CUIN 6397 - Practicum in IT, Summer 2006
Two interesting topics are open for discussion this week as part of our class exploration.
First, the following website displays an online tour of Sommerville, Massachusetts that has many similarities to the Third Ward Online Tour we are helping develop. Take a look at: http://www.somervillecdc.org/communitymap/
And then post a comment in which you discuss your reaction to this resource and talk about what is the same as our site, what's different, what new ideas does this bring up, can we use this site to help us in our own desing, etc.
Secondly, you will see that there are two comments to the last posting from Sensen, the Chinese student we discussed earlier. It might be interesting to post some additional comments that revolve around whether it's possible to collaborate with interesting people who live on the other side of the planet. From Sensen's last message, it seems that we have all been invited to a festival in China. But since most of us probably can't make it this summer, perhaps we could ask Sensen to send us some pictures so that we can participate virtually. What else do you think we could do to facilitate a collaboration between us?
posted by Bernard Robin @ 8:05 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Yes, I hope all of you can come to China for a visit. If you can come to Tsingtao during my holiday, it is my great pleasure to be the guide for you. Honestly speaking, summer is the most wonderful season for a sea-city. I missed the salt in the wet air of my hometown when I was in Tianjin. I guess Professor Robin may have the memory of the dry weather of Tianjin, do you? I have sent some pictures of Tsingtao to Professor Robin to let him choose his favorite ones to post:)
I like this place because I can also enjoy seeing the life of people on the other side of the planet. My boyfriend is coming to your side in a few days. He will be so far from me at that time. I hope we can be together one year later. And at that time , we can be all together.
This is my MSN: lyn_lee33@hotmail.com
We can chat *^-^*
This is my Gmail:
lynlee33@gmail.com
If you are interested in China, we can communicate in the above two ways. Of course, the most wonderful way should be the third one---face to face, isn't it?
This site was a timely find. I found listening to interviews of individuals quite interesting and I’m not sure if that is something that might be considered as this project continues and expands. As far as the actual map itself, I feel that the overall layout, design and quality of the map that Jill and company have created is simply at a much higher level compared to this map. Not only is it neat and clean (uncluttered) in its appearance, but the timeline adds interactivity and demonstrates growth and change in the neighborhood. Basically I think that the design of the Third Ward map is outstanding!
I think that it is important to keep focused on what this project is trying to accomplish. The way I see it, the East Sommerville project is more about economic development and the Third Ward project is about preservation and history. If there is a desire to focus on something like economic development maybe a different kind of map can be created that includes those indicators.
As for my thoughts related to collaborating with individuals or even groups around the world, I believe that there are several options that would allow us to do this successfully. Of course, the use of blogs is one and Sensen did a nice job contributing to our conversation related to this. It is quite possible to collaborate with others through the use of an application such as Net Meeting. There are others available, but these applications provide people the opportunity to view and create together by using standard “typing” chat, voice chat or even a web cam. One of the most powerful options for communicating, sharing, collaborating and creating is videoconferencing. And now that there are no additional costs associated with connecting via IP the opportunities are more realistic and therefore more frequent. Maybe in an upcoming semester we will have the chance to see and talk to Sensen virtually face-to-face using this technology.
The site while interactive and comparable with many of the elements we either are or will be implementing, was too specific and bland compared to what we are trying to create.
The Sommerville seems to be attracting people who are curious about the parks and walking tours, with places of interests listed almost as a secondary component. The places of interest and the history are our key components with the Third Ward.
I think the key is that we are trying to evoke emotion and a feeling of community from our visitors that will lead to further exploration of the website that the Sommerville website is lacking.
In regards to the second question. Online collaboration will become more available as many programs become inexpensive and or free. I think this will spark more use of the opportunities available for collaboration outside of the people encountered on a face-to-face basis, especially in the education setting.
The map has a lot of details in a well organized manner. The project for the map of Third Ward online is already working with a team of community members to collect information about what is important to preserve in Third Ward. We have already discussed the possibility for residence to add a comment or a feedback, suggestions or ideas.
I think the use of three different languages to describe the map is not necessary in this project because I assume most of the community members speak the English language. Also, I don’t see the point in listing details about the location of mailboxes or benches. However, for those that want to take a tour of Third Ward, maybe the idea of bus stops can be implemented.
In conclusion, it seems like we need more interesting characters like the Flower man to video tape and interview or the young mothers living in Project Row Houses. In addition, we need to collect more information on one or two families that own businesses to add photo locations on the map. The idea of the bus stops can be utilized by the residence as well.
With the use of technology, many ideas about art and cultural development can be shared. We have demonstrated this by working together on the Third Ward project. The talents have been shared in many different ways. In the same way the mentioned, pictures can be distributed to give us a feel of a community and connect us with this culture is the same way we may have to start communication: sharing something that’s common to our interests. Our common idea is to capture community history and open up communication. Despite the variety in culture, we can still share this basic structure of community art, culture, and ideas. This might even motivate people to decide exactly what is worth sharing to build this project. This may also help us interact with each other to accomplish this community project even if we share little else. Having different backgrounds may actually bring our ideas to a common focus.
This post is from Calandra and Brian, along with help from Gloria.
I think it was an interesting website, I liked the crayon look to the buildings and the ability to zoom in and out on the map. However, it was less clear on the value of the legend. Some of the legend icons were useful, such as pictures and audio clips, but other such as trash cans and atms were less clear. I did like being able to click things on and off so the map wasn't too cluttered.
Calandra states: The overall appearance of the map was seemingly from a child's perspective (very cute). Allowing the selection of map icons was very appealing,; however, the limited function of the icons were rather disappointing; I actually wanted to see or at least have more access to the content represented by the icons.
I liked the website as a small community project but I agree with many of the other postees that the design from Jill's company is no comparison. I do think that a few ideas can be taken from the East Sommerville layout. First, I think this site has a warmth that is still missing from the 3rd Ward site. Even though the photos were added to the intro page it still feels very commercial to me and not personal.I think this is a missed message for visitors to the home page of the 3rd Ward site.The second idea is the organization of the information. I see the 3rd Ward site as getting so large that the visitor will spend a lot of time navigating around the site for information. I'm not certain how basic information should be accessed but I liked the idea of having a location for statistics/data along the side in a menu. The downside to this on the ES site is that this is the only way to get deeper into the site - you have to make a menu selection to activate any areas on the map. I believe the objective of this site is clearer; information on a small community. I'm not sure that the "brand" or main objective of the 3rd Ward site has been defined. Is it to encourage visitors to come to the area, put on display its diversity or political significance, is it to examine how it has decayed yet had such a promising past? Why would someone searching on the Internet want to go to this site? I think this question needs to be answered before the site really comes alive. Otherwise it will just be another East Sommerville.
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