Creative Gallery - Finalized draft

This is the final draft of my creative gallery - a brief video version of my essay

Collaborative trailer

Text: knowledge junky
Free Information
Free encyclopedic knowledge

Link to audio track

LINK

Essay - Knowledge Junky final draft

Here is the final draft of my essay and works cited. Enjoy!

Knowledge Junky

Map link

This is the LINK to my map, detailing my search for a hamburger.

Creative gallery

For my creative gallery I want to explain the history of encyclopedias and how humans have moved knowledge and preserved it. From there I want to demonstrate the cycle of knowledge and information, how each new innovation in technology allows us to communicate more effectively, which further helps us create new innovations. I want to propose the idea that future internet resources will make sharing of information easier, thus allowing interested individuals worldwide to research any topic. I also want to talk about how facebook has consolidated a variety of applications into one use-friendly tool, and how future resources coud utilize the same concept.

After viewing other creative galleries my ideas have stayed essentially the same. I'm going to make a simple movie with windows movie maker, that will probably last about five minutes. I am going to include music, sound effects, and possibly narration.

Knowledge Junky - Essay rough draft

Here is the link to my rough draft in google docs.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaFA_6omlUEVZGdoanNjOXNfMWZyenIzemQ1&hl=en

Essay diagram!

Here it is! The link to my diagram on google docs! LINK

Essay brainstorming

For my essay I will probably focus on the question of how multimedia writing enables new forms of creativity, in relation to free internet resources. Multimedia writing can aid instruction of subjects, and make information easier to absorb. For instance, multimedia videos about cooking or car repair make it easier to give hands-on instruction. How-to websites have become big recently, most of them offering video tutorials on a wide variety of subjects. With users worldwide making videos and submitting them for the approval of the online community, hands-on knowledge could be transferred over the internet.

In conjunction with articles, written and reviewed by members of the online community, information about a vast variety of subjects could be represented on this online resource.

To summarize, my project will deal with the evolution of internet resources, and possible future applications of said resources. The idea is that information would be made available for free, and that anyone could add additional information after it has been reviewed by the community. This would allow information to evolve over time.

It is difficult to make a thesis statement at this point, considering the fact that my topic isn't controversial. I'm not trying to make a claim about internet resources, except that they are extremely useful. However, I could make a statement about the evolution of society in general, as a result of internet resources.

The internet has shaped the evolution of our society for the last two decades. It will continue to do so at an accelerated rate, facilitating the spread of knowledge and information. Specifically, resources such as wikipedia.com or About.com allow us to freely obtain information without receiving instruction of taking a university course. Thus, internet resources have the potential to change the ways in which we learn and obtain vital information.

Knowledge Junky - reflection

I am fairly satisfied with my topic, even though it is still kind of vague. I will be dealing with the idea of open-source knowledge: peer edited social networks, made up of interested users who submit content for the approval of the community. Wikipedia and About.com have been using the method for years, making information freely available to anybody with a computer. I find this topic interesting because I want information to be available to anyone without money being involved. Thus, a motivated individual with a computer could potentially learn as much as (or more than) one in the classroom.

I think that information is sacred. Knowledge that is only available through payment, such as purchasing books or paying for college courses, is far more difficult to obtain. However, with the internet becoming easier to access every year, in libraries, internet cafes, or any place with wi-fi, specialized knowledge can be obtained by anybody without payment.

The argument could be made that classroom knowledge is of higher quality, which may be true of things such as cooking, welding, or violin. Naturally some topics translate better into a hands-on environment. Nonetheless, online resources have already changed the ways that we access vital information. In the future, we may educate ourselves using primarily online resources and databases.

Collaborative document

1. For my topic I wanted to present the idea of an online database that contains general knowledge about thousands of topics. Like Wikipedia this database could be edited by its users. The website About.com is similar, but is not peer edited. Making knowledge and information freely available on a massive scale is a very appealing idea.

2. My topic is not controversial. It's more philosophical - the idea of making information available to everybody. Until recently, one's ability to obtain knowledge about certain subjects was extremely limited. For instance, knowledge about piano tuning has always been rare and difficult to obtain. Books, university courses, and websites on piano tuning do not exist. The only way to become a piano tuner is to be an apprentice to an experienced piano tuner. With an online database of knowledge and information, rare subjects such as this could be made available.

3. I am certain that the evolution of knowledge databases online could drastically improve our ability to access vital information. Furthermore, said information can be accessed far more easily than if it was only available in book form.

Knowledge Junky Trailer

Here it is, I've finally uploaded my trailer. After a total of seven hours dealing with Quicktime and not making any progress, I have decided to use Windows Movie Maker. I managed to make this trailer in less than two hours. It's pretty rough but is still far better than anything I could have made with Quicktime.

Albini, Steve. "The Problem With Music." ActionPark. 1999. Petdance.com, Web. 16 Feb 2010. .

This article was written by Steve Albini in 1999. He is most well known for his work with Nirvana on their final album In Utero. After gaining years of experience within the record industry, he became an outspoken supporter of artist's rights. The Problem With Music outlines many of the ways in which record companies distill funds from talented musicians, meanwhile distracting them with limos, hotel rooms, fancy equipment, and 'bigshot' record producers. Albini himself only asked for $200,000 to produce Nirvana's In Utero, rather than taking an additional commission from record sales.

Boswell , Wendy. "The Top Ten Best Social Bookmarking Sites on the Web." About.com: Web Search. About.com, Web. 16 Feb 2010. .

This is a list of the top ten social bookmarking sites.

"Social Marker Blog." SocialMarker.com. Sept. 15, 2009. SocialMarker.com, Web. 16 Feb 2010.

The idea behind bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon.com or Diigo.com is to organize websites based on their relevance to one's interests. SocialMarker.com allows anyone to bookmark a website on 49 social bookmarking sites. This is infinitely easier than installing a toolbar for every bookmarking site just to help a website gain popularity.

Quicktime Trailer

I've been having troubles with Quicktime on my home computer. Whenever I open a sequence of images the "Image Sequence Settings" dialog box doesn't appear. This was never a problem on the Mac computers in class. Also I can't seem to add or edit text in the slides.

I will probably bring my computer to class for troubleshooting. If necessary I will finish my video after class and turn it in for a late grade.

Posting my rough draft would be fruitless since I can't put a time limit on any of the slides. They all basically appear at once.

Brainstorming

For the last few months I have been entertaining the idea of writing a book. It's something I've wanted to do since I was thirteen years old. However, originally I wanted to write fiction, whereas my new book idea is completely nonfiction. The idea is to compile a wealth of useful information. For instance, for the last year I have read a number of books about lie detection, which strikes me as an extremely useful skill. Paired with information about body language, the art of conversation, salesmanship, and the art of persuasion, the book's purpose would be to educate its readers in the subtle art of controlling interactions with other humans.

For my trailer I will demonstrate how the internet has changed the ways in which we obtain vital information and general knowledge. I will then show how general knowledge, such as lie detection, can provocatively change (and sometimes improve) interactions with other human beings.

*Demonstrate how skill knowledge can be obtained through the internet
*Show how a specific skill can improve interactions with human beings
*explain various lie detection techniques as an example of skill knowledge

The ecstasy of influence

This article brings up interesting points. It reminded me of ad-busting culture. The ideas surrounding ad-busting are similar: certain individuals feel that advertising, marketing, and other factors such as hollywood, have killed the human ability to produce original thoughts. Thinking has become standardized- a collection of corporate logos, phrases, cliches, and "common knowledge". Ad busters seek to make fun of the corporate world be defacing their logos, often going to extreme or illegal lengths. Some ad busters have been known to redo bilboards, morphing whatever corporate logo is present into something disturbing or comedic. For instance, a bilboard sporting the "Enjoy Coca Cola" phrase could be morphed into "Enjoy Cocaine", thus commenting on the addictive quality of caffeinated soft drinks. Even though this only vaguely relates to the above mentioned article, it manages to conjure some provocative ideas. Are we all thinking the exact same thoughts? Are our ideas really original?

To point out an interesting example, Johann Pachelbel wrote a piece of music known to most as "Pachelbel's Cannon" or "Canon in D". First published in 1919, it is often played at weddings or receptions. Strangely, the exact same chord progression used in Pachelbel's Canon has been duplicated dozens of times since, in multiple genres. "Basket Case" by Green Day, "Let it be" by The Beatles, "Crazy" by Aerosmith, "The Hook" by Blues Traveler, and many others, all use the exact same chords in the same order as Pachelbel's Canon. Comedian Rob Paravonian is perhaps most famous for his "Pachelbel rant" in which he complains about the shameless duplication of Pachelbel's chords and melody in dozens of popular rock songs. Don't get me wrong- these songs are all unique and worthy of admiration- it's simply an interesting phenomenon. Think- dozens of songwriters have written essentially the same song without realizing it- each one thought they were making something unique.

Are you a digital native?

I grew up during the dot-com boom in the early 90's. My father and brother were deeply interested in computer programming and web design. I remember playing early computer games such as Wolfenstein, Doom, and Lemmings. My brother, also a guitarist and avid composer, used a composing program called Cakewalk to make midi files.

Around the age of twelve I became very interested in writing fiction. Every time my dad would upgrade the family computer, he would give me the previous machine to use for word processing. I started with an 80808, considered a top-of-the-line computer when it was released in the 80's. It had no operating system, just a Dos prompt. Above the Dos prompt was a list of eight functions the computer could do, including a word processor, spreadsheet, and a few games. Nonetheless, I was excited to have my own word processor in my bedroom.

My ancient machine later got replaced with a PC, sporting Windows 3.1. However, one still had to access Windows through the Dos prompt.