an easily distracted person, if I weren't able to manage the fireworks of information in my life with the use of this machine, I would be lost. Between work, school, social life, hobbies, interests, and everyday errands, it always seems like there's to much to do and not enough time to do it all. The only way for me to keep track of it all is by using this amazing little machine. I have used it to find work, use it for work related stuff, use it to shop, to do the bills, to make travel arrangements, to create graphic art pieces, to create music, post pics and videos, and to connect to my friends and family through e-mails and Facebook. I am digital for sure. Both sets of my grandparents know how to use the computer, and well. Which just demonstrates how pervasive technology has become.

My ipod

I am a room-service waiter at the Union Square Marriott. I get up at 4 AM to get ready for my job which starts at 5 (most people cringe when I tell them this). Everyday I ride my bicycle about 20 minutes in the cloak of darkness to get there. I do this since MUNI in this town stinks at that hour (as well as some of the passengers). Getting up at this forsaken hour is a very dreary task, so to soften the harsh blow of having to ride in chilly early morning air, I listen to some tunes on my way to work. Because of this device I don't feel so bad and actually I am in a pretty good mood after just a few minutes into the ride.

The grandparents don't use one of these, so when it comes to music they're analog all the way.

My cellphone

It's my computer away from home. Sure I use it for phone calls but that's just the beginning of what this sleek, sexy little gadget can do. It does photos, video, music, ringtones, alarm clock, calendar, and it can even cook a hot dog! (or is it that it microwaves the side your brain? I forget...)

My favorite function is that it can record live audio. As a musician I might be strumming my acoustic or tapping out some notes on my keyboard. If I do something cool that sounds really good I just pull out this little baby and hit the record button. If I want to recall a piece I was working on I just hit play.

My grandparents use cellphones too. What can I say? Their pretty savvy when it comes to the modern world. They're even on Facebook.

I prefer not to incorporate other peoples ideas and words artificially into my own writing unless I feel their writing styles mesh well with my own. Instead of trying to do so, here is my take on the readings:

In the DNA of information, the author Nicholas Negroponte expresses the differences between analog reality and the digital realm. As technology has improved, the ability to store media digitally can preserve information so close to its original analog quality, that Negronte compares the difference in bits and atoms to being like a cup freeze dried expresso being indistinguishable to its freshly brewed counterpart. He follows with the thought that all forms of media (newspapers, television, computers, etc.) are beginning to fuse together and will continue to offer the user a even more customized media experience.

In the Medium is the Message, McLuhan discusses how the delivery of content becomes almost more powerful than as the ideas contained within. The public consciousness is shaped by each new form of media. As a result, the thoughts and attitudes of entire societies are formed not just by what we see but how they are seeing it. McLuhan mentions how top minds in Britain didn't fully understand the threat of Hitler because of their anti-red bias. It's almost an analogy of how little Americans are aware of Middle Eastern culture, mainly because the medium of media delivery does not lend itself to any viewpoint outside that of Western thought. In closing he sees similarity between various form of media and a limited group of commodities. A society without a diverse mixture of resources become dependent on the few they have and begin to exhibit certain observable traits. This dependancy has aspects that resemble a master/slave relationship. Eventually the master's grip erodes and the master succumbs to the slave mentality.

In the Don Norman reading, he touches on the same analog vs. digital theme as Negroponte. Interestingly enough, the slave concept brought up in the McLuhan reading is also touched on but in an inverse manner. Norman talks about how digital technology is the slave of accuracy while the human analog mind, formed after years of evolution, is capable of bridging the gap within areas of information containing noice and still making sense of it. Next he discusses the pace of change. Human's are no longer able to keep up with the mountains of information and the need for specialization continues to grow, but in doing so, also create ever increasing gaps within the collective knowledge base. It was thought breaking work into smaller automated tasks would make things more efficient. Instead the workers found their jobs dull and repetitive. Another example of the weakness in automated procedures can be seen when air-traffic controllers follow every rule by the book, it ties up air traffic. It is only when skilled professional controllers take the necessary shortcuts that air traffic begins to flow smoothly. The computer is necessary because it produces exact and rigid results. Humans have the ability to take uneven and random events and find compromises that smooth out the situation. Both of these approaches are necessary but not complete. It is only when we combine them when we achieve the best balance.