Sunday, January 24, 2010

Change Agent

Interactive Media and Change Agent


In this blog I'm going to discuss an article about Interactive Media and Change Agent written by Elaine England and Andy Finney of ATSF in January 2002. I found the article particularly interesting being written in an 8 year old perspective. In the article they mention how terms such as multimedia, new media and interactive media came into existence and transformed with the wed, a web that utilized phone lines and a new technology of the time, DSL. In additional they define change agents, basically being everyone, but more specifically as "people with the vision and skills to implement a change in organizational culture or business practice". Many of these change agents coming about through business and educational needs as the technology has improved.

In the following paragraphs I look at the difference between digital media and interactive multimedia, my role as a change agent and the impact of future technologies on my career.


Difference between Digital Media and Interactive Multimedia


The difference between digital media and interactive multimedia is interactive media is exactly what its name implies, integration of media that requires interaction from the user. Digital media is the form that media takes such as electronic text, graphics, video and audio (i.e. your mp3's, .mov's, pdf's and many more formats that digital media take).


My role as a change agent, if any


What my role as a change agent, change agent being someone that thinks out of the box and figures out how to use technology to either improve or innovate, I'm not really sure. I hope to use what I learn in school and apply to come up with something fresh to add the mix, meaning my work/creations in the trade.

When I started school I was on a quest to find my next career (first being the Navy, now retired) that was more of a passion than a job. I was thinking photography but presently I'm leaning more towards videography. I like how technology in regards to video particularly, combined with the web is enabling people with no connections to Hollywood, to make very professional, entertaining videos, features, stories whatever they may be called. Ten years ago I would have never imagined a web site such "You Tube" would exist, much less be as successful as it is.

I see more and more people in the future turning away from Hollywood's fantasy world in favor for more real world entertainment/story lines from smaller companies all over the world.


Future technologies impact on career


Anticipating my success in the videography field, I going to say that technology (cameras, computers, software) will only improve (i.e. lighter, faster, stronger, cheaper) and enable the smaller videographers, such as myself, with the limited budgets to make Hollywood grade productions.

This being said, I know it takes more than equipment and software to make good videos but I hope with a combination of my deep desire to do whatever it takes to be good at this craft and the cost of very capable equipment coming down, I hope to make my mark as a videographer.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Newbie Blogger Evaluation

Blogging Tools Evaluated


The three blogging tools I evaluated were:


They were all fairly close in features available except that Dairyland charged a little to upload pictures. I chose Blogger over the other two sites because I found the user interface to be easier to follow. I have very limited Blogging experience and no experience in regards to hosting a Blog. For that reason the three sites I chose also provided the necessary hosting and more importantly were free.

Dairyland


I'll discuss Dairlyland first because I found it to be the least appealing of the three due to the user interface being the hardest to follow. However I think it had the most control over the look of the Blog using html. This may be important down the road if I wanted to tailor the the Blog site to look the same as website. The picture provided was their default settings.


WordPress


WordPress had the best html editing tools of the three Blogging tools evaluated. I'm not sure if I would be using the tools included or do all my html with another program and import it into the Blog.


Blogger


Blogger seemed to have the best interface of the three. I'm rather partial to the tabbed navigation and that may something to do with my choice. Overall Blogger seemed to be pretty easy to use with its templates and its navigation. In addition it appeared to be very versatile in regards customizing the layout. As it stands now I would choose Blogger as my choice for Blogging tools but I'm not sure, well I'm sure that I don't know the in an outs of Blogging.