From a personal view, mediocrity is unacceptable. Not that average is bad, it’s just as good as it should or could be. That’s probably why when I design a website it takes forever. If I’m building out someone else’s design, I can do it in a few hours, but if I’m designing and wire-framing and compiling it, days? Weeks? In the case of my own sites it takes months at times. I can’t settle. I have a very hard time settling for sub-par.

I get really upset when something has all kinds of potential ends up getting wasted. If you have the opportunity to create something really cool, life changing, and beneficial why wouldn’t you put the resources in to make it amazing? Reach that potential! In my industry, so many times schools stick with what they’ve always done because budgets are preventative, or other faculty want their needs put above those of the institution, or another department won’t self-assess.

Disgusting. Heart-wrenching at times. This is why schools have poor enrollment (one reason, anyway). This is why when students leave they say things like, “I made a lot of friends, but I don’t think I learned anything to prepare me for the real world.”

How can any organization do its job right when it doesn’t focus on its constituents? As a Christian, I believe it is wrong and even sinful to not strive for excellence. And that’s in everything. I don’t get preachy a lot on this blog, but the reason Christians aren’t taken seriously? Because we suck at doing things well. How sad is that? It’s not that we can’t do things. It’s that we can’t be bothered to be the best.

Horrible.

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That cover of ‘Creep’ is hauntingly amazing.

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How do you do it?

I’m not the best at PHP syntax, so if there’s a smarter/cleaner way, please let me know!

First we need to use the get_post_thumbnail_id() function like this:

<?php $thumbID = get_post_thumbnail_id(); ?>

This sets the variable $thumbID to the id of your post thumbnail.

Next, we want to build the URI for your link:

<a href="<?php echo wp_get_attachment_url($thumbID); ?>">

Now, there’s probably a cleaner way to do this, but again, I’m not all that awesome at syntax. But basically you’re using the wp_get_attachment_url(); function in conjunction with your post thumbnail’s id to get the original image src.

Easy.

Thanks to @cgrymala over at HTMLCenter for this tip.

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3. Scratch That. New Plan.

Actually, Jessica and I have been talking about some future plans. What are we going to do with after I finish my MA, what do we ultimately want to do with ourselves work-wise? I know that I do not have a corporate bone in my body. Higher Ed is good because there’s a structured environment, but also because it’s a little more relaxed. I remember when I was seriously considering a move to freelance web if a new permanent job didn’t come up. The saddest part was not being a part of the HigherEdWeb community anymore.

But at the end of the day in this era, work is life. And so why do work you hate? Or dislike. Or don’t feel like doing sometimes?

I’m considering more and more freelance work and teaching. Online teaching to be exact. Mostly because online classes can be taught from anywhere in the world. I’m experiencing that now in my own graduate studies. I’ve had an instructor who is Turkish and has taught from Spain and Egypt in the same semester, and one who is German living in Barcelona and teaching online.

Freelance work can also be done from anywhere on the globe. If these were combined we could be anywhere. This was a big factor in looking into doctoral work at University of Sussex. In Sussex. England. Which is a dream. I’ve always wanted to live in England for a time.

I have a friend from college who, with her husband, quit their jobs, sold their possessions and are currently traveling the world. Amazing. I love it. I am jealous. I am discontent sitting in our nice townhouse watching movies and doing homework. I want that kind of adventure.

It seems I’ve always had wanderlust. Looking over the list of places I’ve been (England, Hungary, Ireland, France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Portugal)  I’ve had a lot of experiences. But there are SO many more to have. So many more countries to visit, languages to learn, buildings to take photos of, foods to eat.

If you were to take a look in my office at work, you’d see a whole bunch of UK-centric stuff. I surround myself with things from other countries. Heck, look at the design of this blog. I am obsessed. But I constantly want to be moving.

In any case. I definitely have that itch again. Maybe it’s time to man-up, pare-down, and start focusing on that goal. We’re only young once. We don’t have kids… Work, a dog, and student loans are our only fixed responsibilities.

What do you think we should do?

Check out more stories in the Travel archives →

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3. So Worn Out

But it’s pretty much there. The template is full on HTML5 and makes use of a ton of CSS3.  That being said, I’m not testing anything in Internet Explorer for this template. Some things will still work (there’s JS to make the HTML5 elements work in legacy browsers), but it’s not going to be as pretty or as as rich an experience as if you use a modern Webkit- or Gecko-based browser.

The theme is called Carry On and is a sequel of sorts to my last design, Keep Calm. (eh? See what I did there???)

It’ll be nice not to stop fretting about my design that’s been sitting for months, that’s for sure.

Goals for this design:

• Emphasis placed on my portfolio moreso than blog posts
• Update the overall feel and style
• Play with modern technologies and push myself into them
• Have something different

I quit this design a few times and always came back to it. So, in the end, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Thoughts?

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If that’s not the future I don’t know what is. At this moment I don’t really care that much about flying cars. This is pretty slick.

Though I will probably use my Bluetooth keyboard more for these long range typing escapades.

One small thing to note. Doesn’t look I can use the WYSIWYG editor in mobile safari. Bummer.

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I started designing this yesterday and got it coded out today. I had a rough time nailing down the aesthetic for her site this time around. But after a few other ideas for other projects (that didn’t get used), I cobbled something together that I am pretty proud of.

I think the new template is pretty classy and sophisticated. And it still makes every photo Jess chooses stand out.

The template itself is built for WordPress 3.0 and makes use of the new Nav Menu manager and post thumbnails. I’ve also left it open for a later public release by having and interchangeable, dynamic header image as well as the image for the background.

The design also makes a lot of use of CSS3, so I recommend checking it out in an up-to-date version of Safari, Firefox or Chrome. Go let her know what you think! The template is titled Encyclopaedic.

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1. Redesign: Carry On
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I really want to do my doctorate in the UK and think I have found a perfect programme at the University of Sussex. I need to do a bit more looking into the programme and see if it is right for me. But I really like the prospects. The uni offers a DPhil and have a lot of faculty working in media and cultural fields. Seems perfect.

Part of this exploration is to help me focus on what my final thesis will be for my MA. I have a couple of interesting ideas that I may follow, but knowing where I want to be for my doctorate will help me develop a strong framework for study.

If there’s one thing I know about myself is that I need boundaries to get things done. Whether that is in the form of deadlines or ideology — I need some structure if I am going to accomplish my goals.

The thought of moving to the UK in a few years is super exciting… Not to mention the thought of contributing actively and, hopefully, greatly to my field.

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Rule Britannia

When Britain fi-i-irst, at heaven’s command,
Aro-o-o-o-ose from out the a-a-a-zure main,
Arose, arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter, the charter of the land,
And guardian A-a-angels sang this strain:

Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves
Britons never, never, never will be slaves.
Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves.
Britons never, never, never will be slaves.

Still more maje-e-estic shalt thou rise,
More dre-e-e-e-eadful from each foreign stroke,
More dreadful, dreadful from each foreign stroke,
Loud blast above us, loud blast that tears the skies
Serves but to ro-o-o-ot thy native oak.

Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves.
Britons never, never, never will be slaves.
Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves.
Britons never, never, never will be slaves.

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Geez. What’s wrong with me? I guess part of it is that I’ve been working on my academic site, A Not-So-Commonplace Book. Part of it is that I’ve been taking a break during my 3-week summer break. And part is that I’ve been busy with jobs for Department 3. Which has been awesome.

So, this week the Summer term at The New School started up. We made a trip to Rochester, NY as well to see our great friends Micah and Stephanie get married. It was a fun time filled with food, record shopping, driving, beer, baseball, bonfires… oh and Niagara Falls!

So now I’m back to the grind of school. I’m really excited about my classes too. I’m taking Aesthetics of Interactive Design with Jörg Müller and Micro Narratives with Philip Kain. It’s going to be a great summer.

Looking forward to rolling out my new and improved site once WP 3.0 is released a few weeks.

More photos in my Flickr photostream!

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Jessica got a job at TIU also, which is great. But we were hoping to take a vacation at the end of June–even before this opportunity came up for her–and things aren’t looking good at this point. Her boss didn’t approve her first request, which is a bummer. Why does the Records office need to be fully staffed during the dead of summer?

But basically, if she can’t get the time off I’ll be wasting my Paid Time Off days. I’m not really into taking a vacation alone in our house, with the dog. And we won’t really be able to take a real trip again until our anniversary in December. So we are a little bummed. Hopefully we can shift the date or she can do some convincing to make it happen.

I’m not at the point where I *need* a vacation, but from all the stuff I read when I was royally stressed out at my last job suggested the vacations are better when you’re not stressed out. And really just having some fun re-energizes me in my work. And we were going to have fun. We hope it works out!

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The convergence of media must, at some point, hit a critical mass.  The point where convergence becomes a non-issue and new media cultures become ingrained into the everyday persona is where we are heading.  This project will analyze the work being done on the fringes of participatory culture and suggest ways in which digital worlds will interact seamlessly with the embodied world.  Cultural norms, politics, economics, and societal conventions will be affected by the new New Media.

To read the proposal, please contact me.

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As one digs into the current literature, a common theme arises in nearly every journal article or book.  The idea that today’s audiences now actively create and use content at the same time pulses through the veins of the participatory culture and seeks to define it. If we start at the beginning, it seems widely agreed upon that Henry Jenkins has set the stage for this field in his book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (2006).  Indeed, the majority of authors reviewed for this study reference Jenkins in one way or another.

In his book Jenkins (2006) notes that, “Convergence represents a cultural shift as consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make connections among dispersed media content (3).”  He argues that in the past consumers were seen as passive and expected to be passive, but today this has changed dramatically. In some ways consumers are expected to do more legwork for their content.

Wired Magazine ran a story in its June 2009 issue entitled “The New Socialism”.  In it, Kevin Kelly vividly describes this new culture’s unique potential.

“[T]here is one way in which socialism is the wrong word for what is happening:  It is not an ideology.  It demands no rigid creed.  Rather, it is a spectrum of attitudes, techniques, and tools that promote collaboration, sharing, aggregation, coordination, ad hocracy, and a host of other newly enabled types of social cooperation.  It is a design frontier and a particularly fertile space for innovation. (118)”

The introduction to issue 10 of the Journal of Consumer Culture explains the producer-consumer shift.  Production and consumption are blurring together and in turn “notions of consumptions might come to change as it becomes an exchange of information (Beer & Burrows, 6).”  The media landscape has moved from being populated with content controlled and created by big business to content created and released by the producer-consumer.

In turn people are moving toward alternative forms of media.  They tend to view traditional big media as too professional and exclusionary.  Deuze (2007) asks, “How can we adequately explain the process, content and consequences of media consumption and production when our contemporary media praxis seems to include both at the same time? (249)”  Media is now both top-down and bottom-up in nature.

This is a question plaguing many as they wrestled with the new expectations of digital participatory culture.  Let us first look at what changes the field has acknowledged in the types of media being consumed and produced and then look at the consequences of this sea change.  We then can critically look at what has not yet been addressed in the realm digital participatory culture.

In “Media Industries, Work and Life” Deuze (2009) notes the convergence of everyday life as exemplified in the consumption of media.  He breaks this phenomenon into three paradoxes: work and play, local and global, self identity and social identity.  In doing so he explains that media is not located outside of a lived experience.  “People do not make sense of their meaning-making and usage practices with media in terms of production and consumption. (469)”  Meaning is made by the user.

Deuze notices that the cultural and creative industries generally gather to specific urban region and form pockets.  Thus, many cities have begun marketing themselves and associating themselves with such culture.  However, much of this must not come out of the official channels themselves and often times converges with the individual creators.  See, citizens as producers form a creative industry and then circulate the culture.  This can be seen in public service and for-profit organizations working together.   The result is a media convergence that blurs the lines that have traditionally divided economy and culture, cooperation and competition (474).  Thus we see this shift:  “Consumer producers are somewhat dependent on, contingent with and benefiting to, the market-driven efforts of multinational media enterprise. (477)”

So, we know that this convergence has caused a change in how consumers are interacting with media.  Gunn Sarah Enli (2009) gives us a fine example of how this plays out in the world when she examines the British television shows Strictly Come Dancing and Britain’s Got Talent. Enli answers, in one way, how established media are incorporating participatory culture into their normal content.  In the case of these programs, home viewers are asked to phone in and vote for their favorite participant.  The newly established relationship consists of not only entertaining the audience, but also engaging them.  Enli explains that audience participation in a show such as this increases perceived authenticity of the programming (482).

This idea of authenticity is one we should not gloss over.  Enli (2009) explains what she calls the “media myth of ordinary people.”  Talent shows, she says, are much akin to make-over shows in that they turn ordinary people into celebrities and vice versa. In the UK, the level of ordinary is dependent on a person’s class background which acts as a sort of guarantee of authenticity (485).  In the case of talent shows, there is a sort of class struggle involved: the public power versus the established judge.  This plays out in Strictly Come Dancing when a well known news anchor is consistently ranked as the worst dancer by the show’s judges, but each week is kept in the contest by and audience that supports him.  This contestant eventually quit the show causing a mass revolt from the viewing public.  Viewers became an “extended arm of publicity management and incognito PR agents for the media company (486)” which corresponds with what we saw from Deuze earlier.  Thus, an editorial dilemma ensues:  If you engage your audience, they will expect recognition.  In this case, that will be through influence on the programming.

Another form of this celebrity came in early 2009 when the working class, unemployed Susan Boyle stunned audiences on Britain’s Got Talent with her singing voice.  A nobody became a somebody overnight–but not due to the established television media.  Rather, the internet made Boyle a household name globally, with YouTube acting as fuel to the fire.  “Social media have provided non-professionals with tools for reproduction and redistribution of media content, and thus imposed changes to the relation between mass media companies and the audience. (Enli 2009, 489)”  Again we see that people have become producer-consumers.  Enli says this poses a problem for big media.  Audience patterns have changed in that they are more active and outspoken, reaching across oceans and borders.  “Traditional cultural boundaries between national publics and global publics are blurring, and national broadcasters are no longer capable of controlling the reach of their content. (490)”

Indeed, web technologies since 2004 have brought about the speedy adoption of the participatory mindset.  What is known as Web 2.0 (though most on the front lines of the movement despise the term) has led the way, allowing non-technical users to create content and contribute to production.  Harrison & Barthel (2009) find that teenagers make up a large portion of this group of online producer-consumers, creating blog posts and remixing others work.  Adults online generally focus their attentions to more artistic expression such as photography, film, artwork, icon and interface design (162).  However, Harrison and Barthel contend that no one yet understands the motivations behind this creation.  They do, however, note that it is in keeping with creative industry history and akin to grass roots creativity.  Producer-consumers are “networked, collaborative, mobilized in pursuit of common interests in popular culture and produce their own media. (164)”

Beer and Burrows (2010) note that this “history of cultural recycling” has made its way into the mainstream and is now “an integral part of everyday life (7)”.  Everyday things, what many would consider the mundane, are put onto video sharing sites like YouTube, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, and into social media profiles like on Facebook.  This could be construed as part of the desire for authenticity.  It also is changing the notions of privacy in our culture (7).

Not only that, but the details shared go on to create a sort of digital narrative of each person.  In her article “‘Freshly Generated for You, and Barack Obama’: How Social Media Represent Your Life”, Jill Walker Rettburg (2009) gives the example of a social travel site taking the data she provided it of her annual travel and creating an overview of her year.  When combined with data from other websites–perhaps books purchased from Amazon.com over a year, Facebook status updates, or Flickr photos–a fairly accurate and robust narrative can be built, all from one’s own voluntarily shared personal information.

Think also of how one might research a conference speaker before attending their keynote lecture.  Beer (2008) points out that with a quick Google search one can find biographical information on anyone from Wikipedia or a social networking profile, you may be able to find past talks on YouTube or perhaps books they have published (229).

This extends into cultural circles as well.  This ease of ‘getting to know you’ helps to level the playing field.  Take, for instance, a celebrity.  Beer (2008) did just this to become re-acquainted with performer Jarvis Cocker finding that the artist’s MySpace profile housed a vibrant community around it.  Beer posits that the ‘flickering connections’ made by the 2-way communication of fans with artist and fans with other fans has created a flattened environment where “ordinary people can ‘hang with the stars’. (232)”  The artist doesn’t have to be in constant attendance, but he maintains this connection in an important way.  “[H]is intermittent interjections remain essential to giving a sense of ‘livingness’ to the profile while remaining only a part of a range of multi-dimensional and decentralized interactions and connections. (231)”  In other words, there is a perception of proximity that helps to keep the authenticity alive (232).

But at what cost does this information leak come?  Beer (2009) points out that Information Technology now comprise and constitute our lives rather than mediate it (987).  The medium has become a thing.  All of this information is stored in databases and then used.  In other words, information is not only about how we understand the world, it is also active in constructing it (988).  He explains that software algorithms are now making decisions for businesses based on gathered information.  This creates a sort of marketing discrimination as we give the power to the algorithm (991).

Beer (2009) doesn’t think this is all bad, and can certainly be helpful.  The web service Last.fm aggregates, or ‘scrobbles’, user music listening trends.  A user opts into sending listening stats to the Last.fm servers which in turn use that data, along with user-generated metadata, to suggest new bands to listen to (996).  The music people come to listen to on Last.fm is there because of the algorithms–and the power we have given them.  This could also be found true of Amazon.com recommendations.  The data we give based on purchases, reviews, search terms, etc., shape what products the Amazon.com algorithmic engine presents us with.  Often times this is helpful and, even, appreciated.

As communication technologies now operate on a level of ‘technological unconscious’ it is difficult to research the systems underlying our participatory culture.  Beer (2009) emphasizes that there must be strong criticism into how and why users divulge information.  “As things stand we simply do not understand how the material infrastructures of Web 2.0 play out in the lives of individual users and how software constrains and enables, how it formulates hierarchies, shapes the things people encounter, and so on. (1000)”

Though we may not understand it, there is another technical progression taking place that is particularly fascinating.  It is where converging culture meets converging technology.  Or, as Kabisch (2008) terms it, the digital and embodied worlds.  This is the place where technology informs what we are doing when we are away from our computers. Increasingly powerful mobile phones open up boundless opportunities for integrating technology with with the day-to-day on a more personal level.

A somewhat recent trend has come of location-aware software built for mobile phones.  These applications allow users to notify a website of their location, often times incorporating game-like strategy or experience reviews into their respective services.  Mathew Honan (2009), writing for Wired, spent three weeks living with two phones and all of the global positioning satellite (GPS) applications he could ever want.  What he found is how easy it is to give out vast amounts personal information unconsciously.  At the same time, he found plenty of help finding cheap gas for his car, places to eat, and nearby friends.

Kabisch (2008) has taken this a step further.  Using GPS, demographic data, and modern display technology he has created a unique technology-art installation.  He contends that the “physical world already exists as a hybrid stew of digital and embodied entities and practices. (223)”  Databases hold information about the world–location, purchases, crime statistics, etc.–and this in turn creates a digital trace and results in what he calls a demographic narrative (224).

In Datascapes, his installation, Kabisch (2008) has created a ‘virtual’ world that layers on top of the ‘real’ world in order to move away from the virtuality and “focus on the relationships that ‘synthetic worlds’ have to ‘outside’ economies and social practices. (223)”  Thus, he says, “it is useful to conceive of their information as a digital substrate–another dimension of the reality we inhabit.”

I connect this with what Jenkins (2006) wrote about the collective intelligence and how it will inform convergence culture.  He contends that no one knows everything, everybody knows something, and pooled together that becomes a collective intelligence.  The Internet and new technologies can help to bring this together.  “[T]he emerging convergence paradigm assumes that old and new media will interact in ever more complex ways. (6)”

And this is what I see is missing.  The next step in participatory culture.  Users are already contributing their experiences, preferences, and information subconsciously–and we are beginning to see some results of this mass of data.  But what is left to be done?  How will this technology fit into the way our culture progresses?  Can old media extend into life while integrating with this “digital substrate” (Kabisch, 223)”  A sort of old life versus new life, or perhaps ‘old civilization versus new civilization’ that can emerge. The digital world (or the algorithms of it) are already creeping into our physical ‘embodied’ world, but how do we make them interact in the ‘ever more complex ways’ that Jenkins writes about?

When will convergence full-on collide with society and the physical world rather than being mostly relegated to the wires and computer terminals of the digital?  And thus, what will be its effects?  How must traditional media change to respond to the ever converging world we live in?  These are questions that must be answered to fully understand the new digital participatory culture.

References

Beer, D. (2008). Making friends with Jarvis Cocker: music culture in the context of web 2.0. Cultural Sociology, 2(2), 222-241.

Beer, D. (2009). Power through the algorithm? participatory web cultures and the technological unconscious. New Media & Society, 11(6), 985-1002.

Beer, D, & Burrows, R. (2010). Consumption, prosumption and participatory web cultures: an introduction. Journal of Consumer Culture, 10(3), 3-12.

Deuze, M. (2007). Convergence culture in the creative industries. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 10(2), 243-263

Deuze, M. (2009). Media industries, work and life. European Journal of Communication, 24(4), 467-480.

Dretzin, R. (Producer). (2010). Digital_nation: life on the virtual frontier. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/

Duncan, B. (2005). Media literacy: essential survival skills for the new millenium. Orbit, 35(2). Retrieved from http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/orbit/mediaed_sample.html

Enli, G.S. (2009). Mass communication tapping into participatory culture: exploring Strictly Come Dancing and Britain’s Got Talent. European Journal of Communication, 24(4), 481-493.

Harrison, T.M., & Barthel,  B. (2009). Wielding new media in web 2.0: exploring the history of engagement with the collaborative construction of media products. New Media & Society, 11(1&2), 155-178.

Honan, M. (2009, February). I am here: one man. two phones. dozens of gps apps. Wired, 17(2), 70-75.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.

Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture. MIT Press.

Kabisch, E. (2008). Datascape: a synthesis of digital and embodied worlds. Space and Culture, 11(3), 222-238.

Kelly, K. (2009, June). The new socialism. Wired, 17(6), 116-121.

Rettberg, J.W. (2009). ‘Freshly generated for you, and Barack Obama’: how social media represent your life. European Journal of Communication, 24(4), 451-466.

Watkins, S.C. (2009). The Young and the digital. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

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The semester is ending (I’m excited about this), and that means that I have lots of homework and lots of projects — or at least I did, this past week. My favorite course this semester has been Media Literacy, and the final for this was a project to give an overview of what media literacy is. I decided to stick with my skills (as well as pick up a few new techniques) and create an interactive web piece.

It was fun! I’d love to hear what you think of it. You’ll need a modern browser (Safari, Firefox 3+, or Chrome) and I’d suggest a normal screen resolution with a minimum of 1024px wide.

Check it out.

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These children have grown up with digital technologies, but in a very limited way. They know a few things quite deeply, but they – as we did at their age – have no great appreciation of the subtleties of the tools. The expanse and use of the tools. The possibilities for tools that don’t yet exist.

They can push buttons, but they can’t make them.

Brad King: – Shut Your Digital Native Piehole (52 of 90).

Definitely poignant. How do we increase the literacy of kids? This is why we need media and digital citizenry taught in school. Kids grow up with computers, but they don’t know how to really use all the tech that’s out there. There is also Henry Jenkins’ position of ethical standards not being learned in an always-on world. Being native doesn’t equal being literate. And literacy has changed.

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