Timfindlay's Weblog

Assignment B

timfindlay — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:13:30 +0000

For assignment B, i chose to do Geo tagged photos using Google maps. This was quite a lengthy process getting this assignment finished. I firstly went about having a look at different maps that people had made on Google Maps, and exploring the different APIS that had been made using the Google Earth interface. My original idea was going to make an API and embed that on my blog so that everyone could use it, but this turned out to be way too difficult. There was too much lengthy code and much that needed to be digested and understood to pull this off! So i went back to square one and decided to use Google Maps to create a narrative using photos of my overseas trip that i did in 2007. My first thought was how i was going to use these travel photos to create a narrative that was entertaining, so i came up with a few ideas about how the story was going to unfold. The process of selecting a bunch of photos from over 3000 that were taken while overseas was also a challenge, i went through all of them and selected ones that would identify with the story and put a visual image to the narrative that i was telling. I selected my images and then uploaded them into Flickr, i created a new set and went to work on Google Maps, locating these monuments on the map and tagging them with the images. It was very time consuming finding each place on the map and tagging it, but it was worth the hours. After i had located all the places on the map, had written the narrative and tagged all the photos i went to work on creating links for all the images, so they could be viewed in Flickr. 3 or 4 images i used were not taken by me, but i searched for a couple through creativecommens.org which was very handy, i have linked them so there is no trouble with copyright or anything. The narrative is pretty straight forward, there is a tool bar on the left hand side that allows you to guide yourself through the narrative, starting on the top and working your way down the list. I have also included links, inside each individual window that will take you to a linked close up shot of each monument in the narrative, so you do not have to waste time zooming in. The one element that troubled me was creating these links so they would open up in the same window and not in individual ones, i could not figure out how to do this… i looked up some code but everytime i pasted the code into the HTML window in Google Maps, it would automatically erase it when i saved the project. Oh well it still works well, just not a neat as i would have liked.

Here is the link enjoy. Assignment B

Week 15

timfindlay — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:15:41 +0000

Well the year of uni is coming to an end, this will be my final post for this subject excluding my post for my project B. My blog which has spanned over 15 weeks of uni, incorporates an analysis and understanding of the key features from the weekly lecture and computer labs. The structure of my blog was very quite basis, with a week by week reflection on what we had been learning and also other interesting things that i have found on my travels over the internet. Blogging was also a good way to let others know about any issues that may have come up, problems that i was having with any course content and a way of expressing ideas in relation to assignments A and B. In relation to Networked Media, my blog presents a combination of local and foreign links to different networked sites, for example my flickr stream, band promotional clothing, gig guides and links to facebook and myspace pages. Delicious also is another example of a networked community allowing me to post links to different pages that i found interesting allowing them to be placed on my page for others to look at and explore. The target audience for my blog was pretty much those fellow students that were doing the course, but also those who are interesting in music and art. Wordrpress was a relative easy interface to use, by using helpful widgets, i was able to link pages such as links from Delicious and photos from Flickr straight onto my blog, which was very handy.

My three nominated post for my blog assesment will be:

Week 1: What is networked media?

Week 4: Web.20

Week 10: HTML & CSS

Week 14

timfindlay — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:52:57 +0000

Well its week 14 already, this year has gone so fast! I have been doing a great deal of work on my project B, this week and last week. I have started creating my narrative using google earth, i have selected all the photos that i am going to be using and have started tagging them places around the world. I have created a fictional story that depicts areas that i have travelled through Europe. I have decided to use google earth because you can get a sense of distance of the overall journey. The aim now is to organise everything so you can get a clear cut, smooth running narrative.

Week 13

timfindlay — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:53:12 +0000

I have been working on my google map this week, i have decided to use my overseas trip photos from last year and create a fictional narrative using the images from all around the world, i was originally going to use google earth but i found that stuffing around with there API was far too difficult, and very time consuming… so i decided to go with google maps, which is not too bad. The hardest part is selecting the images that best represent my narrative, considering that in total i have about 3000 photos from the trip, i think that i am going to have to first think of the narrative and then select the pictures that best match the story :S. On another note there is only like 3 more weeks until uni is finished that is including all of my exams which just happen to fall on the first two days of the examination period, I’m pretty stoaked as i can get them all over and done with! But more work on assignment B and my blog this week i think, some constructive work, instead of just procrastination!!

Week 12 APIS & Mashups

timfindlay — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:58:52 +0000

APIS stands for application program interface, APIS are about sharing data. They allow you to take elements of a programs and rearrange different elements to suit yourself. APIS let you build off the back off other services, change the way people interact with a service, new ways of experiencing content and combining services.

This week there has been a lot of deliberating about the topic i am going to chose for the assignment! I was originally going to make a video, but after this weeks tute on using Google maps, API’S and tagging photo’s, i have come to the conclusion that i will be making a narrative through pictures and text using the Google maps API. The links that were posted on Ice lab, have given me a good idea of how to go about creating the project. There is one link that is especially decent, it allows you to use your pictures that have been tagged in flickr, on Google maps and Google earth. It creates a script for you in which you can open in either, it also allows you to build coordinates between the images…. pretty cool stuff.

Week 11 ‘Data Visualisation’

timfindlay — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:39:34 +0000

The tute this week about data visualisation was very interesting, but looked quite complected. Data visualisations are representations of abstracts, they are non physical information. Data can be large or small, when dealing with big numbers the idea of chunking information is one way of making this work. Different elements of information can be shown and highlighted by color, shape, scale, position and movement. Some of the links that were shown to us in the tute, were very detailed. I was surprised some of the lengths people would go to to record different types of data around the world for many different topics. Gapminder.org was one that was huge, from topics ranging from the life span of different cultures to trade, aid and investment, it pretty much gives you an endless amount of data from many different countries around the world, through different times past and present, Quite amazing. Wefeelfine.org was my pick of the lot, its lay out and display of information was fantastic, locating thoughts and feelings from all over the web. After this tute, i decided that data visualisation was something pretty cool to look at but not really to participate in, so with that said i am going to select to make a video instead.

Week 10 HTML & CSS

timfindlay — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:13:53 +0000

HTML stands for hyper text mark up language. XML stand for external markup language. HTML just purely text while XML is meant to be human and machine readable. HTML provides a means to describe the structure of text based information in a document. HTML is written in the form of tags, surrounded by angel brackets. HTML mark up consists of of several key components including elements, character based data types and character references and entity references. XML on the other hand is a general purpose specification for creating custom mark up languages It is classified as an extensible language because it allows its users to define their own elements. Its primary purpose is to help information systems share structured data, particularly via the Internet.

CSS stands for cascading style sheets, these style sheets instruct your web browser how to draw HTML elements. CSS allows you to separate presentation from content. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML.

I found the tute very interesting this week, with all the HTML coding. It seems like a lot of work but i think once you have learnt the basics it will come very easily. Looking forward to learning more about HTML and css, text wrangler seems to keep everything quite organised and a helpful program.

2 Weeks off.

timfindlay — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:10:27 +0000

Back to uni again after, 2 weeks off… its hard to get back into the swing of things this week, but i have 2 essays due which i have to get done. I cant wait for the 6th of November when i finish all this stuff and have a few months off, it will be sweet! Just a few more assignments and two tests and im done.

Assignment A

timfindlay — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:18:06 +0000

Hey all i have finished my on-line exhibition. http://timfindlaynetworkmedia.blogspot.com/ this is the link.

I originally was going to do an exhibition on street art in Sao Paulo Brazil, but after finding out that all the work i was trying to use was copyright things had to change. This was quite a difficult decision because i had invested a lot of time into the street art exhibition. After much thought i decided to change my topic to the birth of Hardcore Punk Rock in the 1980′s. This was a topic that i am interesting in and could invest a lot of time into with out much stress.

Creative commons was a huge help with finding pictures on the topic and blogger.com was an easy interface to use for creating an effective exhibition. I started by gathering all the information i could on the topic and also referred to a few documentaries that have been made on Hardcore Punk. Selecting the major bands at the time was quite difficult as their were so many predominant artists at the time. I decided to select the four major bands that influenced most of the music at the time, and started to gather as many pictures and information as i could. Many images that i would have liked to use were copyright but i managed to select some that were licenced by the creative commons trademark.

The layout of the page was something that took most of the time, placing the information and pictures in a manner that was effective was quite time consuming. Again blogger.com was very useful in ordering and presenting the information and images.

American Hardcore

timfindlay — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:16:00 +0000

This is the film American Hardcore, this is pretty much the type of stuff that i am doing for my exhibition. All about the 1980′s hardcore scene interesting stuff. This is the trailer for the movie, i own this DVD.. worth having a look.