Fun with Honours

I am so unbelievably dissapointed!  I spent hours…HOURS trying to put my webpage together–I had to do lots of debbuging (I stupidly moved files) and had a Battle Royal with a non-responsive digital camera that held my toast-making images hostage.  The Toast Vixen webpage–working links, images, lists, tables, logo art and good times were complete.  Or so I thought…

After each attempt at loading my page onto the server, the program would crash.  I thought I was doing something wrong–I looked carefully at the instructions given by my teacher, by others, by the program itself.  Hours later, the program was still crashing.  I was so upset–I had tried sooooo hard and yet I was unable to share my work.  Worst part of this is, is that I had a plane to catch the next day (I actually wrote this entry on the plane, and am now copying it in from paper…oooooh, fancy!).  I felt like I did the first time I tried to program a VCR to record.  Basically put, I felt *&%^$@!!@##!.

Profanity aside, I later found out that there was a server problem, one which hopefully was the cause of my strife rather than a result of my trials (eek).  I guess that this exemplifies one of the most important things that I learned from this class–I now VERY much respect the work that goes into creating the “nice,” “fancy,” “shmiko,” and interactive pages that I visit.  If I couldn’t get my webpage online, then my god how much work does it take to create a Second Life building, or even this little box here that I am typing in to write my blog?!

My dad wrote a program once–he had to look through thousands of lines of code to find that a single comma was out of place and causing the program to crash.  Maybe it’s time to stop calling Web savvy people Nerds and start calling them: The Most Patient People on Earth!

Despite my not putting my website up, it did work from the interface to the browser–all of my links worked, I even managed to put in some external links so that my audience could learn more, or learn from someone who said it better than I could.  For example, I realized that while I had put up a recepie, I had not told these people how to cut any of the vegies.  Not wanting my readers to loose perfectly manicured digits, I added a link to diagrams on how to dice, etc.

I managed to show off my graphic design skills on the page too–I created a logo that I am quite proud of.  I did not get a chance to make the buttons that I had previously envisioned, but I figured that these would only be visible on the index page anyway and I would be better to create “templates” if I did not have them.

I definitly give myself full marks for learning the wonder of creating my own templates–not only does it make creating a webpage easier, but it creates continuity.  I do believe that I have a few font size issues on the page though, so it is defintily something that, given more time I would attempt to fix.

Did I create a website which flows, is easy to use, and tells a story…I believe I did!  Altough I think that my biggest problem was that I tried to do too much–the website grew and grew, and I feel that some sections have been neglected, but that the Cooking section along with the “How to make Toast” section is quite complete and stellar.  I could always add to the other sections in the future though, and that is how I looked at it in the end.  Does my website tell a story, is it a resource for a community? Definitly, but how is one to finish the story of taking care of yourself–where do you start?  I think I made a valiant effort and for that, I am proud.

I think the language was also perfect for my audience–I spoke like a valley girl but I did not talk down to them too much.  I just hope that it’s funny in the end.

I must admit I took a risk with the font and colour scheme, but I think I made the white font bold enough that it will not be annoying to read.  I had to use some pink too–I mean, like, come on, what girl doesn’t want to see pink?

While my web documentary is not officially on the web, I really learned a lot as to how online environments work, and how they are created.  I really did try very hard to create something that would reach my selected community, and I pushed myself to create a slightly more complex webpage so that I would learn as much as I could from this class. 

Overall, I really enjoyed myself and I hope that everyone can enjoy my website sometime soon too.

Does creative sharing sound a bit gross to you?  It does to me for some reason, and I really wish I hadn’t picked it as my title. 

However the potential gross-ness of “creative sharing” is not what I aim to talk about right now–what’s really on my mind is the whole Creative Commons issue.  What it does (allows people to reproduce works, without having to ask, under certain rules of usage created by the author) absolutly, for lack of a more succinct phrase blows me away–why didn’t anyone else think of that?  Or think of it sooner for that matter. 

I found the concept so interesting that I had a look on their website–one of their latest stories is about a Japanese t-shirt company where users submit designs.  Other users can then use/modify that design, and depending on liscene use other designs to create a whole new picture (http://creativecommons.org/).  This would have been a legal nightmare had this site been created in a C (copyright) world.  One user would have to ask permission from another user, possibly sing a usage contract and yadda yadda yadda…..CC makes this process much easier, kinder and simple.

As with many other’s my age who were still writing essays during the Napster/Metalica debacle, and those who were told repeatedly that they had to reference any inch of knowledge they wrote/typed, I have a great fear of accidentally copying someone’s work or being accused of plagiarism.  While I understand that CC hardly promotes plagiarism, it gives a certain freedom for authors to share thoughts, and lets others formulate creative thoughts that are inspired from others more freely.  What strikes me the most though is not how this can be applied to textual information, but how it can be used in art and music terms.

If I were an artist or musician and I used a CC’d piece of music and made a different version of it, I think that I would still attempt to build a relationship with that person–at least send them a copy of what I have done and ask for their opinion.  I would probably even credit the original artist as my inspiration.  I feel that CC will really serve in building relationships with people and building communities.  As I learned while writing my Communication Revolutions essay, one of the biggest social applications of digital technology is that it creates networks between people.  These networks in a sense are what has helped to advance digital technology itself at such a fast and furious rate–CC will only benefit the way in which we learn about each  other and the way that we share (creativly).

I have actually seen something like this at work a few years ago only I did not realise that it was potentially a CC powered thing–Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor, after receiving lukewarm feedback about one of his albums put ALL of his sound files online, for anyone to take, remix and submitt to him for inclusion on a reviewed remix CD of that album.  I actually could not find this project in the CC database, but, this project allowed users to use the tracks to create songs that they would not submit on commercial albums–for example a friend of mine used parts of the tracks to create a remix project for Uni.

Where am I going with this?  I just think that this is a wonderful development–yet I still wonder as to how far it will go.  As we disscussed in class, certain companies OWN certain gene sequences and so on… ever hear the runour about the self cooling can and how refrigorator companies bought the patent and refuse to use it for fear of loosing their edge over the market?  Or the one about the “non-toxic cigarettes” that tobacco companies refuse to produce for the same reason?  Perhaps these are only urban legends, but still–will CC really help change the world when it comes to medicine and other technology?

I guess the question is, are certain people in power self-less enough to share their knowledge with the world, by utilizing the power of CC?  Let’s hope so.

If enough people start using CC, then maybe, just maybe, it will affect the world in a more powerful way than creative sharing. 

O.K, so my website is turning into a monster! First off, it is turning into a monster as in it has taken over the way that I write—I have been accidentally typing the word “totally” in my communication revolutions essay all day long! It’s like I have just spent a couple of weeks watching clueless and legally blonde non-stop. Weird right?

Anyway, that is only the start of my problems—as I write the content for my website, I find that I am getting carried away with my incredible urge to help people. That’s right everybody I want to be helpful. I keep getting to points where I am realizing that I am using a term that I have not explained—would 20 something’s that don’t know anything about taking care of themselves understand this?

That’s why the website is turning into a monster. I just keep adding pages and pages and I’m worried that I am taking it a bit too far. After all, the point of this assignment is not to answer all of life’s questions, it is to create a “story” that flows and that is easy to understand.
So now I need to re-group and focus my material—after all nothing says that I can’t add to it later on. I’m thinking of sending my link to a blog I found while I was doing my research. The blog was aimed to 20 something girls so it would be perfect to get people to visit my website.

I need to focus on flow and usability. I find that the best websites have convenient links rather than a million references and I will try to do that.

I want my website to be funny and instructional, not over bearing. Simplicity is the key to humour and the key to creating an easy to navigate website documentary.

I can’t wait to unleash this monster!

One of the things that I have become very practiced at doing is to write for my audience—it is very important in public relations.

The challenge that I am facing in writing my website is setting the right tone. I want it to be funny “valley girl” sounding in one sense, but then again, one of the purposes of my website is to inform the public. I don’t want to annoy them or talk down to them, that’s not the point of my website. My point is to create a fun and funny resource for people. I want people to actually be able to use my website!

So I started thinking about the tone of my writing—of course there have been many books written for women, written in a informal, speaking language way. For example Bridget Jones’ Diary. I always thought the writing was quite clever—for example she writes “Am feeling like…” or “Went to…” leaving out the “I” since technically speaking she is writing to herself. Some diary entries are even written as though she were drunk since she was drunk at the time of writing. This type of realism is something that I will try to emulate on my website, but the diary writing style does not quite fit.

Of course, I could adopt a tone much like that used in Legally Blond, (“You’re breaking up with me because I’m too…blonde?!”) or something out of Clueless (“Yuck!! As if!!!”), but I would like to build on that rather than copy it.

A more recent example of a new use of language to talk to women is found in a book I started to read about six months ago: this is actually a weird story, so read on! I bought this book called Skinny Bitch—it was meant to be a no nonsense guide to a healthy diet and after reading the first few pages in the store I decided to buy it (like, it was on sale!). So I brought it home and started to read it, laughing away as the authors boldly stated that eating crap would turn you into a big fat pig. Yes, it was all fun and games until the true colours of the book came out—it basically stated that the only way not to enter into big-fat-pigdom was to be a vegan. Moreover, they included a whole chapter gruesomely detailing what goes on in slaughter houses. Yuck, as if!!!!!!

I quickly returned the book being insulted that I had been conned into reading a fanatic vegan manifesto.

So maybe their no nonsense approach will be a good tone to have in my website, but I will definitely not have hidden agendas.

I’m just hoping that what I write will be succinct, easily understood, funny and helpful.

I’m sure you can’t wait to see my website now.