Kickstarter: Games, Clocks, and Bottles

Kickstarter. Crowdsourcing. Another way that people have found out to get out of anonymity online. This phenomenon is explained in the dictionary as being popular thanks to the internet: “the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers” (Merriam-webster.com, 2015).

So, Kickstarter, as a crowdsource, is “a new way to fund creative projects” (Kickstarter.com, 2015) because on the internet, people “have complete control over and responsibility for their projects” (Kickstarter.com, 2015). In a blog article Yannig Roth’s (2012) suggests that crowdsourcing works because it complements the traditional co-creation -- “[the]creative and social collaboration process between producers and consumers, facilitated by the company (Piller et al., as cited in Roth, 2014). This might be true as many unsuccessful kickstarter projects seem to lack the “organisational knowledge” (Roth, 2014) that the traditional co-creation usually involves. When co-creation and crowdsourcing are blended together, they bring up to the surface nice and successful new media stories.

This idea is valid if we look at  the story of  Jaded Gamercast: Adepticon Double Date, a Kickstarter project created by Lange Grinevitch from Edmonton, AB, who succeeded to go way over his goal (159% funded). No doubt, this story succeeded on Kickstarter, mostly because his creator nicely blended the traditional co-creation with crowdsourcing: first, there is a clarity about what is being kickstarted: miniature gaming podcasts, called  Jaded Gamer Cast (offered for free 200+ episodes if the project reaches it’s goal); second, the creator calls backers to action through a simple story, using the internet crowdsourcing multimodality (videos and pictures).  

Another successful story is  'Time as Moments' Designer Clock created by Donald Papp from Edmonton, AB. The Kickstarter project was successfully funded (164%) as it promotes an ingenious and unique work of art, something practical and relatively cheap: “Each number becomes clearly defined only once each hour before becoming once again unclear. The design reflects time as moments.” The project is successful, although it is presented in an incredible simple way: there is only a picture of the clock and only a few words used for description. It is astonishing how the image speaks for itself and so, it gathers so many backers. Perhaps, if other forms of crowdsourcing have been used, such as videos, this project might have had gathered even more supporters. Again, like the previous project, this  stands out due to its clarity and simplicity. However, the elements of traditional co-creation (“social collaboration process …facilitated by a company”) are not present. The project succeeds only because the product is unique.

An example of unsuccessful project is  Living Necklaces! Beauty and Nature to Wear by Your Heart! created by Tara from Edmonton, AB. Although this project looks like one of a kind -- “[t]his empty necklace will contain a thriving, healthy moss or fern, keeping nature right over your heart!” -- the number of backers is 0. Why this is unsuccessful? Perhaps due to its’ lack of practicality– who would wear around his neck a bottle with a fern inside? Plus, the jewellery-plant will definitely die outside during the Edmonton’s winter months. Besides, there are no elements of “organizational knowledge” of a co-creation, and the multimodality (i.e. video) is also missing.  Perhaps,Tara’s project might have had chances of success among flower-lovers if the piece would have been designed for indoors, as an ornamental plant.

These three kickstarter projects, make me believe that crowdsourcing nicely complements the traditional co-creation. However, crowdsourcing projects can stand by themselves without traditional co-creation as long as the projects are unique and presented with clarity, simplicity through new media multimodality.

References

Kickstarter.com,. (2015). What is Kickstarter — Kickstarter. Retrieved 27 March 2015, from https://www.kickstarter.com/hello?ref=footer

Merriam-webster.com,. (2015). crowdsourcing | the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. Retrieved 27 March 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing

Roth, Y. (May 2012). “Crowdsourcing and CoCreation are Complementary”. Innovation Excellence.

http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2012/05/31/crowdsourcingandcocreationar

ecomplementary/

Selfie Assignment: Additional Resources

Image from here.

During our live chat this morning, students asked whether you should focus only on Miriou and Katz only. I said definitely you should refer to all the readings from the module:

1. Lauren Katz, (May 2014). “Say it with a Selfie: Protesting in the Age of Social Media,” http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/05/10/311143584/say-it-with-a-selfie-protesting-in-the-age-of-social-media
2. Pamela Rutledge, (2014). “Making Sense of Selfies,” Psychology Today, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/positively-media/201307/making-sense-selfies
3. Adam Levin, (2014). “The Selfie in the Age of Digital Recursion,”  Invisible Culture, http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/portfolio/the-selfie-in-the-age-of-digital-recursion/
4. Crisia Miriou, (2014). “The Selfies: Social Identities in the Digital Age,” Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Annual Conference, Swinburne University, Victoria 9-11 July, 2014, http://www.anzca.net/documents/2014-conf-papers/796-the-selfies-social-identities-in-the-digital-age/file.html
5. Rob Horning, (Nov. 23, 2014). “Selfies without the Self,” The New Inquiry, http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/marginal-utility/selfies-without-the-self/
6. Browntourage, (Sept. 2014). “A *Different* Selfie Article: Decolonizing Representations of Women of Color,” http://www.browntourage.com/magazine/look-at-me/
7. Lev Manovich, (2014). “Selfiecity,” http://selfiecity.net/#

And, this quote you might find pertinent:

"I think that selfie culture (whatever that might be) has come to the same conclusions about the punctum as Derrida did. It isn’t merely about framing or capturing the perfect picture–we’ve moved beyond the MySpace angle and the bathroom mirror. The selfie is not just about the creation of the self, of picking angles, of making my face look less dysmorphic and strange. Instead it is about attempting to craft a particular kind of punctum, a focal point, a haunting/lingering that stays with the viewer long after she or he has forgotten the studium of the photograph (clothes, facial hair, sand, umbrellas, the hotel balcony)."

And you might want to refer to these articles:

•  http://blog.oup.com/2013/11/scholarly-reflections-on-the-selfie-woty-2013/

•  http://liveyoungandfree.ca/young-living/social-media-self-vs-selfies/

•  http://www.straight.com/life/368086/putting-selfies-under-feminist-lens

• The selfie in the digital age: from social media to sexting. Academic JournalBy: Peek, Holly. In: Psychiatric Times. Dec 2014, Vol. 31 Issue 12, 28G; CMP Medica, LLC Language: English, Database: General OneFile

• The Feminine Art of Failure: queering feminist spectatorship El arte femenino del fallo: queering a la audiencia feminista Debra Ferreday Lancaster University

T'S SELFIE-EVIDENT: SPECTRUMS OF ALIENABILITY AND COPYRIGHTED CONTENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

• Full Text Available
  
  

  Academic Journal

  By: Storella, Alison C.. Boston University Law Review , Dec2014, Vol. 94 Issue 6, p2045-2088, 44p, Database: Legal Source

Instafame: Luxury Selfies in the Attention Economy.

Detail Only Available

Academic Journal

By: Marwick, Alice E. Public Culture. Jan2015, Vol. 27 Issue 1, p137-160. 24p. 2 Color Photographs, 1 Chart. DOI: 10.1215/08992363-2798379. , Database: SocINDEX with Full Text

.

Selfies, personalization and bioethics.

Editorial & Opinion

(English) By: Chadwick R, Bioethics [Bioethics], ISSN: 1467-8519, 2015 Mar; Vol. 29 (3), pp. ii; Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; PMID: 25655575, Database: MEDLINE

Curating a story: Pinterest

Scrapbooking, journaling, and curating on Pinterest. It is a first day for everything. Today, I have found out that curating  on Pininterest is a nice experience: colorful, creative, engaging.

“Curation is the act of individuals with a passion for a content area to find, contextualize, and organize information. Curators provide a consistent update regarding what's interesting, happening, and cool in their focus” (Rosenbaum & Rosenbaum, 2012). Thus, I used Pinterest to “sav[e] and shar[e] stories [I found] around the web” (Perez, 2015), focusing my attention towards materials related to what I liked most throughout the course: digital literature and storytelling. It was fun! #digitalliterature

Follow Adela's board Digital Literature #NMN on Pinterest.

I used this opportunity, to ‘talk’ a bit about digital storytelling. #digitalstorytelling

I found interesting that some consider one cannot write a story on Twitter (using only a few characters), and the word curator  used on Pinterest is a bit exaggerated. For instance, this seem to upset  Harold Koda, an “actual curator” (Tahltan_channel_surfer, 2012): “The very meaning of the word [curator] is starting to change, and that makes me crazy” (Tahltan_channel_surfer, 2012).  I appreciate Koda’s opinion, but I also appreciate that if 70 million users on Pinterest are embracing the change, there is little he can do about it -- especially, in an era when “content is currency” and “creation, optimization, distribution, and curation”(Nicholasbrealey.com, 2015) are key in succeeding online.

References

Nicholasbrealey.com,. (2015). Content is Currency. Retrieved 14 February 2015, from http://nicholasbrealey.com/boston/content-is-currency.html

Perez, S. (2015). Pinterest Appeals To Publishers With New Article Pins, Pushes To Become A Bookmarking & “Read It Later” Service. TechCrunch. Retrieved 13 February 2015, from http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/24/pinterest-article-pins/

Rosenbaum, S., & Rosenbaum, S. (2012). Content Curators Are The New Superheros Of The Web. Fast Company. Retrieved 13 February 2015, from http://www.fastcompany.com/1834177/content-curators-are-new-superheros-web

Tahltan_channel_surfer, P. (2012). a-machine-to-return-the-songs-to-the-land: http://hermitagemuseum.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/an-open-letter-to-everyone-using-the-word-curate-incorrectly-on-the-internet/. Aboriginalcuratorinresidence.blogspot.ca. Retrieved 13 February 2015, from http://aboriginalcuratorinresidence.blogspot.ca/2012/05/httphermitagemuseumwordpresscom20111004.html

A Facebook Story

A book full of stories. From status updates to news feeds, Facebook unfolds stories about the real-world, in real time. The authors all have faces and names, but who had the idea first to make up a story, matters less. It is just like how my grandma use to tell: the story is more interesting than the author. This makes me believe that Facebook is a new form of folklore, a digital lore: “Folklore (or lore) consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs included in the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group.” (Mayor, 2000).

Facebook is a fantastic journey. Challenging and immersive. I am enjoying being part of it, participating in, and sometimes, creating it. I am interacting with some of its authors, who happens to be in my friends’ list. Sometimes we are using one picture or one word to tell an entire story. I enjoy looking up for the story of the day. I am looking for it in the news, in my friends feeds, and in their comments. When I find it, I like to put a little contribution to it: a comment, a thumb up, a share. Facebook is changing its face every day. 

These 20 Amazing Photos Will Make You Want to Visit Romania

I don’t remember the foreword or the first chapter, and I cannot foresee how the book will end. I am just enjoying the online storyline.

Reference:

Mayor, A. (2000). Bibliography of Classical Folklore Scholarship: Myths, Legends, and Popular Beliefs of Ancient Greece and Rome. Folklore, 111(1), 123-138. doi:10.1080/001558700360924

#twitterorbooks

I like to think of myself as somewhat social media savvy, however, I have to admit that the concept of twitter fiction is completely new to me. I found the TED Talk by Andrew Fitzgerald particularly valuable as it conceptually gave me a foundation for understanding twitter fiction and in some ways, created a curiosity for further exploration. #twitterfictionnewbie

Typically, I view twitter as a news feed and had not given thought to its function as a fiction or literary medium. And, I am not yet completely convinced of its long-term viability. #fictionornonfiction

That being said, I think the digital medium itself has opened the door for new opportunity in writing, publishing and editing. Fitzgerald commented on the way in which e-books have opened a quick feedback system that is not possible in paper publishing. This in turn, opens new avenues and ways for authors to write, edit and vet ideas that likely leads to better end products, or at least end products that resonate more immediately with the audience. #immediatefeedback

Fitzgerald also pointed out an interesting dynamic in the user experience. “Normally the reader can control the pace of the story but that is not the case with Twitter.” This to me poses a problem, at least in the traditional sense of fictional literary works. When looking for interesting examples of twitter fiction, I felt confusion in knowing where I was in the story. Was I reading a 140 character story…was this it? Should I dig deeper to see if there is a collection of tweets somewhere? Did I miss something? #newmediaproblem

The BBC broadcast by Ruth Page likely resonated with me more in that she seemed to comment, for the mots part, on the twitter that I feel I know. One where we can gather information from people we may not normally connect with such as celebrities - even though much of what they share is based on raising a profile or promoting a new product/song/show. Even still, this week’s readings have opened my mind to new possibilities for this  medium and potential for just about anyone with a twitter account, talent and idea to be fiction-based writer. #trytwitterfiction

Ruth Page, (2011). BBC Radio Leicester Interview with Ruth Page on her Twitter 
research, http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/english/people/ruthpage

Andrew Fitzgerald (October 2013). “Adventures in Twitter Fiction, Ted Talks, 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ZzmqDMhi0

Twitter fiction. Why do we tweet?

 Bird whisper:

Twitter fiction means addiction.

 Haiku choice in  bird’s voice.

Twitter and Haiku. Two inventions. Why do we need them? Story, nature (birds), strict structure.

Haiku Japanese poems follow a certain organization (three lines, totaling 17 syllables). Twitter: not more than 140 characters. I am just thinking now: tweeting is what the birds do when they feel safe in the forest -they will only stop if they spot a threat! People, on the contrary, will set up a #TwitterRevolution.  Why do we tweet? It is handier for humans, I guess… Twitter has 200 million active users. Among these, some of them are preoccupied with #Twitterfiction. By the way, #twitterfiction has been first mentioned in 2008:

It means:

 I am still looking to see why people use Twitter:

Ruth Page, in her Twitter research says that “finding information from people you never met in the offline world is really attractive” (BBC Radio Leicester Interview, 2011). Andrew Fitzgerald says that it is attractive to use the social media, because Twitter allows “fictional characters [to] engage with the real world” (2013). My opinion is that the engagement is bidirectional: real world is immersed in virtual reality, and vice versa. However, both worlds are realities to me. Another reason: people  use Twitter because “we are still hungry for narrative. New mediums aren’t destroying fiction, they’re allowing us to innovate even more on how we create and consume our stories” (King, 2013). Isn’t it awesome that we can write haiku on Twitter?

Digital haiku tweet cuckoo.

Fictional birdie

Follows a tree.

References:

Andrew Fitzgerald (October 2013).Adventures in Twitter Fiction.Ted Talks. Retrieved from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ZzmqDMhi0

Rita J. King, (2013).How Twitter is Reshaping the Future of Storytelling.

Retrieved from: http://www.fastcoexist.com/1682122/howtwitterisreshapingthefutureofstorytelling

Page, R. (2011). BBC Radio Leicester Interview with Ruth Page on her Twitter

Research. Retrieved from: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/english/people/ruthpage

In my story, Alice is in Edmonton and she is 20. The pictures I have used in my video were created with Paper Artist, an application on my android phone. Although, it's been quite a busy day to figure how to remove the animoto watermark, finally Alice is alive, telling her 30 seconds story. Here it is:
alice

Creative machines?

There is a reason for the “persistence of the past”. And it is not always a bad thing. It’s ok for the past to be persistent, even if it is outmoded. It is how it’s supposed to be. Sheldon and his text-adventure game story tells something: He lacks the creativity if this is not delivered by present technology-- not having a visual map in front of his eyes, he does not realize that “going North” three times will bring the same result.

To me, Sheldon is representative of the modern man completely absorbed by technology: without visual representations fed by external sources, he can’t see the forest for the trees. By the way, why it is necessary to play laughing machines when something funny happens in the movie? Do we need technical assistance to figure out when to laugh? Aren’t we like Sheldon?

Well, if we don’t take away what is good from the past, will be difficult to be creative in building a future, even with the best technology at hand. That is why I liked Elizabeth Eisenstein’s  persistence of the past idea because the expression “blocks of text get moved by punching keys” reminds me of some  XIV century great invention: The keyboard we are using these days are, in fact, some mini-copies of the Guttenberg’s movable type. The old printing press was not used to represent smiley faces or other emoticons, but the books were embellished with flowers, birds, fruits, human faces. 

A nice  handwritten letter was also created with imagination: To express their passion, excitement or anger,  people cared to use different ink colours, to include flowers or other graphic representations in their writings. They used their hands and brains to create something. 

The past remains persistent because human nature does not change in space or time. We just change the tools to express ourselves.

I just hope that modern tools will not transform us in 24 h/day couch-potatoes. I hope that will find the right balance between text and visual, computer and brain, technology and human thinking.

Digital literacy & Me (Adela Popescu)

Here is my podcast

listen to ‘Digital Literacy & Me’ on audioBoom

Reflections…

 It was a good exercise for me. This digital material made me think about changing. It made me think back, and noticed how I let myself changed over time by technology. Nothing stays the same, especially, in the digital era: things are changing, and we are changing with them. Listen to my podcast and see what I mean!

I used audacity to record myself, a great open-source tool that I am using frequently, and it never lets me down; audioboom.com also worked perfectly for my purposes -- very user-friendly for a first time user.The open-source tools, such as these, make the digital world  awesome(r): save time, money, and allow us to be experts from the comfort of our home.

Here is the community I’ve mentioned in my presentation, aquarius.net: http://aquarius.net/directory/

And here is a capture of my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/adela.simboteanu

When I think of new media, I have this visual representation in my mind:

Lastly, the bird present in my audioboom profile picture is my quaker parrot, Bambi. 

Digital Literacy and Me

Hi everyone,

Here is the podcast I created for Assignment 1.

listen to ‘Digital Literacy and Me’ on audioBoom
 

It's somewhat amusing to me that we are discussing digital literacy and this is the first podcast I have created so this was new ground for me. I found it very interesting and challenging. Interesting because it's always fun to play with new technology and create something new. Challenging because my technology has been a challenge to work with and getting the quality I wanted in audio sound proved more difficult than I thought it would. My Mac is in the shop and I am using my husbands laptop so this assignment was more challenging than it probably should have been.

I find every time I have to use a new technology or interface online I have some skills that I can rely on even if I haven't used them for a long time. The accumulated experience is maintained somewhere in my brain and I am able to call up on the required skills needed to get the job done. There are times I wish I had more resources and play time to explore the creative side of the internet and create fabulous work like Joshua Davis. When I was studying new media he had just developed Praystation.com, which was a site for Flash designers that was one of the first to offer open source files. I wish I could link to the site but it doesn't exist any longer. The picture below is a screenshot from the site when it was up and running. Davis was a first generation web designer who used technology, particularly Flash, as it was developing and helped define the ground rules of digital design.

 

 

His work has continued to push boundaries, as illustrated in this film.

 

 

I have been trying to explore new technologies to keep abreast of changes and I have decided to use Vimeo more this year because it has such great content.  Like this short documentary filmed at Charlie Hebdo in 2006. It is also interesting to note that the #JeSuisCharlie has become the most used hashtag ever on Twitter.

 

http://vimeo.com/116362234 

 

Its astounding when you consider how many aps, programs and interfaces exist in the digital world, like this one designed by Brian Solis call the Conversation Prism.

 

 

 

Literacy whether it is online or otherwise helps to keep us informed and current.  It is important to always maintain our literacy and to continue to grow.

 

 

Regards,

Tess

 

Digital Literacy & Me (Jaylene Ulmer)

Podcast Note: The image used in this playlist is under standard licensing agreement from istock. The music and sounds are under the Apple Software licence agreement.
 


Podcast Reflection


Creating this (my first) podcast was an interesting and new experience for me. In my current position with Economic Development Lethbridge I often design and write speaking notes and keynote presentations for others to deliver so I enjoyed the challenge of writing something that I would verbally deliver.
 


The subject of the assignment is thought provoking and a great pre-cursor to the rest of the modules scheduled for this class. It made me do some self-reflection both on the definition of digital literacy as well as my own use and opinion of digital media as a communication tool.
 


The following links provide information that is well- aligned with my personal opinions on this subject. I have also included a few images (under the creative commons licensing agreement) which provide a visual representation of where my digital practices fit within this topic.
 


Links


I started my podcast with the following quote by Jason Ohler,

• “Being able to read and write in multiple forms of media and integrate them into a meaningful whole is the new hallmark of literacy.”
• You can check out some of his most recent articles here: http://www.jasonohler.com/publications/articles.cfm 

I think that understanding the fluidity by which we are actively online is a valid concept to consider when tracking and analyzing consumer and societal behaviour. 

• Being Online has Become So Common That Some People No Longer identity It as Being Online
• https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121022/18144920795/being-online-has-become-so-common-that-some-people-no-longer-identify-it-as-being-online.shtml

In my opinion, this quick slide share was helping in on defining digital literacy and what this means.

• Digital Literacy Defined
• http://youtu.be/p2k3C-iB88w?list=PLPPY4Oh26YVJiysU1ewut2wFubgCOhEJn


I like the idea of exploring the range of elements and experience of digital literacy. This TEDx Talk provides some interesting context on the spectrum of literacy and the context for defining it.

• The essential elements of digital literacies: Doug Belshaw at TEDxWarwick
• http://youtu.be/A8yQPoTcZ78?list=PLPPY4Oh26YVJiysU1ewut2wFubgCOhEJn
 

And just for a laugh…
http://search.dilbert.com/search?w=social+media&x=-461&y=-788

Visual Representation

A tree is often used to portray knowledge and learning. I like the use of this traditional symbol with digital icons. To me this is what digital literacy is about...Mixing the traditional with the digital to create a "meaningful whole".




Digital literacy has so many interpretations. This image represents some of the keywords I would use to define it. 

 

I was intrigued by the idea of digital citizenship and what it means.