Oops

The link to my ePortfolio is...


http://sites.google.com/site/jeffgreenseportfolio/Home

ePortfolio Reflection

The link below is the basic intro to the reflection that will follow.
http://jeffsmultimediaclassblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/project-1.html

I just finished creating my ePortfolio website. I have never created a free website before and I have got to say that there is more freedom than I would have thought there would have been in the process. I found it rather smooth and quite intuitive process. Having created and worked on websites in flash and dreamweaver I have to say that while google certainly isn't nearly as powerful as them it does get the job done.
I was however disappointed when I couldn't put up a good chunk of the content I wanted to put up because google does not support .swf files. This seems odd to me because flash is the most widely accessible website type in the world and the files are small so why not support it. Hopefully this is something that will come down the road, until then I guess I have to think about putting my animations on youtube and link to them that way. All in all it was a simple process with little frustration. Thanks google.

Freeware

I think that freeware/opensource is a wonderful thing. In the school district I work in we have OpenOffice on all of our computer images, and often suggest it to people who are currently using appleworks or microsoft works programs that are still out there floating around and causing trouble for anyone who uses them. OpenOffice is a great alternative to word or pages, whatever you use and it is available to people who don't have the money to spend on software. I just think it's a wonderful thing.

Discussion Board

I felt that there was a good amount of discussion on the discussion board this week but sometimes I feel it can be redundant to have both the blog and the discussion board.

Project 1

Form: (How: Website, Slideshow, Video, Essay, Letter, etc.)
Audience: (Who are they/When or the context/Where are they from)
Topic: (What: content or themes)
Purpose: (Why: To entertain, inform, sell, persuade, etc.)

Form - Website
Audience - potential clients
Topic - my work logos and websites I have designed and animations I have created.
Purpose - to sell my work and myself.

http://share.xmind.net/suprmnvt84/eportfolio-1/

At first upon watching the video Maximise the power of your brain - Tony Buzan, I thought that it was a little silly and that he was kind of like a televangelist selling his ideas as truths, but as I continued through the process I found it was a tool I was underrating. I have always been a just do it and get it done kind of guy, not much for preliminary processes like mind maps however a problem I have run into as a result has been organization. I found that at least so far the mind map has directly addressed that problem.
I think that the branching system will help me with setting up navigation systems now and in the future for websites. I am also pleased to create an ePortfolio to have to sell my work in the future.

Common Craft

I have to say that I love the common craft overviews of the purpose and basic functions of all of the web 2.0 tools that are out there. Lee Lefever has a great way of boiling down the basic principles of blogging, social networking, etc. and presenting this information in such a way that exposes the purest nature of these tools. I also believe that his use of only a marker and his hands is great, you know how you shouldn't use a word in its' definition, well sometimes it is good not to use too much technology when you are introducing new technology to people. If you throw too much at people that they aren't familiar with all at once they will reject it or get intimidated by it, I have seen this personally introducing smartboards to teachers that are, well, less than tech saavy. Lefever's low tech intro to high tech ideas is a great way to allow anybody of any age or technical ability to at least understand the what a tool does.

Social Networking, bookmarking, and start pages.

Social networking is a simply what it says, networking, sharing and exchanging information, socially, with people. Facebook and Myspace (twitter is growing in popularity) are the most popular social networking sites for peoples personal network of friends, family and old classmates. These sites allow people to keep in touch with many people that they would otherwise loose touch with. Linkedin is for professional use it allows you to network the job market and get in touch with people who can help you get jobs or hire for jobs. Accessing these sites is as simple as having an email address and filling out a few boxes.
Social bookmarking fills a few roles first it keeps your bookmarks so you can find and easily access all of your favorite websites. Social bookmarking and tags also allow you to easily organize all of you bookmarks, which is handy. Finally the social aspect of these sites like diigo is the most interesting piece you can actually see other peoples bookmarks see the sites that other deem useful enough to tag. Those others can be peers, celebrities or even experts in whatever field you happen to be researching. Again signing up for this is as easy as having an email address and filling out a form, although there is a download and browser plugin you will have to install to use these.
Start pages like netvibes are very cool, completely customizable homepages that contain what you want them too and only what you want them too. With applications called widgets you can have access to your email, jokes, sports scores, the weather, stock updates whatever your heart desires and nothing is dictated to you as have to haves. Once again if you have an email address you can quickly have a start page of you very own.

Are Blogs Fazing Out?

It seems there was a time when everyone who was web sophisticated was blogging, however as time goes by and we get more connected, people are using tools like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter more and they are using these tools to say the things that they need to say. They're getting more bang for their buck with these tools too. With Facebook you get an impressive social networking tool that allows you to form groups with people. Anyone in the group is notified when another person in the group has added something and all can respond if they choose too, this sounds to me exactly like blogging. Unlike blogging Facebook has picture galleries you may post, instant messenger, and microblog like updates on your friends. Myspace is more or less a personal website that while it doesn't have the groups feature, like Facebook, you may write down anything you please inside of it. Myspace also has galleries, and includes a very extensive music library at your disposal. Now both of these tools are rather personal, so I can see where blogs have a less direct connection. Facebook also doesn't allow people who aren't your friends to read what you write. That is where Twitter has seemingly inserted itself as the latest trend. Through microblogging you may chose to follow anyone you choose and read any thoughts they deem worthy of sharing. So I ask you with these new super charged tools are the days of traditional blogs numbered?

First Blog: The Setup

I enjoyed the set up experience for this blog. I created a logo with illustrator and had some fun with that. Options are quite open for color schemes and things like that. I am still working on mastering optimization especially on illustrator drawings I make, but I just kept playing around with "save for web & deivces" and eventually found something that works and has only a one second load time on cable. All in all it was a positive experience.