Meta Blog

Today is the day that I shall post a final post, and then again, my readers; it is the way in which you perceive this information as this may be just the beginning of your experience as a part the world of the unique NMP.

Basically, this blog has been about the networked media production. The ways in which media has been utitlised and exploited to achieve a final production, for example; a message. In that, media of the internet has been exploited, such that the there are blogs, websites, data visualisation, geo-narrative, etc. All these have been put together so as to show the ways in which they can be coordinated to bring forth a message. The blog also points out that the technology has become in a way that it can be synchronised with the natural intelligence of human kind. This can be further said as, it has simplified things. This thus shows that there is a network that is formed between the two. For example; Google, acts a search engine. In that it helps human kind to find information faster and this information is also brought forward by human kind. Hence, they work together to achieve common goals, thus showing how it is a networked media production achieved.

Not only has the blog done the above, it has also helped me the writer to be able to air out my views and intellectual opinions on what networked media production is about and also try and enlighten the people that may read it, on what exactly it is all about, in a more interesting way. The essential about the blogs is that they can specify and concentrate on a specific topic, for example; my blog specifically talks about network media production, and all the factors that it is composed of. It also talks about ways in which one may be able to create some of the features of NMP for example; a web page and how it works and the theories and extra notes attached to it. This is what blog tend to be about, as they extenuate the whole concept of networked media production to create a sort of simplicity for the readers, so that they can learn or even build on that which they know.

On that note, I would like to nominate three blogs to be assessed. These are;
 Multiplicity
http://uniquenmp.blogspot.com/2010/05/multiplicity.html
 About blogs
http://uniquenmp.blogspot.com/2010/03/about-blogs.html
 Idea for a website
http://uniquenmp.blogspot.com/2010/04/idea-for-website.html
*over and out*

Rationale for Project B

For project B, I chose to do a geo-narrative on my home country, Uganda. This is because I found it to be an interesting topic to build a story around. However the story is fictional. It is about a basic boy meets girl story however, based in Uganda. The best twist to the story is, it is all a dream. She wakes up just when her future seems to look bright.

The technical process that I went through is, one has got to go to Google maps, create an account or sign in, go to my maps and start. There are lines that can be drawn to show the journey taken, placement marks that can be put there to possibly give a name to the place. When one clicks there, the creator can also write something about that place, and in the process create a story. I organised it in a way that the girl’s story, Sunshine comes first and then the boy’s story, Charming, comes after wards. This is because she is the main character of the narration and she is also the fictional creator of the narration, thus it all being a dream. It is also because it shall leave the readers engrossed in the piece.

For more information, look at; http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&q=the%20monster%20that%20ate%20australia&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

The cultural context of this work is that this gives the viewers a chance to know more about Uganda as a country. Not only in terms of the extent to which civilisation has happened, but also in terms to which are the cultures upholded. It can create curiosity, and thus eventually even create more tourists profits for the country. It also shall help people to know how to get round to some places in case they are looking for a place to get a meal, clothes, daily accessories, even for casual meetings, as well as partying.

This thus what I have shown in the geo-narrative. My project is thus different from other works in the field because is it more specific, and the places that are mentioned, as well as the food, and images are all original and real. Nothing is fictional apart from the storyline itself. There is a sense of vividness about it. It is centred on an ordinary life of a young lady, one day, and one time. All of the activities are as ordinary as any other.

In summary, this work can act as an analogy for a networked system. Taking the two people in the storyline for example; they do not know each other, but as a result of the a network system like the internet, people tend to meet. It makes the world a smaller and better place for people to survive and connect and interact with one another. In this city, there are many people, but there is always a chance for one to meet a familiar face. Just like the internet, there are so many people that use it, but there are social networks like facebook that make socialising possible with people all over the world using interent. The places that Sunshine and Charming go to can act as the social networking areas that people go to for a social life and then eventually, it is built on that. This thus shows that it is more or less a networked system of communication and media being shown in a simple way_geo-narraitve.

*over and out*

Datavisualisation

This is generally about the visual representation of abstract information. (This versus the depiction of physical artefacts) This means that maps, photos are not a part of datavisualisation because they have no start or end.

It is about exploiting our abilities as human beings to see things and we are using computers to help us to do this is, ie; colour, shape, patterns, movement, etc. Using visual wetware, we can see these things.

Datavisualisation is translation. Quantity is translated into colour, scale, shape, position, movement.

Datavisualisation gets interesting when you reveal correlations.

There is a difference between datavisualisation and info graphics, in that datavisualisation is done by computers while info graphics is done with more use of the human brain than technically.

Some problems are hard to datavisualise because of complex systems with non-linear responses to multiple inputs, ie; democracy, climate change, etc.

How it is done

· Find some data

· Think about how to do it algorithmically and translate the data. Use scale, colour, shape, position, movement.

· So that we can see correlations, connections, relationships.

· Exploration, make it interesting to find the data you’ve done put up.

· Layering-being able to layer things over each other to establish connections.

· Interactivity-relationship between data.

· Availability of data- show the data you were using.

· Comparison of data sets, for example; use of correlation.

Note

Correlation is not equivalent to Causation.

Multiplicity

In 1906, a man by the name of Francis Galton goes to a livestock fair and there he saw an intriguing contest. In this contest, an ox was on display and the villagers were invited to guess what the animal’s weight was, after it has been slaughtered and dressed. At that point, about 800 people attempted to guess the weight but not one hit the exact one of 1,198 pounds. However, the average of those 800 people that guessed came very close to it. They guessed; 1,197 pounds. After this, Galton thus came up with the concept of Correlation.

Sampling, multiplicity, discrete, continuous

Sample rate is 44,100 per sec

· Pixels – dpi

· Audio samples – kHz

· Frame rate – fps

Bandwidth insufficient?

· Fewer samples

· Better/more compression

Computers can do more and more things per second. As the computers get faster, the bandwidth increases.

Scale

Online, things scale a lot and when offline, they do no scale as much. Comparing websites, the scale of some websites like Google is too big, in comparison to most of the websites.

Iteration

Computers are good at doing the same thing again and again. They tend to follow a sequence that leads to a sort of repetition of data that is being processed, ie; 1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,etc, Fibonacci sequence of; F(n)=F(n-2)+F(n-1). The process of building something like this is called an algorithm. It is a logical way of getting from one point to another point.

Combinatorial explosion

It is where something is built and it turns out to be something considerably huge. It is common among video games, as the plot tends to build as the people keep playing it, ie; World of War Craft. If we are considering websites, Google is another good example for this, as it started out as online dictionary for university students, but it is presently the world’s best search website. It works in a way that one thing is typed in, and many links that link to even more information are provided. Hence page rank.

Collaborative filtering

This is where the information is filtered using techniques involving collaboration among multiple agents, view points, data sources, etc. eg.Amazon, Netflix, etc.

Crowd sourcing

A method used for getting something from multiple human beings, eg; 99 designs, mechanical turk-by Amazon, means artificial intelligence. A situation where there was a robot that used to be able to play chess back in the 1950’s, when technology was being exploited and being ventured into.

v The wisdom of crowds – this is a book by James Surowiecki. He was interested in how groups of people make great decisions. He points out that as individual humans, we are not good at making good decisions.

There are 4 things that he thinks are important;

v Diversity- of opinions that are drawn from a diverse range of things

v Independence – people’s opinions are not determined by the opinions of those around them.

v Decentralization – people specialize in whatever information they want to.

v Aggregation – put together people’s opinions and deciding what is more suitable.

Wikipedia

· Open source software

Anyone can download software and upload whatever they like. It also allows different perspectives and opinions and upgrades to be exploited and ventured into.

· Decision markets

You can bet on how things are going to turn out, ie; works well with Oscar winners, presidential elections, etc.

Dutch tulipomania, US dot-com bubble, Sub-prime mortgage crisis.

The value of a tulip ball was equivalent to the value of 12 acres of land.

As the price goes up, people jeep buying something with an aim of selling it in the future basing on the assumption that the price shall go up and they shall gain from it in the future, ie; shares. This can be shown by an upward sloping curve.

The tools that you use not only affect the turn-out of things but the possibility of that vision. ie; development of algorithms leads to an extension in the buildings, suburbs, cities, etc, that is in architecture.

Look at-

The IK Project II; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG5XJY18y-o

Ted_ Ideas worth Spreading; Photosynth http://www.ted.com/talks/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth.html

To keep you on the edge...

Hallo my readers,

Today I am not going to amaze you with the uniqueness of NMP. but I am going to keep you on the edge for more to come. Next week, is when you get a couple of that amazing information. So brace yourself for it all. Have a good next of the days until next time.

*over and out*