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The final post !

my my my, how the year has flown by :)

I can't belive exam week in NEXT week! so much study so very little time.

Well this certainly has being a interesting unit for me. I've come in half way through the course (media) to be jumpstarted by the icelab boys. It was a great way of getting to learn the basic and some advanced structures of networked. Before this unit I had never heard the phraise Web 2.0! So many more places of interests on the net than i thought. Now i notice the smaller things that are placed around a webpage which i previously neglected.Such as RSS feeds KML feeds, delicious links and the structure of how things are build with HTML and the rest.

Also I find myself looking deeper into the structure of websites whether it be in the HTML coding or trying to find an RSS link or other little gadgets.

The creation of the Blog was a great idea to get everyone interacted in networked media. It forced us to think for ourselves and explore new options. The blog also allowed for everyone to have their own voice, and view others opinions. I've tried to create my own links to certain websites on my blog. Also i have links to popular pages that we have learned about.

The projects have been fun and very interactive. Definetly increased my knowledge in a whole new area of the internet and other structures. I'm actualy a big fan of Flickr now planining to show some of my friends who enjoy taking photo graphs.

I also take more notice of copyright and understand how it's being managed on the internet. Now I can apply it to my own work when i need too.

The three blog posts i nominate are: Saturday, October 18, 2008 Data Visualisation, Saturday, September 27, 2008 HTML. Max's lecture and Saturday, October 11, 2008 API

Cheers.

Project B

As you know I have chosen to do task two the flickr/google maps choice. In the end i think it was the best choice for me. Creating the project was great fun :p In saying that... it doesn't mean i didn't have any problems! I was stuck for a huge amount of time on making a KML file from my flickr photos. In time i figured out how to get my photo stream to be converted into KML which was good but it gatherd other photos i did't want in the file.

So i needed to find a way to convert a Flickr photo set into a KML file. I was browsing through the net and i found the perfect site: http://www2.adamfranco.com/photosetToKML.php. This made it easier to select my prefered photos. I also realised that the geotagged photos in Flickr did not have great acurracy compared to google maps, So slight adjustments had to be made to the position of the photos. Adam Franco's webtool allowed for two main options either KML or Google map output. i tried the google map option but it did not allow you to edit anything so I stuck with the KML option.

A cool feature of Adams website was it created a thumbnail/placemark of the actual photo not just a pin like picture. i learned from this project such as KML flexibility and if you look hard enough you'll find what your looking for.

I'll email you guys the link to my google map. It's called Brent's encounters

21 steps wish it were that easy

i Have seen the 21 steps on the suggested websites and it looked great! wish i could create that for my second assignment. Don't think i'll be able to create an animating program that works with google maps...

The story has given me greate ideas though!

Data Visualisation

Data is everywhere! It amazing how it can all be gathered up to create a great display of information and knowledge. The tutorial on this subject really stood-out to me. It showed me how the collection of data can reveil things that my have been missed in the past. The two TED videos were a great show of how data can be gatherd up and utilised to show the 'Bigger picture'.

Also it dawned on me that visualisation like this is being shown to me everyday. Such as the weather report for the week. It is all conveniently placed up on screen to get a message across, this is all taken for granted. The finicial report is also a huge congregation of data for the public to view.

Another great display of large amount of data is the current A.C.T election. Television programs display the data for the home viewers to keep up with who is winning. Also the ABC website provides a detailed look at the polls so the viewer can read at his/her disgretion.

http://www.abc.net.au/elections/act/2008/

I Have Chosen!

I have decided to go with the Google map story for my second assignment. I have to figure out how to use both Flickr and Google maps interfaces. Somehow i need to bring geotagged photos in flickr to google...

API

APIs seem like they can create alot of power for them selves in the sense that is. Some of the programs seem more usful than the original system. The add-ons seem really inivitive and allow helpfull short-cuts and felxibility. however it would probably be easly taken away by an upgrade of the original system. I never realised that i used an API for one of the games i used to play. It was a program that tapped into the screen of the game but it added all these alternate functions and short-cuts to the game. Maybe thats why it was being questioned by the creators of the game...as it may give an unfair advantage to the player..but it was allowed to stay :)

This is where you downloaded it.
http://www.swiftkit.net/

Thinking

I was wondering what choice i should pick for my second assignment.... i have narrowed it down to DataVisualisation and the google map tour. after hearing michael's talk on data and the videos we wached it seemed a rather good chioice to go with. Never really thought how making data visualy pleasing to the eye could reveil certain things like trends.