Life of Potato

I guess you could call us overly confident. We had a strong plan in mind and we developed this. we were blessed with a group where each member was actively engaged in this project and actually cared about our outcome. We knew each others’ capabilities and strengths and worked with that. But every confident student faces challenges right? Throughout this course we have learned about cultural materialism and technological determinism. We decided that an online, interactive book would be an interesting idea. We wanted to see how a traditional (paper) book could be manipulated by modern-day technological dependence. So, through utilising the website Wix we were able to address this. We all had the idea of creating a children’s book. We wanted it to be active so the reader could change the fate of the story by clicking different buttons and the story would re-route. We toyed around with multiple ideas before settling on our end product. Somewhere along the lines we reached a group ethic where we all evenly completed the work. One day Martina came to class and showed us “Potato” the “lonely puppy,” and we fell in love with the idea of trying to find this puppy a home through our book. We wanted the book to be more than just a story; we wanted it to have a positive impact where it could actually help an animal. Through this idea of allowing the reader to fall in love with Potato and then realise that he is real and available for adoption we thought we could help both Potato and the reader.

We did strike issues in terms of hypertext. We learnt the theory of this all semester and it seemed relatively easy, but when creating a book with multiple pathways, where an author can move through the book at their own will, problems arose. We were trying to create a “back” button for the readers’ leisure to move freely through the book, but this complicated things for us. We had to duplicate many pages of the book and basically create a second version of the book so that each link within the book would correctly link. This gave us a real-life example of ensuring that we are writing with an awareness of our audience and other texts which we learnt through the course readings.

Due to the fact that Potato is a real dog and we incorporated real pictures of him, we were faced with copyright issues which we were briefed about in week 3. We contacted Potato’s foster family; the owner of “The Life of Pikelet” (a social media account) and we were granted permission to us the photos. We had the idea of illustrating our own puppy however, we thought that using photographs of a real dog in need it would enhance the authenticity of our book. We wanted the audience to take the book seriously where the parents and children reading the book were able to fall in love with this realdog. We thought that this would assist in the adoption process at the end of the book. We came across a few issues with this idea in terms of Potato’s adoption date and whether or not he would still be available when the assessment was due, however we adapted the story and have decided to link the ending to multiple puppy adoption agencies so that we can hopefully help a larger amount of puppies find their ‘furr-ever’ home.

Visit the story here.

The Team: Bronte Godschalk, Martina Gritti and myself, Lauren Joy.

All links to Hypermedia Story:

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!chapter-one/zqjht

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!sad-end/isnhn

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!chapter-two/i5fxv

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!blank/aaa10

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!park-1/ucbq1

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!bath/slu7u

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!nap/qfcl5

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!the-end/p00yd

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!blank-1/d7rpq

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!beach/mppr2

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!rescue-a-puppy/nyqcu

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!about-us/s2pyb

http://martina-gritti.wix.com/lifeofpotato#!share-the-story/ap1hf

Assessment #2

In real life, communities are defined as a social unit bonded by a shared interest or, at times, geographic location. When I initially heard of the term ‘online community’ I was a little sceptical as to how it could work; considering community is generally a term I associate with interpersonal relations.

I found it helpful to distinguish between standard social media & communities as a basis for my research. Social media usually builds upon pre-existing relationships and expands upon them; whereas communities are relationships built from a shared interest. For this reason, a few mechanics are used to bond users together such as tags, groups and feeds.

Originally when presented with this assignment I wanted to choose Instagram as my ‘online community’. However, due to my account being 4 years old & generally consisting of my friends as followers; I wanted to pursue an alternative platform that I had yet to use, as a way of branching out.

Flickr is a popular photo sharing platform that enables users to upload content and connect with other photographers. Flickr enables you to organize your content in a manner of ways as well as join particular groups that pertain to your specific interests. Flickr appealed to me as I am beginning to delve into the world of photography. I explore this on my blog with posts including pictures I have taken at various locations across Victoria.

I found the ‘group’ aspect of the site very interesting. There is a section where you can browse a range of groups and join whatever ones you may be interested in. This was an easy way for me to connect with others who shared a similar interest to me.

By simply searching ‘nature’ I was able to find a list of groups with content that pertained to my interests. A popular group ‘Urban Nature‘ approved my submission that can be seen below. Joining and posting content is a great way of exposure in this particular community and is a direct example of network literacy. As Adrian Miles says, to be network literate is to contribute and consume on equal parts. Further discussion on my experience of network literacy on Flickr can be found here. 

Initiating conversation was unfortunately quite hard for me, as when I was trying to find photographers to follow, obviously the ones suggested by Flickr were those with a large following.

Many comments, like the ones seen above were left unanswered. (Due to fear of displaying other user names I have just included my comment) I’m accrediting this to the fact that they all have a large following, thus have a large volume of comments coming in every day. There were opportunities to engage in discussion on the groups – however most other attempts by other users were unsuccessful.

I think to successfully engage and thrive in Flickr as a community, you need to establish a following for yourself first. This is brought about through constant uploads and engagement with other users (eg. favouriting photos, following photographers).

In hind sight, I wish I had chosen a platform that I already had a following on. I think having a strong online presence is an essential part of participating successfully within an online community. Without this, you are just another username. I endeavour to work on my profile and hopefully engage further, as I really do like the site.

Miles, Adrian. Network Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge [online]. Screen Education, No. 45, 2007: 24-30. Availability: <http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=805521387210748;res=IELAPA&gt; ISSN: 1449-857X. [cited 5 May 16].

Flickr – Photo Sharing!. (2016). Flickr Community guidelines. [online] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/help/guidelines [Accessed 5 May 2016].

Oatway, J 2012, ‘Finding Your Community’, in Oatway, J (ed), Mastering Story, Community and Influence : How to Use Social Media to Become a Socialeader’, 1st edn, Wiley, Hoboken, pp. 97-109.

Network Literacy: Flickr

For our 2nd assessment we have to explore an ‘online community’.

Through creating an account and learning about the website I have come to realise that being network literate is an integral part to succeeding on Flickr.

As aforementioned in some of my previous posts, being network literate means to contribute and create in equal parts. There are 3 different ways I have found you can practice network literacy on this platform;

• Favouriting pictures. Similarly to likes on Instagram & Facebook, photos can be favourited on Flickr. This is done by clicking the little ‘star’ icon on photos. I’ve noticed that I have received a few ‘favourites’ in return when I have done this on other accounts. This is a direct example of network literacy.
• Following photographers. Again, similarly to most online platforms, you have the choice to follow other users. This was a little difficult for me as I usually just follow people I know on other social media sites I use. None of my friends or family (to my knowledge) have Flickr – so all followers I have are from searching through tags. Unlike favouring pictures, gaining an audience is a lot harder to do.  I think you have to have active participation in a community for a while before you can get followers.
• Group participation. Groups are something I have otherwise been quite unfamiliar with. I don’t believe there are groups on Instagram, which is the main platform I use. There are groups on Facebook but I haven’t really got involved with them before. Group participation is a great way of contributing to the overall community aspect of the site. It really gets into the crux of what network literacy is all about.

A picture says a thousand words

…. But we generally still need SOME writing to go along with pictures we post.

CAPTIONS: Not necessary for every photo, but is common with users on instagram & other social media platforms that use photography to convey certain messages/ideas. Succinct captions are better, usually, as the photo often does most of the ‘talking’. Recently I have been using Flickr and really like how some of the users choose to tell stories with their photo captions. It provides something extra to go along with the photo and is almost an invitation to share the experience.

HASH TAGS: Ahhhh. The infamous hash tag. Useful but overused. Tags are used by a multitude of online platforms to define and organise content. It’s really useful for trying to find other users with similar content; something I have been experimenting with Flickr. The problem I have with hash tags is the overuse of them, particularly on Instagram. I understand that it helps users branch out and possibly gain more of a following but nothing detracts from a beautiful picture more than a huge amount of tags.

USER TAGS: On most platforms you also have the ability to tag other users in the content you post. This is useful when you want to tag people, companies or accounts in your photos.

Assessment task #1

I was completely unfamiliar with blogging before commencing this course. I had a brief idea of how it worked but had never experimented with it before or used a blogging platform. I am enjoying it so far, however it is a little more complex than I initially thought it would be. Creating content that was both interesting to me and to my potential readers was my first issue. I struggled to understand how I could incorporate academic posts and personal posts on the same webpage. As the course has progressed I learnt that blogs can be categorised and organised though a range of techniques.

I have been writing since I was very young. The difference being, all of my writing has been in personal diaries/journals before this course. It is very confronting and somewhat daunting to start creating content that is accessible to anyone at anytime. It definitely makes a difference in my writing when I am consciously aware of a potential audience. I feel a little restricted and limited on what I can write as it is not just for me personally. It does however open my eyes to the exciting opportunities of online writing. There is an entire online community out there that I endeavour to become much more involved in.

Hypertext is something I was also unfamiliar with, however I have been incorporating it into many of my blog entries. As I am writing about places I have visited, I have been linking readers to further information in my blog posts. This alters the structure of my text as it encourages readers to go on further to alternate websites.

Through the use of hypertext I am also practicing network literacy. Network literacy is a completely new concept to me and is still something I perceive as relatively complex. A major component of being network literate relates to participating and involving yourself in an online community. Adrian Miles’ article summarises successful network literacy as contributing and creating on equal parts. ‘Through such sharing, the distinction between consuming and creating content dissolves, so unlike print literacy, in network literacy we become peers in the system, and indeed to be ‘good’ at network literacies is to contribute as much as it is to consume’ (Miles 2007) By linking to other sites/articles/informative pages I am participating in interactivity and encouraging my readers to explore further.

Widgets were much harder for me to incorporate on my blog. I had a lot of difficulty with firstly trying to understand how to actually get them on the sidebar and also finding widgets that would be appropriate and relevant for my blog/content.

I have learnt that there is a lot more to blogging than just writing and creating blog posts. There is a variety of techniques that need to be implemented in order to get the most out of the online community. Interactivity and network literacy are both integral parts of maintaining an online identity. This first part of the semester for me personally has primarily been finding my way around the blogosphere and learning about how it all works. I am excited to delve further into blogging now and work on creating better content.

Miles, Adrian. Network Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge [online]. Screen Education, No. 45, 2007: 24-30. Availability: <http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=805521387210748;res=IELAPA&gt; ISSN: 1449-857X. [cited 11 Apr 16].

Kroski, E. 2008, “Widgets”, School Library Journal, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 41.

National Rhododendron Gardens

Taking a drive up to the Dandenong ranges is something I would highly recommend to anyone living in Melbourne! There are some really beautiful little towns and some amazing natural places to visit. You can pull over at a number of different look outs on your way, each featuring an altered view out across Melbourne.

The National Rhododendron Gardens is a definite must see! It is located in the sleepy little town of Olinda. The gardens were created in the 1960’s by the National Rhododendron society. It features a range of beautiful trees, plants and flowers – all with varying textures, scents and colours.

It is definitely hard to capture the gardens through photography as when you’re there, you are virtually surrounded by bounds of carefully curated gardens! It is truly an amazing place and I would strongly recommend you give it a visit! Free entry also – a massive plus for students 😉

Parks Victoria . 2009. National Rhododendron Gardens . [ONLINE] Available at: http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/315704/Park-note-National-Rhododendron-Gardens.pdf. [Accessed 8 April 2016].

 

 

Widget.. what?

The biggest obstacle for me so far in developing my blog would have to be widgets. Firstly, I feel the name is enough to confuse me. I had never heard of the term before this course and had no understanding of what they were. The word widget is not a particularly appealing one for me – I’m not even sure why. It just sounds a lot more complex than it actually is.

When I realised that we had to integrate widgets into our blog as part of our course structure I panicked a little. With a little research, however, I realised they may not be as confusing as I initially thought. Widgets are basically like applications, an add on to your blog that sits within the sidebar.

Choosing a widget that was appropriate for my blog was another story. As I have little experience with blogging it was difficult for me to gauge what widgets would be appropriate for my blog. It was also hard to pick widgets that would be relevant to my content. For example, I currently have the ‘instagram view’ widget on my blog. This displays 4 of my most recent instagram photos.

My blog, so far, has little to do with me personally. My posts are obviously written in first narrative and some are related to experiences I’ve had but they don’t really explain or delve too much into who I am as a person. My instagram, however, is definitely much more personal. I post photos of myself, my friends & general life stuff. For this reason I am in two minds about the inclusion of this widget as I feel it conflicts a little with my blog content. It does break up the side bar (which is particularly bland) and adds some visual stimulus.

Flinders blowhole

One of my most recent adventures was down on the coast, near Flinders beach.

The only downfall to this post is I am not 100% sure on where this exactly is..

Often, my friends and I will just pull over wherever we see fit and start exploring.

This day was a lot of fun, I spent hours clambering over big rocks; breathing the cleanest and freshest air and poking around in rock pools.

I’m not sure if we were technically supposed to be down where we were; if the tide was in we would have been in a lot of trouble. Fortunately, we went down relatively early for maximum play time!

There is something  amazing about observing mother nature in full force. The surge and power of the ocean can be truly humbling to witness. It was hard to capture in photos, but I tried my very best. The waves were huge and slowly simmered down to foamy bubbles as they cascaded through the rocks and creeped closer to shore.

Again, I apologise for the quality of the photos but some surprisingly look okay this time around.

A few hours into our venture, after climbing around the edge of the cliffs; we found this impressive cave. It wasn’t very deep but was still awesome to explore. It was dark, damp & had an eery feel about it.

This was our view for most of the day.

We also came across a number of awesome little rock pools. (This photo, especially terrible.. Please note the artistic inclusion of the side of my sunglasses)

So, where is this place? We started off at Flinders blowhole; and crept around the edge of the cliffs around there. As the website states, please take care if you do go exploring around these types of areas. Waves can catch you off guard and often the rocks can be completely submerged under water – depending on the time of day.

 

Tooroongo Falls

There are a few really beautiful waterfalls in Victoria. My favourite, from those I have visited so far, would easily be Tooroongo falls. There are actually two different falls at the same location, featured on a 2km walk.

The falls are nestled amongst the Noojee state forest; meaning the drive there is absolutely amazing!

My friends and I agree that often the drive to these places is half of the fun. We usually stock up on snacks, play our favourite songs and really appreciate the journey.

I am actually quite proud that I was able to take such a clear photo whilst moving in a car!

At this particular location, the falls aren’t even the star of the show. The grounds around the falls are so incredibly lush, green & overgrown. You really get a sense of ‘untouched’ land here.

Pictured below is the Tooroongo falls.

This is the Amphitheatre falls.

It’s hard to capture the true essence of a place through photography. It would probably help if I had a better camera, or photography skills for that matter..

But I feel there is nothing compared to witnessing mother nature in person!

If you’re interested in visiting, additional info on this amazing place can be found here 

Hypertext

Sounds scary, but after some investigation I don’t think it is that complex.

Essentially, a hypertext is a link within a text medium that links to another text.

I was initially a little confused as hypertext sounds exactly like a hyperlink, which I am very familiar with. After a little research I discovered that they are more or less the same thing. Hypertext is any text that contains hyperlinks. 

We were asked to view two pieces and see if they pertained as hypertext or not.

‘Joyce’s Twelve Blue‘ is a very hypertext heavy sort of ..story? I guess you could call it.

It features a series of pages, each with a hyperlink to a different section. I’m not quite sure what was going on to be completely honest. I don’t mean to be offensive but I wasn’t sure if all the sections were supposed to relate or simply just be an example of how hypertext works in general. The colours and the overall layout do not appeal to me at all. It’s dark and difficult to follow; which may be due to the fact it was created in 1996. General web page design has dramatically improved in this time, so perhaps it is the older format that is unappealing to me.

Matt’s ‘Engaging blogs‘ was much more interesting for me personally. If something is visually appealing it makes it so much easier to read and engage in. This is clean, modern and easy to follow. I’m not 100% sure if this is technically considered as hypertext as the linking medium is a graphic; not text. The links are to the same piece of work, just different sections.

Through analysing some different examples I feel much more confidently about hypertext and it’s purpose in the online community.

Michael Joyce. 1996. Blue: Michael Joyce. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.eastgate.com/TwelveBlue/. [Accessed 23 March 2016].

Matt Kelley. 2011. Engaging Blogs. [ONLINE] Available at: https://prezi.com/bsh6dof2wg-0/engaging-blogs/. [Accessed 23 March 2016].