Tutorial 6: the internet and onlie communities

1) Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating

Facebook- www.facebook.com

2) What is the brief or focus of this community

Facebook is a social networking sight where users can find and connect with friends, relatives and groups. It helps keep people updated.

3) What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?

Facebook is extremely interactive and these are the services that allow this to take place:

• The wall- a pace on users profile pages that allow friends to post comments on
• Pokes- allows users to send a virtual “poke” to each other
• Photos- can be uploaded (as well a profile picture) which can be shared
• Status- allowing users to inform their friends about their actions

4) Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?

There are various reasons that people contribute to the community. It is a quick and easy way to keep updated on friends and family, as well as informing then on your happenings. People often find that it is a great leisure activity as photos can be viewed or you can chat to your friends. Facebook can be a fantastic tool for organising events as you can just post event information up and send it out as an invitation.

Companies sometimes join in order to advertise, promoting their service in a modern way that is relevant to the time.

People mostly seek community, a place where they can connect and keep in contact with other people. The question remains though; how much connection does it really provide? Is it actually isolating, limiting real life relationships or does it enhance the existing relationships?

5) Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt).

“Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes! I had a fantastic day with friend and family.” (this is a status update to that friends for the birthday wishes they had posted on the persons wall).

6) Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability.

Again there is the ethical issue of privacy; facebook is a site where everyone can access almost anyone’s information. There is also the ethical issue of identity; people can make up who they want to be. Regularly identity stealing takes place, especially that of celebrities.

There is no accountability, anyone can pretty much post anything.

7) Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community e.g. communities reliant on geographic proximity

Facebook comes with many benefits as it has no geographical boundaries, if you have access to internet you can become part of Facebook, a global community. This is very convenient in times like today where people regularly move, not just towns but countries and continents. Facebook provides a tool to continue to communicate in a quick and easy way to people across the world.

8) Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.

Traditional community give the opportunity for face to face communication, where body language and tone of voice is part of interaction. This is one of the biggest things that Facebook lacks. This is a major part of communication, a big part of what humans need. Facebook sometimes becomes a replacement for this which can lead to isolation rather than connection which is a huge problem in this century.

Tutorial Eight: Posting You Tube Videos and Flickr Badges to Blogs: Explaining the process

Task One: Explain the step by step process required to embed You Tube videos into your Blog. Consider using Youtube help or a tutorial from Youtube or Slideshare.

The easiest way to approach embedding a YouTube video into your blog is to have both tabs open at once- so have the video you want to use open on one tab and your new blog post (which your are preparing to post) open on another tab.

Right click on the YouTube video and select ‘copy embed html’.

Then go back to your blog page, onto your new post. Right click and select ‘Paste’.

Then all you have to do is publish your post and it will be there!

Task Two: Explain the step by step process required to embed a Flickr Badge into your Blog . Consider using flickr help or a tutorial from Youtube or Slideshare.

To embed a Flickr badge onto your blog first sign in to your blog. Then go to ‘Customize’ which is in the top right hand corner of your page.

Then click on “Add Gadget’ which is towards the middle left of the page. A new window will open up. Click on ‘Featured’ which is near the top on the left, under ‘Basics’. Scroll down until you come to ‘Flickr Photostream’ and then click on the blue ‘+’ button.

How to link a photo to your blog (from instruction website):

“Step 1 - Choose HTML or Flash

There are two types of badges that you can choose for your photos. An HTML badge will show your photos in the original format under which they were posted. The other option is to show your photos in flash format. Flash format will allow you to showcase more than one photo as well as showcase the photos in more than one format.

Step 2 - Choose Your Photos

After selecting the format for which your photos will be shown you will click on the "Next: Choose Content" button at the bottom of the page. This button will redirect you to another page where you will choose the photos that you will put into the badge.

You may choose individual pictures and/or videos to put into the badge. This is done by selecting the "all of your public photos and video option". The next option is to the option that reads "your public stuff tagged with". With this option you can type a specific tag and any content with this tag will be added to the badge. You can also choose to select one of your sets to add to the badge. This can be done be selecting the "public content by one of your sets" option.

The last option is to choose content from a group or from everyone's. These options allow you to select content that is placed on Flickr by other users. Once selecting the content that you wish to add to your badge you will then click on the "Next: Layout" button.

Step 3 - Select Your Layout

You will now select the layout for this badge. You will select items such as: including your screen name, how many items to show, which items to show, the size and the orientation. Once you have made your choices click on the "Next: Colors" button at the bottom of the screen. This button will take you to a page that allows you to customize the colors of this badge. After choosing the appropriate colors, click on the "Next: Preview and Get Code" button.

Step 4 - Share Your Badge

Your badge will be displayed on the next page. There is also a description box that includes the HTML code with your badge information. You can now copy and paste this code into your blog so that you can include the pictures that you have chosen on your blog site.”

Steve’s Digicams. (2010). How to create a flickr badge to share your photos. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/online-sharing-social-networking/how-to-create-a-flickr-badge-to-share-your-photos.html

Overcoming Adversity

Overcoming adversity- literally

During the course we had a bit of a dilemma with our movie because it wouldn't work in the format that it was recorded in. After much hassle (and a frustrating amount of time) we finally managed to get it all sorted and get the end product up on YouTube.

Tutorial Seven: Assistive technology

1) Provide a definition of Assistive technology (your Cook and Hussey reading may be helpful with this).
Assistive technology refers to devices, services, strategies and practices that are created and used in order to reduce problems that people with disabilities have to deal with.

2) Describe one piece of equipment introduced in the assistive technology tutorial. Provide information on size, cost and functions.
Wobble switch (attached to flexible switch/goose neck). This is is a switch designed for any individual who has difficulty with fine motor skills, limited hand movement or motor control. The wobble switch has a wand that can be activated by pressing against it in any direction.
It costs about $300 and is relatively small, however is large enough to use for people who have less control. Easy to attach to most surfaces that it would be useful for.

3) How does your chosen piece of equipment increased functional capacity for the user? Provide examples here from the tutorial and lecture.
It would increase function because it give the user control in some aspects (e.g. Switching radio on and off) where they may otherwise have very little control due to lack of motor skills. This also helps clients participate in occupations they may not otherwise have been able to participate in which will help make life easier or more meaningful.

Making a Film and Uploading onto YouTube

This exercise was a very good example of how frustrating technology can be! Our group took heaps of time to make a film but when it came to putting the clips together the programme wouldn't read it. So now we just have a bunch of random clips that don't make any sense. Not entirely sure what to do about this, I guess we'll call it a work in progress.