However, I realized the difficulties of comparing the two subjects as it treaded a dangerous line–the proof that one issues was more sever than the other. This led me to focus more on examining US Hunger. When I came across this animated chart, I thought I would apply it to an expository on the subject. In Draft 1 of this essay, I thought I would preset the issue of US Hunger through a series of Myths and Truths. However, when I finally came down to putting the video together, I thought the most appropriate tone and presentation of this topic was through an examination with a sole purpose of raising awareness. The final product feels more like a documentary that looks into what US hunger is and how people can get involved to stop it. It ended having a much more serious tone than intended.

Overall, I think the video does a better job than an essay I could have written via print for a couple of reasons. Through this medium, I could have pictures that came and went with the message so it would only emphasize my content when I wanted it to be emphasized but not something eyes could be drawn to as the audience moved forward in the essay. In addition, I could do a couple animations that I think are easier to follow with the content (ie. I explain that 49 million people is equivalent to the population in Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia added together by visually showing that–I mean even just listing it here doesn’t do justice; I do a math problem that moves with the content that people can’t follow in their mind easily; and a show a moving infographic that points how poverty affects almost all the states in the US).

After figuring out exactly what I wanted to do, the technical difficulties to making a video made this project extremely time consuming. I had to do a lot of timing and positioning that was rather tedious but necessary to make the material look like a video. In terms of content, I also faced the difficulty of how far into the issue I wanted to present. I had done a lot of research on the issue, but 1. I found out I simply didn’t have the time and patience to necessarily turn everything I researched and could easily put into a written essay something I could turn into in terms of animation. 2. I realized that videos get long really fast  and it’s really hard to stuff in all the information you want in as well. I found it hard to make a coherent story that wasn’t too long or too dull.

1. The Internet’s Day of Darkness: We discussed SOPA/PIPA in class very briefly, but it was a pretty big deal in our digital age considering the US barely regulates the internet relative to other countries. In this post, Thompson points out the different stances politicians and internet/digital companies are taking and how they relate to their backgrounds. He also briefly touches on why both sides of the line support their argument besides for funding and support. Finally he asks his readers the question “The Internet is shut down today: Do we get more done or less?” Which seems pretty valid considering how much people use it to communicate and search for data. It touches on issues like our reliance on the internet, our use of the internet and how it affects our lives if censored, and our future in technology if such laws are passed.

2. Twitter Isn’t Evil: I don’t personally follow Twitter’s business (ha), but apparently they had some issues about censoring tweets earlier this year. In this article, Thompson touches on issues such as how much momentum people have in online protests, business versus social values that affect decisions made in digital media companies, and the political effects of digital media. The issue of censorship and whether companies are willing to abide by international laws even though they are a US company has been a problem for many companies, including Google. Something about China’s version of Twitter, Weibo, which has people and censors actively checking every post just seems incoherent to the purpose of our digital world.

3. How to Get Privacy Right So very briefly, this post was commenting on how on a whole it’s so hard to get anything private on the internet. That there are number of companies that actually pull data from everything without notifying the users (ie. “the social network Path was called out for pulling entire address books off users’ iPhones without permission”). The digital world is obviously changing our idea of privacy and affecting how we deal with privacy issues. The article also discusses the issue that given these issues are all so new, we also have not dealt with them very well, which causes them to reoccur all the time. It reminded me that the internet is still evolving so much and we don’t really seem to know how to deal with it all the time.

Keturah had a great writing style that was very creative. Her various forms of writing allowed her to express her opinion very thoroughly. In our blog discussions, she mentioned that she was sometimes concerned with her opinion coming across too strongly or harshly. However, I found her writing to be quite refreshing. Her use of letters, although different, in Biting the Hands that Feeds You? and Ode to Trayvon Martin expressed her sentiments well without me feeling overwhelmed. For example, in Ode to Trayvon Martin, she expresses her sorrow and her anger with the social issues that have risen after this young boy’s death very clearly:

“I will never forget…your heartbeat – it will forever be the metronome that sustains my fight for a more just future for these United States. These United States – this land of liberty that so innocently slaughtered the bravest soul I knew. I’m hoping someone will awake me from this nightmare that says you’re gone. It cant be true.

And now? Your murderer remains free. His innocence is maintained by a veneer of “self defense,” that his actions were justifiable…JUSTIFIABLE?  Half his size and armed with an iced tea and bag of Skittles, I know you were not a threat. 911 phone calls, eyewitness accounts, and your cries for help all are proof that this man is guilty…Yet an unjust law upholds his freedom.”

The presentation of the issue is very powerful. Those who oppose her point of view would probably have trouble arguing in return.

The second blog that I would like to spotlight is Lauren’s The Blue Devil Bucket. Perhaps it is because I am also a senior, I thoroughly enjoyed the suggestions she provided for my final semester at Duke. In addition, her writing style is very candid, which is something I appreciate and enjoy when reading blogs. To me, this makes the thing to do more real and worth my time. I enjoyed reading her matter-of-factly tone, which is suitable for her blog since it rings out “Just do it!” whenever I come across something I had not done or similarly checked off my list this year. For example, in her post If you’re not a tenter… her openess on how to just get it done is inspiring and kind of just makes you think “The hell of it, I’ll do it too”:

“The walk-up line really isn’t that bad. That is, if you don’t have a conscious and are fine with cutting 200 people in line. Which I was. I arrived at Cameron early Saturday morning at 8:00 am for ESPN’s College Gameday. Since many Cameron Crazies had spent the previous night camping out, there wasn’t much of a crowd and Leila, Reed and I got a great spot in the stands at about center court.”

She makes a pretty cold, rainy experience into something that you wouldn’t mind and just want to do. Makes it easier for the bucket list to work out.

Format: My presentation will be in a video format. Originally I was inspired by the Did You Know? videos I posted a couple assignments ago. I have deviated from that format but kept the use of their presentation of texts. I want my video to have words that appear that say Myth: XYZ or Fact: ABC. These words would possibly overlay interview clips, and photos and charts similar to the following: http://awesome.good.is/features/011/Wanderlust/index.html. Instead of bubbles that indicate unemployment rates, I want the bubbles to show most and least affected by hunger in populations. The video would move from a starting year and morph into a later year. This portion of the video would be made by using Many Eyes and Camtasia, then imported into iMovie for editing. The video will be tied together through voice narrative that explains issues.

I think a video is appropriate for this project because it will have graphics that show what I am trying to say and text that can emphasize the words in my speech. Animated graphics are important because I am trying to demonstrate change over time and comparison of locations. This is better than just saying “Oh it’s worse here”. The use of pictures is also important to get people to related to the problem at hand rather than writing it off like a bunch of text

Materials: This project will require a decent amount of research; however, I do think these numbers are readily available on organization websites and search programs available through the Duke Library. I want to look up documentaries whether through youtube for clips or netflix or discovery/history channel to see what other people have said and perhaps cut clips from them.

Questions: It seems possible some of the content of my subject and slant will change based on what I find in my research, should we be updating you with such changes? If I do want to incorporate film clips, what citations would you like us to use–I’ve never done anything like that before.

This article struck out to me, because at times I felt like I was the Digital Immigrant who completely missed the point of the web 2.0 movement, but as I continued reading, I felt like it was actually because I am the Digital Native, I completely missed the issues raised in the article. Andrew Keen compares web 2.0 to socialist and utopian movements made in history. Because the internet allows for so much personalization and because it has allowed so many people to be independent artists or creators of technology, the web has brought us to a new era that is closer to some idea of utopia. In particular, with so many individuals (it seems as though the article actually makes it sound like everyone) personalizing their skills on the web, there will be no consumers of this information and ideas in the future.

Although I agree that the web has created a very personalized piece of technology for certain things, I don’t think it’s actually as personal and independent as Keen makes it to be. Yes there are a lot of people have individual blogs and websites that promote their writing, music, or products. Yes, Google can figure out your preferences with AdSense, searches, and GPS locator. But, all of these haven’t led to people living terribly separate lives. Everything that is done on the web builds a community of some kind in my opinion. Just look at the threads blogs will promote, the link references that people will post. Everything is still getting consumed by an audience somewhere. With the internet, everything is more integrated than before. TV and newspapers aren’t outdated. If used correctly, I think the internet can promote and enhance what it has to offer without competing with it. So maybe it is because I grew up with the internet that I believe it to promote aspects of our lives, either way I think I miss some of the points Keen is trying to make.

As a believer in capitalism and the free markets, I dont’ think just because there is a corporate side of the internet means the creativite development that Rushkoff refers to has diminished in any way. In fact, I think the involvement of businesses has created a lot of creative ideas that extend on what we used to think the internet as to offer. For example, Rushkoff thinks that advertisements have become a horrible thing added to website. Yes, I do agree that most online ads are annoying; however, that’s because we mostly use ads meant for print and tv and simply transferred it onto the internet. He has not given it time to develop as its own medium. Today, new web advertisements like the tipp-ex advertisement are furthering the use of web technology. It is making use of the idea of interacting people with an idea, even if it is a product to be sold (like white out). Just because the technology is being developed for commercial use, does not mean the technology developed is any less significant in contributing to the internet.

In fact, it’s because people know that the internet is where useful innovation can be made popular and provide financial gain that incentives people to go into start-ups related to websites (that’s how drop box was created). I don’t mean that they’re all looking for profit, because like he says, a lot of the the internet isn’t capable of money making. However, I do think Rushkoff misses the point that websites hold value that might not be able to be counted in dollar amounts from advertisements but it can be sold to companies that want to hold that brand name and domain. Just look at Linked-in’s and Zynga’s IPO along with the potential Facebook IPO. People show faith in the internet, but also realize that these websites aren’t huge profits like Amazon, which is an actual store that makes money. But we have these IPO’s because we recognize that these websites bring some kind of value to our lives.

Now, these videos are mostly facts that are listed. The facts don’t flow very well if you wanted to just read them like an essay; the only way they flow are by topic. In fact, if you were to read them, they get old pretty fast considering how many of them there are. I tried watching the video not paying attention to the animation and had the video on mute just to read the text–it’s kind of cool but not really a list I’d read for very long. Why I think this writing is better projected through this video rather than on paper is because the animation goes with the facts being told to you. For example, at the beginning of the “Did You Know?” video, there is a screen with about 11-12 rows of little human shapes. In the middle there is only one highlighted in red to start a ratio fact about people (“If you’re one in a million in China…”). Next, it highlights all of the people to emphasize the magnitude of the rest of the fact (“there are 1,300 people just like you). (To clarify what the fact is saying, the next part of the video says “China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world”.)  In addition, the text is better consumed through this digital production because of the music. The rhythm of the music is fast and slow enough to make you think and, at times, even pause for a moment to digest the information when the creators of the video want you to. Somehow, it makes the slew of facts and the 5 minutes of video easy to take in and continue watching.

Another side note I thought of as to why it was better for this “essay” to presented digitally is because of its specific content. It is also more suitable for this information to be spread through video and websites like youtube.com to better prove its point. To talk about the changes in communication culture via a video (that today has more than 15 million views) not only makes it easy for them to get an audience, but also shows viewers the truth to what they’re saying.

As I was reading the study conducted by Nielson and others, I was really taken aback by how poorly these teenage participants were doing on the usability experiment. I’m surprised mostly because I do believe teenagers spend a lot of time surfing the web and from that are quite adept at using almost any given web interface. But then as I continued reading, I remember this girl I interned with this summer who didn’t even know that ctrl+S was a hot key for saving documents, so it’s very well possible some kids are outliers. The point is, I don’t think that it’s natural for teenagers to pick up on internet usability; however, because they do spend so much time on it, because so many trends derive from the skill, they are more willing to put in the effort to figure these things out.  A great example is how some of us, including myself, in this class struggle a bit with WordPress. But there are a lot of people our age and younger who use WordPress for personal reasons and take the initiative and patience to figure out the nit picky functions of the site. If you asked them about it, they probably would say it was pretty easy.

Taking that “doing it for personal reasons” reasoning, I think it is also applicable for whether or not younger generations will read, write or learn on their own. If the video games are fun, or if it’s a part of some social trend, the willingness to invest time exists. I disagree with Marc Prensky who seems to think learning needs to be adjusted to the Digital Native. Describing things such as “create a game in which the philosophers debate and thee learns have to pick out what each would say” is just silly. Role playing/skits for the Holocaust or any other subject matter is quite ineffective. Students are never prepared–it relies on students to learn prior to execution; and it becomes awkward and uneasy for the social community. Digital media doesn’t mean a turn in this direction Marc Prensky.

My second post was on a ted talk that is a month old (January 7th), so it’s not all surprising that there has been no feedback. However, this post was perfect for Microstyle techniques because it was a lecture on summarizing Ted Talk lectures into 6 words. I contributed to the thread by using my own six words for the video, “innumerable ideas, Microstyle elocution, cost saving”.

A blog post that I recently read from a recipe blog, smitten kitten, follows some of the suggestions given in Microstyle. In terms of content, the author, Deb, posts recipes and includes tid-bits to explain why she picked the recipe. In this particular post, titled potato chip cookies, I felt as though she “said the wrong thing” in that showcasing a recipe of cookies made by potato chips doesn’t sound very tasty or appealing to most people. It did however, successfully catch my attention to want to read how to make a potato chip cookie.

Prior to posting her modified recipe of a potato chip cookie, Deb evokes a specific situation as she explains why she has chosen the recipe. She recounts a specific lunch she had in the 4th grade that has made her love the salty sweet combination. For me, her recollection of weird child-hood foods brought me back to my memories of elementary school foods, which made me feel as though these cookies would be a delicate, adult treat of something childish.

Finally, the post “paints a picture” in two ways. First, it actually posts pictures of the final product and steps taken to bake the cookies. However, Deb is also able to describe the taste of the cookies to the extent that I can taste them myself.