Final Website Post

            Hopefully my website will be finished by tonight but I do plan on using it to promote myself. I had a LiveJournal for the longest time and never got any traffic on it so I’m very excited to have a website that actually has a chance at traffic.

Firstly, I think that having a website to put on business cards and as a contact will be a beneficial way to promote myself as well as a good way to make me sound official. It’s one thing to but published on a site but it’s another thing entirely to run your own site.  I feel more professional already! Hopefully, tying my website in with my facebook and twitter will get it some traffic as well.

            My social media projects have definitely helped me to write my website. Firstly, they have taught me to write in a simple language. Secondly, my experience on Twitter has taught me that people mostly skim through posts so the shorter I can say something the better. Likewise, my experience on facebook has taught me that graphics, pictures and designs will make my website stand out to the viewer. The more enticing visually I can make a website the better.

            The final way my social media projects have helped in the creation of this site is linking. Being able to but a link to my social media sites is a lot safer than linking my phone number or personal address. I’m very glad we made professional social media sites as well so no one sees any embarrassing photos as well.  Also in the social media active age we are in having multiple social media tags seems to make websites seem more legitimate and employees or people seem more reachable.

            My experience making the website has been really interesting to say the least. As of me writing this my website isn’t completed yet but I can tell you what I have learned so far.

            Firstly, photoshop is a great designing tool. I always seem to forget how useful and easy photoshop is. I used photoshop not only to sketch out my first drafts for my website but also to bring my plans into dreamweaver. I found this extremely interesting and helpful. 

            As for the actual designs for my website I used a minimalist concept that was the brainchild of both my laziness and the actual design articles we read on our blog. I tried to keep the color scheme simple as well so I went with a black and white theme. I did this to make my website look a little like a notebook.

            Content wise, I focused on writing for my portfolio. I tried to show that I could write in a diverse amount of styles. I included some of my schoolwork as well as creative writings and scripts for commercials.

             I spent an entire class making images out of my creative writing pieces so I hope that it really looks nice visually in the final website because I spent a lot of time in photoshop. I did this to all of my pieces so that they could be viewed as an image and can’t be edited or copied by another party. I also did this because I know how much more convenient looking at an image is compared to downloading the PDF file.

            For the background texture I tried to choose interesting visuals that were at the same time subtle enough to not distract the viewer. I chose a metallic black texture for the background, a crumpled paper texture for the banner and a soft Victorian style fabric texture for the navigation bar.  I hope these textures won’t overpower the overall visual experience of the website but I dulled down the colors so hopefully that will balance out the images.

            Dreamweaver I found to be an extremely confusing program. I thought I understood coding when I used it to create my BUFF Wiki page but in dreamweaver everything changed. The coding became even harder because now I had to not only position the text on the page but also position the text on the page over a background and make sure it was readable.

            The one thing I seemed good at was creating hotspots, at least until the properties toolbox disappeared. With dreamweaver it is essential that you name everything something simple and easy to remember because you will likely be forced to type that file in several times exactly the same way so that the software knows exactly what file you need. This sounds easy on paper but when you have several photoshop images and have to replace the several times for a project you can lose track of what you’re doing really fast.

            There was a huge confusion with something called DivTags. Thankfully, we were able to avoid this monster by making out files images and slapping the text onto the image.

            Then there was the whole nightmare of making the background image stay the same size on the portfolio page. I still don’t understand what I was doing there but my image was 960 X600 pixels hopefully it counts for something.

            I found the software obnoxiously confusing. I felt really bad for our professor who had to walk around and help of with every unfortunate thing dreamweaver tried to put us through.

            At every single task it seemed dreamweaver had another problem or just wanted to stop working altogether. I don’t know if this is the fault of the actual program or simply the computers we were working off of. The computers we used had a bad habit of quitting on us as well. Photoshop in particular decided to just stop functioning at a couple of points when I was working on it.

            I hope what I want for my website comes through. The more experience I have with dreamweaver the less of a chance I feel like I have. 

Website 2.0

The first point in the article I found really interesting was the idea of simplicity. To be completely honest I wanted my website to be simple because I thought it would be easier. However, according to the article there are a few key benefits to simplicity.

Firstly, since the viewers on the internet tend to act impulsively having less content to distract them with offers the opportunity to hone in their focus on specific elements of a website, such as shopping. The article is careful to point out this does not necessarily mean minimalist. There can still be several items on a page just not an over abundance of distractions such as the old Geocites. According to the article the result of a simplistic set up is, “that you have to look at the content. You find yourself interacting with exactly the screen features the designer intended. And you don’t mind – it’s easy, and you get just what you came for.” This approach keeps the viewer's attention exactly where the website creator wants them to notice.

This applies to my website as I am trying to keep the web pages simple by having only a few articles per page. I am also only looking to do one flash element on a drop down menu as opposed to several icons or animations.

The second point I found important was the avoidance of multiple columns. Keeping everything in one simple flowing pattern will definitely help keep the navigation easy. My website only has one navigation bar located on the left-side. Using this space and only this space for navigation will insure all of my links work and the viewer has access to everything on my website. Too many columns will leave the viewer with a sense of confusion. According to the article there is a major flaw with multiple columns, “The downside of this layout is that you don’t know where to start looking. Everything is somehow low-priority”.

The final point I found important was the separation of the top banner. Aesthetically, this is like the cover to a book. It gives off a formality to the viewer and tell them that this is where to start. According to the article, “It also starts the site/page experience with a strong, bold statement. This is very “2.0″-spirited. I like strong, simple, bold attitude.” This means that even if the viewer instantly navigates away from the page they at least know vaguely what it's about. In many ways the top banner is like a welcome mat welcoming the viewer to your website.

I found this important for my website as I also will have a top banner. I tried to make this eye popping and bold by using a crumpled paper texture. Because my website is mostly white on black I feel like this banner will really pop on the screen.

There are also a few of these conventions I am not following with this website. I am not using the recommended strong colors. I wanted to keep mine simple with black and white to make the pictures and word files fit in rather than stand out. Overall, I would like my website to sort of seem like a journal. Hopefully, this will be effective as even without bright colors I try to separate space with my colors. 

Website Design Guide: http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/web-design/web-2-0-design-style-guide/#simplicity

Twitter Post II

Point One: The Revolution Will Be Tweeted

Twitter and social media have played an interesting role in the Arab spring revolutions. The face-paced instant nature of Twitter allows protesters to set up flash protests, monitor the presence of an authority such as the police or army and even spread the news of tragedies or scandals. The downside to social media as a tool of protest: the government can shut down internet access at any time.

Point Two: How Companies Use Twitter

The instant nature and popularity of Twitter make it a great market place for advertising. With millions of registered users a company has a very large audience that very likely has spare money (the internet is still some what of a luxury). Using promotions disguised as tweets or open questions for public discussion Twitter can generate interest in a product or service. It can also gather public opinion on a product or solve customer complaints.  

Twitter

Twitter is a time consuming, life-altering website designed to distract people from the real world. However, it has many other applications that have helped to change the way we communicate as a society.

Firstly, twitter can be used as a news source. While trusting twitter with facts is like trusting your thesis paper to Wikipedia twitter has changed the speed at which information is circulated. According to CNN writer Doug Gross, “With Twitter, it's fast on steroids.” Gross describes twitters popularity as, “In the Twitter echo chamber, all it takes is a few users with big follower counts to share something. With one click, those followers share it with their own followers. And the wildfire is set ablaze.” This describes essentially how news travels on twitter. The Kony 2012 film is a great example of this. By using celebrity twitters and their mass followings the video spread so quickly it gave new leverage to the term “viral video.”

Secondly, twitter can be used as a marketing tool. Your favorite website or TV show is a lot more interesting when it has daily updates. These updates make the product feel more like a friend than a product and because of the lighting fast speed of twitter this feeling can be re-tweeted by thousands of users within days. However, the tweet can just as quickly fall under the radar and disappear into the unknown regions of the internet where my live journal hides in obscurity – but the possibility is the regardless.

Twitter has a lot of uses from a journalistic perspective. Although according to CNN the top 100 twitter sites are still celebrities and “old media”, “nestled not terribly far below are hundreds of bloggers, podcasters and online journalists who have found a bigger audience on Twitter than they probably would have without it.” On twitter a strangers tweets have just as much standing as CNN and MSNBC. This leads to the fast travel of news that isn't always trustworthy. This is shown in China's reaction to what the government calls “rumors”. According to Tania Branigan writer for The Guardian, “China has 300 million registered microblog users and while services are censored – blocking prevents sensitive terms from being posted, and other material is often deleted – authorities are increasingly concerned at the speed at which information can spread.”

The other criticism of Twitter from a journalistic perspective is that is dumbs down ideas. According to Technology Bloggers writer Marc, “Tweets are cute, but they lack the intellectual and creative substance of a more sustained thought. 140 characters or even a single paragraph cannot provide enough context to tell the whole story.” Thus while tweets spread information and opinions quickly they do not spread ideas, concepts and solutions quickly due to the word limit.

Despite it's flaws twitter is great at promotion. Twitter can break down the shell surrounding celebrities and politicians. While emails are formal and can be deleted and ignored tweets are public. Everyone can see what a celebrity or politician chooses to respond to and how. This makes it harder for a celebrity or politician to hide behind a publicist but makes the internet and the people all the more interesting and real.

Twitter can also help an organization prosper and advertise. Because twitter is free to use non-profits organizations use it frequently. The American non-profit, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals uses twitter to encourage donations, share news about causes and promote protests. These tweets are completely public and thus all twitter users have a chance at this exposure.

Twitter can also help advertize other websites. Using a Tiny Url allows users to tweet links to websites or pictures for when 140 characters just aren't enough. All a tweet needs is an interesting tag-line to draw users in to a longer narrative.

Twitter also encourages conversation and discussion. However, short this conversation is. The recent controversy that spilled over twitter about the casting of an African-American character in the movie the Hunger Games helps to highlight public opinion and has lead to a discussion of race that might not have otherwise been noticed.

The organizations I chose to follow reflected my interests and causes. I chose to follow PETA and the SPCA because they constantly update and offer news about protests and controversies. I would love to help spread this information by re-tweeting it and adding comments. Being a follower of these organizations makes me feel like an activist even if all I'm doing is clicking an icon.

I chose to follow Game Informer because having video games attached to a magazine makes it feel more like a reputable hobby. I found most of their tweets were just links to the website but I still found following them interesting and I enjoyed tweeting about what I thought about the article.

I chose to follow Metallica because they have a lot going on right now. They are on an international tour and I enjoyed getting to see their pictures from the tour. I also enjoyed that they advertised for so many contests.

Finally, I chose to follow the WWE because they are insanely entertaining. They literally blow up twitter with hundreds of tweets a day. While a user may have to search to find a decent one they are usually bursting with hilarious tweets from muscular men with serious ego problems. There is “internet tough guy syndrome” everywhere. In all seriousness the WWE also has a non-profit program through the creative coalition to stop bullying. Sure its probably just a way to market the WWE to weak depressed children but its still adorable that they try.

My experience with twitter has been a lot different than blogger and social media. The most important detail being I found it really ineffective. Tweeting to me felt like commenting on a post. It seemed like everything I did was shoved down the tweet list to the bottom. I didn't feel like I had many original ideas. Instead I felt like I was just updating the information someone else sent me. I suppose my experience would have been a little different had my twitter been for personal use and my tweets been completely my opinion. However, even then I feel like my tweets would still be unnoticed.

References: 

Doug Gross for CNN:

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-15/tech/twitter.status.taylor_1_jack-dorsey-ceo-dick-costolo-twitter-usage/2?_s=PM:TECH

Tania Branigan for The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/06/china-cracks-down-microblogging-rumours

Marc for Technology Bloggers:

http://www.technologybloggers.org/blogging/blogging-vs-microblogging/  

Picture: 

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/100-remarkably-beautiful-twitter-icons-and-buttons/

Interview

Q, How do you plan on self-promoting yourself?

A, I want to be a writer, and the best way to get your work out there is threw websites like word clay which can make a hard copy of your work.

Q, Name three goals between now and graduation?

A, 1, Get published in the school news paper or any paper

2, Get my motorcycle license

3, get a better job

Q, What employment goals do you have for after graduation? Name three.

A, 1, be a freelance writer, I want to be able to make my own schedule.

2, Publish websites

3, if all else fails some sort of position in marketing.

Q, Name three best case scenario jobs you would have and why?

A, Best selling author, because writing is my passion and I've always dreamed of being a author.

Create a social website which would help aspiring writers get punished.

Freelance writer, it seems like a nice lifestyle.

Q, do you prefer to work professionally with a group or on your own why?

A, Alone, because I find I do my best work without other peoples opinions, I find it distracting.

Q, what contributions can you make to a group dynamic? Name three.

A, I am an extremely organized person, I am very Tech savvy and I always bring food to a meeting.

Q, what contributions can you make working independently? Name three.

A, I am a very diligent worker, I am task oriented, and I let nothing get in the way of finishing my work not even sleep.

Q, what are your pet peeves in a work environment?

A, Drama! Keeping personal and professional life separate. I don’t like Social media in the work place it’s a distraction. And teasing I am very sensitive.

Q, name three things your passionate about professionally

A, In a group dynamic im a passionate about everyone doing their far share, all finished work to look professional with no errors. Anything that is written be easy to read and not too dry.

Q, How do you handle stress and pressure?

A, if alone I have no problem putting my head down and doing what I need to get done. In a group I'd try to motivate without coming off bossy and meet the deadline.

Q, name the last three jobs you had, and the best success and worst failure you experienced.

A, I have only had one job, at Burger King and since I’ve been there I have been able to get friends jobs, they gave me a grant for college and my personal skill have improved from dealing with dissatisfied customers.

Q, How do you handle criticism?

A, I can handle it, if I were to be at fault I would take responsibility and fix the mistake.

Q, outline three strengths you have in school.

A, communicating with teachers, I am always on top of my assignments and check Angel constantly and try to stay on task in class.

Q, outline three strengths in the workplace.

A, I am always on time, will stay after hours to complete my work, I have always had a great relationship with management and stay in the good graces of my employers.

Q, how was creating a wikipage strengthened your communication skills?

A, I got better at researching and finding reliable sources, learned a lot about coding and how to tell people what they want to hear while still getting what I want.

Q, How will Facebook be used to promote yourself?

A, I am best at expressing myself threw writing so Facebook is a good platform for that. Writing my Bio will be the best way to promote myself. I like designing WebPages and I think my personality will shine threw with my color scheme ETC.

Q, How will you promote an organization on Facebook?

A, use a lot of picture and mostly make it easy to use and share.

Q, how will twitter be used to promote yourself.

A, establish a solid network of people who are interested in what I'm doing. Establish myself as a businesswoman.

Q, graphically what do you want to have on your website

A, I would want it to represent me; simple, word heavy, not flashy just black whit lots of texted (like my dark Emo soul)

Constructive Criticism

1. I probably shouldn't make fun of myself during the interview.
2. I need to work on being nervous.
3. Just in general I have some pretty obvious social awkwardness and self-esteem issues.   

The Good, The Bad and The Emo

Many, many years ago a great creator known as Yahoo bought a gaping black hole known as Geocites. This cancerous tumor on the metaphorical brain of the internet allowed almost any user to maintain their own website. This meant you, your sister, your cat, anything with internet connection and a keyboard could create their own web-page. The results were catastrophic.

Luckily for the champions of the internet in 2009 Geocites was permanently taken off the internet. For the days following the incident the average IQ of internet users jumped a staggering 25% . 

In honor of Geocites' destruction I present to you five awful websites that would put geocites to shame:

http://www.myotaku.com/users/scarredswordheart : I'm sure that this emo kid has a terrible life that they're just dying to whine about. Unfortunately their interesting taste in text and wall paper makes this website virtually unreadable. 

http://www.myotaku.com/users/worst_nightmare : Yet another emo kid but this one was at least kind enough to give us their name. Under the “real name” section the website proudly reads: "u are a fuckin ass hole". Apparently the word “asshole” is now “ass hole” which is apparently a name. Who knew? Also the site brilliantly proclaims this using lime green against a white background. For all of it's simplicity this site actually takes a hideously long time to load. Which gives the viewer plenty of time to consider navigating away.

http://www.1112.net/lastpage.html : I hope the person who made this site was joking . . . It's cold outside! Also the award for the least amount of creativity goes to this guy! This page is literally blank, with a few sentences centered in the middle. I guess I should be glad they are centered.

http://www.sixtiespress.co.uk/ : This UK website makes me think of a bill, an overdue bill by a very angry company. The letters bolded in white with black highlights form a rainbow of colorful text that is about as ascetically pleasing as it is readable. I know the sixties was a time of experimentation but I think the person who made this site had too much LSD.

http://www.valweb.org/ : This color cyan is atrocious all on it's own. It's not teal. It's not light blue. No, it is cyan like the color your printer prints when it's out of ink. What's borderline pathetic is that this site is some type of art exchange. The two alien characters on the black banner are supposed to be art apparently.

Actual good websites are hard to find in a world where Web 2.0 dictates comments from random internet denizens have as much right to be posted as actual content but here are five websites I think are actually worth your time.

http://tosh.comedycentral.com/blog/ : No matter how bad my life is this man always gets me to laugh. His website is as funny as it is cool and interactive. Every week they do hilarious “caption this” contests and everyday they post funny/creepy pictures. The site has a pretty easy navigation four main categories line the top banner and the small banner above that connects the user back to comedy central. I liked this design because it was very interactive and it helped draw in a great audience which the Tosh.0 brand now gets to advertise products to. I also like that it's a dark background.

http://www.livejournal.com/ : I always liked the way live journal was set up. They never bothered you if a post was increditably long. In fact you can pretty much write a novel in post form. You can make groups and communities pretty easily too. I think this would be a good way to post an online portfolio too.

http://www.cnn.com/ : I always felt this website had a good mix of adds and content. The adds are usually the things on the farthest to either side. The content and navigation is in the center which makes the website look very direct and current.

http://vimeo.com/ : As far as video formatting and flash graphic goes I liked Vimeo the moment we did that project on it. The little sun in the corner that dances ever so subtly, the crisp modern colors and a sleek smooth design are all graphics I would like in my personal website, just a little darker.

http://www.redirectdigital.com.br/ : I openly admit there is no way my site could ever be as awesome as this site. Rather than simple scrolling down to see a box this website incorporates some really cool abstract line art into the design of its website layout. Literally the entire page looks like something that strolled out of the Albright Knox art gallery, on a skateboard, wearing an awesome t-shirt. 

Following

There are a lot of organizations doing interesting things out there but it takes something really special to get my attention! Yeah, that was a flat out lie. Here are five organizations I chose to follow and why:

Erie County SPCA: This organization saves the lives of the fuzzy creatures that make my existence on this planet livable. To add to this the SPCA holds all sorts of fundraisers and awareness programs that they can advertise through Twitter.

PETA: This organization helps free animals trapped in labs and makes sure perpetrators of animal cruelty face the full extent of the law. This organization also blows the whistle on animal cruelty that goes under the radar. PETA is a good group to follow because they are always looking for new stories and are never short of articles.

Metallica: While calling Metallica an organization is a bit of a stretch I believe Metallica has a huge following and now that they're on tour I'm sure they'll be some pretty cool pictures posted! Metallica also has a new album coming out so it will be interesting to see if anything get leaked over twitter.

WWE: Technically, this is an organization by the way. Wrestling is the greatest thing on television so it has to be pretty cool on twitter. Well, it's still a million times better than the Kardashians. Tell me what could be better then a bunch of angry guys slapping each other around? Nothing. In addition to re-tweeting everything the wrestlers say, WWE also sponsors this anti-bullying program called “Be a Star” that has some pretty cool programs.

Game Informer: This monthly magazine is pretty much the hypnotic advertisement that drives me to Gamestop every month. Game Informer is actually an independent Gaming magazine so I'm sure they will have interesting tweets of press screenings and sneak peeks of games.