7.11.10

Task seven. My Understanding of Interactivity.

Introduction

To begin with, my naïve assumption was that interactivity is something that moves around things - for example, when a person communicates with someone (or something), or when a computer program reacts to a person's touch or voice, it interacts. But as the previous articles clearly pointed out, there are more dimensions to the term than anyone could expect. What I gather from the papers, interactivity is a term that is in constant motion and improvement, so that it could be rephrased in every 5-10 years. As Kiousis quoted Jensen, it means that the two authors have already proved that it is possible to modify the term and as it is in constant alteration. The best blog I found about the question in mind is probably this one - "What is Interactivity anyway?" which perhaps unintentionally or intentionally is left blank - to everyone's own imagination (it could also be the name of the blog which seems like a post without words).

In Search of My Own Term for Interactivity

According to different sources mostly the definition of interactivity comes down to the notion of a person and computer interacting together. As communication between people has become less popular with new media's rise it is quite obvious why interactivity as a term cannot find its rest and is in constant self-search, because new media as a term is in continuous change since we do not know when.
The technology used back when the above-mentioned authors wrote their articles, was quite old and in the state of improvement, like CD-s, DVD-s, VHS cassettes, even tapes which are annoying to use nowadays. Media presentation has moved to web and there is almost no need to carry any artefacts (just in case when the Internet would not work there is a need for backup). The Internet was discovered and put into use, constantly being improved and updated. Html has changed to different programming languages, which now enables us to store our files anywhere in the "cloud" (also more available storage space and cheaper Internet connections have helped) and present them from there.
Interactivity has changed from animated gif-s to touch screens and hyperlinks to pop-up picture galleries and interactive text. People carry their interactive devices with them throughout the day and it is possible to interact with the help of machines all day long.
As I pondered on in my thoughts, I came up with the fact Google Image Search is full of static images which can turn interactive while looking at them because of people's eye traits, which means that even a non-interactive image can be transformed into an interactive one with the help of a person himself. Thus it is necessary to have at least one person and his/her imagination to be able to create interactivity, and Kiousis was correct to have added the psychological part into the discussion.

Conclusion

I do not mean to be trivial, but as far as new media is concerned, it is possible to say that interactivity is in search of its definition since peoples' imagination can come up with different solutions to improve the interactive experience of a person with the help of technology. The dimensions can grow in various directions since even Web 2.0 is changing into Web 3.0 - a semantic web. We do not exactly know what is happening in 10 or 30 years' time, so it is interesting to see what can happen to the term of interactivity in the sense of computer interaction with a person.

Sources

1. Wikipedia definitions on Interactivity
2. Whatis.com definition of Interactivity
3. Svanaes, D. (2000). Understanding interactivity - steps to a phenomenology of human-computer interaction. 
4. Nathan Sheldroff's World - What is Interactivity anyway?

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