Digital Media

Dr. Jim Rowan

ITEC 2110

Roll Call using Banner

MediaWiki Stuff: External Links

To place an external link to a webpageget 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!and clicking on it would send you to http://www.google.com/

MediaWiki Stuff: Using files other than image

filesWhile Mediawiki can’t necessarily display all files that you load to it

(.doc files for instance), it can store them and allow others to download them

Use the “Upload file” linkupload the fileedit the Mediawiki pageput a link on the page with this format:[[Media:myMSWordFileName.doc]]save the edited page

You will now see a link Media:myMSWordFileName.doc on your page and clicking it will cause it to download

MediaWiki Stuff: PDF files

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

If you upload a pdf and you put [[media:myFile.pdf | my PDF file]] in the page edit

you will see media:myFile.pdf on your page and when you click it your file will be displayed

To make a pdf file on mac:file printsave as pdf

The Effect of Media Choice

• 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 going from the SCROLL to the BOUND BOOK...

• HMMMmmmm...

• http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv=pQHX-SjgQvQ%26mode=related%26search=

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

The Scroll, Book & WWW

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

• Book– you can stack them– you can level a table leg with them!– but reading is interrupted by page turns– with 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?

– it’s in one place and one change changes everyone’s version

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

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

– you can take notes in the margins

WWW vs BookGood or Bad?

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

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

• http://www.archive.org/index.php

• Did you read all the stuff that is there?– Book is easy, read front to back– WWW... not so much...

WWW vs BookGood or Bad?

• 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 reach for the find?

New Media/New Technology Adoption

• It takes time for conventions concerning usage to be formed

• Consider the history of Film...– No sound– Performed sound– Recorded sound

New Media usage follows a predictable path

• At first the new form tries to act like the old form– Newsreels “copied” newspaper layouts– desktop metaphor is an example of this– makes it familiar

• Later film developed its own forms• Hitchcock told the story visually, long scenes• Tarrentino accents everything with violence and quick

cuts• But that’s film... is that multimedia?• Maybe...

Multimedia?• Beowolf?• The movie Sin City?• The movie 300?• TV series 24 and the movie Phone Booth?

– several scenes are played simultaneously

• Mix of audio, film and graphics• We are just beginning to understand what the

possibilities are...• We are just beginning to understand how to best use it

Delivery Mechanism?• Offline

– scroll, book– Vinyl record– AudioTape– Film (mixed media... but the sound is visual)– Videotape– CD-ROM– DVD

• Online– Over the Internet

In this class

• We are primarily interested in delivery over the Internet

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

• bitmapped• vector graphics

– moving images

Media Linearity

• Scroll (mostly linear)• Book

– You had to turn the pages– Table of Contents and Index allow some non-

linearity– encyclopedia and dictionaries are meant to be

used in a non-linear manner

• Film/Videotape• DVD

– Chapters allows some non-linearity

Hypermedia

• Mixture of time- and page- based media• Time-based uses time as its central

organizing theme– Film– Audio

• Page-based uses a page as its central organizing theme– Book– Internet?

Interactivity within the Computer

• Yes, they 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

• Improvisation (on the part of the user) can’t happen unless it is provided for in advance

User Interface

• This is central to what my specialty is: HCI• There are standard forms

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

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

• You can design your own

Social and Ethical Considerations

• Is technology neutral?• Does human usage define it as ethical or

unethical?• BUT: new technology affords new means of

interaction and opportunities for behavior that previously didn’t exist

• Online rape?– MUD: Multiple User Domain– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD

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

Access...

• What about disabilities?– Blind?– 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 in nature, 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

Reading for next week

Textbook Chapter 2For the first class next week

Questions?