I'm an interactive designer/developer in Washington, D.C. If you’d like more information about me, my experience, or my identity on about a million different social networks, check here.
Maggie Sartin (above) took this second picture of us cartwheeling on the mall.
If you’re wondering what’s been up as of late, I’d direct you to my del.icio.us links, which is where all my fun internet finds have been been saved. My user i.d. is katdowns.
Right now I’m listening to: Hot Hot Heat, Andrew Bird, and Metric.
Movies I liked: Jesus Camp, Blood Diamond. A movie I didn’t like: Because I Said So.
I also really liked the book “I Am Charlotte Simmons” by Tom Wolfe.
I love the design, interactivity, and use of text, video, and photos. It’s engaging and easy to use, and it gives the user a lot of information. The scrapbook idea has been done before, but here it is done very, very well- and the interactivity adds an extra element to it that makes you feel like the story is alive, and fun. It’s kooky, like the story.
I was interested in this movie and the book because I was listening to an NPR interview with Margaret Robison, aka Deirdre Burroughs, Augusten Burroughs’ mother. Augusten renamed himself from Chris Robison to Augusten Burroughs at 18. Augusten wrote the book about his life and portrayed his mother as a bi-polar fame-obsessed poet (I haven’t read the book yet, I’m just repeating what I’ve heard). Her friends were upset by the way she was portrayed. Her last quote in the interview was, “This book, it is part of [Chris’s] life. It’s not a part of my life.”
For mothers leaving babies with their nannies, “a hot dog is never just a single tube of meat.”
The NFL has barred local TV stations from NFL sidelines during games, according to NEWSPHOTOGRAPHER’s Mark Loundy. The Minnesota Vikings have also banned photographing players who are injured during practice.
Get the hookup on some $1 makeup from E.L.F. This caused quite a stir among the ladies in my office, as you might imagine.
My last project that I worked on at USA TODAY was a audio/photo gallery about people who briefly came into prominence on and in the direct aftermath of Sept. 11, part of a much larger interactive segment released over several days.
Another cool section (that I didn’t work on, but it’s great) is about Ground Zero today, featuring visitors, graffiti, and the only photos from inside Ground Zero where the workers are.
To see the article and the rest of the package, go here.
Today there are two items on the agenda. #1 - The magic of the Internet and #2 - The question of whether or not the Facebook has gone too far.
#1: The Magic Today I went to check out Katie Couric’s first broadcast on YouTube, when I was distracted by a video called “Piano Tetris”, which led me to the video I have posted below. The video is by a person named “cutiemish”, who pronounces some words to show her accent. But the really amazing part of the broadcast is the request for others to send back videos with their own accents so she can hear them. There are several replies from various countries including The Netherlands, Canada, US, Australia, Sweden, and France. For me, this is absolutely amazing! People are so into YouTube that they will make a small video just to show something simple like how they pronounce words! And I have to admit that I watched them all and was delighted by the accents Just another sign that the internet is changing our lives in a subtle yet powerful way.
#2: Has Facebook gone too far? And I believe the answer is yes. Several Facebook groups have arisen with the introduction of the Facebook’s new feature, “News”. I mentioned it yesterday but I don’t feel that I did it justice given the outrage that the Facebook is currently experiencing. The anti-news groups have names like “Facebook has Crossed the Line” and “Students Against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)”-yet, there are groups that are pro-news: “If you joined the petition, you don’t know about information architecture”-which argues that the Facebook gave you all the “news” to begin with but it was much harder to access (and we all accessed it anyway).
For those of you who may not be on the Facebook, a brief intro might be helpful. The Facebook is a networking site that originally was open to college students. It then expanded (quickly) to include high schools, cities, and now, workplaces. The last two networks are by invite only, unless you are already on the Facebook. The Facebook has capabilities for profiles, photo albums, bulletin boards, party invites, groups, messaging, blogging, and now- NEWS. In fact, I bet a lot of people are reading this post through the Facebook right now…
The “News” item basically changed the personalized home page to include news about all your friends. The news includes profile changes (i.e. Charles changed his interests to include streaking), new photos, new “notes” (or blog posts), group membership changes, pretty much anything and everything.
The real question here is how much do we want our friends to know? That we posted new pics? Yeah, sure they can know that. New interests? OK. That you posted “I’ve got a bottle of vodka down my pants” on Tina’s wall? I don’t think so. And so begins the protest. The thing is that the Facebook is already out there.. really curious friends (or stalkers, as some call them) could find what they were looking for anyway. It’s the normal friends we’re all worried about.. the people you haven’t seen in five years who never read your profile anyway or the guy you just met on the metro who oddly Facebooked you.. and you’ll never talk to or see again. I mean, I don’t want everyone knowing everything about me. Actually it kind of freaks me out that my blog is on Facebook — but I guess it drives traffic.
But that is the nature of the beast. Just like your friends can read all about you, so they say employers can too. A New York Times article from June tells about how employers use networking sites to screen employees. That is a little scary, because most of us (including me) have the obligatory drinking/smoking/dancing pictures posted somewhere online.. and some with not-so-appropriate comments from friends-which I love, but somehow I think that it wouldn’t help me get the job. I notice my friends taking their questionable groups (ones like “Vodka Makes the Party Start”) off their profiles, and taking any pictures that might include the aforementioned college behavior, just in case somebody (an employer? a new facebook friend from the office?) might see it.
Well I’ve made a decision about life on the internet, which is that it’s a little bit of professional and personal. Some people get the extended profile, and some people get the limited profile. And in my opinion, that’s just like life, where my real friends get the good stuff and my sort-of friends get some laughs and some fun. And so, I guess I am against the Facebook news feed.. because if you care enough to search it out, you deserve it. And let all the people who don’t want to know and who don’t care just keep moving on with their lives.
PS. Comments are welcome (on Blogger) because I’m not really sure if anyone is reading this.
USA TODAY linked to this picture today:It’s from a digital archive of 9/11 images, stories and audio. It is basically community journalism at its best-getting the people who were there to tell their own stories in their own words, using the things they saw and heard. The archive is really deep and some of the artifacts are really moving and unusual-very personal, although the navigation system could use some work. It could bring up the question of whether or not the internet will/can take over journalism- and it’s even more interesting to read the little link at the bottom of the site — “How do you know these objects are true/real?”- where the site architects said that as with any research, you should check your sources, and that even newspapers need to be read with that in mind. Will a time come when people trust the internet (their peers) more than their local newspaper?
I saw Little Miss Sunshine this weekend, and it was wonderful. I was falling out of my seat laughing almost the entire movie, please go see it. The soundtrack is pretty good too, featuring DeVotchKa and a couple of tracks by Sufjan Stevens.
This weekend Vanessa, Lisa, and I checked out the Museum of Natural History and the National Gallery of Art, which were both wonderful. Unfortunately we had to leave the gallery b/c it was closing, so we only got to see part of Rousseau’s “Jungles in Paris” exhibit. The Museum of Natural History was really detailed and fascinating. We went through the dinosaur and insect exhibits. The dinosaur bones are really amazing. We saw hundreds of species of bugs and a bunch of tarantula’s with super-cute names like “pink-toe” and “orange-leg” (i think orange-leg, not sure.. maybe orange thigh? orange foot?). All the insects looked like sticks and leaves, we felt like we were in the jungle. Wild.
We also had a little fun, we went to the Liberation Dance Party at DC9, where Vanessa got all her drinks free (not so for the rest of us), and we danced some crazy dances.
I have also added a link on the right panel to the excellent website Pandora. It’s a site where you can listen to a radio-like jukebox that figures out what songs you like based on your suggestions of favorite music. It makes some pretty cool suggestions that can introduce you to new bands. The only annoying thing is that because of licensing issues it will only let you skip a certain number of songs and it won’t let you go back or request specific songs.
Less than one week until I start the new job! If you know of anyone in DC that is looking for a roommate, let me know!
Ok, short but sweet, I’ll say. Nothing too much today, shopped around Lund, thrill a minute. Got another massive email from John, which like 70 thousand people replied to in my inbox, so received an inoordinate amount of email. PS the fake eBay people trying to steal my money have now sent me about 15 “final notices” asking for my credit card information. Come on, get a new con already. A good one would be “I kidnapped your mother, $2 million by Tuesday, please.” Scotland Tuesday, and the real question is-red dress, or green?
![[USA TODAY]](../../../_1NI9wgirUFw/Spx8tb1OtSI/AAAAAAAAAGA/ISy8hAQ8Yto/s400/Picture-2.png)
Another cool section (that I didn’t work on, but it’s great) is about Ground Zero today, featuring visitors, graffiti, and the only photos from inside Ground Zero where the workers are.