A mock-up of a web-based mini-enterprise.

Our dot com business will be based upon Google Sidewiki. Using that tool we will add comments and mini-reviews to websites of various places of subculture: artist and youth cafes, clubs, galleries etc.

From there on we will try to bring the customer to our website, which concept will be similar to that of weekend.ee, featuring in-depth reviews and opinions about those subculture places.

The business model will be based upon ads. We will be hosting Google ads on our website, which is good in providing links based on the sites content. We will also promote a service through our website and for selling our abstract service we use either eBay or Amazon.

Marge contributed the image of the mock-up (Sidewiki is on the left):

Introduction to digital audio with Nuno Correia.

I made a podcast for learning French sounds.

The advertisement of the podcast.

•  Raw material
  

Raw ad file by brit@

• Final version
  

  
French podcast ad  by  brit@ 


You can find the original files in RapidShare.

As a free user you have to wait approximately 90 seconds before downloading the files. Choose the free user option.

FINAL PODCAST AD [zip]

The original podcast.

I present my podcast in a SoundCloud-packed WAV-format.

• Raw material: 

Raw French Podcast by brit@

• The final version:

 
French Podcast  by  brit@

You can find the original files in RapidShare.
As a free user you have to wait approximately 90 seconds before downloading the files. Choose the free user option.

FINAL PODCAST [zip]

Raw material

I started off with 4 recordings (raw material) and continued with searching Edith Piaf's "La vie en rose" for the soundtrack, as the last story talked about the song. I introduced the podcasts, gave two sessions and finished the podcast with an ending. I then tried to fix the background sound mostly manually, as I have the older version of Audacity.

Sounds

Then I tried to start thinking about the sounds and I downloaded a few, and "played" manually with the duck (or envelopes), and some effects were recorded by me during the process. I also had to fix some poor recordings and pasted the sounds into the text, thus the different sound of my voice.

Final steps

Finally I compressed and normalised the whole thing. I was a bit puzzled how I would end the podcast, as the song remained singing and I could not find the suitable ending for it, but then I downloaded an enthusiastic crowd sound and that seemed like a perfect ending (it also hid the final sounds).

Hope you enjoy my podcast!

Assignment 29.09.09

I found the article about young Egyptian women being able to take political activism thanks to Facebook.
Egypt: Thanks to Facebook, young women take to political activism

15 May 09 - In recent years, Egypt has witnessed increasing participation by women in grassroots political activism. Local civil rights advocates attribute the phenomenon to novel means of communication and organisation, especially the social networking website Facebook.

The phenomenon has become particularly notable since the advent of the ‘April 6 Youth’, a grassroots movement seeking peaceful political change. The movement takes its name from a general strike held on Apr. 6, 2008, when a planned labour action at a public-sector textiles company turned into a nationwide protest against skyrocketing food prices and political stasis.

The young were mobilised through mobile-phone text messages and Facebook - where one of its online groups currently boasts more than 75,000 members.

In this case women of Egypt have found the means to reflect on their political views and have met new people with similar interest. Women wanted to prove that political activity should not be dependent on gender. During a peaceful strike some women were still arrested.

And also do not forget to read the theory: An Introduction to Activism on the Internet

An Introduction to Digital Media by Tony Feldman.

1. What digital revolution?
Analogue and digital information
Speaking the language of computers

So, here I am with another book. It seems simpler for starters and as I borrowed it from the library a while ago, I felt like I had to read it before giving it back to the library.
So the first impression was good, despite its origin of 1997 I still find it interesting. It is a kind of prophetic book which introduces us to the future of digital media, but the time in fact is already there. We are moving to digital TV and analogue is history, but in the book they are talking about the future of digital TV.
As I was starting with the book, it stroke me right away and I kept on reading it from 12 to 1 o'clock. I'll try to finish the communities book later.

Some thoughts about the beginning (actually it is quite difficult to read when you try to note down all your thoughts as soon as they appear): The author starts the book with a description of analogue and digital media – analogue media is in continuous flow, a perpetual movement, but digital media has on and off states.

A good parallel is given by the analogue and digital watches, where analogue watch is in continuous movement, but with a digital watch you get the pause when seconds or minutes change, so it is not in continuous movement – and yes, it is so. I have never thought about it in this way!

The author gives five characteristics of digital media:

manipulable

networkable

dense

compressible

impartial (p. 3)

The first thoughts that came into my mind with digtal media being manipulable is that when you watch TV and you get these annoying ads in the middle (mind you, I do not watch TV daily, because I do not have one, thus I hate the ads especially) you automatically think that if it would have been a DVD or a recorded film, you could have forwarded the tape or just watched it without these annoying ads (I believe the ads can mostly be extremely dim-witted).

Analogue media is networkable, because there are several possibilities like you can reach it wherever you have a computer, for example, and internet connection. In Estonia it is especially good that lots of places have free Wifi. The information nowadays is embeddable and hyperlinkable and so on and so forth.

The author concludes his discussion about analogue and digital media with the fact that you can choose to view digital media from wherever you want to. He mentioned a TV screen, but sure it is possible to watch it from your portable phone, mp4 player or iPod.

I was also thinking that this book is from 1997, but the information still holds true. The first two parts that I read ended with the fact that you can view digital media from whichever screen you choose – your TV-set, some kind of a handheld screen (either telephone or mp4 player) or whatever you like.

So I think I have to cancel with this book here as well, because the deadline approached and I had to give the book to the library. I do not know if I should count this as a separate reading, but I will leave the notes here at least, maybe I will need them.

The fourth (article): A Review of the Cocktail Party Effect.

I was inspired by Jakob's post on the article and I decided to start reading it myself, too.

The article was interesting. The thoughts given there were partly new, partly familiar, but to read them in some context was new. So the cocktail party effect, I believe, is familiar to everybody. When you ride on a bus and you spot a familiar voice, or at a party when you hear your name and turn to listen to what the people are saying about you. It is amazing how a person is built up - lots of different and unbelievable mechanisms in us - we are like machines, only the most complex machines.
I also understood that the cocktail party effect has been used in creation of different gadgets or computers in order to let the machine understand what you are saying to them. My SonyEricsson mobile phone understands my talk when I have said something in it and it kind of synchronizes my previously said name with the newly said one (hands-free application), not recognising the name all the time, because it's a machine.
I would like to add that some of the text was filled with too many definitions.

I recommend you also read Maarja's thoughts on the article!