iaocblog

Why Aren't Philadelphia's Architects Taking Advantage of the Web? It's a Case Where Less is Definitely Not More.

Amanda Gibney Weko — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:03:00 -0400

Too many architects apply Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s famous axiom Less is More to their public relations efforts – particularly when it comes to the Web. I researched AIA Philadelphia member firms' Web presence, from individual Web sites to social media. Find out what I learned.

Podcasting 101: A Student's Step-By-Step Guide

Joe Staudenmayer — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:01:38 -0400

Podcasting 101: A Student's Step-By-Step Guide is an easy to read 10 step list on how to do a podcast effectively.

Joe's Prezi for #IAS09

Joe Sabatini — Mon, 11 May 2009 23:53:26 -0400

For Information Architecture, I designed a presentation using Prezi's Zooming Presentation Maker. In Information Architecture, our class examined information in several different contexts. We first looked at how language, one of the most popular vehicles of information, is structured to help people make meaning out of what they see, hear, and read. Metaphors We Live By (1980), by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, was both influential and helpful as it laid the foundation for many of the other things we would read later. From evaluating language, we then examined how technologies are created with certain values in mind. Later in the semester, we looked more specifically at information: how it is categorized and displayed visually. Our final project, using the Prezi Presentation Editor, is the culmination of this semester-long academic adventure.

        As I thought more about how I learned so much in the class, I kept thinking of the long nights spent talk to classmates on Twitter in which we would help each other through problems with the assignments. This led me to Etienne Wenger’s Community of Practice, which I found meshed nicely with my own experience this semester. I learned from the texts, from my teacher, but perhaps most of all, from the other students in class. When one finished an assignment, he or she would serve as a great resource to those who were finishing slightly later. Instead of finishing an assignment and forgetting about it, several people in the class went out of his or her way on Twitter to offer help and suggestions. Also, I learned that I learn by doing, by trying, and by failing. This idea has been immeasurably important to me academically and for this project.

    After all, Prezi is designed to be played as much as it is to be mastered. I have played with Prezi a lot, but I haven’t mastered it. But, I think I am proficient with it. As I played with Prezi further, I thought of the work we did in IA in a new light. It was a chance to put into practice the principles we had been discussing all semester long.

    I thought more critically about the information I put into the presentation. I thought even harder about how I would link one “slide” or “lexia” to the next. I think I like the term lexia better than slide as the former indicates a sort of malleable place among other pieces of a text, which does not have a discrete, aloof, place. Slides, I believe, are artificially segmented from the presentations they are intended to describe.


    Information Architecture comprises many topics and so I think it’s only appropriate that my poster designed to explain some of the ideas that informed our work in IA comprises many topics as well. My poster talks about Twitter and maps and fonts and color palettes and social learning with the overarching theme of metaphors being important to understand abstract principles. My Prezi, like many of the parts that constitute it, is essentially one big metaphor embedded with many smaller ones. But these metaphors help me understand my place as a writer within a complex ecology that includes the texts, technologies, our class, our teacher, and the MA program. While some writers shy away from abstractions, I believe these abstractions, these metaphors, as Lakoff and Johnson argue, are important to make sense of these esoteric ideas we come across in frequently in graduate school and in the real world as well.

I Am Here: My Prezi Presentation

Zach Caruso — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:48:58 -0400

My Prezi Presentation: http://prezi.com/37557/

My presentation is an attempt to map my own personal “information ecology.” It is broken into sections with my most general and largest ecologies at the outset, and, as we move in, more specific and smaller ecologies at the inset. Let’s look at each section and discuss why I chose its particular placement in my presentation, how it pertains to me as a writer, and how the sections tie into the texts we’ve read over the course of this semester.

Google MyMap aka The Real Deal with Bill McNeil: (I'm hoping someone out there catches this Newsradio reference!) I thought after four years at this fine institution that I knew this campus like the back of my hand (hey, where’d that scar come from?), but as I sat with a pencil and paper, I realized that drawing Rowan University and doing it correctly was quite a challenge. As I wrote in my blog post, I learned that Rowan is an information ecology with smaller sub-ecologies within it. This point is demonstrated by the fact that I, as a communication major, was far more accurate and on-point with my drawings of the “Bozorth” area of campus, as this is where most of my classes as an undergraduate took place.

As I created the Google MyMap version of my Rowan map, I realized that many of my proportions were off in my drawing. Furthermore, when I got to look at a real map with road names and paths, it began to trigger my memory of things that I missed or totally forgot about in my hand drawing.

It’s Time To Facebook The Music: This also fits on the outer most circle. This Nexus representation of my Facebook friends is a good way to show who I’m connected with in the online world (and in some cases, the outside world as well), and how my social circles are broken up. This gives you the first glimpse into who I am as a student and as a person.

I feel as though this is another map within a map. I labeled each of the clusters, mainly because I was rather surprised that my friends were broken up into relatively neat groups. With the labels intact, this simple graph becomes a window into my social circles. We clearly see that I’ve kept in touch with a lot of my friends from high school (my graduating class was 110, so we were all relatively friendly), and that I still am in contact with my Wushu circle (Wushu is a Chinese martial art that I competed in. I was a member of the 2005-2007 USA Wushu team, and some of these Facebook friends are former teammates, while others are fellow athletes from my Wushu school based in Virginia.)

My Tweetin’ Timeline: Marching Into Good Numbers: I had never used Twitter before January. In fact, I’d only heard the name mentioned a few times, and really didn’t know anything about it. But it quickly became apparent that this tool was going to be a key element to the class. I placed this in the second circle because this was the beginning of narrowing my ecology. This connected me to my classmates both in and outside the classroom, and allowed me to make contact with other people utilizing the tool.

This brings me to an interesting point about Twitter. I often refer to it using the metaphor, “it is a tool,” which, according to Nardi and O’Day’s book Information Ecologies, can “channel and limit our thinking, as well as bring in useful associations from other contexts.” (pp. 25) I have learned throughout this semester that metaphors can be a great tool for us to better comprehend a concept, but they can also hinder us if we do not challenge them. I feel that by challenging my initial definitions of Twitter, I have now given it the room it needs to evolve and grow to become an integral and multifaceted piece of my information ecology.

Let Me Tell You ‘Bout My Best Friend…According To My Statistics, That Would Be Dr. Wolff: This is where things become even more specific; these charts show which people inside the twittersphere are my “best friends.” I have 123 followers and am following 117, but this gives us a glimpse of the top 6 “friends” on my list.

You Tweetin’ At Me?: Again, we see a narrower view of “me”; now we are glimpsing into which of my Twitter followers I am most in contact with, as well as which interface I use most often to post tweets. Here you can see that I have done most of my Twittering from the web, but my Twitterlicious usage is rapidly catching up. If you compare my chart from last month to this current one, you will see that my web usage has stayed fairly stagnant, but my Twitterlicious usage has drastically increased. You now have a good idea about how I’m going about posting tweets.

The Twitter Power Hour: More narrowing of my ecology, as we see information that is breaking down how many tweets I average per day, how many per hour, and even which hours of which days I tweet the most. This is a demonstration of not only that I am using this specific networking tool, but exactly how I am using it as well.

Even more specific is the breakdown of my tweets by day, and time of each day. For those who know me, you’ll begin to notice that on nights I have to be in bed relatively early to be up for the 6am shift at work the next day, I don’t do much Twittering past 8:00. (Those nights are Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday.) If you don’t know me, you’ll still notice this pattern and be able to infer that there is some reason for this consistency.

The Bird is the Worlde: We have now reached the most specific and detailed view of me as a writer. These Wordles show my most frequently used words in my blog posts, and my tweets. From this, we can now find which words I am most likely to use, and furthermore we are able to organize them into some form of an order (which are the most used, which are moderately used, which are hardly used, etc.)

We now see a very clear map of who I am as a writer, and each of these sections is another piece of my map. You know where I go to school, which areas of my school matter most to me, and which I am most familiar with. You know who my friends are and which ones are connected to which, you know that I Twitter, but even more important, you now know when I Twitter, what I’m using most often to tweet, to whom I Twitter to most often, and which words I am most likely to use in a tweet and blog post.

This presentation was my attempt at somehow mapping my mind as a writer. I was actually quite surprised at how each one of these rings flowed perfectly into the next, with each subsequent ring revealing slightly more than the one that preceded it.

In the end, I think that an Information Ecology is whatever we want it to be. For me, this Prezi is a great representation of my information ecology. It shows my location, my social circles, my most active days and times, and even the words that I use most often to express myself. “Mapping our minds” is not about accuracy or perfection, but rather about revelation and distributing information about ourselves in a unique way. And when all is said and done, I believe I have succeeded in this task, and I feel confident to stand at the center of my ecology and say, “I am here.”

Importance of Free Culture

Joe Sabatini — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:16:13 -0400

In 2007, critically-acclaimed English rock band Radiohead released "In Rainbows." Fans were given the option to pay whatever amount they wanted, including nothing. Though some detractors felt Radiohead was erring in giving the album away for free, it worked out very well for the band.

Cover art for Radiohead's "In Rainbows"

The principles behind Radiohead's decision to release its album essentially for "free," is an idea that Lawrence Lessig would probably agree with. Lessig, a legal scholar from Standford, argues eloquently in his book "Free Culture" about the nature of cultural production, its history, and how digital technologies have transformed how it is distributed currently. Lessig's arguments, unsurprisingly, center around the legal history of cultural production as he explains how recent copyright laws are anathema to freedom of expression.

Lessig does a brilliant job of introducing the reader to the main issues surrounding copyright laws and how the Web has complicated things. This is not to say the Web is to blame. Quite the contrary. The Web is a great facilitator to sharing ideas and content, Lessig says, and I agree. However, the author is quick to point out that piracy in its conventional sense-- the act of stealing from those who produce or distribute content is wrong-- Lessig explains that file sharing and other methods of sharing information online are not so clear-cut. Lessig points to history to support his claims.

According to the book, copyrights have not always been so clearly defined. While copyright law today encompasses things that written, songs that are recorded, computer programs that are developed, videogames that are designed, and other cultural artifacts, early English copyright law only protected books. But these early copyrights were designed with the aim of protecting the distribution of books, and not the artists.

Lessig connects this argument to today as he explains that artists still reap little of the reward their works produce. Drawing from the work of various artists of various kinds, they are always happy with the way copyright laws work either. Unsurprisingly, it is the MPAA (A body responsible for producing motion pictures) and the RIAA (the lobbyist arm of the recording industry) that are the biggest culprits.

The author's arguments rotate between examples drawn from legal history and philosophical arguments supporting the notion that spreading culture is important. After painting a nuanced, detailed sketch of the problem, Lessig recommends a remedy for the copyright issue: a new way of legislating copyright concerns. Lessig feels that the creative properties of artists should be defended against those who would try to profit wrongfully from other's work, but at the same time, appeals for the importance of sharing work that is culturally significant.

Sometimes, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Lessig understands this, and his assessment is thorough and well-reasoned. Coming into the reading, I expected this to be simply an assault on the importance of copyright law, but Lessig's work is much more than that. It is an appeal to all thinking people to reconsider how copyright laws are harming the spread of knowledge and culture and aims rectify the problem. As media outlets become increasingly more powerful, it is important for thinking people to stand up and take notice. Lessig's work caused me to take notice.

It's like my dad always said; "A dog doesn't eat where it sh-"......

Zach Caruso — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:14:46 -0400

It's no secret that I hate my job. In fact, I've disliked most jobs I've had because of crummy co-workers and awful bosses. (I've worked on golf cart maintenence, bussed tables, waited tables, and worked at a gym.....all sucked). But one thing that I've always been wary of has been being online friends with co-workers.

This article from NY Times discusses the pros and cons of accepting friend requests from co-workers and bosses on networks like Facebook and Myspace. I highly suggest checking this article out; it's got some awesome tips and guidelines for how to handle online relationships with co-workers.

Free Culture: A Musician's Take on Copyrights

Zach Caruso — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:17:00 -0400

I found Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture to be a very interesting book to read. My real fascination came from the fact that I'm a musician, and am always interested in reading about copyright laws and the history behind them.

I've found that the laws concerning copyrights are very complicated at times and difficult to get a grasp on, and sometimes it becomes tough to form a solid opinion as to exactly how you feel about certain aspects of the law.

I liked Lessig's section on Music on page 55, as well as his suggestion for creator compensation on page 106. A lot of my friends download music for free, in fact my one buddy JD regularly tells me about how he "hasn't bought a CD in years" because he downloads entire discographies. To some, this may seem like a smart move, and a great way to save money. But let me explain how this looks from the opposing side.

As a musician who is trying to promote myself independently, the whole process rests on my shoulders. No management team, no record label, no PR group, nothing; just me and the help and support of my family. Let's do a little math:

- First, we have supplies and tools to do my job (write and perform music.) Guitars, amplifiers, microphones, mic stands, PA system, cables, extension cords, guitar strings, picks, guitar straps, effects pedals, slides, pickups, and capos.

- Now let's add in the instructional DVDs and lessons that I've learned from of over the years.

- I began playing music at the age of 12, so factor in 10 years worth of time spent working on my music (I'm primarily self-taught.)

- Add in the hours of practice each week, as well as time spent working on new material, shaping and crafting songs, and generally working to improve.

- I released an album in October 2008, (yes, a shameless plug, but I have to promote myself, remember??) I had to pay for the time spent in the studio to record, as well as pay for the album to be printed and sealed, and then shipped out to me.

- Lastly, let's factor in the money spent on gas when I drive around to perform and promote my music.

Now imagine I wake up one day and find my album is up on Limewire, and everyone's downloading it for free because they don't want to pay for it.

I only tell you this to remind you that a copyright protection, in this case, is there for a reason. I think a lot of people see copyright protection as almost an inconvenience. My friend JD doesn't get why you would pay for a CD when you can just dowload it for free? CDs may be "expensive" in some people's eyes, but you have to remember that you're not paying for the plastic case, or the CD itself, or the lyric book. You're paying for the time, energy, and money spent by the musicians/songwriters who have dedicated their lives to creating music (or any art form, for that matter) for people's entertainment. Sure, I want to share my music with the world, but honestly, I don't want to starve in the process.

Now let's look at Lessig's point about building off of previous creations. He gives the impression throughout the book that if we begin to limit what people are allowed to "add on to" or "springboard" off of, that our free culture will suffer. I disagree. Again, let me relate this back to music.

I'm a big John Butler Trio fan. Now if I ripoff this song, Pickapart, and make some changes, but claim I've only built on what was already there, there's no way you're going to convince me that that's ok. Instead, I feel that the drive to avoid copyright infringement has pushed me to study JBT's style, mesh it with my other influences, and create something unique to myself. I have a few songs that are in the same style as JBT, but swiping specific melodies and progressions would be piracy in every sense of the word. Lessig's assertion that the concept of "property" is detrimental to growth in a free culture is a bit absurd, but again, I may feel this way because of my background in music. As my classmate Chris said in his post, " His theme is that if this occurs, 'Free Cultures are cultures that leave a great deal open for others to build upon; unfree, or permission, cultures leave much less. Ours was a free culture. It is becoming less so." (p. 30)'" There is plenty to build upon without ripping others off.

Let me ask you this; if I came to you and said, "Hey a friend of mine approached me and said he wanted to use the melodies and vocal patterns from my song Jet Plane for a documentary he's filming. He doesn't want to use my song, he just wants to create a song a lot like it and add in some piano parts, maybe a violin, and use a female lead singer." Would you say that's ok? Sure, he's adding on to what I did, but is the song not, at its core, still my creation?

Copyright protection is something I feel passionately about, and this book really made me get really passionate really quick!

We talk, Facebook listens

Zach Caruso — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 09:39:30 -0400

I'm sure we all remember back in February when Facebook was about to put into effect a new set of Terms and Conditions that would grant them ownership of users' content, photos, etc, even after an account was deleted. And I'm sure we also remember the total outrage that ensued.

Well it looks like they listened when we complained. According to a New York Times article, after the enormous amount of protest and and resistance from users, Facebook has drawn up some new Terms and Conditions, and allowed users to vote on whether or not they should be put into effect (these new Terms and Conditions grant ownership of content to users once again.)

I think this is a great step forward for social networking. It proves that the users really are the ones in control. It's easy for changes to be made and it's up to users to simply adapt and get used to it, but the fact is we are the ones who keep these networks running. If it weren't for us, there would be no Facebook, or Myspace, or Twitter, or Skype, etc. I was very happy to see this unfold the way it did.

Introoducing a Font and Color Palette of My Own Design

Joe Sabatini — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:11:35 -0400

     I have become increasingly interested in the role that technology has in constraining art. But when I became the artist, and had to work within the constraints of an unfamiliar medium, my academic curiosity quickly vanished, and I was left in intermittent fits of frustration. While my response to Fontstruct is probably borne more out of lack of typographical skills than it is with a problem with the program, the fact remains that building a font is a fairly difficult process.

     The first step to designing my font with Fontstruct was to first be a pencil sketch showing what I thought the font should look like. I didn't like this idea because I was afraid that I would be unable to translate something I drew onto the program. So, I just started playing around with Fontstruct.

     I started at the top of the alphabet and began working my way down. I was having trouble getting used to Fontstruct's limitations-- I found making curved lines of any type difficult. So, I tried to work within the framework I was provided with.

    But then, I ran into a problem: a clear lack of consistency. You can notice that the B is smaller than the A and the C and that some of the letters are just not recognizable. So I kept working.

You can see the difference between joefont2 (which was a clone of joefont1-- long story) and joefont3, which is much more similar to final product than was joefont1. The biggest difference was the size of the font. Initially, I was making my fonts around 4 or 5 blocks high, which was much too small. Then I experimented making the uppercase letters eight blocks high and lowercase ones four blocks high, but then I read in Lupton's "Thinking With Type" that the x height should be slightly more than half of the tallest uppercase letters. So, I adjusted the sizes again.


   But things weren't so simple. While I was deciding how large to make my fonts on Thursday night, I began having problems with Fontsruct. The page would load, but the Fonstructor would not. I had to remake the font almost entirely from scratch because the fonts were too small. This was frustrating at first because I felt as though I was throwing five hours of work away. It wasn't that bad as I was able to quickly re-assemble my font learning tricks I had learned from trial and error. Though I was no pro, I was getting much better at using Fontstruct.

     After spending so much time with Fonstruct, I thought I was seeing penguins on the page. So, I decided to make my font look like penguins. At the time, it didn't look like a stretch. If you look closely, you will notice that all of my letters have "eyes" that make the letters appear that they are looking at you. That is why I called the font "Vigilance".

This is what my font looked like just before the final pass. Notice how the lowercase "t" looks funny-- I had it dipping below the line. I don't know why I did that, and I fixed it for the last pass. I am also notably missing punctuation marks. Writing a sentence without punctuation marks is difficult, so I added them as well.

     I really like how Fonstruct allow you to type with your font. I think it provides the user with a better sense of whether the font is usable or not. I think my font at this point was usable, though not ideal.

     I spent some more time working on vigilance, polishing out the rough edges, adding punctuation marks, and checking for consistency. I am pretty pleased with the final product. Though a few letters did not turn out quite right, I am happy with the results overall.

     In addition to designing a font, our class was also charged with designing a color palette. I couldn't find a photo I was happy with to use as an inspiration for my palette, so I played around with Adobe's Kuler a bit.

     The application conveniently places a color wheel within easy reach to experiment with colors in real time. I enjoyed moving the points on the wheel around, and seeing which colors seemed to go well together. Then I came away with a palette that I liked. It is pictured below.

     I played with the wheel until I found a combination I was happy with. Why did I stop here? For some reason, these colors all seemed to go together. When you look at the color wheel, it actually makes sense.



My base color, as evidenced by the extra ring, which falls in the purplish side of the wheel, is matched almost perfectly by the olive color directly across. Any color that lies directly across from another color is said to be its opposite, and thus complimentary.

The Teal-like color I used is similar, and just a shade or two lighter than the light teal which lies closer to the center of the wheel. The ruddy color lies directly opposite the light teal. My eyes told me these colors go together because they are related, whether opposite or highly similar.

     I will never look at typography the same way again. It is difficult to remain consistent, original, striking, and yet follow good practices. On top of all these factors, it's important to remember that we are also working within a new medium (in this case Fonstruct) which has its own set of limitations.

My Font and Color Palate

Zach Caruso — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:00:49 -0400

This is my font, and as you can see, it’s absolutely fontastic. I’ve always liked fonts that are odd and off the wall, things like Bobcat or X Files, so when I began designing my own font in Fontstruct, I wanted to make letters that were a bit exaggerated and imperfect. I’d say I’ve definitely succeeded in that.

I started by making each of my capital letters eight boxes high and eight boxes wide. I began with A, and once I finished the letter and had it the way I wanted it, I copied it, and would paste it into the grid of each new letter I was working on. This was a way for me to ensure that each of my letters was going to be proportional to the previous one. The same principal went for lowercase letters, which were four high and four wide. My making the lowercase half the height of the capital letters is a principle that can be seen on page 36 of Lupton’s Thinking With Type.

When I started fooling around with Fontstruct, I had a few ideas for my letters, but found that trying to translate what was in my head into the actual program proved to be a more difficult task than I initially anticipated. I goofed around until I created the A that I now have, which kind of looks like Pac Man, southbound, chasing after some delicious dots. Honestly, that’s the first thought that came into my head when I finished work on A and it kind of made me laugh, so I decided to make all my letters kind of rounded, bubbly, and thick to go along with the theme.

My font is more in the style of the Roman fonts, as Lupton points out on page 45. (Side note, I didn’t even think until after I’d already finished and downloaded my font that I would need numbers as well as the letters. That’s why in my printed-out version of this post that uses my font, I have to spell out all the numbers I write.) You can also see that my tracking is pretty even, but the space between letters is pretty wide, which would me more in the way of positive tracking, as Lupton points out on page eighty one. I did this because of the style that I created. The fat, rounded letters would have been too mushed together to read had I made the tracking any less. To see my full alphabet in all its glory, just click here.

(The early stages of capital G)

I also used Kuler to create a color palate. The picture I used is one that a friend of mine snapped on South Street in Philadelphia while we were there walking around in the fall.

Like some of my classmates, Gage’s discussion on the colors of social division was one that interested me. In my palate, you can see the red, gold, and blue colors, that were talked about in the book (red for freemen, gold for nobility, blue for slaves) but I liked that they weren’t too striking or bright, but rather more along the lines of a pastel. This also gives the colors a calming effect, which I found interesting because to me, the picture is very vivid and alive with color and is very striking, while the color palate, though based off the picture, looks a bit more subdued and placid.

IPhone plus Hulu......IHulu?

Zach Caruso — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 12:41:48 -0400

IPhones blow my mind as it is. One of my buddies has one, and sometimes we'll be out at a bar or bowling, and something will come up in conversation, like the name of a movie character or what a celebrity looks like, and he can break out his IPhone and in seconds find the answers to our questions and then start surfing around the web a bit. And as my classmate Brandon pointed out in his Twitter review, there are plenty of cool apps that go along with the IPhone that make it even more amazing. But all you IPhone junkies had better brace yourselves, because it looks like a new Hulu application may be upon us in only a matter of months!

I'm not very familiar with the IPhone and the applications that go along with it, but from what I've heard and read, there was some hype about a Hulu application last year, and that all fell through. But it seems more believable this time around, especially since there is going to be a new version of the IPhone launched this summer (the IPhone OS 3.0 software update, as I just read.)

If you check out this article from CNN, they admit that nothing has been set in stone just yet, and there are a few factors that still leave the Hulu app rumor up in the air, (like the fact that a Hulu application that would allow IPhone users to watch videos, movies, and listen to music all without leaving the app. This, of course, would damage ITunes.) But come on, with all the possible apps that are floating around out there (like this one, which tracks hurricanes, and one for news and updates about gastroenterology......who is using this stuff?), I think a Hulu app has been a long time coming.

On Truth, truth, and "truth"

Joe Sabatini — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:34:16 -0400

Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star's Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences provides an interesting backdrop for me while I conduct interviews for my Oral History project. Whereas the goals of a medical classification system and a small set of interviews may sound at face value to be very different, I disagree. Both endeavors try to get at the hear of what truth is to better understand a set of phenomena. The two practices diverge, however, when we look at the ultimate goals. Whereas a classification seeks to find the "Truth" of where medical conditions come from, my project is interested in the "truth" according to a particular person. While Big T truth sounds more trustworthy and worthwhile than small t truth, it is important to understand that both truths are not really absolute; they are highly subjective, constructive, and constrained.

For years, I always trusted official documents- archives, medical records, tax records and the like- because they were sanctioned by a governing body who I had believed was interested solely in the accuracy in the information it reports. But Bowker and Star paint a picture of medical classification, for instance, that is far different than I imagined. The book focuses a chunk of its work on the ICD, the International Classification for Diseases and many of the problems inherent in its structure. The authors point to several conflicts of interested between doctors, statisticians, and bureaucrats which serve to make reliable information impossible to attain. Doctors don't want to fill out forms for people who've passed away; they want to help the living. Statisticians want hyper-reliable information, but always want to limit the number of diseases to keep their numbers easier to work with. Bureaucrats want the process to run efficiently. Mind you, none of the groups here are malicious in their intent (at least I'm not suggesting they are) but it has to be noted that such a vaunted organization as the ICD has a great deal of obstacles in its path to get reliable information out to interested parties.

I think of my Oral History project in relation to the ICD because I initially thought the information I was gleaning in my interviews to be of a lower order of importance than the information groups like the ICD attained. But I no longer feel that way. Information of any type needs to go through filters- technical, social, and the potential of human errors. No type of information is strictly truer than other types, though some can be more reliable. And even this information must be held to high level of scrutiny.

In this picture taken from South Park, former Vice President Al Gore explains "Manbearpig" to South Park students, many of which don't believe in this far-fetched character. Manbearpig is a metaphor for global warming.

Information cannot escape the social grasp of those who wish to use it, manipulate it, or hide it. As long as we remember that, we can look at information critically.

Because "Big T" and "small t" truths are both constructed, I feel I must modify all truth with quotation marks. That's where I got the idea from the title. We should remember that the filters through which information must travel influence the sort of truth that emerges at the end.

BigTweet Review

Joe Sabatini — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:39:06 -0400

BigTweet (BT) is a Twitter bookmarklet that allows users to post Tweets from any site. But lots of Twitter apps allow users to post from any site. What makes BigTweet special? For starters, as its name suggests, users can post big Tweets- up to 240 characters, up from the standard 140. Also, BT has a built-in tinyrl maker, which uses the bit.ly service, making posting from any site even easier- opening up a new tab with a tinyurl maker is no longer necessary. BT makes posting to Twitter from any webstie quick, easy, and efficient.

Actually, BT can't entirely circumvent Twitter's 140 character limit, it just extends singular Tweets to two Tweets. This works, though, because large BT Tweets will show up at the same time, and will indicate which comes first by calling itself 1/2 or 2/2. This works for the most part, but it does provide problems as it can separate hash tags. If posting a big Tweet, and the hashtag is at the end of the post, it will show up on the second post, but not the first. I haven't found a way to get around the problem. If anyone knows a way around this, do tell. Still, the big post feature for BT is good for when the user has something to say that just cannot fit into 140 limit.

It's easy to change the size of posts from 140 characters to 240 characters.

To make Tweets large, the user must simply click on the "Posting" tab, and check the "240 character mode" option. Then, Tweets larger than 240 chracters will post as number 1 of 2 and 2 of 2.

Another interesting, though less well-known feature of BT is its ability to let users post using 64 special characters distributed across two different pages at the click of a button. Performing this taks is simple; one must simply click the "Special Characters" button on the left side of the window which is directly under the "Text Control" button. Page 1 of the special characters looks like this:

The second page of BT's special character page looks like this and is equally easy to use:

Also, BT can post to Friendfeed as well, another social networking site.

Dragging the BT button to the top of the most recent version of Firefox was no problem at all. Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer are supported as well, though there seems to have been a small problem with IE (surprise).

Though BT is simple to use, its site added a tutorial page anyway. The tutorial explains the service while using it. The explanation of how to perform various things with the application are spelled out in the application. It's pretty clever.

Aesthetically, BT is Spartan, and not as in Frank Miller's 300 spartan, but as in bland-bordering-on-ugly spartan. But that's okay; the application's main draw is its usability, not its aesthetic design. In a future iteration, I'd be happy to see designer make the application at least a little more nice to look at. I'll take function over form any day, but I'd rather have both. And with many Twitter Apps looking increasingly sophisticated and sharp, it would behoove the makers of the app to make it nice to look at.

BT also has a FAQ page, though it's kind of short because it's such a simple application.

Twitter's prime academic purpose is to transfer interesting information. I know that, sometimes, I see sites, and intend to share them, but never do. BT works so seamlessly that it makes this transference of information easy. There isn't much to say here in terms of discussion, actually. When you find something you like, you can easily link to it. BT, and other Twitter apps like it, can help users add to the Twitter discussion. While the discussion is not a two-way street as it were, users' ability to put links in Twitter make the site an increasingly more important repository of information all the time. The more people use Twitter and the more easily people can put links on the site (thanks to the bit.ly tool), the better the site will be.

Looking at a list of Twitter applications on Squidoo, it's clear that many apps are limited. But practically speaking, BT can only be used sometimes, and in certain instances. While one could use BT all the time if he or she was interested simply in posting to Twitter, I don't believe that enables the full Twitter experience. Twitter, I believe, is much more interesting when I can see what everyone else is saying.

By fixing the one glaring flaw of BT- its lack of full Twitter functionality, this application could have become indispensable. It already has two notable advantages going for it in the form of its post from anywhere and its built-in url shrinker. Enabling users to engage in conversations with friends and see other people's updates would have been icing on the cake.

BigTweet is certainly a good application which does what it claims to do, and does it well. I just wish that it did a little more- that it would integrate full Twitter functionality into the application. Come on, people, make it happen! Still, I can recommend BT for anyone who just needs a little more space, and doesn't want to keep a special tab open to make urls shorter.

Sorting Things Out

Zach Caruso — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:30:13 -0400

Sorting Things Out, by Bowker and Star is an examination of classifications that have become woven into lives without us even realizing it, how these classifications affect us and the way we think about things, and how they were formulated in the first place.

That being said, I found this book to be near impossible to get through. The subject had great potential to be interesting, but the academic jargon and over-the-top writing style not only put me off from the get-go, but it nearly put me to sleep at the same time. Furthermore, instead of making my way through the readings at a good clip, I had to constantly re-read sections to figure out what the authors were talking about. I often felt that this whole book as a case of “less is more”; it seemed that they often opted for pompous-type ways of expressing ideas. For example, on page 158, they say, “Despite a growing body of evidence from sociology and the history of science, distributed artificial intelligence and distributed cognitive science, images of universal policy and encyclopedic knowledge often invoke the ideal imposition of universal standardization schemes.” I felt that statements like this one were a bit overdone.

I did, however, find the subject matter intriguing. The concept of “torque” was one that interested me, especially in its demonstration in Chapter 6 that dealt with the apartheid in South Africa. It was amazing to see how a simple classification system became responsible for forcing people to change residences and jobs, follow a set of rules, show proper documentation, etc. It was also scary to see the kind of power classification can have.

I was constantly trying to relate the ideas in the book to real-life examples that I deal with on a regular basis. The one that worked best for me would be musical classifications. As a musician, people often ask me, “Well what kind of music do you write?” or “What’s your style?” This becomes a difficult question to answer. My influences range from jazz (George Benson and Al Jarreau) to rock (Led Zepplin and Jimi Hendrix) to blues (Joe Bonamassa and Stevie Ray Vaughan) to jam (The John Butler Trio) to acoustic (Ben Harper). They all become mixed together to create a sound that I feel is unique. But people want a classification, they want to place it in a box or a filing cabinet because they feel that this makes it organized and easier to understand and pass around. If I say I’m a blues artist, I’m incorrect. If I say I’m a rock player, that’s still not quite right. What happens if I don’t fit into a category? What happens if I’m categorized incorrectly?

Furthermore, I am currently working on an oral history project about the punk rock scene in South Jersey. While doing a little research, I’ve found at least 12 sub-genres (Glam Punk, Anarcho Punk, Horror Punk, etc) and more than 13 fusion genres (Celtic Punk, Cow Punk, Gypsy Punk, etc).

I think that this was one of the points that the authors were trying to make; that no classification system is 100% accurate or complete. We must understand and recognize the classifying structures that surround us, and accept that they sometimes need to evolve and grow.

The LuLu Review - Web 2.0

Zach Caruso — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:50:37 -0400

I feel like I have a knack for picking stuff with weird names. Either that, or there are some real strange folks naming these online applications and Web 2.0 things. If it were up to me, I'd be calling stuff "Dragon Fire", or "Steel Blade", or maybe even "Crank 2: High Voltage......" (Well, come on, who's more manly and tough than Jason Statham?) As if Twitterlicious wasn't odd enough, this week, I'll be talking about LuLu.

LuLu was founded in 2002 as a way for independent publishers to publish their work (as an option other than being published by a mainstream publishing company). The idea is that anyone who wishes to publish a book, CD, etc, can do so for free. This sounds too good to be true, but surprisingly, LuLu’s process is pretty fair:

“You set your own price, we print and ship each item as it's ordered, and you collect 80% of the creator revenue on every sale.

Then your book is, if you choose, automatically listed for sale on the Lulu Marketplace - a booming ecommerce destination that attracts more than 900,000 unique visitors every week. Even better, Lulu's #1 ranking among self-publishing websites ensures that your work will show up at the top of the search results in places like Google and Yahoo.

We even make it possible for you to get your own ISBN, so you can make your masterpiece available in retail stores, libraries and schools around the world - online and off.”

The trade off for all these benefits, though, is that LuLu deals strictly with publishing, and they do not handle publicity or promotion of any works featured on the site; it’s up to the author to market and sell his or her work.

The author retains the full copyright, and work on a POD (print on demand) basis. This means you only pay for the copies that are purchased.

Signing up is a snap, you simply need your name, email address, password, and a "store location", which is the LuLu equivalent to a MySpace-type personalized extension that's tagged onto the end of the LuLu web address.

On the “Publish” page, you’re given a slew of options for media to be published including paperback and hardback books, text books, yearbooks, calendars, and even CDs and DVDs. Once you click on your choice, you are taken to another screen that will help you personalize your work. Each type of publishing differs depending on what type of media you are using (so comic books, which are an option, are different than paperback books, which are different that wedding albums, etc). Paperback, for example, begins by asking for the title of your work and your name in the author space. You then must choose your paper type (standard or publisher grade), size, binding type, and color options. From there, all that’s left is to choose the file from your computer for upload, so long as they fall into the accepted formats (DOC, RTF, WPS, PDF, PS, Images (jpg, gif, png))

At this point, LuLu will make your file “print-ready.” This is where I encountered a problem. Your personalization options are largely determined by the length of your work. Because I was trying to upload a short 10 page file just as a demonstration, I had to edit some of my options to get past the “print-ready” stage. Even then, I still couldn’t get it to work, and as of right now, I’m not entirely sure why.

But there is more to LuLu than just the publishing end of it. Your dashboard gives you a great amount of info about your progress thus far, which includes sales and revenue summaries, and recent orders. But there is also a social networking aspect to it as well. You can search and add friends, and if you add in your “interests”, LuLu will search its database of members and suggest people you may find interesting. When I first signed up, and went into the “My Friends” screen, two sentences stared me in the face: “You do not have any friends. How very sad for you.” Thanks, LuLu. If I wasn’t depressed enough that no one will publish my book and I have to do it on my own, you’ve made me perk right up by reminding me that I don’t even have friends in the online world.

You also have the option of joining groups, which you can sort through by looking at the ones with the most recent activity, or ones with the most members. You can also search groups by name, or if you find that no one is as cool as you are, you can make your own group, name it something witty and clever (since you are, technically, a published author now), and wait for other LuLu-ites to come begging for you to admit them into your exclusive and prestigious club. (“I am the Key Master.” “I am the Gatekeeper.”)

All in all, the site is pretty impressive and is a great concept for up-and-coming authors/artists/musicians who want to get their work out there, but may not have the dough to do it. As long as you’re cool with self-promotion, then LuLu may be the place for you.

The Death of the Captive Audience: How Can Companies Revise Online Marketing Strategies?

Joe Sabatini — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:10:30 -0400

I've always found the concept of advertising to be sort of curious. Why, after all, would I want a company's best pitch-man/woman selling me their wares? That opinion is going to be light on criticism and high on hyperbole. I've always preferred to get my information from "experts" of one kind or another who can give me an educated opinion on what types of products I should buy. By this, I don't mean I have no mind of my own; rather I seek out information about whatever item I wish to buy.

I will take notice of ads if they are executed with the same level of elegance and sophistication of this 1983 commercial for the Atari game Pole Position .

When I (unofficially) graduated from Rowan in 2006, I wanted to buy a new television. So I did research online, and settled on a Sony Bravia. I never saw ads for the set I wanted, but that had little sway over me. I did see Panasonic, Samsung, and even Hitachi ads, however. But the ads didn't mean anything to me because I educated myself about the product I was buying. Considering the dearth of websites that are devoted to educating their audiences, I'm guessing I'm not alone. Lots of other people want to be informed about the products they are buying.

Aside from sites such as US News and World Report, CNET, Wired, and any number of other specialty sites that review and evaluate products, many seek other people's opinions via message boards. Whereas I don't trust ads, some people may not trust "expert" websites, and would opt instead to seek out other "regular" users' opinions.

Ad blockers such as AdsCleaner (pictured above) remove ads from the html, letting browsers decode sites, now ad-free. The growing use of such applications further makes online ads less relevant.

Either way, ads are becoming less relevant. When we look at the growth of enthusiast sites and the speed in which word-of-mouth information can travel online, it's clear that ads can only have so much influence. When we remember that the web audience is no longer captive to any site for content, it would probably signal the death knell of ads. A recent article on Techdirt sums up the situation.

While people can always gripe about the relevance of a particular expert's opinion of a product compared to a non-expert, I find this development encouraging because now, companies must be held accountable, and produce good products, or else be blasted on the web. If I have $100 to spend on item X, and there are five versions of item X, but with varying build quality and features, I have the choice. The ball's in my court, and any company that produces and inferior product will be ignored.

I hope companies will spend more money making their products worthwhile and less time selling them to me. If I'm in the market, and their wares are the best value I can get, I'll buy.

Understanding Comics

Zach Caruso — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:33:46 -0400

I thoroughly enjoyed Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. It was a book that gave a great in-depth analysis of an art (and I know now that it is an art) that is often brushed off as being "for kids."

The first thing that really interested me was McCloud's distinction between "realistic" and "iconic". I found this point to be especially powerful when, on page 36, he has a side-by-side comparison of the iconic version of himself and the realistic version of himself, stating that if he had illustrated himself in the realistic sense throughout the entire book, "...You would have been far too aware of the messenger to fully receive the message."

Another great portion of the book focused on the concept of "closure", especially between panels (a space called the "gutter"). McCloud really explains the power of the gutter on page 68 where he talks about the duty of reader-participation between panels. I see his point, and agree that this is a very fun, powerful, and important part of comics. But I also had a bit of a hard time accepting the concept 100%. For example, his illustration of the murder scene, as well as his later examples of "Peek-a-boo" and the blinking eye, all made me think that the gutter space may leave a lot of room for error. For example, if I saw two panels, both with an open eye, I wouldn't assume that it had ever closed or blinked, I would simply be under the impression that the creator drew the same eye twice. This brings me to my first discussion question:

1) Does the concept of closure in combination with the presence of gutters create the possibility for readers to make mistakes? If so, could there be consequences to these mistakes?

I must also mention that I very much appreciated McCloud's distinction between the common styles of the East versus the West. It was very cool seeing not only the aesthetic differences, but the thought process that is behind them as well. This brings me to question numero dos:

2) Japanese comics are cited as being more focused on "being there", and American comics more concerned with "getting there." With our country now utilizing newer technologies that bring us more information faster and more frequently, would the Japanese style of 1,000 page comics that emphasize the moment-to-moment and aspect-to-aspect transitions have as great a success here? Do you feel that our fast-paced lifestyles and technology would hinder our ability to appreciate this type of comic?

The discussion on time (Chapter 4) was another thought-provoking section. I especially enjoyed his thoughts on linear movement from panel to panel, and how we, as readers, assume that as we read, the panels that lie behind us are the past and ahead of us are the future. He then gave a very interesting example of non-linear possibilities on page 105. This brought to mind our past discussions about information being displayed in a linear manner.

3) Are comics (or information in general) better displayed in a linear sense, or would a non-linear approach yield better results? Would it yield worse results? Furthermore, what new possibilities may be opened up by going non-linear, and maybe even integrating "viewer choice"?

Another concept that caught my eye was McCloud's thoughts on images and colors conveying emotion to the viewer. The discussions in Chapter 5 were great, and I liked that he talked about the influence of impressionist painting on the idea of images provoking an emotional and even sensual response. In Chapter 8 he also talks about the power of color. My next discussion question has to do with these two ideas:

4) Would you say that images or colors are more effective at evoking a sensual response? Would you say a combination of both? *This question isn't aimed at just the idea of comics, but rather how we get our information, i.e. blog layouts, web pages, etc.

My last question comes from my newfound respect and understanding of comics.

5) Knowing now the process and knowledge that goes behind comics, how influential do you think they are in our society? In addition, after reading Chapter 7 (The Six Steps) do you feel that comics can be a powerful outlet for social commentary, political views, etc?

I ask this last question because of a story I remember hearing in a class last semester. During World War II, there the character Captain America debuted with this cover:

This, to me, is a great example of a powerful message being displayed through a medium that's, as I stated earlier, often dismissed as being "made for kids."

Web 2.0 Expo

Zach Caruso — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:03:38 -0400

It looks like there was a Web 2.0 expo held in San Fransisco last week. This article claims that, at the show, the big claim seemed to be that with the economy in such a slump, now is the time to focus on new innovations and cast out the technologies from the past.

Interesting article, and it also talks about the way the expo was held and how presentations were given, raising the question; is it time to update the way we talk about and discuss new technologies, or should we stick to the conventional way of giving presentations?

Review of Cite U Like, A Web 2.0 Application

Joe Sabatini — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:00:47 -0400

Review for CiteULike, a Web 2.0 application.

CiteULike is a Web 2.0 application that enables users to bookmark and organize academic research for later use. While non-academic material can be put into the application, the makers are quick to point out that they prefer refereed articles and that non-scholarly articles will not be displayed in user searches, though they can be placed in the individual’s library. The application was developed with a specific purpose, and the developers are keen to make this distinction between refereed and non-refereed sources clear. I think the designers of the site were spot-on with the decision to disallow non-refereed articles on the site, while also allowing people to use them in their own libraries. This ensures that articles found when searching other peoples' libraries is also refereed. Many journals and databases have already been cleared with the site, including many of the articles I accessed through Google Scholar and Rowan’s databases. You can view the list of sites who’ve been cleared with CiteULike, and whose citations will fill in automatically with the addition of the url, on the front page. Also, CiteULike can be used by people who speak many different languages, using the UTF-8 Internet character encoding method.

The front page is a little busy, but not distractingly so. Most importantly, the site is easy to use. The ads aren't too obtrusive on the left side of the page.

Also, CiteULike's FAQ page is very thorough and useful, including some information from the site's principal creator, Richard Cameron.

CiteULike's Journal Search page is clear and uncluttered, making its purpose recognizable. The Search function for the site works well though it's important to follow the "search syntax." After a few tries, I had no problems searching this way.

    According to its primary developer, Richard Cameron, CiteULike was created with the aim of taking some of the “drudgery” out of research. I think Cameron succeeded with his goal. While not all scholarly information can be found online as yet, this tool is certainly helpful in culling the parts of it that are. This is done by first copying the url from the page or pdf and pasting into CiteULike. CiteULike then stores the bibiographic info when you save the article on the site if it's a site that CiteULike has cleared. If CiteULike does not know the site used, the user can insert the article’s vital information, which doesn’t take very long.

    Like everything else about the site, tagging is very flexible in CiteULike. You can tag the articles any way you'd like, and add as many as you'd like. I tagged items by author and topic, and it proved useful for me. Other people may opt to tag things differently; and that’s fine too: The application is designed to be customizable and helpful to the individual. I believe the “folksonomy approach”, as Tim O’Reilly calls it, to categorizing information, allowing individuals to tag information at their discretion, works well for the site.

     A good way of looking at CiteULike might be to think of how Diigo or Delicious would be if they were designed primarily for storing scholarly information. Whereas those more common social bookmarking tools are designed to socially bookmark websites, CiteULike is designed to hold all the vital info about the source. The link, the title of the article, author, date of publication, and the journal in which it is found can all be easily added to an entry (if the information doesn’t pop up on its own).

     One of the coolest things about CiteULike is that it's social, in that you can look up what other people are reading who have similar interests to your own. Users can search for articles of interest, you can find who else has it in his or her library. Then, you can search that person's library to see if they have any other articles stored that could be of interest to you. Also, the site allows the user to join groups of people who have similar interests. It is possible to form new groups as well.

     CiteULike can be a valuable resource for anyone doing scholarly research. This would include graduate students primarily but some undergraduates as well. The site is well-designed and simple to use. I imagine anyone with just marginally better-than-novice web skills to be able to use CiteULike without much problem. If familiar with Google, and Diigo or Delicious, I imagine that should be all the training one would need to start using CiteULike. Actually the site looks a bit like Google with its search bar in the upper middle of the screen. While I think the home page could be little less busy, the primary navigational tools are well-implemented, easy to see and easy to use. Instead of adding the list of approved scholarly sources under the page where the urls are pasted, I would prefer that the list opens when the user hovers the mouse over it. I think the information is a little more cluttered than it needs to be, but it’s not such a sever problem that it affects the usability of the site. With this in mind, I can understand the designers' decision to put the names of all the approved journals on the front page. This is probably helpful for people who are new to the site and want to be sure their journal of choice is supported.

Here is a group I found on just a search I conducted with the terms "instructional & design." CiteULike implements a search syntax I was unfamiliar with previously, and may take a few tries to get accustomed to. One could complain about this, but I won't because there is a help box right on the page that explains how to get the best results when searching the site.

     This is one of the single most useful applications I have seen for my own purposes. The tool is invaluable for storing, collecting, and organizing research. While I've used Diigo before, and it's great, CiteULike works better for searching for academic information. It's great to have a virtual stop to collate and organize research. Whereas we once needed to trudge to the library and dig up stacks of books, much of that leg work is no longer needed with the advent of CiteULike. Cameron dreamed that his application would help make that a reality. While that reality isn’t here yet, that’s just because not all the world’s research is available online yet. You can't fault CiteULike's creators for potentially making research more productive.

    CiteULike is an excellent tool for staying on top of recent literature in your field of choice. Again, you can't access all the articles that are published in journals, but you can access whatever is posted online. Building on the idea of "wisdom of the crowds", CiteULike allows users to tap into what other people are using. This is like having other people do the research for you. Searching out online research is much easier than it once was thanks in part to CiteULike. I fully expect to use the site heavily as I begin my work on my thesis work this semester. It would behoove anyone else in Information Architecture to check the site out who will be working their theses as well.

My CiteULike Library:

My Rowan Maps

Zach Caruso — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:40:28 -0400

I was pretty proud of myself when I finished this map. I really thought that for what I had drawn, it was pretty darn accurate. That all changed on the day I grabbed my camera and went to take photos of all the places on my map. I would snap a picture, then look around and think to myself, "Oh yea, I forgot that was right here.....how did I miss that?"

There is a great deal missing from this map, both big and small. Part of this was intentional. I wanted to fit my drawing all on one page, and so I chose which things at the perimeters would be omitted. This is the first indicator of me as the creator. My first choice was to decide which things were important in my eyes, then which things would actually make the cut as being absolutely pertinent. I left out Lot D (which I believe I referred to as "Lot Q" in my video), as well as all of the sports fields. I also skipped over the Rec Center and Edgewood. To me, these weren't important to my map. I work out at a gym near my house, so the Rec Center isn't that important. I've never really had an interest in Rowan sports, so I cut the fields. And now that I'm a grad student, I usually park in Lot A, and I have no more use for Lot D, so that was sacrificed.

But for as much as I purposely left on the cutting room floor, there was just as much that I simply forgot. Bole Hall, Memorial Hall, and Bole Hall Annex completely slipped my mind, and I never even thought to draw in Hollybush. I also forgot all about Rowan Hall, as well as Mansion Apartments and Chestnut, and didn't even realize until picture day that I never added in the bookstore.

View Larger Map

It seems that my map shows not only which buildings are important to me, but which buildings I think matter. As a journalism major, I spent most of my time in the Bozorth area, so by now, I know that whole section of campus like the back of my hand. A lot of the buildings where I had class as a freshman are also stuck in my mind, and I feel that the reason for this is that entering into college was such a big experience in my life, that they were burned in my brain forever. You can also notice that the farther we move away from the Bozorth area, the less detailed my drawing is, showing once again that that specific section of campus is ingrained into my head much better than any other area.

My map is a prime example of an information ecology. You can see that, as a student in the college of communications, most of my map knowledge is based in the area where communication classes are held. This shows that my information ecology is wrapped up in that area. For me, the passing of knowledge and information takes place primarily in that specific section. As Chris posted earlier, Rowan is an information ecology and there are smaller ones within it. This is a great example; every major can be seen as an information ecology because they are given specific areas on campus where the majority of their learning takes place.

This project was a lot of work, but in the end it was fun, and I feel like I learned a lot about information ecologies by actually working with something in a hands-on manner.

My Map (of Rowan Unviersity)

Joe Sabatini — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:32:40 -0400

     For the last few weeks, our Information Architecture class has been working on a project in which we have created maps of Rowan University. Anyone in my class already knows this, as they have been grappling with the challenge of completing the assignment under a deadline while also learning to use new technologies at the same time. It's been a frustrating, but rewarding experience.

    We drew the initial maps from memory, and thus, had no reference to ensure they were accurate. Naturally, then, my map was inaccurate to an extent, and missing some things. Notable omissions include: several administrative buildings, parking lots, and all of the dozen or so athletic fields or courts. My map is also missing the full names of building in spots (or I have corrected them in the marker as I learned the correct names of a few buildings when I took their pictures). It is also missing the names of all roads not named Route 322.

    My memory map (the source from which my Google My Map is based) contains the things I deemed were most important in light of the small space and my less-than-spectacular cartographic skills. I started my map with Route 322 which I drew running vertically across the center of the page. I oriented everything in relation to what I call the main artery of the university. While I managed to include all of the academic buildings, I forgot to map out several things.

    One of the first things someone familiar with Rowan's campus would notice is the lack of administrative buildings. There are several reasons for this. For one, I forgot some of the administrative buildings were there. This is understandable as I have never been to a few of them. Also, I was working under space constraints, and, for my purposes, administrative buildings are simply not as relevent as academic buildings. Also, even when I did remember some administrative buildings, I could not orient them to other buildings, so I just left them out.

    Along with the administrative buildings, I also left out several athletic fields and courts, and for similar reasons. I forgot some of them were there, I ran out of space, and I had trouble orienting them to other things. Another reason I omitted the athletic fields is because I don't think they're as important.

    I also ignored several of the roads that run through and around the campus. On one hand, this is a curious omission because roads are obviously essential for travel. How can we explain where things are if we cannot explain how we got there?

    When you consider the things I've omitted from the maps a few things will probably come to mind. For one, it's clear my maps aren't very accurate: they're missing a great deal of important items. Also, I privilege some over other types: academic buildings above the others. Some people may feel differently, and may not agree with this cartographic decision. The fact that so many items were omitted from the map suggests that I may not be best person to ask to draw a map. It can also be assumed that I have trouble representing information visually. At best, one could merely say I can't draw; at worst, that I lack attention-to-detail.

    While adding roads would have been useful, I just didn’t think of it. And if I did, I probably wouldn’t have remembered many of the roads’ names. While this is understandable, it does not make my map any better: roads are essential in maps, and my map only has one.

    Deficiencies with my map aside, I did learn to view the campus in a new way: as a bundle of potential information ecologies. Administrative offices serve to make the work done in academic buildings and athletic fields possible. Work done in academic buildings by student-athletes allows the work on the athletic fields possible. The work of undergraduates makes it possible to gain acceptance to graduate programs. Computer labs serve students in completing assignments and printing assignments for all the academic buildings. In this instance, it can be said that academic buildings are a keystone species.

We can look at Savitz Hall, home of the admissions department as a more in-depth example of an information ecology at work. Savitz accepts thousands of applications from would-be students every year. From here, applications are accepted and rejected. When students are accepted, they are awarded a letter from the financial aid office which tells them how much money in scholarships, grants, and loans are available for their use. When the Financial Aid Office sends out award letters to students, they need to pay their bills with the Bursar Office. These offices work in concert to carry out the business of the university.

    We can also view the relationship between Savitz, the Student Health Center, and the various academic departments. After a student is accepted and has paid his or her bill to the Unversity, he or she will have to send in medical information to the student health center. If this person has a medical impairment that affects his or her academic performance, the student will have to provide professors with proof, that could be furnished by the Student Health Center.

    We can look at the campus as an information ecology academically, as well. When I graduated with my degree in history from Rowan, I asked some of my former professors to write me letters of recommendation. They did, and sent them the Graduate School Office. Partially based on these recommendations, and partly based on my academic record as an undergraduate, I was accepted in the MA in Writing Arts program.

    When we examine how we present information visually, we can draw connections to how we write. Presenting information in written form is not unlike presenting it in visual form, though we may not always see it that way. I hope my maps are helpful as guides to how we might better represent information visually.

This is my memory map, which was done, curiously enough, from memory.


    And, my remediated memory map created with Google's My Map feature.


View Larger Map

Typing about Thinking With Type as I think about type and type about it....

Zach Caruso — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:26:44 -0400

Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton was a very interesting and easy read. I've found that thus far in Dr. Wolff's class, there are a fair amount of texts that make us, the reader, think critically about pieces and parts of technology, and everyday life for that matter, that we otherwise wouldn't pay very close attention to. Metaphors We Live By is one great example of this, as is Maps of the Imagination and Beautiful Evidence. Thinking With Type is the latest book to make me examine a simple concept, and see the importance and power of it.

The first part of the text, called Letter, threw me off a bit. Not that I didn't understand it, but the format of sections like Size, Families, etc took some getting used to. Initially, I felt like I had a mild case of ADD, as my eyes kept darting around the page scanning a variety of points and sentences, and constatnly feeling disorganized. I suppose this fits into the thrust of the book, as it is an exercise in examining not only typography, but "how the texts used are becoming more important than what they mean," (pg 73) as well as the idea that reading is "a performance of the written word" (pg 73).

Once I was asccustomed to the style of this portion of the book, I actually found it fun to read, and was shocked at how quickly I was making my way through each section.

I must admit that a lot of the information presented felt familiar, especially when I hit the Text section. This is due in large part to the "Publication Layout and Design" class that I took a year or two ago. The concepts of alignments, hierarchy, and even web accessibility were all things that I had been exposed to beforehand. But I felt that reading about them again now was a great advantage because Lupton gives such in-depth explanations and examples of the ideas and information, that I found myself gaining a much better understanding to the importance of properly executed type, text, and layout.

I especially liked the Grid section. The example shown on page 123 is one that looks very familiar and is in use in magazines, newsletters, and even brochures. It's very important to understand these grid layouts at be able to put them to use, especially now with websites. Lupton acknowledges that "users of websites have different expectations than users of print; they expect to feel productive not contemplative." Therefore, these layout grids are essential to giving web readers what they are seeking when they click around online.

I found it interesting that our old friend Edward Tufte was mentioned in the text. While discussing "white space" on page 75, Lupton references his ideas by saying that, "Edward Tufte, a fierce advocate of visual density, argues for maximizing the amount of data conveyed on a single page or screen. In order to help readers make connections and comparisons as well as to find information quickly, a single surface packed with well-organized information is sometimes better than multiple pages with a lot of blank space." The key word, in my opinion, is sometimes. I think that Tufte's concepts on the idea of relaying data cannot always directly correlate to type. As I mentioned eariler, the introductory sections of this book packed a lot of information into each page, and sometimes it became a bit overwhelming and, at times, disorienting. I feel that with type, it is important to be mindful of strategically placed white space, as it in itself can be just as powerful as the written word.

Overall, I really enjoyed Thinking With Type, and found it to be informative, and will no doubt be a useful handbook in the near future. It got me to think very differently about the type I see on a regular basis. Already, I'm looking at this page with a newly acquired critical eye.

Twitterlicious: A Twitter Application Review

Zach Caruso — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:57:24 -0400

What is Twitterlicious? Is it somehow a delicious Twitter application? Well, according to ejecutive.co.uk; “Twitterlicious is a Windows application that makes using Twitter more fun. It handles all the hard work, leaving you to read and write tweets with minimum fuss. Best of all, Twitterlicious is free!” Free is a beautiful word to a broke college kid, so right off the bat, I'm liking how this Twitterlicious thing is shaping up.

For anyone ready to get downloading, Ejecutive is a dependable site, and it’s where I downloaded my version of Twitterlicious, so I can vouch for it.

But it’s not quite that simple. In order for Twitterlicious to work, you must first install Microsoft .NET, which is described on startvbdotnet.com as an “XML Web Services platform which allows us to build rich .NET applications, which allows users to interact with the Internet using wide range of smart devices (tablet devices, pocket PC's, web phones etc), which allows to build and integrate Web Services and which comes with many rich set of tools like Visual Studio to fully develop and build those applications.” Honestly, I’m not very familiar with this platform, so for a more detailed explanation, you can check out this link.

Now, where can we find Microsoft .NET? The best place (and the site I was directed to by Ejecutive) is msdn.microsoft.com.

All of these downloads are free, easy, and relatively quick, which makes this whole process pretty headache-free.

Ok, now on to more Twitterlicious information. The main benefits of this application are cited as:

Small and concise UI, shows maximum amount of information in a minimum amount of space.
Hides itself in the system tray when not needed, and pops up a notification balloon when there’s a new tweet.
Displays the read status of each tweet, so you know which tweets are new and can see any that you’ve missed.
Automatically refreshes itself at user-defined intervals.
Properly threaded so it won’t lock up if Twitter.com is unresponsive.
Support for authenticated web proxies.

It takes a little getting used to, but once you get rolling using the app, it does make things pretty easy. The best way to describe it is to liken it to AIM. It’s just a small box that sits in the upper left hand corner of your screen and can be minimized and maximized. No log-in required, because after your initial setup, all you need to do to activate the app is double click the icon. (As a quick side note, the prompt for Twitterlicious said that a shortcut to the app will appear on your desktop automatically. This wasn't the case for me, and I had to go into the C Drive and manually put a shortcut onto my desktop. I'm not saying it's a big deal, and I'm not too lazy to do it myself, but they said I was getting one automatically, and that didn't happen. Therefore Twitterlicious is a liar. Or it tells only "selective truths". Either way, I wouldn't let this application borrow my car or any money.)

Twitterlicious has a slew of options that make it very user-friendly and convenient. First of all, it has an automatic tweet refresh. You can change your automatic update time in the settings (accessible by clicking the little wrench icon in the lower left hand side) to refresh every 3, 5, 10, 30, or 60 minutes. You can also manually update by clicking the refresh icon in the lower left hand corner of the box.

You can choose if you want to show the Twitterlicious icon in your Windows task bar. The icon is a honey bee (I don’t really know why. Maybe because honey is “delicious” and bees “twitter about”……don’t they….?), and by double clicking it you open the application. It will stay displayed unless you click the X in the corner to minimize it. To maximize it, you can double click the honey bee icon or right click and choose “show”. You exit the application by right clicking the honey bee icon and choosing “exit”.

In the settings section, you can access the “credential” section as a sign-in. I haven’t yet figured out if you are constantly logged onto Twitter via this application, nor do I know if by clearing the credential queue, you are logged out.

You can also choose whether or not you want a bubble to display on your system tray every time it updates and new tweets come in. I recommend leaving the alert on, because when I turned it off, I kept forgetting that Twitterlicious was running on my system tray, and so my three-minute auto refreshes became a waste.

Now, on to the meat-and-potatoes. The entire point of this app is to make Twitter more convenient, so how do all the Twitter nuances transfer to this condensed application?

The first thing I wanted to know was how to @Reply. To @Reply, you can right-click the person’s tweet and choose “reply”, or simply double click their tweet. By right clicking, you also are given the options to:

o Send direct text

o Directly view the user’s website in Internet Explorer

o View a page of the person’s last tweet in Internet Explorer

o Mark a message as unread

o Mark all messages as read

@Replies that are directed at you are highlighted blue, making them easily recognizable in the rather long list of tweets in the window. This is a pretty drastic change from what you’re used to on the Twitter page, and it takes some getting used to. In fact this is one of the only things I wasn’t crazy about with this application. I felt that for all the neatness and organization they achieved, the @Reply concept hadn’t been totally ironed out yet.

You’ll also notice that nowhere on the page does it seem to show a character count for the tweet you are typing. Rest easy, friends. The “Go” button next to the text box begins a character count as soon as you start typing. When you’re ready to post, just click that same button, and your tweet is off and running in the twittersphere. Another cool feature is that, unlike the standard Twitter page, once you reach the character limit, you can’t type anymore.

Once you click a tweet, it becomes de-bolded. (I’m assuming this is a way to notify you that you’ve read this tweet.)

Another thing that takes a little adjusting to is the fact that the display names are users real names (or whatever you’ve put in as your “real name”), as opposed to the Twitter website where tweets are shown next to your Twitter name. So for example, on Twitter, my display name is “zachcaruso”, but my real name is Zach Caruso. On Twitterlicious, I show up as Zach Caruso.

There aren’t any clickable hyperlinks in this application, which was another draw back that I felt needed some work. In Twitterlicious, to see a link in a tweet, right click and choose “open link in browser”.

Twitterlicious is a great application for hardcore Twitter fans, or those who are looking for something a bit more convenient and compact, rather than a full browser screen worth of Twitter. It has its pros and cons, but in the end I would definitely recommend this application to anyone interested in trying it.

Thinking about Thinking With Type- And Then Typing About It

Joe Sabatini — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:15:59 -0400

"The history of typography is marked by the increasingly sophisticated use of space." Ellen Lupton, Thiking With Type.

    We read "Thinking About Type" by Ellen Lupton this week. Lupton's book fits in nicely with the other thing we've been talking about, most especially Tufte. The book is a quick read, and provide a brief history of typography and a run-down of how the discipline has transformed over the last 20 years.

     Few disciplines are as tied to technological advancements as typography. After all, the very discipline was born just 500 years ago with the advent of movable type. Fast-forward to today and it's easy to imagine how important typography has become to the dissemination of information. Whereas typographers needed to worry only about how type would look on a printed page, they now must consider how it'll look on a computer screen. Lupton explains some of the affordances- and constraints of early computer monitors- and how they influenced the design of type. Early computer monitors of the late 1970s and early 1980s could show many fewer lines of resolutions than their modern-day counterparts could. As a result, typographers were forced to create new types that would show up well on the screen. This technical constraint led to a whole new category of typography which made what was once a limitation into a quirky artistic artifact.

    Typography was once a vocation for the few, but this is no longer so; anyone who puts together information of any type- online or off, should understand at least some fundamental ideas of typography. Typography is really just one element of information architecture, or information design, or whichever term strikes your fancy. Typography is important for anyone presenting information because it is imperative to present information well. There is too much information to sift through to waste people's time with a poor lay-out.

     From typography we move to lay-out. I appreciated Lupton's explanation of the grid. The grid essentially, organizes the layout of particular book, magazine, newspaper, and now, website. The designer must use her time economically and logically. This skill is important to people presenting information online because I believe it is much easier to present information poorly than it is to present it well.

     Lupton shows how the concept of reader/writer have been, until recently, considered separate entities. No more, says Lupton, who points to the work Roland Barthe's concept of text in which all manner of written materials exist together, more as matrix than cohesive unit. Now that we see readers as active interpreters of information and no longer as passive consumers, we must adapt how we present this information. One convention to facilitate this active readership's capacity is to provide them with links for further reading. Some cites have allowed people to comment on things written for the same reason.

   Lupton shows how these developments, primarily the wide-spread use of the Web, are rekindling interest in "universal design principles". Instead of a set of design principles for printers, others for web designers, others for artists, others for scientists, and others for architects, Lupton sees designers of all types working together to create something that works, for everyone.

146-Year-Old Newspaper No Longer in Circulation

Joe Sabatini — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:32:12 -0400

     I just read a quick news update from Wired indicating that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a newspaper whose history spans 146 years- will no longer be circulated. This news came after a report that the Hearst Corporation was unable to find someone willing to buy the company. Wired chalks the development up to a free-fall in advertising dollars for print media. The paper will transform into an online-only entity, something akin to a local newspaper 2.0, with blogs, photogalleries, and other similar content.

     The Hearst Company, who owns UGO, recently bought one of my favorite websites- 1Up, and killed off my favorite childhood magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly. UGO saved the website (albeit with a much smaller staff) but could not make the magazine viable, despite a circulation of over 650,000 issues.

     While the news of a long-standing local fixture as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer isn't terribly shocking as we have seen a huge decrease in the circulation of newspapers in recent years, the big shocker may soon strike. Hearst, the company who owns the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, also owns the San Francisco Chronicle. With local Philadelphia papers The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Daily News filing for bankruptcy, it may be a matter of time before other long-standing local fixtures close.

     While these developments are certainly upsetting to anyone working in the journalism or affiliated businesses, perhaps some good can come from this. While newspapers have traditionally served to bring relatively homogenized information to people, perhaps this new-found diversity with websites and web blogs may serve to bring us a more nuanced and well-rounded take on world events. While we may have to look hard to find all the news one would traditionally find in a paper within a diaspora of various blogs, it may also make the process of finding new information sources more fun. Who's with me?

   The development reminds me of the "Blogs in Plain English" video by Lee LeFever.

Fumo, Facebook, Let's call the whole thing off.....

Zach Caruso — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:25:02 -0400

I'm sure most of you know about State Sen. Vincent Fumo and his recent legal troubles (this article will give you some background if you're unfamiliar with the case.)

I was just watching Action News and saw a "breaking news" story which said the Fumo case may have to be declared a mistrial. Why? One of the jurors posted details of the trial on Facebook and Twitter. (Yes, it's true. Read more about it here.)

This raises the question; can these social networking tools be a hazard? (I'm going to, for the sake of the question I posed, ignore the fact that this juror is a complete moron. I think that goes without saying.) The argument can now be made that these networking tools provide an outlet for jurors, or anyone involved in thse case for that matter, to spread inside information to people world-wide.

Nevermind that details of the case were leaked out to the public, but this in turn may cause a mistrial creating the possibility that Fumo will avoid punishment for his alleged actions. (I'm going to, for the sake of the being objective, call Fumo's actions "alleged".)

Could this kind of problem lead to jurors being banned from using social networking tools in the future out of fear that they may leak information to the public?

What's your status?

Zach Caruso — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:20:50 -0400

I wanted to write a quick post because when I logged onto Facebook this morning, I was shocked, confused, and a bit irked.

The Facebook homepage previously showed a list of all your "friends" updates (notice I put "friends" in quotes, ever since the article I last blogged about.) This included who had recently become friends with who, new pictures, comments, etc. Now the homepage is exclusively a "real-time stream of Facebook status updates." Where I come from, that's called TWITTER!

Has Twitter's popularity really reached a point that other social networking sites are trying to get in on the action? It also seems like Facebook has been floundering a bit lately. Their homepage has gone through repeated changes, the new Terms of Agreement caused a huge uproar, and now this.

Potential Community of Practice Between Government, Wired, and You

Joe Sabatini — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:43:14 -0400

     I just stumbled on an interesting page on the wired.com website. It's not just any site actually; it's a wiki. The purpose of the wiki is to help make relevant government documents more easily accessible for anyone who wishes to see them.

     The goals of the wiki range from reasonable, such as converting the documents out of pdf and lotus files (which apparently, are terrible, from what I gathered), to pie-in-the-sky. Wired's hopes on the possibility of making all government data available fall into the latter category. The wiki says, "We agree with the Sunlight Foundation's Greg Elin that the single most important thing any government agency could do to make itself more transparent would be to create a data catalog of all its data streams." Good luck with that.

     Still, the wiki does promote some far-reaching and seemingly helpful changes. For one, the site advocates making transparency "the rule, and not the exception." Along the same lines, these advocates are also suggesting that agencies that do make their data public for research be rewarded in some way for allowing their work to help others. This is an especially pressing matter for scientists.

     Wired hopes to use their wiki as a mediator between the government and citizens. Also, based on research by the community, Wired hopes to get a feel for what types of data its users are more interested in accessing. I did not pick up on whether the government is willing or able to work with the magazine, but the wiki is a valuable resources nonetheless. Aside from serving as a useful primer for some of the issues related to accessing government data, the wiki also provides several links to companies such as Sunlight Foundation whose goal is to make government data usable.

    This made me think of Communities of Practice by Ettiene Wenger. We have several entities--the website, its users, and the various firms whose goal is make government data accessible-- working together for a common goal. Drawing on the varied and dispersed expertise of journalists, experts, and the public, we are witness to a beneficial use of Web 2.0 technology. May the folks at Wired be successful with their goals.

Just Friends

Zach Caruso — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:02:52 -0400

I was surfing around The New York Times site, and a story about Facebook caught my eye. For the full article, you can check out this link.

The main idea of the story was privacy on Facebook, and it dealt a lot with privacy settings on an individual's account, as well as what information is being given out to outside servers.

For 15 of 19 information categories, Facebook sets a default setting of “share,” which means the information can be pulled out of Facebook and stored on servers outside its control. These 15 categories include activities, interests, photos and relationship status.

I don't know about you, but I feel pretty uncomfortable seeing that this info is being passed around without my knowledge, especially photos. Further more, I'd like to know who exactly has this info, and what it's being used for.

The article pointed out other facts that I failed to even really take the time to think about:

For many members, “friends” now means a mish-mash of real friends, former friends, friends of friends, and non-friends; younger and older relatives; colleagues and, if cursed, a nosy boss or two. Everyone accepted as a “friend” gets the same access.

When the distinction blurs between one’s few close friends and the many who are not, it seems pointless to distinguish between private and public.

This article was featured last month, but it goes along well with what I've discussed so far. We all remember the "New Terms of Agreement" debacle that happened a few weeks back. In this article, Mark Zuckerberg (cheif exec. of Facebook) is trying to assure that the users have control over the content and how it's used. Seems like a load of crap, Mark.

It is the users that make MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and the slew of other social networking tools go 'round. So logically, shouldn't we be the ones who have the say over the information that is present on these sites?

The more developments I see in social networking technologies, the more uneasy I become. The fact is that we don't really know what is being done with information we post online, and that can be a scary thought.

honda's metaphor: kicking out the ladder

Bill Wolff — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:56:00 -0500

We began Information Architecture this semester by looking at the construction of language through the use of metaphors. Earlier I posted about the metaphors we use during class discussion. Today on Twitter @DocMara pointed to an excellent documentary by Honda that investigates the idea of failure in the innovation process. It seems that Honda has a series of documentaries under the heading The Power of Dreams. One video, Kick out the Ladder, caught my attention because of how Honda has employed the metaphor both in their company and visually in the documentary:

Cross-posted at Composing Spaces.