Sarah's Personal Timeline

a basic page that documents some of the major events in my life

have a great summer!

Jamin's Project - Telephone

This is the result of throwing together random ideas and pictures I came across throughout the process of creating this Flash project:

http://www.student.ocad.ca/~jtabarez/Telephone_Complete1.swf

I'm not sure what it really means...I guess I just wanted to make something strange, something that would make people say, "What the fuck?" Some things might make you laugh, some things might make you cry. It's all open to interpretation. Like I said in my project outline, this is for the most part a 'random' work from the 'subconscious'. I didn't really think about what I was depicting, but from some of the random concepts I ended up creating some organization and structure (like leading users to end at any numbers between 1 and 9, and #).

Peace in the middle east.

Last class & some URLs for class projects

OK, we've reached the end of the term and final critiques are today... a bittersweet moment, however I hope you'll continue to post to the blog and let us know about developments on your sites. Here are some of the class projects online :

Ben Prus -- Ben's Site

Andy Morris -- ""Here is the silly video I made about the Bunny:
bunnymovie

And here is the finished blog:
andyblog

Geoff Inwood & Elia Morrison : "The Pills Project" -- Pill project

"Windows : Structure and Formality" by Antonella C. -- antonella's windows

Geoff Inwood -- Main Site geoffinwood.com (currently just a list of projects) "

-- More to follow in a subsequent post.

Hypertext Web Performance

A lesson in futility.







Have a great summer everyone.

Ben

A7's Last Words

It's the end of the semester, and I missed all the presentations due to annoying class rescheduling and trips to Ottawa to work on my thesis. :(

Here is the silly video I made about the Bunny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xQ5lFWp1gs

And here is the finished blog:
http://www.bya7.com/blog

Feel free to signup for an account (instant access) and send messages to the bunny. That's what the site is there for. :)

A7

Participating in The Pills Project

Alright, if you would like to get a pill bottle please email me at elia@eliamorrison.com and provide me with an approximate location, and some text and images to put on a page. Next class I will give you a pill bottle and you can put it where you want to.
More info about participating in the project is at the site.

Also, you can get pretty ok webhosting for free at www.atspace.com, the only thing is that they have a file upload limit of approximately 200kb...

Overhauling the Pills Project's Style

Hello all,
The Pills Project has a new look! It's lighter and less threatening then the original green/grey color scheme that I had given it. We also have our first seekable container out in the great beyond!

Be sure to check it out and let us know what you think.

Geoff Inwood
w: Geoff Inwood.com - an overview of my work
e: admin@geoffinwood.com

The Pills Project

Final Project by Antonella C

My project is called ‘Windows: Structure and Formality.’ It’s finished and ready to present! I’ve created a site to place my Web Art in, including the project description
( Web Art ). I really enjoyed working on this project. I learned how to use Flash, yay! Yet best of all, I had the chance to do more research on the subject I’m most interested in, & develop my message through a different art medium: web art. Thank you Judith Doyle and class for the inspirations!

(Problem is that I can’t seem to upload my flash project to the file manager (site). Although I compressed the size of my project, from what I learned in last class, apparently 5.7MB is still too large to upload; I need it to be max. 5MB. It appears that the Flash Publishing settings doesn’t compress it enough. I’ll be showing the project during presentation as a Projector… unless anyone has any last suggestions.)

My Semester Overview

I have set up my site as an overview of the work that I have done over the course of the semester, and then realized I did not know how I planned on letting people who may be interested in looking through it know it was there. So... I though I would but it here -just for the hell of it really. So Check it out.

The projects that directly or indirectly relate to this class are listed below:

• My Main Site www.geoffinwood.com (currently just a list of projects)


• One Site For The World -this is a virtual space, a website where all the content is entirely user gernerated/edited/deleted/etc.


• The Pills Project -Collaborative project with Elia Morrison (being done for this class)


• Communal Creations -A prototype that attempts to combine two projects into one(a work in progress)

christina zyler

words in the story were a hypertext link

Opening W3Schools a new browser window:
target="_blank">W3Schools

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/

html definitions of tags

Online Calendar

couple links about online flash calendar and their style
http://www.flashkit.com/movies/Components/Dynamic_-ValueAme-10543/index.php
http://shareme.com/screenshot/flash-calendar.html
http://www.phpjabbers.com/web-calendar/
http://www.communitymx.com/calendar.cfm
http://www.flashkit.com/movies/Applications/Calendar-David_Do-927/index.php
http://www.flashkit.com/movies/Scripting/Javascript/Calendar-F_J_Sa-318/index.php
http://www.dmxzone.com/ShowDetail.asp?NewsId=5728
http://www.flashkit.com/movies/Components/Dynamic_-ValueAme-10521/index.php
http://www.flashloaded.com/flashcomponents/xmlcalendar/?id2=
http://jerryscript.hostrocket.com/flash/calendar/
http://www.futurevision.com.ua/products/flash_calendar.php
http://w3.tue.nl/nl/diensten/csc/agendas/agenda_tue/
http://www.webwasp.co.uk/forum/index.php?act=calendar
http://www.swishzone.com/index.php?area=resources&tab=movies&do=page&action=detailed&link_id=1653

some tutorial about flash calendar
http://www.phptoys.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.33
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorial/PHP-Calendar/15716

The Pills Project

The core for the web based section (which i have created/ been working on) of Elia's project is now viewable at

http://thepillsproject.geoffinwood.com

.

I would greatly appreciate all input regarding any bugs that you may come across while exploring the site (asside from missing content... it really doesn't count as a bug). Please post any bugs to the comments section.

Thanks,
Geoff

HDS "EAST WEST STREAM"DEMO TODAY in Great Hall

EAST/WEST STREAM
> OCAD IT Services, working with Concordia University and Simon Fraser
> University, will be displaying live high definition video streams for 72
> consecutive hours in the Great Hall on April 2nd and 3rd. Each of
> the three institutions will be providing concurrent live video streams
> linking Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto in real time, in high
> definition. High fidelity images of geographic locations from three
> regions of Canada will illustrate how technology changes concepts of
> space and time. This is the first pilot project of a high definition
> streaming consortium, with OCAD as the lead institution, that includes 8
> universities from various regions across Canada. Come by and view the
> first of a possible series of such installation or for more information
> contact Alastair MacLeod, Andrew McAllister or Mike Steventon.

Today our Publications : Digital class will arttend a demo w/ Mike Steventon at 12:30 PM.

Seminar - Audio on the Web

Here is a link to podcasting and audio uses on the web.

Audio Seminar

Seminar - Audio Art and Networks

Mike Briand
Text messaged Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick with his cell phone’s keypad in segments.

Sound Scapes
Networked generative art and interactive systems for installations, architecture, and public spaces. It has interpreted data from security tracking, and environmental monitoring. These artworks involve collecting the data, visualizing the data, and then displaying the data. The outputs from the online interfaces and online visualizations are realized as real time dynamic artworks as diverse as installations, and real objects, made out of new display materials back in physical space.

Sound Suit
Sensors in your fingers, wrists, and elbows translate your movement into instrumental sound.


IN[]EX
IN[ ]EX is a project by a Canadian art group which acts as a nice low-tech approach to the spread of digital information. Their piece consist of a shipping container with (initially) 3000 wooden blocks of various sizes attached to it with tiny magnets. There are also a few bigger ones that actually contain sensors for the smaller blocks. The setup has two functions: a sound installation inside the container which is being generated and influenced through the way that the small blocks are attached to the wall of the container and around the city.

Embedding Sound Files on your HTML Page
This helped me with my soundfile hosting for my class project.

Free Flash MP3 Player!

If anyone is looking for a flash-based mp3 player to use for their site, I've found this great piece of free software that you can download and install on your site. It requires PHP and SQL on your web server (where you need to install the software), and will require some basic knowledge of PHP and SQL in order to configure it (or if you're REALLY good at following instructions, you can probably get by with the included instructions). It even includes a file upload tool, so you can easily upload your mp3 files through your web page.

You can get it here: http://www.flamplayer.com/

A7

Seminar - Online Media Activism

MEDIA REFORM

Mass Media - newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies.

5 huge corporations own and operate a majority of America's mass media-- Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) and General Electric's NBC is a close sixth.

MEDIA REFORM INFORMATION CENTER

FREE PRESS






INDEPENDENT MEDIA

For true democracy to work, people need easy access to independent, diverse sources of news and information.

But the last two decades have seen unprecedented corporate media consolidation. The U.S. media was already fairly homogenous in the early 80s: some fifty media conglomerates dominated all media outlets, including television, radio, newspapers, magazines, music, publishing and film. In the year 2000, just six corporations dominated the U.S. media.

In addition, corporate media outlets in the U.S. are legally responsible to their shareholders to maximize profits.

And U.S. “public” media outlets accept funding from major corporations, as well as from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Every Corporation for Public Broadcasting board member is appointed by the White House and confirmed by the Senate.








POLITICAL ACTIVISM

Petition Online





CONSPIRACY RESEARCH & INVESTIGATION

9/11 Mysteries - Full Length Documentary

Links from my presentation

wooster - http://www.woostercollective.com
stencil revolution - http://www.stencilrevolution.com
streetsy - http://www.streetsy.com
GRL - http://www.graffitiresearchlab.com

I'll update this later with some images and texts.

Cathy's Seminar

Online Gaming - MMORPG

MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) is a genre of online computer role-playing games (RPGs) in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world. As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character (most commonly in a fantasy setting) and take control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player RPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world, usually hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away from the game.

History

The term "MMORPG" emerged in 1996 after Trip Hawkins frequently made use of the term "massively multiplayer" when explaining early graphical products to the media. Although MMORPGs as defined today have only existed since the early 1990s, their history begins as early as the late 1970s.

The first gameworlds

MUD (Multi-User Dungeon, Domain or Dimension) , the world's oldest multi-user roleplaying game

The beginning of the MMORPG genre can be traced to text-based with the first being developed by Richard Bartle and Roy Trub
shaw in 1978. By typing commands into a parser, players would enter a dungeon, fight monsters, gain experience, and acquire loot.

Early commercial development

In 1991, the first graphical MMORPG was Neverwinter Nights on AOL. In addition to being the first graphics base MMORPG, the game also marked the first appearance of online Clans and Player versus player combat in multiplayer RPGS. It cost $6.00 per hour to play.










The Realm Online, originally known as simply The Realm, was one of the first MMORPGs for public. It was launched on December 31, 1996 for Windows personal computers. Methods of social interaction include chat channels, "room" chats (limited to the players shown on a screen), private messages, and an in-game mail service.

Commercial MMORPG on the Internet

Access to the Internet, forming a global player base, caused game companies to grow in popularity and accumulate truly massive numbers. With this global access to paying customers, there also came a surge in profitability for game companies.

Ultima Online is a popular graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), released on September 25, 1997, by Origin Systems.
The success of Ultima Online opened the door for the creation of many new massively multiplayer games. Ultima Online is a third-person/isometric fantasy role-playing game set in the Ultima universe. It is online-only and played by thousands of simultaneous users (who pay a monthly fee) on various game servers, also known as shards. It is known for its extensive timing-based player versus player combat system. Over a million paid accounts have been created in the game. To maintain order in the online community, there are Game Masters who resolve player disputes, police the shard for terms of service violations, and correct glitches in the game.

EverQuest (EQ) is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on March 16, 1999. It was developed by Verant Interactive and published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). SOE currently runs and distributes EverQuest. The game's sequel, EverQuest II, was released in 2004.

To play, one must initially pay for the game software and then pay a recurring monthly fee; a free trial is also available for those who wish to experience the game before paying.

Second-generation Commercial MMORPGs

In 2002, Final Fantasy XI was released, which hoped to bring in fans of the extremely popular (but mostly single-player) Final Fantasy series, which was particularly popular in Japan. Like the previous Final Fantasy games, this one was playable on a console, using a handheld controller, though it bore little resemblance to gameplay in prior Final Fantasy titles. Though

not the first MMORPG played on a console, it was the first to allow console and PC users to play together.

Modern MMORPGs

At present, World of Warcraft is one of the most played games in North America, and the most played MMORPG worldwide, with a total of over 8 million customers. With the release of these newer games, subscriptions began to decline for many older MMORPGs, The current MMORPG market has World of Warcraft share being greater than 50% of the overall market. Players control a character avatar within a persistent gameworld, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, and performing quests on behalf of computer-controlled characters. The game rewards success through money, items, and experience, which in turn allow players to improve in skill and power.

In addition, players may opt to take part in battles against other players, including both duels and fights against player characters allied with an enemy faction.

The majority of the quests d uring the early and middle stages of gameplay can be completed without the help of other players, particularly if the player is a higher level than what the quest suggests. Other portions of the game, such as dungeons, are designed to require other players to work together for success. Dungeons are designed for parties ranging from two to five players, up to significantly more difficult "raids" (a term originating from EverQuest gameplay) requiring up to a maximum of 40 players. The highest level, most complex dungeons, and encounters are designed to take raiding guilds months of playtime and many attempts before they succeed.

Free Online Games

MapleStory is a free, 2D, side-scrolling Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game developed by the Korean company. Although playing the game is free, many player appearances and gameplay enhancements can be purchased from the "Cash Shop" using real money. MapleStory has a combined total of over 50 million players in all of its versions. MapleStory Global, for players mainly outside of East Asia, Southeast Asia and Europe, has over one million players. In the game, players defend the "Maple World" from monsters and develop their character's skills and abilities, as in typical role-playing games. Players can interact with others in many ways, such as through chatting, trading, and playing mini games. Groups of players can band together in parties to hunt monsters and share the rewards. Players can also band in a guild to interact more easily with each other.

Reference:

UMD
http://www.ludd.luth.se/mud/aber/mud-history.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.03/muds.html

Neverwinter Nights
http://www.bladekeep.com/nwn/index2.htm

The Realm Online
http://www.realmserver.com/

Ultima Online
http://www.uoherald.com/news/

EverQuest
http://everquest.station.sony.com/
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/27/1748252

Final Fantasy XI
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=1&cId=3145765

World of Warcraft
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml
http://pc.ign.com/articles/572/572070p1.html

Maple Story
http://www.maplestory.com/
http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/748/748331p1.html

interactive sites---very basic

http://www.ablab.org/
a teacher i didnt really like but his site is interesting

doc

http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/gamerrevolution.html This is the link to the gamer revolution doc site I used in my presentation. I dont know if its possible to view it on there but it is downloadable with bit torrent. its definatly wrth seeing.

Batch image processing

This is how you can take a bunch of images that are all different and through Photoshop resize them, change them to black and white, apply filters or do whatever in a really efficient way. If you go through this and are having any troubles, just ask and I'll help you out :)

PART 1:
1) Put all the files you'd like in a folder together, ie: a folder named 'puppies'.
2) Open the first file from puppies in Photoshop.

PART 2:
3) In the history pallet, click on the tab that says 'actions'.
4) Click on the little sideways triangle and select 'new action...' click 'record'. Every action you do after clicking this button will be 'recorded' and applied to all your files.
5) If you'd like to resize your images, for example, go to 'image' --> 'image size'.
6) Click the square 'stop' button on the bottom of the pallet when you're done.

PART 3:
7) Click on 'file' --> 'automate' --> 'batch...'.
8) Click on 'source' and select folder, under 'choose' select puppies.
9) Under 'destination' select 'folder'.
10) 'choose...' a new folder, ie: 'puppies 2'.
11) Click OK. Photoshop will do the rest of the work for you!

Antonella’s Seminar Presentation

Web Aesthetics
- Qualities unique to web media
- Web user experience and needs
- Web as an art medium

Web Site: http://www.geocities.com/antonellc/seminar/index.html

Andy's Mid-Term

Since I am in the final stretch of my thesis, I took it upon myself to work on my site non-stop (i.e. 8+ hours a day) the past 4 weeks in an effort to finish as much as possible before I dedicate myself entirely to doing my thesis. As a result, my site is about 95% finished. So what I will do for my mid-term discussion is talk about all the ground work I had to put together (like graphics, blog creation, features, etc) before integrating the Nabaztag device. Then I can save the Nabaztag integration for my final presentation.

From a design perspective, I wanted to update my existing website with a wider interface (my old site was 800px wide, and the new site is 1024px wide to accomodate the larger displays that are more common these days). I also wanted the graphics to be a bit more slick, and needed to rearrange things on the site to allow for the new features to be unintrusive. So here's an example of my old site:

You may notice that the old site showed no valuable information on the main page without scrolling down. You could see the latest posts on the Free4All (a blog that the general public can post to) and the latest comments, but my posts are hidden well below that.

You'll also notice that there is a whole lot of wasted space at the top, and on the sides. From a design standpoint, that was the first thing I decided to clean up.

In the example of the new site, you can see that those changes helped a lot. There is much less wasted space, and the posts are immediately available without scrolling.

Since there is so much that went into the design and programming of this site, it would take far too long to post all the details of all the features I've implemented after the redesign. What I will do is list most of the major features I have added, and demo them in class so you get a visual understanding of what I created. The main features that have been built in to the site are: Privacy Groups and Posts, Private Comments, Advanced Account Management Tools, Custom User MoodIcons, MSN and Yahoo IM integration, Visual MoodIcon Selections, Animated Comment Emoticons, Basic HTML Comments, Advanced WYSIWYG Posting Interface, Advanced File Upload Management, Advanced Tags and Tagcloud, Shoutbox, Dynamic Menus and Options, and more.

The Nabaztag integration required I gain an understanding of the Nabaztag API. It is actually much simpler than I originally thought, as the API is simply called via standard http URL (with your specific parameters). The official API documentation I worked from can be found here: http://help.nabaztag.com/fiche.php?langue=3&fiche=29

More details will follow during the presentation and demonstration.

Andy

Jamin's Seminar

My seminar is about interactive storytelling!


***** What is interactive storytelling? *****

Interactive: a two-way system of communication

Storytelling: the telling or writing of stories

Put them together, and you have a two-way system of telling or writing stories. Those being told the story can have an influence on its structure and sequence of events.


***** How old is interactive storytelling? *****

In 1975, interactive storytelling first appeared as a text-based adventure game called "Colossal
Cave Adventure" (or "ADVENT") designed by Will Crowther.

Advent was programmed in FORTRAN, a programming language developed in the 1950s by IBM .


There are many links to good examples of interactive stories here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_fiction#Notable_works_of_interactive_fiction


***** Other Examples *****

There are some funny older programs, and some of this stuff uses Java, so you can actually play
them online. Some of you may enjoy them, but I don't really find it that exciting since a lot of it
is just text...for example:

http://www.adamcadre.ac/if.html
and
http://www.nickm.com/if/emshort/galatea.html

are a couple that I checked out, and quickly grew bored of them.


There are way more possibilities out there, especially when considering all the things you can do
with Flash. I really enjoy Han Hoogerbrugge's work ( www.hoogerbrugge.com ). His interactive tale called "Hotel" is really cool.

You can check it out here:
http://www.hoteloscartangoecholima.com/splash.html

The only thing about Hotel is that the user input doesn't really affect the final outcome of the
story. There are a set number of episodes in each of the 10 parts, and when you play through the story you are always going to end up at the same episodes.

Pretty much all video games these days tell some kind of story or are based on a movie or book, such as Lord of the Rings, the Grand Theft Auto series, World of Warcraft, etc. Countless titles
incorporate some sort of storyline as a means of captivating the players on another level aside
from just the gameplay.


Something interesting I found is a new piece of software being designed called "Storytron" and
"Swat" :
http://www.storytron.com/overview/ov_index.html
...which are tools for creating your own interactive stories. They are like a more modern version of the text-based games, but they also incorporate some graphics, like giving the
interactive characters of the world a real face that you can look at (instead of just text). The creators of this software claim that it will be the next "major breakthrough in interactive entertainment."


***** What will become of interactive storytelling in the future? *****

Thought maybe this question would provoke some discussion...

I imagine something like the holodeck on Star Trek, or maybe being able to plug something into your head like in The Matrix. The interactivity at this point would be as realistic as reality. Amazing stories could be told and re-written. Beyond my lifetime?


***** Works Cited *****

interactive - Definitions from Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/interactive

Interactive fiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_fiction

Interactive storytelling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_storytelling

storytelling - Definitions from Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/storytelling

Storytelling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storytelling#Storytelling_as_Art_Form

An Example

So, I threw together a little test/example of how my final page will sort of maybe look. Just so I (and maybe you) could have a better idea of how things are going to hopefully be.
http://www.eliamorrison.com/test/
I also got my own web site! WOW!

Checking In

I've started work on my site. So far, I've uploaded the audio files for my gallery tour and a video (for fun).
I really like the simplicity of its layout.
I'll organize more of my source material into coherent pages over the next few weeks.

Ben

Project in Progress

Since researching about web art (for my seminar and this project), I’ve decided that I will be manipulating qualities of the web to create my web art piece.

It has always been an interest of mine to form a connection between architectural structures and the characters they appear to suggest within a city landscape. What may seem like a familiar building within a city landscape holds unique characteristics, such as the window, capturing rare geometric shapes and surface transformations due to the conditions and constraints of erosion and time. These often go unnoticed but are worthy of acknowledgment, and this is what I like to accomplish in my web art. As an artist, I also like the medium to speak for the subject matter. So I will use web qualities, such as frames, links, images, and windows, to communicate meaning. Every process (clicks) creates and changes these structures of familiarity into something new and engaging.

I have decided to simply use HTML and CSS to create my web art so that I can exploit all its possible use. I’m currently exploiting the web element of frames by creating a framing environment for my images. I’m manipulating frames and nesting them within other frames. So I’m basically splitting the browsing window into a number of different sub-windows, each of which can be used to display different content yet seen through one window. In my site, the frames will separate each architectural structure from one another. The user will be able to build architectural structures, and understand there qualities and relation to others.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on windows, especially how it is represented in hypermedia. The web changed the way we view frame-to-frame movement that is usually seen in films, where a frame follows another. In the web, it converts the frame into a collage, where it’s unlike the continual edit. Frames can be placed anywhere and can separate content from other content on a same window.

Currently working on:
- Frame page: Working on splitting frames (http://www.geocities.com/antonellc/index.htm)
- Individual pages: Working on removing margins (http://www.geocities.com/antonellc/frames/frame_3.html)
- I’ve collected a group of images and currently post processing them and making them into graphics.
- Site layout image example: (http://www.geocities.com/antonellc/images/example4.jpg)

Sources:
- HTML Tools & Help Forum (Web Design Group: http://htmlhelp.com/ )
- Frames (W3C: http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/present/frames.html )
- Intro. To frames (USD: http://www.usd.edu/csci/acm/presentations/htmlTutorial/frames.html)

Project Outline and Work Plan

Herstory -05/03/07

Just an update on the progress of my project.

Basically I wanted to create a sort of personal scrapbook-type site that would allow me to express ideas and interests along with displaying photos and work and a person history element. It will allow me to creatively organize my thoughts, what's important to me, and provide a sort of visual reminder of my individual history. One day the site will include many pages, but the most complex? aspect of the site would be an ongoing timeline, which I will be developing for the class project.

The timeline will be somewhat of a visual record and interpretation documenting the major events and experiences that have shaped my life. It will take on the form of a typical, standard timeline, with dates, images and text, but I would like to be more creative in the visual aspects of it, allowing the viewer to form different interpretations based on their interaction with it. I am sure that there could be many ways to create this page and its visual imagery, but for the time being I have decided to work on it with basic HTML and concentrate more on the visual content of the page; perhaps later down the line I will make it into a flash site when I get more comfortable working with the process of creating a site.

Week 8/ Feb-Mar 5
Basic site Conception
-Site Drawing
-Webpage structure
-Layout ideas

Organize Content
-Collect visual/written content
-Digitize images and visual content
-Prepare for Presentation

Midterm Presentation

Week 9/ Mar 6-12
Content and Imagery
-Create visual/written content
-Images, links, text, graphics etc.
-Layout ideas

Work on Seminar

Week 10/March 13-19
Seminar
-Prepare for seminar

Workable Pages?
-Index & Timeline


Content and Imagery
-Create visual/written content

Page development/HTML
-Webpage structure

Week 11. March 20-26
Content and Imagery
-Create visual/written content
-Maybe some mp3s or audio files?

Page development/HTML
-Webpage structure

Week 12/March 27-April 2
Content and Imagery
-Create visual/written content

Page development/HTML

Week 13/April 3-9
Page development/HTML
-Finalize overall appearance

Final Presentation
- Test and Tweak pages and website
-Prepare for Presentation.

Mid-Term Marks

Hi All,

I will be e-mailing marks for the Project Outlines (Assignment 1) and Mid-Term Presentations (Assignment 3) today. A week today (Friday March 9) is the deadline for withdrawal from the course. You can also request your marks from me in class on Monday.

FLASH: Interactive Interfaces

The link is to the site from which I will be discussing the development and use of interactive interfaces utilizing the Flash environment.
the link should be opened in "SAFARI" not firefox... i had some css/php compatability issues that may, or may not, eventually be resolved.

SEMINAR SCHEDULE & TOPICS - 2007

SEMINAR SCHEDULE (please check and confirm dates)

February 5 : Andy Morris : Ambient Devices
February 26 : Lynda Cheong – Flash : Animation
Geoff Inwood : Flash : Interactive Interfaces
March 5 : Cathy Lam, Emad : Online Gaming
Mike Fenn : Online Gaming Dangers
March 12 : Antonella Clemenz – Windows : web art production and techniques
Interactive Storytelling : Jamin, Lindsay
March 19 : Elia Morrison : Public Art and the Internet
Ashley Knight : Space : Virtual Galleries
Sarah Zaft & Ben Prus – Audiocasting : Uses and Techniques
March 26 : Paul Zulawf : Online Media Activist Entities
Archives : Lee and Sheena : Archives
April 2 : Jessie Craig : Celebrity Gossip Blogs

MID-TERM PRESENTATIONS

Midterm Presentations are an opportunity to show your works in progress to the class. Students should be prepared to present a 10-minute overview of their web site development so far. This should include a site map or sketch of the elements to be included and the basic navigation paths. In class, I've compared the site map to an architectural floor plan, where the home page is like a foyer with branching options for movement from there. Also, at the midterm presentation, students should have a majority of the content for inclusion in the site prepared to show. This might include :

• core photography, design or drawing for the home page and overall look of the project
• designs for navigation elements (links)
• writing (stories, summaries, non-linear narratives, descriptions)
• visual images in .jpeg, .gif or .png formats, for example character sketches, background elements, photos.
• completed animations or keyframe images for animations
• multimedia files including audio and video to be included
• a prototype page or more than one page
• a list of questions and considerations -- things you need extra feedback about

These materials can be presented from your web sites or from any form of digital storage media, for example CD Rom, removable Flash drives, USB memory keys or on DVD. You may also bring in printed matter such as drawings and photographs if necessary. You may use PowerPoint if this is helpful to present your material.

If you are unable to present your midterm this week, please be prepared to do so next week (March 5). Any questions? Let me know in class.

Best,

Judith

mike fenn's update

ok so ive decided (rather late) to change my idea. I didnt think It was creative enough. What I am doing now is similar to what I did in publications print. I am going to create an online storybook. i'm currrently working on the drawings and story. It will follow the standard fable formula. The one thing i need to know is how to do that neat little turning page animation.

MID TERM PRESENTATIONS

1.) The course outline on My Courses doesn't contian the description of the presenation we are to do on week 7.
What should I have ready for week 7?

2.) Has anyone been invited to the OCAD server space?


Ben Prus

Serious Flash! These are some examples that need to be checked out.

Hey guys, I was talking to some of you about a few sites that currently exist out in the world of the interweb that are beyond stunning.

Firstly I would ask that anyone interested in incorporating video with flash definitely check out
elaborations flash showcase! this is truly a piece of work. Take special note of the interactive real time video that acts as their background... it's really something else.
Check it out at www.elaborations.co.uk/flash/

Also I would suggest that anyone who is interested in how far you can take flash in terms of creating an absolutely mind blowing interface should check out 2Advanced's latest development on their site, another example of the flash environment being pushed to it's limits.
Check it out at www.2advanced.com

hope this helps with some inspiration!
-Geoff

Flash Wanna-B

I have always wanted to do a Flash web page about something, anything.
Now with this in mind and a lack of an idea I thought back to when I was younger and all the kids that always wanted to start a band.
I thought that for my project though perhaps large, I would make my flash website be about a fictional group consisting of members of only myself. I want to make this site semi real to the viewer so that it could be confused for a real bad band.
With that being said my website will hold fake or real (whichever way you want to look at it) music videos that I create about myself, recordings of songs, though I cant really sing, photoshoots of myself who will be the lead singer, guitar player, drummer, and so forth.
I would really just like to have a flash page but by creating it this way perhaps it would be a little more fun and challenging in many more ways then just computer bases.

future cinema blog

My foxthesis project is being featured on an excellent blog run by Janine Marchessault and colleagues for the graduate course in Future Cinemas at York University. The link to my thesis is about 3 posts down at the moment, but check the whole blog out. Some really interesting material. Click title above to link.

Draggin objects in flash using a custom function

here is the script that i wrote as a little tutorial type thing because some people were interested in having draggable objects... if you would like a copy of the .fla file i would be more than happy to give you one. as it would probably help you to understand this code more thoroughly.

otherwise you can follow my shawdy instruction below to create your own fla file

1. make a circle and a rectangle (it's best if their different colors) and convert each into it's own movieclip symbol (select the circle press "F8" select movieclip and give the symbol a name, then do the same for the rectangle)

2. Delete Everything from the stage. in your library you should have 2 movie clip symbols

3. draw a new rectangle (make it a different color than the circle) select the rectangle and press "F8" and once again select movie clip and give the symbol a name. then select the rectangle again and in the properties window give it an instance name of "rectangle2_mc"

4. double click on the rectangle on the stage. this will allow you to change the content of your movie clip. (make sure you are in the movie clip by looking above the timeline).

5. Drag a copy of your circle onto your rectangle.

6. select the circle and give it an instance name of "cirlce2_mc"

7. go back to your main timeline by clicking on SCENE 1 (it's above the timeline)

8. on the stage there should be the instance "rectangle2_mc" and there should be 3 movie clips in your library. (the rectange, the circle, and the other rectangle with the circle inside it)

9. drag a copy of the rectangle onto the stage. and give it an instance name of "rectangle_mc"

10. drag a copy of the circle onto the stage and give it an instance name of "circle_mc"

11. double check that on your stage you have an instance of each of the three movieclips in your library on the stage and that they have the proper instance names.

12.Create a new layer. Name it actions and LOCK IT!

13. select the first keyframe of the actions layer and open the actions window
(F9 on pc, alt+F9 for mac)

14. Paste in the action script below.



//this block of code outlines the start drag function
//this means that every time you call dragIt; (the function below) it will
//exicute the block of code, which does two things. First it
//it exicutes the startDrag(this); command and then
//it exicutes a second function contained within the first
//that runs the stopDrag(); comand when the draggable item
//is released
// it is important also to note that "this" refers to whichever instance is calling //the function "dragIt".

function dragIt()
{
startDrag(this);
this.onRelease = function()
{
stopDrag();
}
}

// this will probobly make more sense when you see how it works...

//Lets use the function!
//we must state what !"""INSTANCE"""! on the stage will exicute the function
// and when. the code below simply states that on "pressing" the instance //"rectangle_mc"
//it will exicute the dragIt function. this means that as long as the mouse button is //pressed down you will be able
//to drag rectangle_mc all over the stage. and when you release the mouse button.. //you won't

rectangle_mc.onPress = dragIt;

//the advantage to using a function to start the dragging
// is that you can apply it to ANY instance of ANY movieclip
// on the stage (or within another movie clip) without
//writing out all the code again.

// for example i have placed an instance of a circle onto the
//stage and called it circle_mc. to make this circle dragable
//all i have to do is put the following bit of code
circle_mc.onPress = dragIt;

//however if you have an instance of one movie clip inside another movie clip
//in order to drag the internal movieclip arround you must refer to it directly
//luckily this is quite an easy process
//the code below says that on pressing the instance circle2_mc (which is inside of //the movie clip rectangle 2
//which has an instance on the stage called rectangle2_mc) circle2_mc will become //dragable within rectangle2_mc
rectangle2_mc.circle2_mc.onPress = dragIt;


I hope this is of some help to some of you. if you have any questions or would like a copy of the .fla file feel free to email me at
geoffinwood@gmail.com

Action scripting for dragable movie clips

Re: dragable movie clips. Just to remind you : first, make a button. Place it in a new symbol -- a movie clip. Give the button an instance name in the properties window (bottom of screen). Give the movie clip an instance name. Then in the ACTIONS box, you will add sine script :

Here's Geoff's action scripting for the dragable movie clip. He has some "better script" that he'll upload to the blog soon. Meanwhile, here's the OK script we found today :

dragable.onPress = function() {
startDrag(dragable);
}
dragable.onRelease = function() {
stopDrag();
}


Remember, this applies to a tutorial you can find on web developer (see link on the title below).

HAVE A GREAT STUDY WEEK!!!!

flash button tutorial

In today's class we will review HTML and FLASH basics and go through a tutorial on creating a simple animated button. This overview is by request from those of you who are new to web creation using flash. Click the title above to link to the tutorial at webdevelopers.com

seminar topics and assignment details

Here is a list of your seminar topics. Let me know if you want to make any changes or form groups. I will schedule the remaining seminars starting week 7 (the week following Reading Week) and they'll continue through week 12 (about 2 or 3 seminars per class). Your seminar presentations should last about 10 - 15 minutes with 5 minutes for discussion. Please, upload your notes and links to the blog, or post them on another site and provide a link to it on the blog.

I've pasted an in-depth project description of the Seminar Assignment below. I've also e-mailed it to you and posted it on My Courses.

2007 CLASS TOPICS

Andy Morris : Ambient Devices (completed Week 5)

Sarah Zaft & Ben Prus – Audiocasting : Uses and Techniques

Antonella Clemenz – Windows : web art production and techniques

Jamin : Interactive Storytelling

Lynda Cheong – Flash : Animation

Geoff Inwood : Flash : Interactive Interfaces

Ashley Knight : Space : Virtual Galleries, HL Gaming Engines

Paul Zulawf : Online Media Activist Entities

Jessie Craig : Celebrity Gossip Blogs

Lindsay Cunningham : Web Identity / Online Storytelling

Elia Morrison : Public Art and the Internet

Mike Fenn – P2P File Sharing OR Online Gambling and its Dangers

SEMINAR ASSIGNMENT

Individually or in small groups, students will research and prepare for the seminar presentations. Each will take 10 – 15 minutes of class time. Groups may present their seminars using Powerpoint, in digital or web-based form, or using online publication examples. The seminars will introduce topics in digital publication, including net art and issues for new media artists, and new media technologies and aesthetics. Each seminar will be set in a social and historical context. You will submit a 500-word or so post to the blog including an overview of the content, and a bibliography of online resources. Evaluation of Student Seminars will be based on the following criteria:
• research will show depth and originality (not a rehash of one or two online sources)
• ability to give an overview of the topic, and to summarize ideas (synthesis of lots of source material)
• attention to both spoken and visual dimensions of the presentation (well organized and illustrated)
• good research, well documented in a supporting online bibliography and overview

Ambient Device presentation

As a follow-up to my seminar on ambient devices, here's a PDF of the presentation, and some links to read up on.

PDF: http://www.bya7.com/drop/Ambient.pdf

Ambient Devices (the company): http://www.ambientdevices.com/cat/index.html
Nabaztag website: http://www.nabaztag.com/en/index.html
Nabaztag services and message portal: http://my.nabaztag.com/vl/action/myHome.do?langSet=2
(note: may have to create an account to access some of the pages)

If you feel like messing with me and sending my bunny a message, the bunny's name is "MumblesDaBunny".

Andy

Lee Ormerod Assignment One: HTML learning the craft

Well here it folks, I had some problems getting this posted up in a timely matter as there was an error with me getting the blogger invite, anyways enough Jib Jab...

The primary focus of this assignment for myself will be the basic design, conceptualization and development of a website from the ground up. Using HTML scripting and incorporating elements of flash, I plan to create a simple website using the skills I have learned in the first two weeks of class.

The website will follow the format of a portfolio exhibition website. This coincides with one of my final objectives for this class: the creation of a portfolio website on which artists can host or display their work. This project can have several outcomes: Firstly it can become most simply a portfolio site for myself and secondly it can become part of a template that could be automated to be a tool that aspiring artists can use to build a portfolio web page for them selves. This website can be a walk through template to help guide others towards creating there own portfolio website where thy can host their work online. I plan on encouraging people to borrow the HTML scripting for their own use.

The target audience for this project is primary twofold, as per the nature of the website in question. The primary audience initially would be the artists or designers who are using the template to create a website showcasing their work. And secondary after the initial website is created the primary audience becomes the website visitor.

I want the site to be a stand-alone HTML site built in dream weaver or some other layout program. I want to shift the focus away from using some sort of automated page builder and focus on creating a site from scratch using HTML scripting.

The learning objectives for this project:

- the continuation of the learning of skills required to construct a website through basic scripting

- incorporation of flash elements

- incorporation of video elements

- user friendly user interface

Project Outline

The website which I will be creating is V’s Driving School. V’s Driving School is a beginner’s driver education course opened by my Dad. This is because someone offered my Dad to create a website, but I felt it was too expensive. Thus I have taken this opportunity to create this website. The targeted audience will be beginner drivers who have enrolled in the course. It will provide students with a course calendar and course material. Most of the website will be built in HTML with some Flash or Gif animations. Since this site is for information, so I want to keep it clean and clear, nothing too fancy. This website will be mainly used by the students enrolled in this course and future students to obtain information about the beginner’s driver education.

The work plan is as follows:

Week 1:

- Obtain information about my dad’s business

- Begin preliminary design of website

Week 2 to Week 5

- Design Flash animations which will be used for the website

- Design Images used for the website

Week 6 to Week 7

- Constructing website

Week 8

- Testing and launching website

SEMINAR TOPICS

For access to last year's seminar topics, take a look at :

last year's Publication Digital blog

I will add your names and topics later tonight. Also, assignment outlines.

Mike Fenn

I intend to make an interface that would allow me to demonstrate my various skills and works. I currently am in the transition of going from being an artist, to be an illustrator. As a result I have a lot of video and animation art as well as drawings and illustrations. Some made for the art stream and some made for design. Intend on making a website that shows the difference and transition between my two kinds of work. A website plan will quickly be drawn up. I intend it to be simple in design but visually stimulating.


Oh, quick question. I want people to be able to comment on my work. is there a way to make a comment section?

How to Add an Image

You browse to the file, click "upload", click done, and return to publish the post.

flash

i will be using Habitat 67 as a template for the windows of the houses which will all be clickable but only when they are lit up.

I would like the windows to have some sort of timeline which is based on the hours of a day each windows will at some point be lit up and clickable whereas others will not be available. each will have its own timeline (if its possible)meaning it is only clickble for example from 6 till 11 pm whereas another may be clickable all day but not at night.
also when clicked a new window will appear with a photo of the window accompanied by a spoken character sketch. im thinking of maybe having a story revolving around 'characters' ive created using the windows as the initial building block. the items visible through the windows will cast them as a certain character in a drama where we never see the characters, only the windows of their homes.

Jessie - Project Outline

PROJECT OUTLINE

As a photography major, I have a collection of thousands of images and which are unorganized in binders and boxes. For my final project I would like to create a digital portfolio in order to present my strongest work to others. Using Flash I will create an interactive website that is highly stylized in a layout made to resemble a scrapbook, with a similar experience to a scrapbook for the user. It will have the illusion of a more tactile "real life" object, but of course be completely digitized. I would like it so that it doesn't even necessarily have to be published on the web but can be opened by a CD which I can make copies of to share.

WEEK 5 - 6 Research effectively executed scrapbook-style pieces by other artists
WEEK 7-9 Scan negatives and photographs, curate which photos mesh the best as a whole body of work
WEEK 10-12 Build layout
WEEK 13 Present

SCREENING AT ROYAL CINEMA - volunteers needed

This Sunday Feb. 11 at 2:30 PM there will be a benefit screening for the Dyana Afghan Women's Fund of Christian Frei's "The Giant Buddhas", with a presentation by Nelofer Pazira. The benefit tickets are $25. w/ a $15. charitable receipt. (PLEASE URGE YOUR FRIENDS / FAMILY WHO CAN AFFORD IT TO COME - a very good cause!). Also. student volunteers are needed who will get in FREE. Please let me know in the 'Comments' section below if you'd like to come.

Rt

"Rt"

Rt is an online website based project that aims to explore the relation between gallery and virtual space. Furthermore it is an opportunity for curatorial and critical practices to collaborate with an array of mixed medias that might bring up pertinent questions regarding the role of the internet, the art, the curator, the artist and the viewer as well as their relationship to one another.

Rt will function as a virtual, curated space that features art, especially by young and emerging artists. It is my hopes that be focusing on young and emerging artists I can open a dialogue and a collaboration process where by the site actively participates in discussing how virtual reality creates, displays and informs a viewer about the object and ideology of an art piece.

The site will feature a main page that has a playful theme of "drugs." Though not promoting the use of drugs the site will appropriate the ideas attached to most drugs incuding the theme of: addiction, prescription, treatment, health and individual purpose. That is to say that the site will utilize the image of pills and prescription drugs to reate a parallel to art which describes art and the viewing of art as a process of cause and effect.

As a curatorial space Rt will attempt to assume a role that is simmilar to a realistic gallery space and will function as a space that is open to include: critical analysies and writings, images, videos, sounds, event promotions, merchandise, animations and any other array of "art form" that satisfies the sites manifesto (to be written).

The ideal of Rt is to create a curatorial space that also confronts different forms of gallery spaces including institutional, alternative and commercial and utilizes those aspects to create a hybrid virtual space that can offer the same or similar services.

Potential services available to the user will be: available newsletters, browsing abilities on a unique interface, forum (?), download audio and visual pieces, oekaki, game play (?), purchasing rights.

Ultimately Rt is a quest into the potential role of a curator in the virtual realm that will utilizes conventional forms of gallery space in order to disolve previous boundries and offers a new way to look at objects.


Week 1:
- Manifesto
- Digital Imaging of Main Site
- Site Layout - Home Page, Contact Page, Manifesto Page
- Research Newsletters

Week 2:
- Site Layout - Home Page, Events Page
- Digital Imaging of Artist 1
- Site Layout Collaboration with Artist 1
- Research Forums/Message Boards

Week 3:
- Site Layout - Newslettering (On Contacts Page), Affeliations, Artist 1
- Build Affeliate Connections
- 1 Critical Review of a Current Exhibition
- Research Oekaki

Week 4:
- Site Layout - Forums, Oekaki, Artist 1
- Digital Imaging of Artist 2
- Site Layout Collaboration with Artist 2
-Curatorial Statement Artist 1

Week 5:
- Site Layout - Artist 2 (+ any other incomplete)
- Curatorial Statement Artist 2
- 1 Critical Review of a Current Exhibition

voyeurism

when the internal becomes external judgement has commenced.
stereotyping.social grouping. demographics.
we struggle to outwardly reflect our ideas and beliefs without looking like an advertisement.
through possessions we create project visions of who we think we and others are.
a window is connects the public with the private.
who are you?
the window frames the plant in its sill. a block parent sign. a cat.
a standard mailbox.2 cars in driveway honda civic and ford focus..
an image forms in my head
we are all voyeurs.

For my final Project I would like to revisit an idea that I have previously explored. This is due to fact that my previous attempt to create an interactive graphic colage fell quite short of my expectations. I believe that this was due to my inexperience with the flash software. (at the time of my previous attempt I had very little experience with flash and action scripting)
The project consists of a broad collection of images (previously i worked with a collection of my drawings) which are broken into multiple sections. These sections are then reasembled one on top of another in flash.
The interaction of the user with this image (be it rolling over, rolling out, clicking, dragging etc.) toggles the visibility of each section of the top image revealing portions of the images below making the same types of interactions possible with the newly exposed sections of image. These interactions create a "seemingly" infinate number of possible compositions creating an environment that promotes user interactivity and exploration.

The Development Process:
1. I must compile a collection of images, either my own or from others (this could make an interesting gallery format) and divide the images into sections.
(It is important that each image not be divided into sections eaqual to the image to be placed above as this is to predictable and, atleast I feel, destroys the experience to a certain degree)

2. These images must then be reassembled in the flash environment.

3. Action scripting must be applied to each image section to control the ways that the enduser will interact with them.

4. Presentation on the web will require posting the completed project to a web-server as to allow it's viewing. Prior to which however I would like to construct a site that will not only display the interactive flash file but also a gallery/images used section through which I would like to show each image used in the interactive colage in it's entirety as a way of citing the creators of the images (asuming they are not my own) and providing users with some insight into the production process of such a work.

I will repost my previous attempt to produce such a work on my own webserver as soon as i get a chance, however my laptop has recently died so it may take a few days to get my backup's sorted out. I will however be sure to post a link to the site as soon as it is up.
-Geoff Inwood

Lynda's Proposal

For my final project I would like to use flash to make this garden type of interface. There would be things like different types of plants, or flowers and bugs that you would find in a garden. This would be part of a website that I will create by the end of the term.
I would like the veiwer to be involed in the choosing the different plants, flowers and bugs and such, that a person can find or put into a garden. In a way it is like a mini game where the person is a gardener and they are trying to make this garden grow so that they can harvest crops or flowers, depending on what they chose to plant.
The different types of information that will be shown are text, used to tell what flower it is and maybe some other facts about the plants, and images will be of the flowers or what they will look like when they grow, the bugs and such, and flash animations used in this web page.
The target viewers of this web page would be females or gardeners in general. There might be two different versions one versions that is all flowery and pretty. The other version would be for the boys with lots of bugs and some other things that boys would find interesting. The just depends on how much time I have with all the assignments that are due.
I would research the different types of plants and such that a person might find in a garden. For example, tomatoes, onions, and flowers like tupils and some other plants and such. There will be a small blurb about each flower or the bugs describing what type it is and where you can find it and such.
Basically it is scheduled so that the first few weeks research is done to make sure I know what to put where and a small description of the plant and images. The rest of the time will hopefully be done doing sketches and working with flash to get it worked out to get all the kinks out so that it is working properly.

Elia Morrison Proposal

My website will be a sort of online-real-world game of hide and seek, as well as a guide through the city, maybe like a scavenger hunt. Accessed mainly by cellular phones that have both a camera and a connection to the internet, people will use the Semacode (http://semacode.org) application to capture “Sematags” and interpret them to get access to pages of my site that will be built specifically for mobile phones, palm pilots, and other such things.
The pages will consist of a small and vague map, a photo of a Sematag on some building, tree, or other object, and a nearby major intersection. Using these three items the viewer will then be able to seek out and continue the hunt for more tags around the city.
In addition to the hunting section of the “game” people will also be able to create and upload to the site their own pages and new locations, so the game can grow and be user controlled in a way. The hunt will be user directed and my web interface will mostly serve as a facilitation for the project to grow.
To control the user submitted pages I will hopefully be creating system that checks against a pre-defined template and allows the user to create a map of their chosen location using Google maps.

PLAN!
Week 1-2
Researching Semacode/Tag implementation
Researching web hosting
Researching WML and WAP
Google maps for map creation and php for user submission

Week 3-4
Creating site, interfaces, Sematags, researching locations.
Purchase hosting.

Week 5-?
Implementation.
Deploying Sematags, Getting attention to the project.

A7's Blog Extensions Project

What is it?
My project is about creating blog extensions. Briefly, a blog extension is a way of moving standard blog functions (posts, comments, updates) beyond the computer, into "real world" devices such as cell phones, iPods, and ambient devices.

Cell phone integrations could allow users to post to a blog via sms messaging. Perhaps users could receive text messages each time a comments is added to their posts. Or even using gps tracking on a cell phone to map your current location and display your whereabouts on the blog.

iPod integration could include automatic podcasting of all audio and video uploads within the posting interface. Files could be converted to iPod format on the server, and the proper podcast feed details updated on the fly for every file upload.

Ambient devices, such as the Nabaztag, will be integrated into the blog in a variety of ways. Post moods will be reflected in the ambient device automatically, comments can be read out loud by the device, and visual notifications can tell you if your blog has been updated. It will also act as a communication device, as people will be able to send message directly to the device from the blog.

Who is it for?
The initial site I will be creating is my own personal website. The target audience will be my friends and family, as well as others interested in my art, videos, or essays. Once the site is finished, the code will be portable in that it can be deployed in other environments for other people, so the extended audience is potentially anyone interested in blogging or ambient devices.

More Details?
Administrators (me) will have full access to post to the main blog, edit posts, delete posts, and manage users. All other users (with free automated account signup) can post to the Free4All blog, comment on all posts, and interact with the ambient device. They will also be able to upload files, such as images, videos, and more.

The site is accessed via web browser, but since it is integrated into external devices, some limited information is also available via cell phone or ambient device.

Timeline?
- The initial site redesign is in progress right now. Most of the design is complete.
- February 1-15th will be the integration of new features, such as private posts, user groups, email notification, and more.
- February 15th to 28th will be the integration of the ambient device into the site.
- March will be full deployment and testing of the site, as well as additional features and bug fixes.




































A7