Feed the Web

Thanks!

Greg J. Smith — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 17:24:30 +0000

Hey team, thanks for the push for the last week. I appreciated the various ideas you brought to the table. If it wasn’t clear at the start of the course, hopefully everybody sees it is difficult to comprehensively frame ‘your personal engagement with the internet’ into a six week course. That said, I hope everybody is broadly aware of a greater range of tools, techniques and strategies than they were when we started. I’m going to write feedback on the posts of everyone that was in attendance at our final session and point at some tools, and suggest some approaches that you may choose to look into. Best of luck with your future endeavours – enjoy the break!

Here’s a link to connect your Twitter and Facebook Accounts

oceanpixie — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 04:09:42 +0000

Hi everyone! We were just talking about how to link your Twitter to your Facebook accounts in class. It was not as straightforward as I thought but I found this great ehow tutorial and it was lickety split from there. Happy Twittering!

www.ehow.com/how_4668396_connect-twitter-facebook-status-updates.html

Assignment 4: photography blog

thenewroom — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:16:36 +0000

The scope:

I would like to promote some of my photography that I’ve done in past few years, just to see how much feedback I can get and then maybe build my own website.

Audience:

Well the people I would like mostly to see my work are professionals in the same field, not because I’m prejudice, but just for the fact that if I have those kind of people looking at my work and giving me their feedback it means I’m worth something. Never the less photography is for everyone and for all ages.

Subject:

Mostly I will be posting pictures followed by brief paragraphs describing where the photo have been taken, date, time, camera, etc… I think I will post a photo a day but also have an archive of pics where visitors can see my work and comment.

Venice canal 2008, NikonD40.

I think Photography.ca has everything I need to start my own website. It has a photography blog and podcast and also a photography forum where people can give or receive info on specific topics. Other sites I like to use to browse around are Istockphoto.com and Deviantart.com, they are useful to get some inspiration.

Text or image:

I will use mostly images but some text is required as well. I’m not excluding video as a possibility either.

Platform:

I think I will use 2 platforms, wordpress and Flikr.com

Tools or plugins:

I want my site to be as clean as possible. Once it gets published and I feel the need to enhance it I will probably use twitter or facebook plugins.

Social media:

The social media I would use would probably be twitter and facebook just because they are the most popular. What I also like about them is their layout and their user friendly interface.

Assignment 3: Elevator Pitch (Casey)

caseyintoronto — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:59:43 +0000

So my idea for a blog (or rather a book) started a couple of years ago when I was working with a friend at her office for a month and we challenged each other to make hot lunches everyday using the limited appliances available in the kitchen. We ended up having loads of fun coming up with creative things and really enjoyed our lunches AND saved a lot of money by not dining out.

After a few weeks of this, we started discussing writing a cookbook called “The Office Cookbook” which would help our poor coworkers move beyond sandwiches and frozen dinners. However, I was transferred not long after and both of us sort of forgot about the idea.

Now, in light of learning more about blogging and media, I really think these would be simple ideas to share on a blog format and easy to incorporate into twitter and other media platforms (once I actually have a good amount written…who would follow a blog with one post?).

Each week I can make a new post with a new recipe to try, and even TRY to make it healthy (even though my crowning glory in the competition was Kraft Dinner in the microwave), as well as very easy, quick, and -most importantly- super delicious.

I can try to pull ideas from existing microwave cookbooks, but these usually involve prep and I want my meals to be low prep so you aren’t spending half of your lunch making your lunch. Hmm…I wonder if there is a toaster cookbook out there? (Googled it- I don’t think there is!)

My obvious market for this is office workers, but it can easily extend to single people, terrible cooks, and the accident prone. In short, my entire group of friends! I will even have recipes geared towards sharing a lunch, say with your best friend or your office crush!

I will mainly use text to lay out the recipes and inspirations, but I think I will also try to take photos of me preparing the food to help guide people. Obviously, this will be done at home or my boss might think I’ve gone crazy.

Once the site gets going, I will have to start organizing with tags and shortcuts by “genre” so it is easy to find that delicious recipe for Kraft Dinner or Pita Pizzas. Especially since, if you are like me, you put together lunch in 5 minutes flat while running out the door for the streetcar.

To start with, I am going to have to come up with some good ideas beyond the basic ones I employ now. After that- fame and fortune!

final

chokeonyourshoe — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:36:32 +0000

it started as a way to keep in touch with friends. after travelling through asia, europe, the caribbean, and south america i decided to start posting photos in no order with no names and no references. this way we can all be anonymous. i didn’t ask most of my friends if i could post their pics and i haven’t finished posting all of them. i had to give some images a little more thought as they can be a little…err…sensitive. many photo shops will develop your negatives directly onto cd, this way i manage to stick to manual photography. i will probably never sell out to digi cams.

i recently started using my blog to get other writing jobs. sometimes it works.

to evolve i need to make my site look professional. i want to use this blog to communicate my thoughts to my friends around the world, but i also want to advertise the simple run-of-the mill writing style that gets me little jobs here and there. i don’t have much style so any input from the class would be appreciated. as you can see my favorite colour is green and my technique is amateurish.

I go back to old posts once in a while to tweek them. sometimes i change the pics, sometimes i fiddle with the writing. i just played with the layout and messed it all up. luckily, i took a web art and design class here @ OCAD, and hopefully i can use my basic HTML skills to put everything in order, the way the class suggests i do.

STEP #1: vamp the look of the blog. new colours? format? sidebars?

STEP #2: work on writing style and more adult topics? there are so many adults in the class, why don’t you just tell me what travel topics interest you? please keep in mind that this blog is dedicated to fashion, food, music and sex.

STEP #3: post more links to relevant sites and blogs. again, suggestions from the class are welcome.

I want to reach a broad adult audience around the world. sharing my blog through word-of-mouth is slow, linking my posts to relevant websites might help me connect to the online community. for instance, in my post about the best travel shoes, i could add shopping tips and suggest markets and malls around the world that carry these items. because i also write about topics that are considered too sexual or vulgar for mainstream asia, i have to hide those articles under shopping articles in the same way moms hide veggies under cheese.

choke on your shoe is what happens when you’ve got your foot in your mouth. this blog was meant to be controversial, but ended up more of a photo album. it’s time to grow.

any suggestions?

http://chokeonyourshoe.blogspot.com/

Elevator Pitch – Who is Hedwig?

bmochalski — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:31:04 +0000

I had an idea of using a blog for some of my personal projects. I do a lot of research on subjects related to art history and often the material I collect is lost, buried or forgotten. Wouldn’t it be nice to keep everything together (notes, pictures, videos, bibliography, etc.) in one easily accessible place.

St. Hedwig of Silesia with donors.

Last year while taking a course on medieval art I took a great interest in an illuminated manuscript called St. Hedwig’s Codex dated to 1353. It’s a large work written in Latin with illustrations in tempera, colour washes and ink on parchment bound between wood boards and covered with red-stained pigskin.

I got interested in this book because it was produced near the place where I was born which is in the region of Silesia in the south-west Poland. Hedwig (1174-1243) was German Duchess who married Polish Duke, Henry the Bearded at the age of twelve. She led a very austere and ascetic life devoting herself to charity and religion. She was canonized in 1267 and became patron saint of Silesia and Poland. She was also venerated in Germany as her cult spread further west.

The history of the manuscript that now resides in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is quite fascinating too. I traveled to L.A. last year to see the codex which was exhibited for a short time. The research on this manuscript was quite challenging as there is little information, especially in English, on the subject. The internet has been very helpful in doing this project. I was happy to find out that other manuscripts I had to consult had been digitized and were available through library and museum websites.

http://utu.morganlibrary.org/medren/pass_page_through_images_initial.cfm?ms_letter=msm&ms_number=0739&totalcount=1 (Pierpont Morgan Library, St. Hedwig Book of Hours, Bamberg 1204-1209)

ASSIGNMENT #3: monitor a brand

chokeonyourshoe — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:16:34 +0000

NOW Magazine is Toronto’s guide to alternative music, cultural events and political opinion. The free publication offers daily updates on twitter, facebook, and youtube. Although the magazine is published weekly, readers and fans can get in touch with their city’s oddities online through popular social networks and the even busier website http://www.nowtoronto.com.

Like many trendy websites, the home page is busy and clustered with adverts, pics, snippets, boxes, tag lines, slogans, logos, and banners. This is where social networks come in: twitter, facebook and youtube allow for each subject to be viewed and absorbed one at a time. no matter how “ADD” the net can seem, frequent updates that are succinct and relevant go much farther in relaying info than a colourful page or a traditional text book. More trendy/alternative news publications should consider this method of connecting with the public.

Being a community paper, NOW Magazine was always active and present in various communities in Toronto. It’s support for Gay rights, a sex-positive culture, and expression of less conventional political perspectives is what brings the mag it’s overwhelming support. NOW dedicates most of the magazine to music, arts, cultural events, reviews, and interviews. this connection to the international arts scene keeps the magazine popular and an ever-present staple in every bar and coffee shop in the city. This connection and loyalty to their readers is the simplest of advertising schemes and in a medium where communication is asynchronous, the support from their fan base shows in their presence at Toronto’s biggest and smallest events, reader response, and collaboration on municipal projects like NXNE http://nxne.com.

NOW’s inclusive culture is sincere and is it’s key to survival. A free publication which relies solely on advertising space to make $$$ has to present itself as a social medium that can connect public and retail, grassroots and corporate, rich and poor. NOW has succeeded in doing this without selling itself short of thought-provoking journalism.

Assignment #4: Elevator Pitch= Work & Personal Blog

oceanpixie — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:33:50 +0000

Work Blog & Personal

Recently I’ve been assigned with the tasks of making a website for my place of work. When one embarks on such a task they have to open the proverbial “can of worms”. Content for the website is ruled by advertising for the company, and all companies want to engage as much as possible within the multiple social media platforms. It is imperative that the customer can find the companies pertanent information as well as current news about the company. Which is where Twitter, Facebook pages and company blogs all become extremely useful.

Website designers need not only to be able to manage the websoftware & website but also be well versed professional users of blogs, Facebook & Twitter if they want to maintain the sites for their clients. That is one of the reasons I am here. I have created a rough website for Mick E. Fynn’s www.mickefynns.com where I have set up future links to all social media we wish to incorporate into the site. We want to have an active Twitter, Facebook & blog because we always have exciting events and giveaways we wish to independently advertise. Setting up a facebook page is very easy if you are not setting up one for a business. I have had an impossible time setting up one linked to the actual website, but creating a fan page for the site from personal Facebook accounts was easy. This is a baffling aspect of Facebook for me that I am working on. Twitter on the other hand is very user friendly. Setting up a blog is now easy with the information from this class. We believe it will keep our customers up to date with our specials and giveaways. We also hope to bring in more customers through publication of our great offers.

Right now the links are not active. I hope to have them up and running soon but have an Under Construction page for site visitors. I am hoping to add a photo gallery to the website as requested by our customers and may look into using Flickr for this purpose.

Now for the fun part; Oceanpixie’s Blog

As a graduate of OCAD’s illustration program I have always dreamed of having a website with a photo gallery. Once I started designed a website for my workplace I began to think of the social media aspects I would like to link to my personal website. Besides simply having a photogallery of my work, I would like to focus on a combination of my interests which is why having a blog is the perfect forum for me. I want to include photos, poetry, short stories, & photography. I am hoping those close to me (family & friends) will find it an interesting tool to keep in touch with me. Perhaps I will gain fellow appreciators of fine art and writing as well as only friends. I am looking forward to joining an online community I have not tapped into yet.

My website will be my hub of social media. It will be a way for prospective clients, or fellow artists to contact me and stay current with my present work. It will have links to Facebook, Twitter and my blog. I hope to marry text, illustrations and photography. I believe Flickr will be useful for a photogallery on my personal site as well. Although I have used Lightbox for this in the past. Since I have been very busy with work and family in the last few years, I am hoping to reignite my passion for the arts. This is the first thing I have been excited about in a very long time. Wish me luck : )

Follow me on Twitter at theOceanpixie

The Raven Through the Looking Glass

My Portfolio for Cuba

dnsecord — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:28:36 +0000

celebrate

well yes

a little swing

Im quite interested in seeing how my creative interpretations of visuals Cuba turn out. Truly it was fun to do them,
Dn

Assignment #3 (technical difficulties posting last week)

oceanpixie — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:53:28 +0000

Martha Stewart

Follow a Brand: ”Martha Stewart”

You don’t need to like her to love her. She is the Queen of her identity based company “Omnimedia” and can be found in multiple websearches often when you least expect her. If you are inclined to follow her links you can learn how to bake, craft, or decorate in arguable the best way available online. Her perfectionism at basic tasks has inspired the launch of books, television shows, magazines, radio programs, a website with links to a blog, Facebook page, Twitter and will revolve the user only into more and more of her Martha brand media platforms.

Once you have clicked onto any of her links you may be lost into the Martha world within the internet. It is an amazing clever way to advertise the brand to the public. Under her mystic, the user may be curious about her daily blog including topics on her show & radio, maybe a daily recipe link, where she went for dinner, life on her farm, or her beloved dogs. If the user is voyeuristically interested in any of these subjects advertisements to her other products and affiliated companies are all linked and either pop up or scroll on the sidebar. As she is not only a major personality but also the face of her own brand all of the social media platforms are not only personal promotional tools but also major advertising branches for her and Omnimedia. She has truly and ingeniously capitalized on free social media advertising, while maintaining traditional ways of advertising in tandum. She is truly a smart capitalist. She is a fascinating and curious individual that may draw in the user but her sincerity is only in how good she is at her artistic creations. One may leave the site having been overwhelmed with the attempts the marketing department has preyed upon them.

www.marthastewart.com