Digital Media

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Digital Media

• Dr. Jim Rowan
• ITEC 2110

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First, a bit about GGC/MediaWiki
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MediaWiki Stuff Internal Links to a New Page

• Linking within the wiki (and creating a new page)
• placing myNewPage in the edit window...
• gt the link myNewPage showing up on your wiki
  page
• The first time you click on myNewPage...
• you will find yourself in the edit window for
  that new page
• If you put something on the new page, the next
  time you click myNewPage you will go to the new
  page

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MediaWiki Stuff Internal LinksFancier version

• placing myNewPage New Page! in edit
  window...
• gt the link New Page! showing up on your wiki
  page
• The first time you click on New Page! ...
• you will find yourself in the edit window for the
  page named myNewPage
• If you type something into the new page, the next
  time you click New Page! you will see that new
  stuff

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MediaWiki Stuff External Links

• To place an external link (a link to a web page
  that is not on the MediaWiki)
• get the URL of the linked-to page
• put it in double square brackets
• For example
• http//www.google.com Go to Google!
• placed on your page during an edit will show up
  on your page as
• Go to Google!
• Clicking on it would send you to
• http//www.google.com/

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MediaWiki Stuff Uploading filesother than
image files

• You can store many different kinds of files on
  the wiki
• for downloading later
• NOTE Some file types cannot be uploaded like
  .exe files
• Example MSWord file called myMSWordFileName.doc
• Use the Upload file link to upload the file to
  the wiki
• Edit the Mediawiki page you want this file
  accessible from and
• using the media tag put a link on the page with
  this format
• mediamyMSWordFileName.doc
• then save the edited page
• The link mediamyMSWordFileName.doc
• will appear on your page
• Clicking it will cause it to download but not
  display.

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MediaWiki Stuff PDF files

• PDF files can be displayed (rather than just
  downloaded) inside the wiki
• If you upload a pdf and you put
  mediamyFile.pdf in the edit page
• You will see mediamyFile.pdf on your page
• and when you click it
• your file will be displayed, not downloaded
• Fancier form
• mediamyFile.pdf my PDF file
• shows my PDF file as the link
• displays the file called myFile.pdf when clicked

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How to make a pdf on a Mac

• Any file that is open on a Mac
• Pull File down to Print
• In the lower left hand corner of the print
  window
• Click PDF
• Then select Save as pdf

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Now to Chapter 1!
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The Effect of Media Choice and the use of new
Technology

• The media you choose has an effect on the way the
  story is told
• Print? you must describe things well
• Still Image? you have to tell it visually by
  setting the scene
• Film/Video? you have moving images and sound...
  does the sound emphasize the moving image or vice
  versa?
• 3-D amusement ride? moving images, sound and some
  actual motion... 3 modalities

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New Media/New Technology

• Consider if you had spent your life working with
  the SCROLL and you were asked to change to the
  BOUND BOOK...
• HMMMmmmm...
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vxFAWR6hzZek

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Different Media?Different Affordances

• affordances is a term from ecological psychology
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_psychology
  
• different things afford different interaction
• consider door knobs, levers, push-plates and
  pulls
• Don Norman and Psychology of Everyday Things
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Norman

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Considerthe Scroll, Book WWW

• The Scroll
• cant stack scrolls like books
• cant skip around except to beginning or end
• but reading flows without the interruption of
  pages
• The Book
• you can stack them
• you can level a table leg with them!
• but.. the reading is interrupted by page turns
• add a TOC page numbers you can skip around
• with index page s you can go to a specific
  place

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Scroll, Book and now...

• WWW
• you can consume it in any order you want
• links take you to a place (and back!)
• does a book do this?
• the page is in one place one change changes
  everyones version
• Now compare to the Book
• doesnt allow this universal change
• doesnt take you back... but you can stick a
  piece of paper or a finger in it to hold your
  place or fold down the corner of the page
• you can take notes in the margins

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WWW vs Book

• WWW
• allows corrections immediately to everyone
• but no history kept like with book editions
• you go back to the same place and its
  different... were you mistaken or did it change?
• http//www.archive.org/index.php
• Did you read everything?
• Book is easy, read front to back
• WWW... not so much...

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WWW vs Book

• WWW affords searching
• You can Google it and find it
• Book? Not so much..
• the Index will help if the thing you are looking
  for is in the index...
• Ever read a book and think...
• where did I see this before?
• and then reach for the search tool?
• and then you feel kinda foolish?

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New Media/New Technology Adoption

• It takes time for conventions concerning usage to
  be formed
• Consider the history of Film...
• No sound
• then performed sound
• then recorded sound
• With time film developed its own forms
• Hitchcock told the story visually, long scenes
• Tarrentino accents the violence with rapid,
  quick cuts

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Usage of New Media follows a predictable path

• At first the new form tries to act like the old
  form to make the new stuff look more familiar
• In the movies, Newsreels copied newspaper-like
  layouts
• With computers, the desktop metaphor copied the
  office desk
• Alan Kay, XEROX PARC
• personal computer usage exploded
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kay
• Before desktop metaphor C is all you got
• few people used personal computers

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SoWhat is Multimedia?

• Mix of audio, film, graphics, haptic (whats
  haptic?)
• that address the different senses
• We are just beginning to understand what the
  possibilities are...
• We are just beginning to understand how to best
  build multimedia stuff
• Mix of animation and live action
• The movie 300?
• The movie Sin City?
• Beowolf?
• TV series 24 and the movie Phone Booth?
• several scenes are played simultaneously

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In this class

• We are interested in media forms found on and
  transmitted across the Internet and how to
  manipulate them
• We will build them as projects
• audio
• still images
• bitmapped
• vector graphics
• moving images
• video camera
• 3D animation

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Media Linearity

• Scroll - linear
• Book linear broken, but linear
• Must turn the pages
• but Table of Contents and Index allow some
  non-linearity
• encyclopedia and dictionaries are media that are
  meant to be used in a non-linear manner
• Film/Videotape - linear
• DVD primarily linear
• Chapters allow some non-linearity

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Hypermedia Organization

• Time-based uses time as its central organizing
  theme
• Film
• Audio
• Page-based uses a page as its central organizing
  theme
• Book
• Internet originally, yes but now?

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Is media interactive?

• Yes and No
• Yes Programs appear interactive, but only within
  the constraints placed on the interaction by the
  programmer and the interaction designer
• Myst looked like a real world but you only had a
  few choices you could make
• No Improvisation (on the part of the user) cant
  happen unless it is planned and provided for in
  advance by the interaction designer and the
  programmer

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How do you interact?User Interface

• This is what I do HCI
• There are standard forms
• buttons
• sliders
• radio buttons
• check boxes
• pull-down menus
• pop-up menus
• the kind of stuff you see when using the
  computer on the internet

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Ethical Considerations

• Is technology
• neutral?
• ethical?
• unethical?
• Does how we use it define it as ethical or
  unethical?
• Consider that new technology
• affords a new means of interaction
• affords opportunities for behavior that
  previously didnt exist
• MUD Multiple User Domain
• Second Life

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Social ConsiderationsAccess

• Expensive
• Reduce the world to 100 people..
• http//www.snopes.com/science/stats/populate.asp
• Access to internet worldwide? 1/100 would have a
  computer
• But... there are internet cafes so

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Social ConsiderationsAccess

• What about people with disabilities?
• Blind
• prior to the desktop metaphor this was the
  largest group of online users
• now the desktop REQUIRES sight to be operated
• Can be mitigated by screen readers
• images are provided alternate text representations

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WWW use broadens

• Initially seen as a source... you go to look
  something up
• seen as economic advantage only have to put
  stuff in one place and everybody can get to it
• Now it is also a transmission medium
• streaming content live radio
• streaming content view tv shows online
• podcasts http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

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In Summary

• Media is changing
• Internet is changing
• Affecting us socially
• Giving us new capabilities
• Challenging our views of legality
• Challenging our view of appropriate behavior
• Allowing new uses and new interactions
• This class is about media and how it works

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Questions?