Week 14 Interactive InfoViz Active Research Assignment

View Hayes Valley in a larger map


I found Google Maps a little confusing at first. I appreciated that the instructional video had subtitles because there is no sound on the school computers. I figured out how to add information to the map markers, but I didn’t realize that I had to save it after editing each marker; when I clicked on the markers again, the information disappeared, so I had to go back and redo about half of them, which included looking up the links and the photographs for each one.

Interactive maps would be useful in online travel guides, encyclopedias, or any piece of digital information which documents a geographic location (cities in particular). As with the New York Times, they could easily be used to visualize election results. They could be used in education to provide students with an interactive and detailed view of foreign countries and/or cities, including national landmarks and points of historic interest. An interactive map would make a good application for any iPhone or other portable digital device, as it could be used by travelers to find their way around unfamiliar areas.

A timeline would be more useful for visualizing a sequence of events that has occurred over a period of time – such as a biography of a person’s life, or a series of historical events – whereas a map would be more useful for visualizing spatial information, as it may be used to depict how locations or objects are distributed in space. Aspects of both might be combined by adding graphics to a timeline that show the geographic location at which each event occurred.

Data Visualization Assignment: Correction

The widget in the previous post wasn't displaying all of my information, so here it is in list form:

What I Wish I'd Done Last Weekend on Dipity.

Data Visualization Active Research Assignment

What I Wish I'd Done Last Weekend on Dipity.

I had no significant issues in signing up for or using Dipity. I had never used a site like this before, and I found it interesting that the site combines aspects of data visualization with social networking. I liked the simplicity of the sign-up process (it opened in a pop-up window and only asked for the basics). When I tried to save my timeline after completing it, the last three entries seemed to disappear, but they were just in another area of the page. The timeline itself was a bit difficult to navigate; I had to zoom in to get it to display all of my data.
I think that interactive timelines can be of use in several fields, most obviously education; younger schoolchildren can better absorb notoriously dry information such as history and dates, etc., if they can look at pictures and click on links and videos pertaining to each event. Interactive timelines could also be of use in developing storyboards for films and television, as they provide an easy way to organize sequential information, and are more compact and less wasteful than paper. The military might use interactive timelines in developing attack strategies; forensic scientists could use timelines to organize data and visual information progressing from when a crime was committed to when the body was found. They might also be a useful feature in PowerPoint presentations; an interactive timeline would allow the audience to view a concise representation of the data before learning about the different components, and the presenter could easily pull up photos and links at any point in the presentation.

Social Networking Exercise - Part IV

4. Describe your ideas about the future of digital social networking services.

From what I have observed of the growth and development of popular social networking sites, there seems to be an overwhelming trend toward hypermediacy. Sites will probably try to incorporate as many diverse elements as possible in an attempt to satiate user demand for many forms of entertainment located conveniently on a single page. The social networking site will not be limited to social interactions, but will cater directly to the user’s interests. It may become more efficient at filtering out spam and friend requests from strangers with no common interests. As the number of frequently-used sites increases, there will likely be an increase in specialized sites which serve specific or closed communities. Sites may alter their content based upon a user’s city of residence in order to offer more relevant material. New interfaces will be more interactive and easier to navigate. Users will be able to upload larger amounts of content; this will make it difficult to monitor content, and there will probably be a further increase in illegal material posted to social networking sites. Users surfing on one of these sites will have multiple opportunities to connect with and send information to other popular sites. Eventually some of them may merge with others. There will be more advertising in a variety of new forms as sites try to capitalize on user traffic. Sites will compete with one another for users by adding new and innovative features and advertising themselves elsewhere on the Web. Options may be available for the user to download site applications or toolbars, enabling the user to login and access the site’s features from his or her desktop.

Social Networking Exercise - Part III - Design Analysis of StumbleUpon

2. Design Analysis of StumbleUpon

I chose to join the social networking service StumbleUpon. It does not cater to a specific community; it is a general interest site through which users can select their personal interests from a list and browse through pages which appeal to those interests. Users rate postings, write reviews, and may add postings to a favorites list. Communication between users may take the form of comments on a particular page, or occur privately through the site’s mail service. Social objects include “fave” (favorite), review, and “stumbler” (a user of the site). The main goal of a user is to build a collection of pages on topics which interest him/her, and to review and rate pages positively or negatively, which affects how many other users may visit a particular page. (User pages with more favorites will usually get more hits.) Likewise, social verbs include “to fave” (mark as a favorite), to view, and to review. The social goals attained by these have been adequately described above. There are no units of currency or social status on this site; social status is measured through the prominence of one’s user profile (i.e. the number of hits it receives). Profiles may be customized with user interests, political and social beliefs, relationship status, etc., etc., and users may subscribe to others’ profiles based on these expressed interests as well as “favorites” lists. When I joined the site, I filled out a simple one-page form with username, email, and other basic info. Then I was taken to a page with a long checklist on which I could check off my personal interests (Arts, Cats, Bizarre/Oddities, etc.) so that the site could immediately take me to pages which matched those interests. Since I joined, I have added a few pages to my favorites list and talked to one person on the site.



My profile page.



The "Discover" page, showing recent user posts and the number of views for each.

Social Networking Exercise - Part I

1. History and Use of Social Networking

I first heard about Myspace in 2004, but did not sign up for it until 2006, by which time all my friends were on the site and it was easier to have a Myspace page than to be without one. I still have a Myspace page but rarely check it. Sometime during the past month or two I finally got a Facebook account under much the same conditions (people kept asking me, “Why don’t you have a Facebook?”) and, while I am not very active on it, I would say I now visit Facebook more frequently than Myspace, because not many people are on Myspace anymore. In general, after doing hours of online homework, I prefer not to spend too much of my free time on the computer, but these services can be useful for staying in touch with old friends.

Virtual Worlds Assignment - Design Questions, Part II

6. I attempted to talk to another avatar but I didn't really know what to say to carry on a conversation. I don't know anybody in this game.

7. The economy of this world is based on YoCash and Coins, which can be earned by working in a factory. My avatar works in the factory, earns money, and is then able to buy clothing, music, furniture, etc. from the shops.




8. My favorite in-world activity was attending the event, because of all the interesting objects that were in the apartment. The avatars had interesting looks as well. I liked that I was able to explore different rooms.

9. In-world objects tell you how to operate them through text that pops up or a highlight that appears when you hover over the objects. For example, this is what happens when I hover over the couch in my apartment and then click on it:




10. One aspect of this world that I see as directly related to the Chaper of HOH entitled "Agency" is the fact that one can create events, personae, and spaces within the virtual environment, yet all of the creative options have been "pre-set" by the game's designers. According to the reading: "There is a distinction between playing a creative role within an authored environment and having authorship of the environment itself. Certainly interactors can create aspects of digital stories in all these formats, with the greatest degree of creative authorship being over those environments that reflect the least amount of prescripting. But interactors
can only act within the possibilities that have been established by the writing and programming. They may build simulated cities, try out combat strategies, trace a unique path through a labyrinthine web, or even prevent a murder, but unless the imaginary world is nothing more than a costume trunk of empty avatars, all of the interactor's possible performances will have been called into being by the originating author."


For example, one can pick flowers to put in one's apartment, but only from the list of flower arrangements available. True originality is technically impossible.

Virtual Worlds Assignment - Design Questions

1. Text-based information can be found in the chat bubbles. One can type information into a box at the bottom of the screen and it will show up in a speech bubble above the avatar's head. Text can also be found near the entrances to different areas of the virtual world, and provides information about the area one is entering.


There are also pointers that tell you where you will go if you click on them.




2. Non-text-based information can be found in the form of icons at the bottom of the screen, which provide access to Home (a house), Map (a globe), Events (a party hat), and Appearance (a pair of sunglasses). The map itself is also a form of non-text-based information. Any area on the map can be accessed by clicking on it. Other such information can be found at the top of the screen, when images of dollar bills and coins with numbers next to them tell you how much money you have accumulated.

3. The colors and characters in this world are very simply designed, and create a high-contrast, cartoon effect. The motion of the characters can be awkward -- I could point the arrow and float around the music store, but I found it difficult to exit when I wanted to. The rooms are depicted from an elevated, "bird's-eye" view, rather than an eye-level view, which makes it less realistic but allows one to see all of the room at once.




4. When I first started, a character calling herself "Clara" gave me a free houseplant with which to decorate my apartment. Then I was taken to the work area and encouraged to start working so that I could earn money. The proliferation of virtual consumer goods sold in the world provide incentives to earn money so that the avatar can decorate a living space, buy different outfits, etc.





5. The ability to enter and leave different virtual environments at will, earn money, buy things, and interact with other avatars contribute to the immersiveness of the virtual world. Stylistic features, such as the non-realistic rendering and the elevated view, detract from this immersiveness.

6.

Virtual Worlds Assignment - Attend a Social Event

I attended an event called "Kitty Kat's Egypt and Midevil." Whatever that means. The event was set in a room filled with ancient Egyptian artifacts. It was very nicely decorated. I said hi to some people, but in accordance with my virtual identity I kept interpersonal interactions to a minimum. I wandered around the room and went through a door into a hallway with pictures on the walls... then I went into another room filled with multiple haystacks, penguins, treasure chests, electric fans, robots, umbrella stands, etc... it was all very surreal. I didn't really feel like talking to anyone. I want to design my own room with robots and penguins.

Virtual Worlds Assignment - Virtual Identity

I chose the virtual world YoVille, for which I created an avatar designated by the single letter "i."

Virtual Identity: "i", age 23, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and moved to the California coast as a child. She comes from a family of artists, writers, and musicians. Her father died when she was a teenager and she developed a drug problem during her teenage years which was later resolved. She is somewhat reclusive and has only a few personal friends, whom she considers to be an extended family. She works as a copy editor, and in her spare time she paints vaguely disturbing, brightly-colored images of people and things from the world around her. Oils are the preferred medium. She also writes poetry, but never shows it to anyone. She can be very distrusting of other people and dislikes making eye contact with strangers. She is plagued by a wide variety of health issues. Her goal in life is to make the world more beautiful while she still has use of her physical body, because without a body it can be a lot more difficult to make things happen.

ವಿರ್ತುಅಲ್ ವೊರ್ಲ್ದ್ಸ್

Week 2 Exercise

in this image: iPod nano, computer monitor, cell phone with which the picture was taken (reflected)


Pictured to the left are the three digital communications technologies which I use almost every day. The computer is a school computer located in the STTC lab.

The iPod is a digital audio device which stores representations of audio recordings in a compressed bit format. It has an 8-gigabyte capacity and currently stores digital information for 1358 songs, as well as 4 games (which I never play), and various digital tools such as a clock, a stopwatch, and a calendar; however, I rarely utilize the latter functions, as they are more readily accessible on my cell phone. I use this iPod to listen to music on a more-or-less daily basis.

The cell phone is another type of compact portable auditory and visual device, the main function of which is to send and receive digitized audio signals when making a phone call - i.e. the device acts as an intermediary between two people having a conversation when they are not near enough each other to send and receive such signals by natural means. Many people these days possess cell phones which perform an incredible number of functions, and these I hesitate to call auxiliary - while, at one point, there were phones which did other things, it now seems more appropriate to label them multipurpose handheld digital devices of which the capacity as a phone is only one among a great variety of capacities. My phone is fairly old. It was cheap. It does connect to the internet and has the capacity to browse a very limited amount of the material therein. I also use the alarm setting to wake me up in the morning, and I tell time by the phone's clock. Sometimes I use the notepad, the calendar, or the calculator. The phone beeps loudly in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and is thereby a frequent source of annoyance.

The desktop computer I use mainly for its function as a connection to the internet, and for its word-processing program. Like most people today, I would be quite lost without the use of a computer. I use it to send and receive messages via email, and to access assignments through the iLearn website. Since paper is quickly becoming obsolete in most quarters, school is basically a matter of attending lectures in the flesh and doing everything else on the computer, printing finished papers when necessary. I am using the computer's keyboard to type this assignment, which will be posted on the internet through the services of this web-hosting site. I also frequently utilize the word processor to compose documents.

The extent to which a person from a previous generation is "analog" varies somewhat from case to case. For example, my grandmother uses the internet frequently, has an email address which she checks regularly, and is, all things considered, more technologically literate than my mother. My grandfather, on the other hand, does not own a computer or any other digital devices except for a DVD player, which he can basically operate even though he is mostly blind. There is some degree to which people of a former generation must assimilate themselves into the world as it exists currently...yet there is still a very marked difference between the mindset of our current generation and that of 40 or 50 years ago. Because of the internet, we have grown up in a world in which the rapid exchange of information is standard and the cultural exchange rate is similarly rapid...globalization is an ever-accelerating process. Our grandparents are accustomed to much slower methods and were raised in the 20th-century literate tradition which the current generation is the first to observe in the process of becoming obsolete...Knowledge on a global scale is increasingly ubiquitous, nonlinear, accelerated to the speed of light...it remains to see how we deal with it.