Digital Media

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Digital Media

• Dr. Jim Rowan
• ITEC 2110

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Open Book Question!

• What is one book that is meant to be read in a
  non-linear form?

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But firstHow 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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On the wiki

• You can save (and later download)
• word files (.doc )
• powerpoint files (.ppt)
• pdf files (.pdf)
• audio files (.au .mpg others but not aiff)
• video files (.mov others)
• image files (.jpg .png others)

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On the wiki

• You can display
• Text (just type into the edit window)
• image files (.jpg .png others)
• shortFormatHelp
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikipediaCheatsheet
• longerFormatHelp
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikipediaHow_to_edit
  _a_page

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Now for Chapter 1!
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Telling a story

• The telling of stories has existed as long as
  humans have been on earth.
• So how do you tell a story?
• It depends on what media you are going to use
• Is it spoken to a live audience around a
  campfire?
• Is it an audio recording that is played?
• Is it written as text in a book or magazine?
• Is it captured in a painting?
• Is it told using pictures in a photo album?
• Is it performed as a play on stage?
• Is it recorded on video and played back?
• Is it video that is streaming over the web?
• Is it captured in the form of a video game?

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The media you choose affects the way the story is
told

• If you are using printed text
• you must describe things well
• If you are using still images
• you have to tell it visually by setting the scene
• using Film/Video?
• you have moving images and sound... does the
  sound emphasize the moving image
• or the other way around?
• Video game?
• moving images accented with sound?

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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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SoDifferent Media?Different Affordances!

• Affordances a term from ecological psychology
  borrowed by Don Norman
• different things afford different interaction
• handles to pull door open
• push plates to push door open
• door levers rotate to open
• door knobs twist? hmmm I hate fake door knobs!
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_psychology
  
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Norman

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Considerthe Scroll the Book

• 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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the Scroll, the Book and now...

• Web-based media
• you can consume it in any order you like
• links take you to a place (and back!)
• does a book do this?
• each page is in only one place one change
  changes everyones version
• Compare that to the Book
• doesnt allow this universal change
• doesnt take you back (no back button)
• 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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Web-based vs Book

• yes, it does allow corrections immediately to
  everyone
• but no history is kept like you would have 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

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Web-based vs Book

• Did you read everything?
• A book is easy just read from front to back
• Hyperlinked web pages no
• Web-based also affords searching
• You can Google it and find it!

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Web-based vs Book

• A 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...
• At first there was no sound
• then the sound was performed
• then recorded sound was played with the film
• With time film developed its own unique forms
• Hitchcock told the story visually, long sweeping
  scenes
• Tarrentino accents the violence with rapid,
  quick cuts

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New Media usage follows a predictable path

• At first the new form tries to act like the old
  form to make the new stuff look more familiar
• With movies, Newsreels copied newspaper-like
  layouts
• With computers, the desktop metaphor copied the
  office desk
• Alan Kay, XEROX PARC
• The best way to predict the future is to invent
  it
• personal computer usage exploded
• before desktop metaphor C/ is all you got few
  people used personal computers

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SoWhat is Multimedia?

• A mix of audio, film, graphics
• these each address different senses
• We are just beginning to understand what the
  possibilities are...
• We are just beginning to understand how to best
  build multimedia stuff
• A mix of animation and live action
• 300, Sin City, Christmas Carol, Avatar
• 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, how they work
  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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Static vs Time-based media

• Time-based
• Media that changes over time
• Film
• Video
• Audio
• Static media
• Media that doesnt change over time
• Pages in a book
• Photos in an album
• Images on a webpage

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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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Media Nonlinearity

• Supported through computer-based media
• Takes the form of hypermedia
• Web pages
• links to other pages, other parts of pages
• Interactive video games
• you go to different parts of the game depending
  on your input

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But is hypermedia 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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Interaction with computer-based media is through
a user interface

• Human Computer Interaction
• This is my academic field
• Taught here as ITEC 4130
• There are standard ways to interact with
  computer-based media
• buttons
• sliders
• radio buttons
• check boxes
• pull-down menus
• pop-up menus

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Internet has broadened its scope

• In the 90s the internet was seen as a source...
• you go to the internet to look something up
• its use was seen to have an economic advantage
• you 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

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In Summary

• Media is changing
• Internet is changing
• Affecting us socially
• we send email to people who are in the same room
• Giving us new capabilities ways to interact
• mosquito ring tones
• Challenging our views of legality
• its on the web, can I use it without permission?
• Challenging our view of appropriate behavior
• spam for instance
• Providing new uses and new interactions
• This class is about media and how it works

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Questions?