Digital Media

Dr. Jim Rowan

ITEC 2110-01

August 22

Roll Call using Banner

Student on roster, not in class?-hawkins@ggc.usg.eduStudent in class not on roster?5443 -- Philip Hawkins5313 -- Kris Bone5151 -- Laura Ledford5876 -- Selena Darter/Heather JenkinsLast option -- 678-977-7264 (Philip's cell)

MediaWiki Stuff: Internal Links

To place an internal link to a specific pageget the name of the linked-to pageput it in double square brackets

To link from anywhere inside the Mediawiki to the page named:What to do here and how to do it:you would enter this in your page edit:[[What to do here and how to do it:]]and then save the edit

externalconcurrent edits

MediaWiki Stuff: External Links

To place an external link to a webpageget the URL of the linked-to pageput it in double square brackets

For example:

[http://www.google.com/[To go to google!]]placed on your page during an edit will show up on your

page as

[To go to google!]and clicking on it would send you to http://www.google.com/

MediaWiki Stuff: Concurrent Edits!

So... two people editing the same page at the same time... what happens?

They both open an edit window on the page and they both see the same text in that window

They both change that page but they change it differently

What happens?

The Effect of Media Choice

• 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

New Media/New Technology

• Consider going from the SCROLL to the BOUND BOOK...

• HMMMmmmm...

• http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv=pQHX-SjgQvQ%26mode=related%26search=

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

The Scroll, Book & WWW

• Scroll – can’t stack scrolls like books– can’t skip around except to beginning or end– but reading flows without the interruption of pages

• Book– you can stack them– you can level a table leg with them!– but reading is interrupted by page turns– with TOC & page numbers you can skip around– with index & page #s you can go to a specific place

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?

– it’s in one place and one change changes everyone’s version

• Compare to the Book– doesn’t allow this universal change– doesn’t take you back... but you can stick a piece of paper or

finger in it to hold your place or fold down the corner of the page

– you can write in the margins

WWW vs BookGood or Bad?

• WWW allows corrections immediately to everyone– no history kept like with book editions

• you go back to “the same place” and it’s different... were you wrong or did it change?

• http://www.archive.org/index.php

• Did you read all the stuff that is there?– Book is easy, read front to back– WWW... not so much...

WWW vs BookGood or Bad?

• 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 reach for the find?

New Media/New Technology Adoption

• It takes time for conventions concerning usage to be formed

• Consider film...– No sound– Performed sound– Recorded sound

New Media usage follows a predictable path

• At first the new form tries to act like the old form– Newsreels “copied” newspaper layouts– desktop metaphor is an example of this– makes it familiar

• Later film developed its own forms• Hitchcock told the story visually, long scenes• Tarrentino accents everything with violence and quick

cuts• But that’s film... is that multimedia?• Maybe...

Multimedia?• The movie Sin City?• The movie 300?• TV series 24 and the movie Phone Booth?

– several scenes are played simultaneously

• Mix of audio, film and graphics• We are just beginning to understand what the

possibilities are...• We are just beginning to understand how to best

use it

Delivery Mechanism?• Offline

– scroll, book– Vinyl record– AudioTape– Film (mixed media... but the sound is visual)– Videotape– CD-ROM– DVD

• Online– Over the Internet

In this class

• We are primarily interested in delivery over the Internet

• We are interested in media forms found on the Internet and how to manipulate them– audio– still images

• bitmapped• vector graphics

– moving images

Media Linearity

• Scroll (mostly linear)• Book

– You had to turn the pages– Table of Contents and Index allow some non-

linearity– encyclopedia and dictionarys are meant to be

used in a non-linear manner

• Film/Videotape• DVD

– Chapters allows some non-linearity

Hypermedia

• Mixture of time- and page- based media• Time-based uses time as its central

organizing theme– Film– Audio

• Page-based uses a page as its central organizing theme– Book– Internet?

Interactivity within the Computer

• Yes, interactive, but within the constraints placed on the interaction by the programmer of the interaction

• Myst looked like a real world but you only had a few choices you could make

• Improvisation (on the part of the user) can’t happen unless it is provided for in advance

User Interface

• This is central to what my specialty is: HCI• There are standard forms

– buttons– sliders– radio buttons– check boxes– pull-down menus

• The kind of stuff you see when using the computer on the internet

• You can design your own

Social and Ethical Considerations

• Technology is neutral• Human usage defines it as ethical or

unethical• BUT: new technology affords new

means of interaction and opportunities for behavior that previously didn’t exist

• Online rape?– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD

Access

• 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

Access...

• What about disabilities?– Blind?– Screen readers

• images are provided alternate text representations

WWW use broadens

• Initially seen as a “source”... you go to “look something up”– seen as economic in nature, 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

Questions?