Digital Media

Dr. Jim Rowan

ITEC 2110

First, a bit about GGC/MediaWiki

MediaWiki Stuff: Internal Links to a New Page

Linking within the wiki (and creating a new page)

placing [[myNewPage]] in the edit window...

==> the link “myNewPage” showing up on your wiki page

The first time you click on “myNewPage”...you will find yourself in the edit window for that new pageIf you put something on the new page, the next time you click

myNewPage you will go to the new page

MediaWiki Stuff: Internal Links

Fancier version

placing [[myNewPage | New Page!]] in edit window...

==> the link “New Page!” showing up on your wiki page

The first time you click on New Page! ...

you will find yourself in the edit window for the page named

“myNewPage”If you type something into the new page, the next time you click

New Page! you will see that new stuff

MediaWiki Stuff: External Links

To place an external link (a link to a web page that is not on the MediaWiki)get the URL of the linked-to pageput it in double square brackets

For example:

[http://www.google.com Go to Google!]placed on your page during an edit will show up on your page as:

Go to Google!

Clicking on it would send you to:

http://www.google.com/

MediaWiki Stuff: Uploading files…other than image files

You can store many different kinds of files on the wiki

for downloading later

NOTE: Some file types cannot be uploaded… like .exe files

Example: MSWord file called myMSWordFileName.docUse the “Upload file” link to upload the file to the wiki

Edit the Mediawiki page you want this file accessible from and

using the media: tag put a link on the page with this format:

[[media:myMSWordFileName.doc]]then save the edited page…

The link: media:myMSWordFileName.doc

will appear on your page Clicking it will cause it to download… but not display.

MediaWiki Stuff: PDF files

PDF files can be displayed (rather than just downloaded) inside the wiki

If you upload a pdf and you put [[media:myFile.pdf]] in the edit page…

You will see media:myFile.pdf on your page

and when you click it your file will be displayed, not downloaded

Fancier form:

[[media:myFile.pdf | my PDF file]]shows “my PDF file” as the link

displays the file called myFile.pdf when clicked

How to make a pdf on a Mac

Any file that is open on a Mac

Pull File down to Print

In the lower left hand corner of the print window

Click “PDF”

Then select “Save as pdf”

Now to Chapter 1!

The Effect of Media Choice and the use of new Technology• The media you choose has an effect on the way

the story is told

• Print? you must describe things well• Still Image? you have to tell it visually by setting the

scene• Film/Video? you have moving images and sound...

does the sound emphasize the moving image or vice versa?

• 3-D amusement ride? moving images, sound and some actual motion... 3 modalities

New Media/New Technology

• Consider if you had spent your life working with the SCROLL… and you were asked to change to the BOUND BOOK...

• HMMMmmmm...

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAWR6hzZek

Different Media?Different Affordances

• affordances is a term from ecological psychology– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_psychology– different things afford different interaction– consider door knobs, levers, push-plates and pulls

Don Norman and Psychology of Everyday Things

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Norman

Consider…the Scroll, Book & WWW

• The Scroll – can’t stack scrolls like books– can’t skip around except to beginning or end– but… reading flows without the interruption of pages

• The Book– you can stack them– you can level a table leg with them!– but.. the reading is interrupted by page turns– add a TOC & page numbers you can skip around– with index & page #s you can go to a specific place

Scroll, Book and now...• WWW

– you can consume it in any order you want– links take you to a place (and back!)

• does a book do this?

– the page is in one place… one change changes everyone’s version

• Now compare to the Book– doesn’t allow this universal change– doesn’t take you back... but you can stick a piece of paper or a

finger in it to hold your place… or fold down the corner of the page

– you can take notes in the margins

WWW vs Book

• WWW – allows corrections immediately to everyone– but no history kept like with book editions

• you go back to “the same place” and it’s different... were you mistaken or did it change?

• http://www.archive.org/index.php

• Did you read everything?– Book is easy, read front to back– WWW... not so much...

WWW vs Book

• WWW affords searching– You can Google it and find it

• Book? Not so much..– the Index will help… if the thing you are looking

for is in the index...– Ever read a book and think...

where did I see this before?

…and then reach for the search tool?

…and then you feel kinda foolish?

New Media/New Technology Adoption

• It takes time for conventions concerning usage to be formed

• Consider the history of Film...– No sound– then performed sound– then recorded sound

• With time… film developed its own forms• Hitchcock told the story visually, long scenes• Tarrentino accents the violence with rapid, quick cuts

Usage of New Media follows a predictable path

• At first the new form tries to act like the old form to make the new stuff look more familiar– In the movies, Newsreels “copied” newspaper-like

layouts– With computers, the desktop metaphor “copied” the

office desk• Alan Kay, XEROX PARC

– personal computer usage exploded

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kay

• Before desktop metaphor C: is all you got– few people used personal computers

So…What is Multimedia?

• Mix of audio, film, graphics, haptic (what’s haptic?)

– that address the different senses

• We are just beginning to understand what the possibilities are...

• We are just beginning to understand how to best build multimedia stuff– Mix of animation and live action

• The movie 300?• The movie Sin City?• Beowolf?

– TV series 24 and the movie Phone Booth?• several scenes are played simultaneously

In this class

• We are interested in media forms found on and transmitted across the Internet and how to manipulate them

• We will build them as projects– audio– still images

• bitmapped• vector graphics

– moving images• video camera• 3D animation

Media Linearity

• Scroll - linear• Book – linear… broken, but linear

– Must turn the pages– but… Table of Contents and Index allow some

non-linearity– encyclopedia and dictionaries are media that are

meant to be used in a non-linear manner

• Film/Videotape - linear• DVD – primarily linear

– Chapters allow some non-linearity

Hypermedia Organization

• Time-based uses time as its central organizing theme– Film– Audio

• Page-based uses a page as its central organizing theme– Book– Internet… originally, yes but now?

Is media interactive?

• Yes and No• Yes: Programs appear interactive, but only within

the constraints placed on the interaction by the programmer and the interaction designer– Myst looked like a real world but you only had a few

choices you could make

• No: Improvisation (on the part of the user) can’t happen unless it is planned and provided for in advance by the interaction designer and the programmer

How do you interact?User Interface

• This is what I do: HCI• There are standard forms

– buttons– sliders– radio buttons– check boxes– pull-down menus– pop-up menus

• …the kind of stuff you see when using the computer on the internet

Ethical Considerations• Is technology

– neutral?– ethical?– unethical?

• Does how we use it define it as ethical or unethical?• Consider that new technology

– affords a new means of interaction – affords opportunities for behavior that previously didn’t exist

– MUD: Multiple User Domain– Second Life

Social Considerations:Access

• Expensive• Reduce the world to 100 people..

– http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/populate.asp

• Access to internet worldwide? 1/100 would have a computer

• But... there are internet cafes so…

Social Considerations:Access

• What about people with disabilities?– Blind

• prior to the desktop metaphor this was the largest group of online users

• now the desktop REQUIRES sight to be operated

– Can be mitigated by screen readers• images are provided alternate text

representations

WWW use broadens

• Initially seen as a “source”... you go to “look something up”– seen as economic advantage… only have to put

stuff in one place and everybody can get to it

• Now it is also a transmission medium– streaming content: live radio– streaming content: view tv shows online – podcasts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

In Summary

• Media is changing• Internet is changing• Affecting us socially• Giving us new capabilities• Challenging our views of legality• Challenging our view of appropriate behavior• Allowing new uses and new interactions

• This class is about media and how it works

Questions?