An App we created in NMD 206 to help skiers get to the mountain.
http://bravenewmaine.org/blog/ski-lyft-prototype/
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I made this in NMD 104 as the webpage project
This is a link to the documentary Ben Welton and I did for the Camden Film Festival class.
I have done various amounts of work in the past two years, from coding html, to designing patches in Max, and even using all of the adobe suite programs. I have approached projects in different ways but my favorite is crowdsourcing like I did on the UMOtivators project. Crowdsourcing is the most interesting strategy in my opinion because the data comes from the users not the designers. I honestly believe that the best information and insights one learns from their project comes from people who are completely on the out side. With this said crowdsourcing opens up the project to literally as many people as it can which ultimately gives the designer as many insights as possible until he or she discovers the perfect idea or set up to solve the problem or complete their design. Crowdsourcing as a tool is incredibly helpful to designers and should be used in different ways on all projects to get the best results every single time. Seeing this work in New Media in the Aids coding Test and others has really opened my eyes up to crowdsourcing’s possibilities. In my own work I wish to use others to discover faults, overcome obstacles, and generally obtain the best results no matter what. I could do this skiing with finding out what media system works best for the mountain, with getting whether updates, or finding friends to ski with on the mountain and I would find the best aspect of media use on the ski mountain crowdsourcing out to the people who actually ski on the mountain. This makes the processes of improving much more personal for the people who crave the improvement making Crowdsourcing my favorite new Media Strategy.
The Umotivators is a group project thought up in NMD 200 to bring light to the students of UMaine. This was gone about by making Facebook and Twitter pages, while at the same time building a chalk board that aks questions o we can crowdsource the answer and find solutions. It was myself, Ben Welton, Jane Apple, Kelly Rowen, Katherine Bartos, and Joan Oporawski that created and worked on this project.
http://janeapple.nmdprojects.net/portfolio
http://benwelton.nmdprojects.net/portfolio
http://kellyrowan.nmdprojects.net/portfolio
For my research I looked into what people hide. From personal experience I learned people hide the things they fear and that the hidden aspects of ones life shows a lot more about them than the stuff they announce to the world. Looking at several sites such as
http://www.truthaboutdeception.com/lying-and-deception/what-lovers-lie-about.html
and
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100315192201AAVBPPa
for crowd sourcing reasons. Looking at all this I knew that if I could find out what people are hiding I could come up with a way to show that it was not a big deal and that maybe even they could relate to others. All this information had me thinking and it as at the point where I had just come to terms with my own secret so I came up with the question “What’s your greatest fear?” and it seemed to stick. If people put what truly scares them out their not only is it the first step to conquering it, but then it becomes relatable when you see others have the same fear and one would never have known that if they kept it a secret.
For me personally I have done a lot of work on the board and building itself. I have spent a good amount of change buying all the materials for the board. I mixed the chalk paint and painted the board, I constructed the stands for the board to me placed on, and I was the on who came up with the question that is on the board. I also try to keep the project realistic with its goals and possibilities within the group as a voice of reason, but I might voice the wrong on occasion and then I look to the group choice. My biggest fault is being late to class and occasionally missing things of note such as the presentation, but I put in so much work outside of class that it makes up for it with the group. As of now I have completed the stands, putting in a lot of effort on ideas for the final presentation and documenting he board and the answers we get.
Group Timeline
1. Come together as a group and ask each other as to WHY we’re doing this as project; What is the project and what each individuals part.
2. Brainstorms ideas that will help campus like”What makes you smile” “Mood Boosters” “What do you like about UMaine” “I dream of….” “What inspires you”.
3. Start social media networks.
4. Make chalk boards/buy chalk.
5. apply message and ideas to posters.
6. Create a survey.
Ongoing: Videotape our entire experience.
1) Project Title
Umaine Motivators (UMOtivators?)
2) Group Members
Kelly Rowan
Jane Apple
Joan Oparowski
Ben Welton
Dillon Richards
Katherine Bartos
3) Describe the main goal or outcome desired for your project
The main goal of the Umaine Motivators project is to promote positive attitudes amongst the students here at Umaine. We’re calling ourselves a support system who reaches out the students on campus.
4) Describe the project and how it will achieve the goal you state
Umaine Motivators want to make Umaine a happier place to be. Through our project, we plan to gain knowledge from the students themselves in order to make a conclusion on what exactly they would want to see for a positive change. We are going to start with social media, utilizing the use of twitter and potentially a blog that would feature leaders on campus, giving everyone recognition. We plan to make use of the students by advertising on campus with chalkboards. Each chalkboard will have a varied question prompting the students on what that would like to see to make Umaine a more positive place to be. In these dreary upcoming months especially, Orono is not the most enjoyable place to be. We want to learn what would make it even just a little better. After students express what they would like to see, we plan to make it happen. We will take all of the suggestions into consideration and devise a plan that will satisfy the needs of the students.
5)List research questions and sources
What makes people happy/ positive? http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_7_rules_for_making_more_happiness.html
What are examples of the interactive piece?
http://www.ted.com/talks/candy_chang_before_i_die_i_want_to.html
6) List tools you would like to learn, use, explore to achieve your goal
We plan to meet with the Alumni who recently worked on a project like this. She now works in Bangor doing something similar and she would be a big help and a great resource. We also want to gain perspective from other people on what they would interact with and what would not seem like an added chore, this is where the idea of the chalkboards came in.
7) Do person skills inventory of your group members–listing any skills they know that will help project, [then in brackets, list any skills they would like to learn]
After discussing our skills and talents, we came up with the following tasks for each group member;
Twitter/ Social Media: Kelly Rowan & Katherine Bartos
Posters/ Art: Joan Oparowski & Jane Apple
Spread the Word/ Advertise: Ben Welton
Researcher: Dillon Richards
7) Finally, create a timeline of 4-5 major milestones points in the project that you will need to achieve to move forward
Step 1: Develop the idea for a creative outlet for students (chalkboards and webpage) Here is when we will decide exactly what we want people to be writing on the boards and we will gather how they can participate. Research into other outlets for students that promotes happiness.
Step 2: Advertise for the hashtag (#umainemotivators) so that students know what is coming and know how to participate.
Step 3: Gather supplies for the interactive chalkboards that will be placed on campus and other potential interactive aspects. (Advertise on twitter and blog)
Step 4: Place the creative chalkboards on campus with necessary supplies so that students can interact with our project. We want to know what would make them happy and what would lift their spirits. (Advertise on twitter and blog)
Step 5: Using the data we gather from the chalkboards, we can establish what students are really looking for that will give them the support and motivation that they need to make it through the semester. (Advertise on twitter and blog)
Step 6: We act upon the data gathered and deliver by making a difference. Through the suggestions that we receive of what would make Umaine better for students, we can conclude what will actually make a positive change for them. We can help with that change by either getting in with the right contact and proposing an idea or we, ourselves can take in into our own hands and help the students with what they think is necessary to make Umaine a better and happier place.
Stefan Sagmeister: 7 rules for making more happiness | Video on TED.com
www.ted.com
The first project I looked at was the Kingshighway skatepark. This was a group effort by local skaters who created a skate park underneath a city highway due to the fact it had became an illegal dumping ground and because there was a lack of skate parks in general. Th only rule is you have to contribute in order to skate there which is many-to-many in my eyes because everyone who is skating there added too or created a feature which the rest use to skate on. I think it is a great idea and has put in motion to allow more of these mini skate parks to arise in the St. Louis area.
http://www.spontaneousinterventions.org/project/kingshighway-skatepark
The second project I looked at was Ghost Bikes. These are bikes that are painted white and decorated with flowers and pictures to honor bicyclists whom have been stripped of life by motorists. This idea uses the strategy of getting attention first of the community, but then all of the world due to the fact that it is such a powerful gesture. I find it amazing how it started in St. Louis, but the website GhostBikes.org is out of New York City showing just how far the movement spread.
http://www.spontaneousinterventions.org/project/ghost-bikes
“Students are provided an introduction to and overview of new media and emerging technologies, interaction design, and software development. Topics covered include social networking, mobile computing, and physical computing. Students develop skills in research, group collaboration, brainstorming practices, concept development, and rapid project prototyping. Course is taught via a lecture/lab format.”
“Introduction to principles and theories of visual design, in traditional and electronic media; processes, methods and technologies relative to the creative production of two-dimensional visual imagery; use of the computer as a creative tool for the development of expressive and professional images. Focus on the creative process in visual design. Studio 3.”
“This course covers new media culture and theory of the present, bringing students up to speed on a range of contemporary artistic, political, and ethical issues in the field. Students in this course also extend the technical skills acquired in previous courses by applying them to a creative application of their own individual or collaborative design, such as an advanced portfolio. Course is taught via lecture with labs.”
“An introduction to the historical contexts, concepts, technical concerns and production processes fundamental to New Media. Topics include history of new media/desktop computing, communication theory, issues for design and interactivity, hardware and computer science foundations of new media and basic software parameters related to digital art, Web design, video and sound production. Lecture and discussion format.”