Social Proof Enhancing Literary Studies

The classroom is a small space with only around fifteen to thirty people bouncing ideas off one another. In the digital age, there is no need to define a text or ideas by what discussion happens in the classroom when there is so much available online to look into and participate in. Traditionally, research is a very solitary thing, combing through books in the library, browsing online journals, and drafting and writing all on a topic that you may not even be sure is relevant or useful to anyone else. This is why developing literary communities that extend beyond the classroom is so important.

 Students should be encouraged to stop making their research and studies such a private activity. The first step to beginning socially optimized research is to find communities, scholars, peers, etc. outside of their classrooms that are talking about the same or similar things. As students discover that what they are discussing in class is being discussed by others also, they will realize that what they are learning is not just for a test or essay, but it is part of a larger conversation that is happening. Circulating ideas and getting feedback helps students to refine their research and helps them to focus on something that is a part of a larger conversation rather than just an essay to turn in at the end of a semester. It is more exciting to students when they know that what they are interacting with a community in discussing literature, rather than be left to feel like what they are studying may be irrelevant or unnecessary.

Everyone has also experienced how ideas are easier to come up with when discussed with others than when just thought through alone. If students are using socially optimized research they no longer have to wonder by themselves, “does this topic matter to anyone else?,” “are others thinking the same thing?,” “are others thinking things in opposition to my ideas?” A simple Tweet, Facebook status update, or Google+ post can start to reveal the answers to these questions from friends and peers. As you start to expand your circle and once you realize that your ideas have some value, question can be posted in groups of people focusing on similar topics and posed to scholars who have authority on the subject.

Any study that stays entirely within the confines of a classroom is not fully teaching its students about the resources available to them. If students are encouraged to find ways to socially optimize their research, they will not only become a part of a community outside their classes and university, but will also find that they improve their research to be more relevant and better executed. 

Moby Dick as a Lens for Digital Culture

Combining a classic novel like Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and digital culture may seem like an odd idea, but even something written as many years ago as Moby Dick can still provide insight into the digital age. Many of the characters in Moby Dick can act as representations of aspects of the digital world, in particular Ishmael and Ahab.

Ishmael is an example of curation. Throughout the novel he is “collecting” data about pretty much everything he encounters. He goes into great detail about whales (almost creating his own Whale Wikipedia), explains customs for when one ship meets another, describes the ship, explains the background of some of the crew, like Queequeg for example. In many ways, Moby Dick becomes Ishmael’s very own Pinterest board, Diigo account, or Wiki.

Ahab can be seen as a representation of social proof and understanding the web. For him the white whale is Moby Dick, for the internet the white whale is whatever new thing is coming up. This white whale can never really be captured, because as soon as you grasp one thing in digital culture something else new will emerge. It starts to feel like an endless goal to keep current on things and no matter how many harpoons that you throw at digital culture, you will never be able to fully capture it, because then another white whale will just appear.

Digital connections like these can be made througout the text of Moby Dick that enhance both the text and an understanding of the digital world. Finding connections like these and exploring new ideas is what literary studies and digital culture are entirely about, and using these two hand in hand is of great benefit to students.

Reflecting on a Semester of Digital Culture

Before this class, I thought that I already had a pretty good grasp on digital culture, but in reality, I had just barely been skimming the surface. I was already familiar with the basics like blogging from writing my own blog and managing one of BYUs blogs, and I thought that I was already pretty internet savvy, but there are so many resources, curation, and research methods that I had never even thought of Like using Twitter to research? That one kind of blew my mind a little big. I really just saw that as a place to say silly and witty things and hope for a few "favorites." But, then with the idea of using it as a tool of research and connecting with those outside of your circle I was able to contact the author of the book that I read for this class and get some information from him (I texted my mom right after he tweeted me cause I thought it was that cool...). 

I also found myself liking Google+ a lot more than I would. I had gotten a profile with them when it first came out really more out of curiosity than anything, and then got bored and deleted it, but now that I have been introduced to the communities on Google+ I think I may still hop on every once in a while after this class is over.

  

So I guess thinking about it, what amazes me most about digital culture is the way that people are connecting through it. I’m glad that I chose for my final topic to research something that is relevant to me (editing in the digital age), because it made me much more aware of what is going on in the editing world, what type of people are in this field, and how I can get more connected. In the beginning of the class, I was mostly feeling a little hopeless about what digital culture is doing to our society as I expressed in my blog post “Connecting or Disconnecting?” But, as I started to see the positives, the negatives seemed pretty outweighed. The opportunities for growth, creativity, and connection that the digital age has created are amazing. I especially started to feel more positive about the way things are headed with the class lecture/blog post "Collaborative Creative and Crowdsourcing."

I learned a lot from this class that is going to be very applicable to my future career, which is hopefully doing web based publishing and editing, but other than that I think I just have a better understanding of what is happening online and how I can be a part of it.

Shaping Editors for the Digital Age: Final Paper

Here is my final paper arguing that in order to better prepare editing students for jobs in the field of editing, curriculum should be focused on involving the technology that is now a crucial aspect of all literature, news, and text that is being published and that the population is consuming. 

As much as I was dreading writing another final paper, I actually found myself really enjoying this one. I guess that's the difference when you are writing about something that you are really caring about and excited to share.

Working Post: Editing in the Digital World

Working Thesis Statement 
Editing is generally seen as a field dealing in print media, but as more and more companies, sources, sites, and people are taking to the web and modern technology editing is changing. What does this mean for the need for editing and editors?

Preliminary Exploration
I started looking at the relationship between editing and the digital world awhile before this class when I first started thinking about getting a job in web based publishing and editing. I took internet publishing as an initial interest in this topic and talked about it on my personal blog with a post about a website that I coded as an editing portfolio. This class has gotten me interested in looking much further into this topic. I started getting interested in the relationship between I guess "non-technology" things and digital culture with my posts about BYU and technology (found here and here). I started to realize that this was my opportunity to start curating information that was not only going to be helpful in me finding that future job in web based editing, but would also help me get my final paper written for this class (win/win right?). So, I started out with Dan Gillmor's book We the Media and did a preliminary book review where I started to question some ideas, a book review where I reflected on these ideas post reading, and a video book review. I have also been using diigo to curate articles on this topic.

Relevance
a. to digital culture: I think one of the most important things you realize when you study digital culture is how much it is changing things: for the better, for the worse, for who knows what. So, I wanted to zone in on one specific aspect of this that is relevant to me.
b. to a specific audience: I think its really important for editing students to know what is happening in terms of editing and the digital world. As more and more text is in the digital realm, it is important for editors to know what this means for them.

Format
I would like to create a blog/wiki about editing and the digital world, their relationship with each other, and what the digital world means for editors. If this is a no go, I will be writing a paper...

Outlet
If I do a blog/wiki I would see what I can do to get it shared around the editing department and involved in some of the editing communities that I have found.

So, if I end up writing a paper I found several calls for papers for publishing/writing/editing conferences and some that are focused on the relationship between these and digital culture.
12th International Conference on Books, Publishing, and Libraries
IFLA World Library and Information Congress
ACES National Conference 

Curation 
curation for analysis: I have been looking at a lot of editors blogs, types of editing that is happening online, and web editing jobs that are available
curation of secondary sources: I have been collecting articles about technology based editing on diigo.
curation of community: I have been following some people on twitter talking about this topic, joined editing groups on Google+ and linked in, and joined editing forums that allow editors to ask and respond to questions about the current state of editing.

Social Proof
Most of my social proof is coming from these communities I have joined which are all buzzing about what relationship the digital world and editing have. I have also chatted about this with fellow editing minors seeing if they see their editing career going in a print based or web based direction.

Next Step
Now that I have some content and ideas going, I need to start getting even more involved in these communities, start asking question, and start actually writing my paper and getting this all figured out and formed into some cohesive thoughts and ideas.

Altruistic Scholarship for Sam

Is it cheating that I am helping someone on my team? I hope not. So, Sam, here is some research for you. I know you have been looking into the Provo music scene which I also find fascinating. Plus, it's pretty cool to live in an area with so many incredible artists that are excited to showcase their talents.

Like this weekend they had the Cowboys & Indies show at Velour (article about it here). I remember you telling me you were going to the second night of it to see The Brocks (these are the only ones out of this group that I've heard of, and I really like them, but I'm partial because the keyboardist is a good friend of mine...), Westward the Tide, Toy Bombs, and Midas Whale). I actually ended up going the first night with some friends when Lake Island, L'anarchiste, Oceanear, and Bat Manors (they were my favorite) were playing.

It's interesting to see the ways that some of these bands are working on getting their names out. I have recently noticed a lot of Provo/Salt Lake area bands following me on twitter in an attempt to get some attention. I never follow back though and I am assuming most people are like me and don't, so maybe this isn't incredibly effective. But, at the same time, when my friend told me L'anarchiste was playing, my response was "Hey they just started following me on Twitter. I didn't know who they were, but now I do I guess!" So, it at least gets people to start recognizing their name, right?

Facebook is of course a huge way that bands are trying to spread the word about their music and my friends in the band Red Yeti worked with a local film maker/friend of theirs to create what they are calling a "microtrilogy." They had a premier party for it with close friends and then blasted Facebook with it to get the word out about who they are, their music, and their film maker friend. They are actually pretty cool videos if you want to check them out.

I've also noticed that a lot of the local bands are using Instagram to promote themselves. My friends in Robert & the Carrolls have been obsessively posting about their new EP. It maybe feels a little tedious after a few posts, but I can't blame them for trying to get the word out about their music. I've also noticed the same thing with Twitter where a band will follow me on Insta probably hoping that I will follow them back, and really with the exact same result as Twitter of me not following back. But, same thing where it at least starts to get some name recognition. 

So as a throw in at the end, here are some articles that I found about Provo music. You may have already seen some of them...

http://www.provobuzz.com/best-bands-in-provo/

http://universe.byu.edu/2012/01/12/321-final-story-provo-music-scene/

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865583964/Surprise-Provo-is-home-to-a-thriving-music-scene.html?pg=all

http://provomusic.blogspot.com/2011/04/every-band-in-provo.html

I'm really interested in how Provo has created such a vibrant and interesting music scene in the last while and can't wait to see what you come up with when researching this. Hope this was at least slightly helpful. Let me know if you find any bands worth giving a listen!

Video Review of Dan Gillmor's "We the Media"

To start off with, here is my video review...

I'm going to be honest I felt pretty awkward making this video, but I still think that it was a really interesting experience. I had never recorded a video of myself on my computer, so the first thing I had to was to figure out how to do this. (Really, the very first thing I had to was find lighting where I didn't look so pale that I was glowing. This was a lot harder than you would think.)
I took some notes and did a couple in my head rehearsals and then decided to just go for it and hit record. The video that I decided to upload is actually my very first take. I recorded several more, but each time I felt more rehearsed and less genuine. So, even though this wasn't necessarily the cleanest take, I think this is the one where I got my point across best and came across as the most personable. Two things that I think are pretty important in a video book review. 

"We the Media" Goodreads Review

I finished up Dan Gillmor's "We the Media" and I was really interested in some of the things that he had to say and the way that he constructed the current state of journalism.

I gave this book four stars out of five. Here is what I wrote about it on Goodreads.

I don't think that Dan Gillmor was the first one to propose the idea that modern technology is evolving the ways that we produce and consume news, but he traced it and explained it in a way that was highly effective and very informative. As a student who is about to graduate and who is thinking of a career in media, it was fascinating to hear his take on the current status of journalism. This set the stage for how media was changing now, and what that means for the general population.

Gillmor feels very hopeful about the ways that journalism is changing, and and I feel the same way. I really liked in this introduction when he said, "The rise of citizen journalists will help us listen. The ability of anyone to make the news will give new voice to people who've felt voiceless--and whose words we need to hear. They are showing all of us--citizen, journalist, newsmaker--new ways of talking, of learning." He clearly shows his reader that these changes are not only important to the ones making the news, but to everyday citizens too who may not have even taken note of the great changes, improvements, and of course some set backs that have occurred in the past years. The biggest problem that I had with this book is that in many ways it is already outdated. Technology changes so fast that it is difficult for a book to be current on everything for more than a couple years. I would be very interested to see Gillmor's opinions on how social medias, especially Twitter, are effecting the current state of journalism.


I've been following Dan Gillmor on Twitter to see if he has brought up any ideas from his book, but updated for everything that has happened with technology since its publication, but haven't seen him circiling back to this idea in recent posts. I am sure that he has through and am really interested in doing some searching around to see what he and other people in the technology and journalism fields are saying about this now.

Curating with Diigo

When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to use for this curation project, I decided that I wanted to use a tool that I had never tried out or heard of before, so I chose diigo. I started out by making a profile and wandering around the website a little to try and get a feel for what I was jumping into, but there isn't really that much on the actual diigo.com webpage. So, I next decided to watch the video tutorials. I figure that it would probably be way easier to use this site to its full benefit if I knew what I was doing rather then spending hours trying to figure it out on my own. 

As I've been searching around trying to find articles and websites that talk about my subject (which is still a little all over right now ranging from media, to editing, to web identity), diigo has been really interesting to work with. My favorite feature is being able to highlight and annotate articles and to archive articles. I read tons of stuff online everday and I feel like I am always telling someone, "I read this awesome article today, but I don't remember what it told me only the basic subject, and I don't remember where I found it." Useless, huh? With diigo, I can save articles to my online archive so that I can go back to them later, and with the highlighting feature, I don't even have to read the whole article again to remember what it was all about. Instead, I have some notes and some highlights that I can use to get the gist real fast (cause I already did the work to read it once, it's great that I don't have to read it again!). I really appreciate that all of this carries over to my iPad too since I mostly use my laptop at home and my iPad on campus, so I am swaping between the two a lot throughout the day. 

The next step that I need to take in using diigo is to start finding other people that are using this site that are interested in the same thing as me so that I can start piggybacking off of their research. It would be really useful to see what others are archiving and see how was others have already found can help me figure out what I need to be looking for an how to make my research more refined. 

Exploring the Changes in Media Through Dan Gillmor's "We the Media"

I am an English major and editing minor, and I am graduating in April. When I tell people I want to be an editor, most people first ask, "like for a news paper?" It always surprises me that people think this is the only place I could edit is a newspaper. But, really how many of us are even getting our news from sources like this anymore?? So, I want to figure out where we are getting our information instead, and possibly start to figure out what this will mean for me as an editor. I am starting Dan Gillmor's We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People for the People, and it will hopefully be able to answer some of these questions. 

Preview

After looking over Gillmor's book, examining the table to contents and skimming through a few pages, it seems as though it will focus on how media has transformed, what effects this has had on people (specifically journalists), and how this will continue to effect people (specifically journalists). 

Early Social Proof

Nobody responded to my google+ post about this and I just figured I wouldn't even bother posting on twitter because I don't expect I would get feedback from there either. I tried talking to a couple people about this, but they seemed relatively uninterested.  Thanks everyone. I wish I had thought about this a little earlier so I could have chatted with some of my editing friends to see what they think about it. But, alas, procrastination is kinda my thing. 

Similar Books

The Elements  of Journalism: What Newspeople should Know and the Public Should Expect

Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel 

     An overview of media history, practice, ethics.

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organization

Clay Shirky

    How the spread of technology is changing social interations and the way that people form groups and 

    interact with them

Journalism Next: A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Publishing

Mark Briggs

Mediactive

Dan Gillmor

    What is the future of journalism, and how should people get around in today's flood of information online?

Who Cares?

First of all, I wanted to see if the author of the book had a media presence (which I was assuming he did). I found him on google+ and added him to one of my circles and also found him on twitter and started following him. I thought this would be good to find out what the author is thinking now with all the changes in digital media since the book was written a few years ago and a lot has changed. I then did a twitter search looking for both the author and the title of the book. It would seem that a lot of people like bloggers, journalists, social media supports, etc. are reading the book and are interested in what he has to say about the state and progress of journalism in the digital age. 

Formal Review

I found a review posted on The Guardian in 2004 when the book came out. One thing that I thought was really interesting was that the review claimed that the thesis of the book was in no way new, but really had been a thought for many years now. But, with the advancement of digital culture and the developments leading up to this book, it can finally be proven how the internet and technology is changing how we produce and consume the news. What is remarkable is that he is the first one to gather all of this evidence together to prove that the media is moving into the digital age. 

Informal Review

I found a blog review of We the Media on a blog called Masters of Media. They seemed impressed by the book and the way that Gillmor not only looks at what is happening now, but why it is happening now. He uses specific examples that illuminate what is happening with the media in the digital age and how it has reshaped media over time. The blogger also applauded Gillmor for making his book free to the public using Creative Commons Licensing. 

Educational Courses

I'm not entirely sure that I did this search right, but I did not see any search results for courses using this book. I did however see a review of the book from a Harvard Law website and Ohio website. 

Multimedia

I found a video of Dan Gillmor giving a lecture on his book We The Media at UNC Chapel Hill. It's mostly him talking about the ideas from his book and the thought process behind everything. I didn't watch the whole thing because it is an hour long, and well that's really long. 

First Impressions of the Book

This will be updates by tonight. I promise. 

Ishmael the Curator

Maybe you thought you were done thinking about Moby Dick and now here I am bringing him up again. But actually, I wanted to talk about Ishmael. Dr. Burton suggested that I do a quick little post about my paper and link to it on Team Queequeg, so here it is.

The question that I based my paper around was this: Who is Ishmael really, and what does his created image in Moby Dick say about how users are creating their images online today? When I started this paper I was thinking about this website that re-imagines episodes of Downton Abbey as Facebook feeds. It's pretty funny. I started to think about what Moby Dick would look like if you did the same thing for Moby Dick. Ishmael and Queequeg are not friends. "Your friend Ishmael just shared the page four articles 'The Fountain' 'The Tail' 'The Grand Armada' 'Schools and School Masters'" "Ishmael is--feeling bored" "Ishamel just created the page 'RIP Pequod.'"  So, as I was thinking about this I realized that the was Ishmael presents himself is a lot like the way that we present ourselves online. He really is just curating a bunch of content and it is all wrapped up together in the book Moby Dick, so really I see Moby Dick less as a hunt for a whale, and more a study of who Ishmael really is and how the way that he curates content reveals his true identity, the same way that how we curate content online reveals our true identity. This includes what we share, what we don't share, how we share it, who we share it with, etc. All of this reveals our "true identity" the same way Ishmael reveals his in Moby Dick.

This is possibly what I am going to look into for my research, how we curate identity. This is something that is very interesting to me as someone who has a very strong online presence. How is what I am choosing to share and curate reveling my identity?

If you are interested, here is a link to my full paper. 

Midterm 1: Part 2

Here are my notes for my Moby Dick/Digital Culture essay. I am a very visual person, plus I am a doodler, so here are some notes that I created while I was coming up with ideas.

I know that this is probably very difficult to read, but on this sheet I have created a web of potential ideas for essay topics and quotes that I could use from the novel. As I was brainstorming, I started to think about how in a way Ishmael, being the narrator of the novel, and the sole survivor to tell the tale, he has the opportunity to craft the story however he wants, and can shape his persona however he wants. (This is probably sounding like I don't know that Ishmael is fictional....) But, would it make sense to write an essay about how the way that Ishmael presents himself is similar to how people create their persons in through digital culture. Is this way off base?? What do you think?

Midterm 1: Part 1

To start with, here is an archive of all of my posts up until now:

• Still Figuring Out Academic Blogging
• Thoughts on Finishing Moby Dick
• In Defense of the #Hashtag
• BYU and Technology
• BYU Tech Expo
• Connecting or Disconnecting?
• XML and HTML: What Does That Even Mean?
• The Digital Age as an Illumination of the Humanities
• Hi!

So, really looking at my various blog posts, I am struggling to find a common thread. But, something that I am seeing a bit of is how institutions like Brigham Young University and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is implementing and taking advantage of available technologies. In my post about BYU and Technology, discussing some ways that BYU is moving forward, Prof. Burton commented, "Too often institutions simply buy a lot of tech and think they are on the cutting edge. But you can have technology and yet not be enfranchised in the digital civilization."

In class and in blog posts, I have seen and heard a lot of discussion about how a person creates a digital presence and how we create our internet personas, like one of my teammates Derrick discussed in his post Reflecting on My Internet Persona: A Caution. As I have been working as the senior editor on BYUs blog Stance and with a publishing company in Salt Lake starting their blog, I have been thinking about how a company or group creates an internet presence for themselves rather than just an individual.

My question that I am thinking of is, How can organizations utilize the technology that is available to them in a productive way, rather than creating an online presence for the purposes of having one? And how can these online personas of large groups like the Church be positively and in some ways negatively effected by this? How does this involve people with a "product" and what importance does this online presence have for an organization/company?

I think I just asked too many questions. 

Still Figuring Out Academic Blogging

I wanted to respond, or really build off of, Derrick's two posts "The Tool is Not the Thing (The Tool is Really Important Though" and "Kicking the 'Last Minute' Habit" (which is slightly ironic because I am posting this a little bit last minute). But, he brought up some really interesting things that I hadn't thought about. Yes, sometimes I feel totally inspired by class, or the readings, or something that I read that week and I know exactly what I am going to post about. But, sometimes I feel lost and like I need to get something up just to get something up. Though the awesome thing about academic blogging is that no matter what, it forces you to start getting rolling, churning out ideas, and hopefully eventually making it to steps two and three of the academic blogging process where you have some actual thought out ideas that are actually worth something. Though, as I was reading Derrick's posts, I was really comparing this to how it has worked out in my personal blog. Even though I have been updating it regularly for almost three years now it still isn't perfect, but I have been able to see how I have slowly found direction through just getting myself to post something which has started to shape my blog into what I classify as a "personal adventure blog/journal." I really had no idea what I was doing at first, but as I have kept blogging, I have started to find direction and discover what I really wanted to talk about. I have also discovered that the more directed my blog becomes the more readers I am getting who are interested in my adventures and ideas.

Realizing that I have already in a small way gone through this process has made the idea of finding direction in this academic blog seem less daunting. Really when I first read Prof. Burton's post I could not have been more terrified thinking that there is no way that I could eventually get from just posting, to posting something that people care about. But, I am already trying to come up with ideas, and hopefully I will come up with something good.

Thoughts on Finishing Moby Dick

So, I finally finished Moby Dick, and I was really excited when I did. Prof. Wickman told us that we would be thrilled by the last thirty pages, and I really did think that they delivered. I was surprised to find, that in the final battle I was rooting for Moby Dick. I think that is what Herman Melville intended, but you would think after spending all that time on the boat with the crew, I would have been rooting for them a little bit more.

http://butdoesitfloat.com/To-produce-a-mighty-book-you-must-choose-a-mighty-theme

I know we talked about this quite a bit in class, but I was thinking about all the different things that Moby Dick represents. Yes, he represents a lot of things in terms of the text, but I think where he becomes the most relatable to the reader is when you start to kind of think of what your "white whales" are. The things that you just obsess over. Projects? Relationships? Something that happend that you still can't get off your mind? Something you are certain is going to happen and you can't stop thinking about it? Really I should maybe be more sympathetic with Ahab. I am certainly not putting my life or anyone else's in danger, but we still all have those things that we dwell on a little too much. Or really we should probably be learning from Ahab. Learning to let go of "white whales." Cause well, now that I finished reading Moby Dick, I know that Moby Dick eventually wins.

In Defence of the #Hashtag

Two of my blogging teammates, Sam and Melody, posted about hashtagging, and I decided I would weigh in on the debate too. I think that when used properly hashtags are excellent. I actually had a friend express annoyance with hashtags the other day, and I found myself defending to them and explaining how they can be very useful.
One of the things that I was explaining is how they can be helpful in grouping together pictures. For example, at a lot of weddings now they are selecting a specific hashtag for everyone to use on their pictures, like #smithwedding2013. This way the bride and groom can search for their hashtag, see, and save every picture that was taken at their wedding. I also use this method when I instagram pictures of my nephews and me. I always hashtag them #auntdani #babyjames or #babydaniel, that way I can quickly search through my pictures to see my cute nephews.
I did a little bit of research online to see some more reasons as to why an everyday user, not just someone trying to promote an event or brand would want to use hashtags. Well apparently there is a website called hashtags.org and they have an article on this very thing.
The reasons why this article explained it believes hashtags are useful to an everyday user are...

1. Gaining more followers

2. Engaging in conversations--As a humorous example, I had a friend start #mormonharrypotter and it created a hilarious thread imagining what it would be like if Harry Potter and his friends were Mormon.

3. Exchange content

4. Targeting users

5. Social analytics

The article gives some better descriptors of these and how they may be beneficial.

But, another thing that I found is how the Church is using hashtags to benefit its members, get topics trending, and increase interest in the Church. There is actually a Mormon Hashtag Recommendation page that was officially created by the Church. Who knew? It includes suggestions like #ldsconf (I'll be sure to use that one), #mormon, #PresMonson, #motab, and even #ldsage to be used when talking about the missionary age change.

So, yes, I know hashtags can get annoying, and a majority of the users are probably not using them to their greatest advantage. But, when you want to use them for good, they can be of great benefit.

BYU and Technology

I came across a link that someone posted on facebook today, clicked to check it out, and was totally amazed by what I saw. 

http://gigapixel.panoramas.com/brighamyoung/football/20130921/

BYU created a gigapixel panorama image at the football game this weekend, but what is so cool about this is that you can zoom in and clearly see everyone in attendance at the game. I was able to find myself very quickly and was surprised at how clear the image is even once you zoom in. It's a little weird, but also amazing. I would love to know how an image like this is created. 

What this got me thinking about, was how amazingly BYU has integrating itself into the technical world. Prof. Burton was just discussing today in class  BYUs app that you can use for a wide variety of school resources. BYU has really made it a point to be on top of all the latest technology and to be keeping up. I think we are really lucky to be going to a school that is so aware of what is going on and that is making a conscious effort to be a part of up and coming ideas and innovations. 

BYU Tech Expo

I didn't get Professor Burton's e-mail about BYU's Tech Expo (check out the website, if only just to admire the cool parallax scrolling effect http://cougartechexpo.byu.edu/) till later in the day, so between class and work, I wasn't able to catch much. But, I did swing by for the very end to see the Technology Trends session. It wasn't like one of the more informational sessions like they had earlier in the day that I wish I could have gone to, but it was still very interesting.

In the Technology Trends session, a professor from BYUs IT Department presented us with various videos that showed interesting facts about internet usage and that displayed some cool innovations with technology. While viewing he discussed with us some of the cool things that are happening with technology now, and what effects this has one us (so it was like a mini session of Digital Culture with lots of YouTube videos).

One of the videos that we watched and discussed was this Google Glass trailer.

I think Google Glass is undeniably amazing and fascinating technology. But, could it really be something that is going to catch on? I don't really know much about this technology or what Google is planning, but I would be really curious to hear others opinions about it and the impact they think this kind of technology could have. 

Connecting or Disconnecting?

During our lecture on Wednesday about consuming, creating, and connecting through digital culture, and as I read through some of the posts that people put up in response, I kept thinking of a video that one of my friends had posted on Twitter a month or two back called "The Innovation of Loneliness."

We keep discussing how we use digital media to connect through mediums such as facebook, twitter, instagram, goodreads, online forums, etc. I think this video gives some very interesting commentary on the potential that this new way of connecting has to disconnect us while change how we view ourselves and others. When I am scrolling through my social medias I don't usually consider the emotional effect that this has on me. I am really embarrassed to admit that just this weekend I voiced annoyance to my roommate that my most recent instagram hadn't gotten enough "likes" (I was of course instantly horrified with myself for caring about this). But, I think it's very relevant to the point that this video brings up that we are starting to use social media and the digital world to define so many aspects of our life, even our social structures, and we are letting it effect us personally. I think I'm starting to question Melody's statement in her post that we are learning how to control the machine through innovation, and wondering if all this innovation isn't letting the machine control us.

Is this something that you see as an issue as we increasingly move our lives into the online world where we can carefully craft our personas and see a count of how many "friends" we have? Do you think that this is going to become more and more of an issue? 

XML and HTML: what does that even mean?

First of all, what a fascinating title. I was intrigued by this video, "The Machine is Us/ing Us" before I even watched it

But, what I wanted to address was the question posed about HTML vs. XML. Last winter, I took an Internet Publishing class were I learned how to code using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Really it is the coolest thing to be able to imagine, design, create, and display something on the web that you created from scratch. I could not have been more proud of myself when I coded an entire website all on my own. I actually really wish it was still up on the web so I could link to it and show it off more. 

Anyways, I understand HTML pretty well and what it does, but I didn't really grasp exactly what XML is from the video, so I went to the XML page for w3schools.com (a website that we frequently used in Internet Publishing) and checked the wikipedia page to try and figure it out. 

Here is the differentiation that w3schools gave me 

XML was designed to transport and store data.

HTML was designed to display data.

So really they are both equally important right? 

If I'm understanding correctly, when I post to something like this blog I am using XML, because it is in a pre-created format that inputs and stores my date, but what you are seeing is formated in HTML, because this is where the data (stored in XML) is being displayed (in HTML). 

XML doesn't make HTML useless, it just makes it more effective. XML means that every time I wanted to make a change to a website, I don't have to go in and edit all of the HTML code so that the display and layout will not be effected, but the data and content can be updated and changed regularly. This kind of feature is essential for websites like Wikipedia or Blogger where content is regularly added or changed by users who are unfamiliar with coding, but where HTML becomes essential is in the actual display of the data in an appealing and well layed out format, which makes a big difference for a webpage. 

Now, I am willing to admit that I could have just gotten all of that completely wrong. If I am wrong, I would love to have someone explain this all to me because I am really interested in understanding it.