Reassured...is the final Word....on a thesis, that was so Obscurd

A few days ago, I found out I passed! I finished my course!!! I wanted to tell you soonr, but been to busy and later is always bettr than never.

I was so scared I'd fail, that I didnt want to make an entry in my blog until I new for sure that I passed, until I got my confidence back, until I got the reassurance that only a past verdict can give me, to authenticate me as being legit. Stupid I kno, but thats how I felt.

You should hav seen me, everyday I woke up and the first then I did was log into platform web to see if my 'still pending' notice change to a mark. I had to wait for over a month and a half later that all the other honours students for my mark to come out, since I got a extension, and there was no definite date wen my mark was gunna come out, since my thesis had to be reviewed by an external and an internal marker and since the staff went on holidays, no one was really sure wen they would get on with it. I just had to wait, hope, and wonder each day that today would be the lucky day.

When the fateful day my mark was sent on platform web I thought that I was dreaming, it all felt so surreal becos for over a month I got used to seeing a 'still pending' notice, and now, NOW there was a mark, I was beyond happy, I was beyond belief! I printed out the page in case the Uni was going to ring up and say, 'sorry, we mistaked ur mark for someone else, Oops! Im sorry u faild'. But, just recenntly, I also got a confirmation that I am graduating in April, the dream of mine...IS REAL!!!

Now that the whole drama of my honour's year is over, I want to develop this blog into a diary of my journey in filling my own shoes as a designer. My influences, my goals, my set backs, my realizations. All of the messy stuff. This blog will feel more organic, more personal, I don't even know how things are going to pan out?! I'm will slowly upload the things Ive been up, while I was 'away' and as I carry one, things have been busy for me tho, and blogging as taken a back seat to just living up life. Please b patient with me as I find my momentum again.

I'm getting there.

Chase.

Do you know what's waiting beyond that beach? My Thesis! TAKE IT! ITS URS!!!

It took me around 9 months but I birthed my a Thesis! And now Im offering it up to any1 willing to give it luvz and affection. Mi Casa Su Casa... . .I hope it finds a good home, I kno it will . . ..

To download my Thesis, plz click on the Link below:
Thesis uploaded on RapidShare

A picture tellz a thousand (key)wordz

After doing a case study of Flickr for my thesis, one of the key points regarding connectivity is Flickr’s view of photos as a tool that prompts interactivity. As expressed this post's diagram, photos no longer lie dormant in photo albums, online they become “living entities” that are used as a resource that foster online activities. They add description to Websites, they enrich online libraries, they attract our attention in self-made slideshows, and they even become the instigator of dialogue between users. Photos once relegated for private collections have now been opened up for public consumption, and Flickr has upheld such opportunities by developing places “for the audience to take part in the action” (Shedroff 227), by permitting them to generate metadata to the library of the service.

To visit my user foto-sets on the Flicker Website, plz follow the link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasing-sandcastles/sets/

Existing Online; Its like opening ur diary and preaching ona soapbox... "C'MON READ THIS, BETTR YET READ THIS OUT-LOUD!!!"

C'mon users 4get ur pride. .. .Share ur artwork. .. Just enjoi da ride. .. .



To view my personal sketch-book made public on DeviantART, plz follw the link below:
http://chasing-sandcastles.deviantart.com/gallery/

Your Web 2.0 Soup is served!!! Users, hurry up and grab a spoon ;-p

A useful analogy of the social milieu of Flickr could be being similar to a bowl of soup. In this analogy the bowl itself is represented as the Web, where the soup’s broth comprises of the entire Flickr community in which each member adds their own distinct flavour. The user’s contribution can be viewed as the force that moves the spoon, where the spoon itself represents the users ideas and messages. As users participate, the spoon mixes together all the ingredients in the bowl, aggregating together the constituents of the soup, constructing trails that direct back to them whilst overlapping with trails that lead to other users.

Web 2.0 is all about offering other users opportunities to grow'n'learn.....So.. . ..Share your Design Work

As Web 2.0 users become increasingly responsible for performing tasks once relegated to designers,it encourages designers to function more as creative interlocutors. And in such a role facilitate the exchange of ideas and information between one human need and another. This person is the producer,director, the organizer-navigator…Creative interlocutors are: programmers, producers, inventors, researchers, teachers, scholars, and volunteers’ (Traub & Lipkin in Heller 89). Below, I have offered a slide-show of some samples of my Design work, in the effort that it may ignite the spark of ideas of other users. . .

Cool Slideshows

Cool Slideshows

In response to such a refocus, designers must learn to collaborate. For the act of designing has been transformed from an individual endeavour into a group effort. As learning through collaboration rather than competition, fosters an environment where exploration, analysis and risk-taking are encouraged (Burns in Heller 2001 102). This mode of Design fosters an interdisciplinary team dynamic, since designing for interactivity is about working with others (Niederhelman 17). Web 2.0 services call for a mode of Design that encourages collaborative methods of working, between teams of designers and non-designers, and between various design specialties – where the primary focus is on critical listening and communication skills (Nowacek in Heller 191). It appears that another emerging role for designers within this user-generated medium is this role of critical observer. As Charles Leadbeater remarks, History tells us the inventors (designers) are often very bad at guessing how technologies will be used, and further concludes that, consumer contributors are vital to innovation, for disruptive innovations which upset traditional markets and business models often start in the margins of a sector, with innovative users with distinct needs (Leadbeater 2006, 28-29).

In Web 2.0 services, Design is the work of Multiple Authors. .. .

In open-sourced communities as this diagram illustrates, “the order comes from within these communities not from the top” (Leadbeater 5). In such an equal platform, ‘Consumers turn out to be producers as creativity becomes a mass activity not just an elite one.’(Leadbeater 5-6).

In the photo-sharing site Flickr, user participation flows in both directions, where contributions are circulated and re-circulated. In Flickr it its not the photos, but what users do with the photos that puts the mechanism of Design into action. In this user-generated medium, the enrichment of a user experience becomes the primary focus, as our methods of content exposition gives our online activities meaning and purpose.


Summary of findings from Flickr Case Study in Thesis:

Strengths
• There are strong levels of feedback, since all users are in fact contributors.
• Flickr’s open API allows for the development on new features, through the modification of JavaScript.
• Flickr facilitates for creative dialogues between members, where users practices tasks of listening, thinking, and speaking.
• Flickr’s responsive and participatory nature helps to immerse users into their engagement of the service.
• Flickr’s multiple approaches to organization supports greater navigational variations.

Weaknesses
• A folksonomy has a tendency to be ambiguous, as users assign the same tag to different items.
• Users are only granted a finite amount of control of the system, which hinders autonomy and self-expression.
• Users without knowledge of JavaScript can’t make sophisticated modifications.
• Flickr chooses to ignore, rather than devise solutions for members who user Flickr for non-photographic material.

Opportunities
• A folksonomy allow all users to have a “voice” to negotiate the value and meaning of communal content.
• Flickr offers users various choices for archiving, annotating, appropriating and recirculating their generated content.
• Flickr allows users to utilize their content, in and amongst other Web 2.0 services they belong to.
• A designer belonging to Flickr can aim to respond to the challenge of multiple ways that users access information.

Share Your Photos Y'all!!!

As a designer acting a user, it was important to promote the need to be community active (figure 39), as user participation has become the new vehicle for designers to enrich the understanding of Web 2.0 audiences. This should be an objective for any designer acting as a user; this should be the objective for every ordinary Flickr member.

As ‘Interaction is a cyclic process in which two actors(users) alternately listen, think, and speak (Chris Crawford in Shedroff 142), the role of a designer in a user-generated medium is to uphold the conversational and participatory nature of the community. They can achieve this be being community active in their own designated groups (figure 40, 41, 42), and being visible in accumulated community resources.

To view more of my photo-collections, plz follow the link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasing-sandcastles/

My procedures for doing Qualitative Research on Web 2.0 services

The steps undertaken to establish an online presence included:

• Creating a user account for a Web 2.0 service

• Generating content within its user page

• Enrolling my accounts into Web 2.0 search databases

• Making informative contributions to the service’s public library so that other users can benefit and can deviate to my user page

• Communicating with other users of the service by offering opinions, joining user groups, and participating in communal discussions.

• Becoming community active by establishing trails to resources of information within the service, and offering links to contacts in other Web 2.0 services.

• Promoting a convergent use of Web 2.0 services by interlinking the content amongst my various user accounts.

It was important to establish a sense of connectivity with resources found in various services, as the features of Web 2.0 services promote the circulation and re-circulation of online content. In my qualitative research as a user, it was a goal to create opportunities for open dialogue with other users to as certain emerging user needs, and as a designer, co-develop appropriate design directions through this exchange. In linking my online activities and resources in my various user pages, the probability of this occurring became highly likely.

The main Web 2.0 services I participated in are:
• My Blog (http://www.chasing-sandcastles.blogspot.com/), which is a form of an online diary,

• My Wiki (http://chasing-sandcastles.pbwiki.com/), which are online places where people can easily add and edit content, and are therefore often used for collaborative writing (Kloos 2006 8).

• Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasing-sandcastles/) which is a photo-hosting service which manages content through folksonomy

• Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/chasing_sandcastles), an online bookmarking service which heavily relies on a user self-tagging system.

• DeviantART (http://chasing-sandcastles.deviantart.com/) Which is a image-hosting service where users upload their art, for critiques and opionions from the DeviantART community.

Sunlight sends u on ur way, and those restless thoughts that cling to yestadai, nvr be afraid of change. .. .16/11

DSCN2888 16/11
Originally uploaded by Chasing SandCastles.

My spirit still feels a little broken after everything, im still a little sore, I look like Ive aged a year within the past month but the word that describes how I feel right now is RELIEF!

This is all that really remains, a phone number to ring given to me by my mentor that I wrote on my arm, as there was no paper around. But that too will disappear after my shower. washing away all the negativeness, starting again, anew. I can feel myself coming back now, its over, im smiliing again, Im coming back

Thanx for the ride,
Chase :-)

Jump starting my life after thesis 16/11

The night b4 after my thesis was delivered I had the best sleep in days! and slowly but sure I began to repair the damage that had happend. It was time to heal.

After my car got towed bak to my home, alot of the time spent to day, was helping my dad fix the car. helping him test it, holding the light as it got dark. ..

During me break I now plan to learn a bit more about what makes a car tick, under the tutelage of my dad. It still feels a little strange though. I still wonder around the house, thinking I should be writing or reading something, instead of just R-E-L-A-X-I-N-G.

Healin'
Chase.

In my darkest hour, angels saved my life. .. 15/11

I began to write this post, detailing everything that went wrong on the day I submitted my thesis, and BOY! I had probably wrote about 700 words and I looked at it, and all I saw was negativity, and I dont believe that that should the point of my story of that day.

So I deleted it, and began to write this post. I'll keep it short and sweet. I survived it, I got it (my thesis) in on that day, thanks to all these kind strangers that helped me on the way. I had no idea ppl, especially people u have never met before can be so nice and supportive. It was really a life-changing lesson, and I shall never take the kindness of others for granted ever again.

That day was so hard, but the real point is. . . . I pulled through. Although I would never wish such bad luck and bad timing to even my worst enemy, Im glad I went thru it, becos now I kno my tru character, and finally believe that I can overcome even the worst of fates, becos I view things in a whole nue perspective now.

And if u still wanna kno those specific details, get in contact wif me, and I'll fill ya in ;-p

A1 poster designing - my sweet escape 11/11

Even on my breaktime I was working. I put some time aside to work on my a1 poster. I had the idea in my head, and it turned pretty accurate. I need to thank MC-Btweenr again for really helping me out, the image looks great! Sorry I wreckd it abit by flipping it, but it matches the rest of the poster layout that way. U win some u lose some.

I really like the simple yet strong visual style of my poster, and considering how professional the quality of how the laptop looks, when it was made in my hallway, with some really nice mid-day light coming from the front door.

It was also a happy accident, that the quoatation marks complement the pumping fist of my picture. I love it when happy accidents happen. And I like how the text has that second layer of expressing a reading of the words online design, and participation Web 2.0, if the title is read diagonally.

That's the hotness right thur!!!

Things always look btr on paper 10/11

DSCN2856 10/11
Originally uploaded by Chasing SandCastles.

I finished a rough version of my thesis today, in 5 days I hand it in, talk about cutting it close. I have been racing the clock since day one, and although my body is telling me to stop, I keep on going. everything is sore, my eyes hurt, my liver hurts, my body is sooo weak, but something inside wont stop.

I have so much work to do, so I try to stay positive, but I kno im running out of time. Although its not my best work, I'm sooo proud of myself becos I kno deep in my heart, I did the best I can, I pushed myself to the utmost limit, and I survived.

I really cannot remember these past 2 weeks, it was all too surreal, I felt like I was floating in a dream, the rest of the world did not exist, the only space that was real was the area between my eyes and the computer screen, where the universe was whirling in my head, transferring all the galaxies from my finger tips, creating sparks of life as I typed in words on the keyboard.

The next few days were the stressful of all, there was alot of reading out printed versions of chapters, to sructinize any spelling errors, then re-reading my thesis in both pdf, doc, and indesign files. There was also alot of managing my days to kno what still needed to be done.

I survived, all I can say is I survived.

My mentor says that my soup needs more salt. .. but all I have is peppr and I cant stop sneezing! 7/11

My thesis is due in less than I week, I still get the shivers just thinking about it. I was so stressed, each day, my mind felt like it was going down spirals. Talking to my mentor didn't really help, although they were supportive I still felt under-prepared, like many students that I kno, when deadline is approaching, u find yourself saying "only if I had one more week".

Anyway, I put these new post its up on my wall, reminding me about the arguement structure I should follow so that what I was talking about seems more digestible to a reader, as advised by my mentors. Its times like this I go into work overdrive. I stop feeling sorry for myself and I go hard, telling himself, to not worrying about the insurmountable task at hand, take it day by day, and make every second count, work urself so hard each day, that evn if u are an insomniac, u would not have any trouble falling asleep. And I swear, each nite, even if all I got was 5 hours sleep, I woke up ready to fight the good fight, not only becos I believed in my work, but becos of all the ppl that hav been generous enougf to offering me their help along the way :-)

No Melbourne Cup of Life for me :-( 6/11

DSCN2829 6/11
Originally uploaded by Chasing SandCastles.

I ended up working all week the Melbourne Cup was on. I didn't even watch the race. The call it the race that stops a nation, I bet that nation didnt have a thesis to write!

To cure my feeling of academic imprisonment, I move surrondings every few days, somedays Im at my dad's, others my mums, other times uni, other times library, actually many different libraries. I like being around others that r studying, it makes me feel less like im in a one man race.

I swear I was a gypsy in a former life.