Digital Media
Dr. Jim Rowan
ITEC 2110
First, a bit about
GGC/MediaWiki
MediaWiki Stuff:
Internal Links to a New Page
Linking within the wiki (and creating a new page)
placing [[myNewPage]] in the edit window...
==> the link
“myNewPage” showing up on your wiki page
“myNewPage”...
you will find yourself in the edit window for that new page
If you put something on the new page, the next time you click
myNewPage you will go to the new page
The first time you click on
MediaWiki Stuff:
Internal Links
Fancier version
[[myNewPage | New Page!]] in edit window...
==> the link “New Page!” showing up on your wiki page
The first time you click on New Page! ...
placing
you will find yourself in the
edit window for that new page
If you type something into the new page, the next time you click
New Page! you will go to the new page
MediaWiki Stuff:
External Links
To place an external link to a webpage
get the URL of the linked-to page
put it in double square brackets
For example:
[http://www.google.com Go to Google!]
placed on your page during an edit will show up on your page as
Go to Google!
Clicking on it would send you to:
http://www.google.com/
MediaWiki Stuff:
Uploading files
other than image files
You can store many different kinds of file on the wiki for later
downloading
But only a few different kinds of files will display on the wiki
Example: MSWord file called myMSWordFileName.doc
Use the “Upload
file” link to upload the file to the wiki
Edit the Mediawiki page you want this file to show on
put a link on the page with this format:
[[Media:myMSWordFileName.doc]]
save the edited page
You will now see a link:
Media:myMSWordFileName.doc on your page and
clicking it will cause it to download but not display
MediaWiki Stuff:
PDF files
PDF files can be displayed (rather than downloaded) inside the wiki
If you upload a pdf and you put [[media:myFile.pdf]] in the edit page
You will see media:myFile.pdf on your page and when you click
your file will be displayed, not downloaded
Fancier form:
[[media:myFile.pdf | my PDF file]]
shows my PDF file on the page as the link
displays the file called myFile.pdf when clicked
it
How to make a pdf on a Mac
Any file that is open on a Mac
Pull File down to Print
In the lower left hand corner of the print
Click “Pdf”
Select “Save
as pdf”
window
Now to Chapter 1!
The Effect of Media Choice
and the use of new Technology
• The media you choose has an effect on the
way the story is told
• Print? you must describe things well
• Still Image? you have to tell it visually by
setting the scene
• Film/Video? you have moving images and
sound... does the sound emphasize the
moving image or vice versa?
• 3-D amusement ride? moving images, sound
and some actual motion... 3 modalities
New Media/New Technology
• Consider if you had spent your life working with the
SCROLL… and you were asked to change to the
BOUND BOOK...
• HMMMmmmm...
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAW
R6hzZek
Different Media?
Different Affordances
• affordances is a term from ecological
psychology
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_psychology
– different things afford different interaction
– consider door knobs, levers, push-plates and pulls
Don Norman and Psychology of Everyday Things
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Norman
The Scroll, Book & WWW
• The Scroll
– can’t stack scrolls like books
– can’t skip around except to beginning or end
– but reading flows without the interruption of pages
• The Book
–
–
–
–
–
you can stack them
you can level a table leg with them!
but the reading is interrupted by page turns
add a TOC & page numbers you can skip around
with index & page #s you can go to a specific
place
Scroll, Book and now...
• WWW
– you can consume it in any order you want
– links take you to a place (and back!)
• does a book do this?
– the page is in one place… one change changes
everyone’s version
• Compare to the Book
– doesn’t allow this universal change
– doesn’t take you back... but you can stick a piece
of paper or a finger in it to hold your place… or
fold down the corner of the page
– you can take notes in the margins
WWW vs Book
Good or Bad?
• WWW allows corrections immediately to
everyone
– but no history kept like with book editions
• you go back to “the same place” and it’s
different... were you wrong or did it change?
• http://www.archive.org/index.php
• Did you read all the stuff that is there?
– Book is easy, read front to back
– WWW... not so much...
WWW vs Book
Good or Bad?
• WWW affords searching
– You can Google it and find it
• Book? Not so much..
– the Index will help… if the thing you are
looking for is in the index...
– Ever read a book and think... where did I
see this before? and then reach for the
search tool?
New Media/New Technology
Adoption
• It takes time for conventions concerning
usage to be formed
• Consider the history of Film...
– No sound
– Performed sound
– Recorded sound
• Later… film developed its own forms
• Hitchcock told the story visually, long scenes
• Tarrentino accents everything with violence and quick
cuts
Usage of New Media
follows a predictable path
• At first the new form tries to act like the old
form to make the new stuff look more familiar
– Newsreels “copied” newspaper layouts
– Desktop metaphor is an example of this
• Before desktop metaphor C: is all you got
– few people used personal computers
• Alan Kay XEROX PARC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kay
personal computer usage exploded
What is Multimedia?
• Mix of audio, film, graphics, haptic (what’s haptic?)
– that address the different senses
• We are just beginning to understand what the
possibilities are...
• We are just beginning to understand how to
best build multimedia stuff
– Mix of animation and live action
• The movie 300?
• The movie Sin City?
• Beowolf?
– TV series 24 and the movie Phone Booth?
• several scenes are played simultaneously
In this class
• We are interested in media forms found on
and transmitted across the Internet and how
to manipulate them
– audio
– still images
• bitmapped
• vector graphics
– moving images
• video camera
• 3D animation
Media Linearity
• Scroll (mostly linear)
• Book
– Must turn the pages
– but… Table of Contents and Index allow some
non-linearity
– encyclopedia and dictionaries are books that are
meant to be used in a non-linear manner
• Film/Videotape
• DVD
– Chapters allow some non-linearity
Hypermedia
• Time-based uses time as its central
organizing theme
– Film
– Audio
• Page-based uses a page as its central
organizing theme
– Book
– Internet… originally, yes but now?
Interactive?
• Yes and No
• Yes: Programs appear interactive, but only within
the constraints placed on the interaction by the
programmer and the interaction designer
– Myst looked like a real world but you only had a few
choices you could make
• No: Improvisation (on the part of the user) can’t
happen unless it is planned and provided for in
advance by the interaction designer and the
programmer
How do you interact?
User Interface
• This is central to what my specialty is: HCI
• There are standard forms
–
–
–
–
–
buttons
sliders
radio buttons
check boxes
pull-down menus
• The kind of stuff you see when using the
computer on the internet
Ethical Considerations
• Is technology neutral?
• Does human usage define it as ethical or
unethical?
• BUT: new technology affords new means of interaction
and opportunities for behavior that previously didn’t
exist
• MUD: Multiple User Domain
– new form of human interaction
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD
Social Considerations:
Access
• Expensive
• Reduce the world to 100 people..
– http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/popul
ate.asp
• Access to internet worldwide? 1/100
would have a computer
• But... there are internet cafes so…
Social Considerations:
Access
• What about people with disabilities?
– Blind
• prior to the desktop metaphor this was the
largest group of online users
• now the desktop REQUIRES sight to be
operated
– Can be mitigated by screen readers
• images are provided alternate text
representations
WWW use broadens
“source”... you go to “look
something up”
• Initially seen as a
– seen as economic advantage… only have to put
stuff in one place and everybody can get to it
• Now it is also a
transmission medium
– streaming content: live radio
– streaming content: view tv shows online
– podcasts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast
In Summary
•
•
•
•
•
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Media is changing
Internet is changing
Affecting us socially
Giving us new capabilities
Challenging our views of legality
Allowing new uses and new interactions
• This class is about media and how it works
Questions?