Prompt 6

This class gave me an excellent taste of what teamwork and collaboration can do. This is especially true for P2.

P1 helped reinforce my belief in myself as a cook - where I can take existing ingredients and combine them into something new.

As I mentioned in the discussion board thread, I do not have a job to apply this to immediately.
However, in my future professional life, I am likely to take efforts to remain curious and updated on information about new tools and technologies. Where feasible and ideal, I will use these tools to help improve working. This does include professional development for myself.

The class has introduced me to many new things and made me realise that there are a lot of things out there for me to use in my work and that I ought to keep up with them. I should be adding some more edu blogs to my feed reader soon - still not convinced with twitter...

In my personal life, beyond using some social networking and perhaps visiting someone's flickr / blog spaces, I don't see myself engaging in too much produsage.
Not for a lark, anyway - and frankly, I'm happy to rid myself of the slightly pretentious word itself. ;) (And yes, by that, I mean "produsage" )

The games people play

Hi, I'm AJ and I'm a boardgamegeek.

I've wanted to blog about this for a while now. This is more sharing the site than anything else but this class has made me aware about mashups.

www.boardgamegeek.com seems to be a fairly good example of a mashup.

It's not fancy. It looks very 1.0 but dig a little deeper and you have something different. Maybe Web 1.5

When you go to the main page, it looks like many other web sites, yet if you look closely, it is a wiki, disguised as a website. Sometimes, without having the word "wiki" in the description, we can't quite tell what's what.
Yet, it isn't entirely a wiki.

There are certain parts you can't edit. The main page, for instance. Yet, you can edit game info.

You can add your own images to the games, to share what you have been up to.

On the left hand side, you have a "hotness" bar for games, developers and companies.
This works a little like digg. New games being discussed "hot off the presses" shoot up the list and gain visibility. Yet, as the discussion dies down and stabilises, the actual hotness of a game can be evaluated.
There are also feeds on Ebay auctions.

Games are also actually rated based on player rankings and they have an "all time" list.

Finally, there are forums, which is quite 1.0, but where people set up trades, game meetups and share ideas.

If we had to look for a true mashup, I'd call this one. It's a blend of 1.0 and 2.0 that works very well for gamers!

The argument between online and offline friendship and their respective proponents continues...

848 friends on Facebook? Really? (You'll see what I mean near the end of the video)

The FCC is asking Apple and AT&T all the right questions - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Brainstorm Tech

Kent shared Google Voice with us a little while ago.
Looks like it might turn into a mini soap opera.
The Federal Communication Commission seems interested in why Apple declined Google's application for the iPhone and removed any apps from its store that had anything to do with Google Voice.

http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/08/01/the-fcc-is-asking-apple-and-att-all-the-right-questions/

Robot band obsesses over online popularity - CNN.com

Looks like social networking is no longer only for humans. This robot feels sad if it isn't popular on Facebook and Myspace. It also twitters its mood.
As cool and awesome as this sounds... I think I'm ready to leave this planet. When's the next ship out? :P

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/03/robot.band/index.html

Other videos found via Social Networking

After the last post, I decided to to add two more videos I've found over the years, through friends on social networks.

You may or may not have seen both but I thought it would be good to share with others.

Kiwi is the first - the one I mention in the previous post.

The second is more uplifting in its tone.

Hope in Melancholia?

I found the following video because a friend linked to it on twitter.

I also posted it on Reflections but thought the mode of my discovery made it appropriate to be shared here. Plus, I really want to know what you think.

I don't know what draws me to slightly sad videos. A few years ago, it was Kiwi. Not it's Reach. I look at this as the effort of the endeavour rather than anything else. Some people found it futile. Others think it talks about all the things holding us back from doing what we want to do. Still others looked at the power cord as oxygen. What does this video say to you?

Musing

It is funny how my posting died down with my mood.
For the last few days, I've been trying to catch a flight home. Unsuccessfully.
It's a long story that involves standby tickets that I won't get into here. Suffice to say I've been pretty gloomy recently and as a result, haven't posted much here.

However, it's equally funny to see that my regular "source" of postings - news articles - also dwindled during this dull and dark phase.

I'm finally headed home tomorrow and feel more chirpy. Maybe there will be new articles to post again? Let's see!

Prompt 5

Remix Artists for the win!

Much of what I feel about IDers as remix artists has already been said on the appropriate thread on the discussion board. I did not wish to chime in with just a post saying: "I agree."

However, my opinion can be elaborated upon in my blog post and here it is.

I agree with the notion that there are very few original things in this world. Ideas, stories, what have you. Everything I come up with is definitely inspired by something or the other in my past experiences.

I call myself a cook - I can work with available ingredients to whip up new things.
I am not an inventor or even an explorer, attempting to discover new things.

How do I foresee authorship, copyright and open access impacting my future professional life?

Well, recently at a summer job at CIMES, I got to work with images in training production and got a little sneak peak at all the copyright issues that come along with image use.

I expect to respect copyright and obtain it as economically as possible when using graphics in my future productions. Authorship/ownership credit will definitely be included. That goes without saying.

Open access is good as far as the community's combined knowledge is concerned. There are definitely some things that are not for all eyes to see and open access can't be taken for granted as being entirely available to everyone. Allowing complete open access can throw up issues concerning privacy, confidentiality and expertise of testimony.

I also agree with people who say that sometimes creation is just for the act itself, and not for financial gains. If I ever came up with a creation that others wanted to use and would actually be useful to someone other than me, I see no problems with making it available to everyone without cost. I believe this sort of action will lead to higher attributions of authorship, if nothing else.
However, given that I'm not an inventor, chances of me coming up with something ubiquitously useful are slim.

Thus, as I approach produsage in my professional life, I will hold these tenets close to my heart. My ability to engage in produsage is only limited by my curiousity about new tools. I'm definitely curious about such things. My willingness will depend on who is asking me to do what I'm doing. If it's part of my job, most certainly, I will be willing.

Yet, as I glossed over the personal life aspect of the prompt, I will say that my desire to engage in spontaneous produsage will be low to none. Just too much work and not enough ideas.

Does that seem antithetical?

Maybe it will change.
I did consider editing a travel wiki with updated information on entrance fees to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle recently, as I was there a couple of weeks ago.
Maybe I will still do it. Let's see.