Media Project - Final presentation

Initial idea
To produce an infotainment video about organizing an event using social media.

• Organizing a birthday party



• Looking for a place for the party



• Looking for DJ’s, catering

To compare the same actions without social media, using corporate Web sites and search engines

Benefits to the thesis

• To learn about the possibilities of replacing corporate Web site with social media profiles



• Which possibilities does social media offer?



• How much is the potential of social media used by the companies?



• How much do the companies use the possibilities of social media?

Schedule
The initial schedule showed the plans for implementing the project from February to May.

Feb 15 Defining the idea
Feb 22 Constructing a project plan
Mar 1 Reporting the process
Mar 7-13 Storyboarding
Mar 14-27 Research and Preparing the shootings
Mar 29 Reporting the process
Mar 28-Apr 3 Shooting
Apr 4-13 Overview of the material
Apr 14-24 Editing
Apr 25-May 1 Final overview and correction
May 3 Presentation of the project


The process
My video consists of actions done in Facebook. Although my initial idea was to involve also other social media like blogs and Youtube, it could be added to the video later.

The most difficult part was to stage the processes going on in Facebook. I had to find the suitable Facebook pages, talk to people who would help me with staging the situations and edit it all into one storyline.

Finally I chose one storyline which involved a person, who logged into Facebook, looked at her calendar application and discovered that her birthday is coming up. Then she uses the status update possibility to ask her friends whether they could suggest a place for the party. From the comment of her friend she starts to look for the place he recommended and finds that this place has a Facebook page. She likes what she sees on the page and uses its online booking system to book a place for her birthday party.

For screen recording I used Screenium software. For editing I used iMovie on my mac. These software were both rather easy to use and I could use them in my future works as well.

The reasons why my project turned out to be less than I had originally planned were that in the middle of March I found out that I am soon going to work somewhere else and therefore for a month, my workload in the old place as well as the new place got very intense. In addition it was the busiest time in school too, so my media project did not get as much attention as it would have needed.

Another thing was also that staging of those situations turned out to be more difficult then I imagined. There weren't so many applications available to use in the video. And putting these few together in one storyline was rather difficult.

But still there were lessons I learned from this process. Some which are also useful for my thesis and could be studied more.

Lessons learned

• It is possible to use a Facebook account instead of Web site - a company can add many functionalities and applications to its profile so that it could replace the same functionalities as its Web site



• Many applications missing - there could be much more and better applications available. For example I would miss an application for my Google calendar, also many companies who offer services could add a booking application of their site.



• Possibilities could be used more - companies can attract customers by creating a functional and good looking profile on Facebook. In Estonia it is not very actively done yet, so there is a possibility to be one of the first in this.



• Not easy to manage everything in social media yet - There are applications available but most of them are not good and create spam rather than are useful. Maybe that is one reason why the company pages have not taken advantage of them. Creating your own application costs. Maybe companies have not seen the reasons for paying for these services yet. Therefore it is not easy if you want to manage everything on Facebook for example without using Web sites.



• Peer recommendations - a good thing in social media are peer recommendations. Even a simple Facebook "like" gives a credibility to a certain thing liked.



• Not good search possibilities - Facebook at least has not a good searching and filtering possibilities. Trying to search for something does not work properly. Only if you know exactly what is the name of the thing you are searching for.

Media project was a good opportunity to look more into the integration of social media and corporate Web sites. It was useful to use the video recording and editing software as well.

Here are my final outcomes of the project:

Media project final

View more presentations from Kerstin Sonts.

The final outcome - infotainment video

Deadlines for Spring 2011

May 2nd - Creative Entrepreneurship - Business plan

1. Initial idea
2. Market analysis
3. Business idea and plan for implementation (Gantt chart)
4. First financial calculations

Send ‘draft’ to arnis.sauka@sseriga.edu.lv by Monday, May 2nd.
Length is not so important, contents are!

May 2nd - Experimental Input and Output - Project report delivery

May 3rd - Media Project - Final presentation of the project

May 5 - Creative Entrepreneurship - Business plan presentation

May 9 - Creative Entrepreneurship - Business plan submission

May 13 - Creative Entrepreneurship - Final assignment

May 15 - Avalikud Suhted ja Läbirääkimised - Juhtumi analüüs (10 lk)

• Leida viimase 5 aasta praktikast ettevõte või organisatsiooni õnnestunud või ebaõnnestunud kommunikatsiooni näide ning analüüsida seda (näiteks: EMT, Haigekassa, erakonnad jne). Võib analüüsida eraldi turundust või PR-tegevust või mõlemat koos:
• Ettevõte, organisatsioon, toode, teenus
• (Mis juhtus?)
• Kellele suunatud?
• Mida taheti öelda?
• Kuidas öeldi (sõnastus, kõneisikud, kanalid, vorm, visuaalne keel jne)?
• Tulemused?
• (mis läks viltu?)

May 16th - Experimental Input and Output - Cross-referenced review delivery

May 22nd - Interface and Interaction design - Book summary

Media Project - Report nr 2

The process has been going almost as planned.
Percentage of fulfilling the whole plan for now is about 40%


Tasks done so far

1. Defining the idea – what is this project going to be about? 100% done
An infotainment video about organizing an event using social media.

2. Constructing a project plan. 100% done
The full project plan could be seen in the previous post.

3. Reporting of the process
The first reporting of the process took place on the March 1st

4. Storyboarding – Creating storylines, characters, content ideas 80% done
There is a storyline, which is being gradually improved.

5. Preparing the shootings 60% done
I have a software, with which I can do the screen recording and editing. I have spoken to people who will help me to stage a couple of scenarios in Facebook and blog environments. Cameras have not yet been rented and the correct order of shooting the scenes is not confirmed yet.

6. Reporting the process
The second reporting is taking place on March 29th.


Changes

There have been some changes made from the original plan:

• There will not be a second storyline, which will show the organization of the event as if the social media does not exist. As we thought this would lengthen the video and make it too broad.
• The main character is probably going to be me as it is going to be difficult to create a fake persona ad build a needed social circle around him to fulfill the idea.
• Therefore the video will show how I am organizing an event using only social media. It will also show, which applications should be needed to make the process more interactive and comfortable.

Tasks yet to do

• Shooting
• Overview of the material
• Shooting again if needed
• Editing
• Final overview and correction
• Presentation of the project

Interface and Interaction Design

In this course we are working on a project of creating an informal IMKE community site. More information: http://imkeproject.wordpress.com/

Media Project - Project Plan

My project idea is to make a short infotainment video about comparing the possible actions of a user who wants to prepare his birthday party.

He/she is looking for:
• A place for the party
• A Band or DJ
• Possibilities to send invitations to his friends

One storyline will follow his steps while he is using social media to do it and the other line shows his information seeking through web sites and browsing as if the social media does not exist.

The goal of this video is to show the possibilities of social media and corporate websites on the users point of view.


Tools
• Computer with internet connection
• Video camera
• Photo camera
• Screen recorder software
• Editing software


Project team
Project manager (idea, management, production, editing) – Kerstin Sonts
Project assistant (camerawork, technical help, editing) – Berit Piho


Tasks and timeframe
Feb 15 Defining the idea – what is this project going to be about?
Feb 22 Constructing a project plan
Mar 1 Reporting of the process
Mar 7-13 Storyboarding – Creating storylines, characters, content ideas
Mar 14-27 Preparing the shootings
• Creating the needed environment
• Preparing the order of shooting the scenes
• Casting for actor
• Renting cameras
Mar 29 Reporting the process
Mar 28-Apr 3 Shooting
Apr 4-13 Overview of the material
• Shooting again if needed
Apr 14-24 Editing
Apr 25-May 1 Final overview and correction
May 3 Presentation of the project

Digital marketing campaign - Barbie and Ken

Website http://barbieandken.com/

Today I read an interesting article from Mashable.com. The giant toy company Mattel Inc. launched a campaign to reunite the girls' all time favorite dolls Barbie and Ken. The legend says, that Barbie and Ken split up in 2004, when Barbie started dating with another male doll, calleb Blaine. As Ken is turning 50 this year, the great campaign is devoted to Ken's efforts for getting Barbie back. In my opinion, it is one of the best campaigns I have ever heard about.

Social media used:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Foursquare
• YouTube

Both Barbie and Ken are active in social media and post statuses, photos and videos just like every other person. Ken is characterised as an ultimate manly, but sensitive and romantic perfect boyfriend, who uses every possibility to show Barbie his love and impress her with his actions.

What intrigues me the most is the consistency and premediation of the campaign. The campaign uses an existing brand, which keeps up with time and new trends. There has been a legend generated around these toys, which involve beauty, love and perfection. These keywords assure that the concept never goes out of fashion. Everyone has tried to impress their loved ones, or had issues with their ex. By using the brand, making it contemporary and creating a feeling that people can identify themselves with these characters, the success is guaranteed.

Generative Content Creation - Post 3

For the third assignment in Generative Content Creation, we looked at numerous examples of generative art. It was really amazing to see, what these artists have come up with. Generally simple ideas have been merged with other ideas in unpredictable ways and then could be manipulated again by the viewer.

The assignment involved applying the concepts and theories learned in previous posts on real generative art examples.

With the first assignment we looked into the field of multimedia and new media. Manovich (2001) brought out some good statements and observations in his article. The most intriguing for me was the part where he described how everything is being transformed into computer-mediated form. Every piece of information found on the Internet, be it images, videos, podcasts, music, text or animation, everything consists of ones and zeros. Therefore it could be easily manipulated and as a result made to something different.

The second assignment had us reading articles about generative art, to understand this term better and to get an overview of the background and theories of this type of art. According to Galanter (2003) generative art refers to any art practice where the artist uses a system, such as a set of natural language rules, a computer program, a machine, or other procedural invention, which is set into motion with some degree of autonomy contributing to or resulting in a completed work of art.

Although the system, which is used in the creation of generative art could be anything from natural language rules, a machine or other procedural invention, I guess the main emphasis at least in the light of this course is the computers involvement. As I described previously, all the information in the computers really consists of small particles and these of smaller particles etc, which could be manipulated, changed and altered in many different ways. If the systems and programs are created which use this data to create something new, attractive and interesting, then generative art is created.

Some interesting examples of generative art practices:

Jörg Pininger is a musician, poet and media artist. The application he created for iPhone is a mix of all of his talents. As described on his website the app "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" is a sound toy, a performance tool and an art work in its own right. "You can play with the letter-creatures and watch and listen how they interact with each other or use them to produce soundscapes like you would with an electronic musical instrument. "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" blends art, biology, fun and physics to create a unique, dynamic and interactive sound ecology" (joerg.piniger.net).

Pininger's application is a good example of generative art, as it has all the characteristics of generative art, complex systems and allows manipulation by the user. The user can choose how to interact with the application. Each order gives a feedback and results in new sound or visual pattern on the display. The sounds can be formed into generative music and the lines, created by the flying letter, could form a digital painting.

This is an iPhone application made to imitate the creation of Jackson Pollocks paintings. Jackson Pollock was mentioned in several articles which discussed the meaning of generative art. Galanter argued, whether Pollock could be called a generative artist or not, as his techniques of painting were rather random that systematized.

http://www.bestiario.org/research/flow/

This application represents the chronology of tagging process on wikipedia articles Santiago Ortiz and his team have been selecting for their research. This application uses the data available in the Internet and combines it into a visually attractive and informative systematic form. By moving the arrow over the graph, each sector lights up and the information about this research topic could be seen.

The second example from Ortiz also uses the data from the Internet. It is a tridimensional scheme, which represents the strength of relations between cities from searches on google. The user can turn the globe and look at the different cities, their coordinates and the results from Google. The methodology of the generation process is described as well.

http://bestiario.org/research/citydistances/

To conclude, the topic of generative media was new for me. It was interesting to see how the art, technology and information connect to each other and create amazing artwork. Some of the artworks and their intentions still remained a little vague for me but probably it takes time and practice to understand this topic a little better.

Galanter, Philip. 2003. What is generative art? Complexity theory as a context for art theory. In In GA2003–6th Generative Art Conference http://www.generativeart.com/on/cic/papersGA2003/a22.pdf.

Manovich, Lev. 2001. The Language of New Media. Massassuchets: MIT Press. http://www.manovich.net/LNM/Manovich.pdf