So for our final project for my Web 2.0 class, we have decided to create an Exploratorium that tells people all about the book “The Groundswell” in ITWorld in SecondLife. I think this is a great idea since the book is a really interesting read (the best of the 3 assigned readings for the class by far) and the examples from the book are all really recent. I like that about Web 2.0, that it’s really relevant right now. 

So for the project, I was assigned Chapter 8. My job is to make a sort of pavilion that tells visitors all about Chapter 8 or The Groundswell and that generally is appealing to the visitor and makes them want to read the chapter. To start this project, I reread the chapter so that it was fresh in my mind (all of the chapters totally blend together, which I think makes the book better). My chapter is all about how businesses can use the groundswell to get the users of your product to help each other and in turn, to save the company money as far as “customer service”. 

I decided that my pavilion should have fewer words because people are less likely to read a long paragraph. I started by putting a picture in the middle of the pavilion of my secondlife character. This is her:

 

My SecondLife Avatar

(Quick interjection: this picture is my avatar in her “every day” clothes, she also dresses up like Belle from Beauty and the Beast, which is adorable and I recently figured out how to make her dance!!)

So the middle of the pavilion shows my avatar. The left hand side is a really brief description of what the reader gets from the chapter, basically:

 

This is the content on the left wall

So there’s the basic overview of the left side. On the right side, I am including examples from the chapter, and there were a lot in this chapter. They look like this:

 

This is what the right wall looks like.

I chose not to include the details of the examples because I’m talking about them in the presentation that I will be making in my Web 2.0 class. Basically:

• the Carepages site is like a blog for the patients in hospitals to use to communicate with their families and friends
• the Dell Forums show how a properly set up forum can help the users to answer each other’s questions and users can search the forums so that they can possibly find the answers to their questions without even having to ask
• The Jericho example shows how the Groundswell made a difference in the decisions of a business and how the business can talk to the users and get direct feedback
• Mike 2.0 is a wiki that was created by BearingPoint, it includes information about what they do and they allow users to update the information so the wiki includes information that wouldn’t necessarily be one of their core business values
• Yahoo!Answers is one of two examples from the book of Q&A sections of websites. These help users to get answers immediately (or almost immediately) without even needing to leave the website. Some sites have links to their Q&A sections on every page of their website.

We were told that it would be optional for us to include a note, or a handout for users that includes all of this information, which I think would be a great idea, but realistically, I don’t know how to make one of those, so hopefully, my project will be sufficient without it.

Wish me luck!!

So in our Web 2.0 class, we are playing in ITWorld, which is this big space that was created by a few really SecondLife savvy people, including Dr. Ives. This is me in IT World:

 

The Classroom Setting (I'm sitting in the chair)

And soaking up the sun:

 

this is me sitting outside in ITWorld

You can’t see me that well, but I’m in the lounge chair. Man do I wish that was real life, I’m actually heading into finals and dreading every second of it. I’m actually pretty prepared in most of my classes, but it’s still really stressful.  Eek!

For a small presentation for my Web 2.0 class, I was required to research the new Google browser, Chrome. I will start by saying that I downloaded Chrome as soon as it came out, which was kind of a while ago. Since downloading Chrome, I have been nothing short of ecstatic with the new browser. I am a huge fan of the layout (less stuff at the top, more room for the actual content of the page). I also like the bookmark bar that is part of the menu bar at the top so it displays on every page I go to. Another cool feature is that the address bar serves as a search bar as well and it remembers where I’ve gone as well as suggesting new places for me to go. If that weren’t enough, when I open a new tab, it automatically displays sites that I have recently visited or visit often. My only complaint about this feature is that it sometimes displays the same site twice, like my Facebook homepage AND my friend’s Facebook profile – so that kind of bugs me. Also, I don’t like that Chrome doesn’t work with everything (like if I try to watch Grey’s Anatomy online, I have to switch to Firefox or the dreaded IE). Generally, I’d say the Google team has done a pretty amazing job with the new browser. There are other more technical facts about the browser, like that each tab is an independent process so that if one tab crashes, the whole browser doesn’t crash, and lots of fun ways they’re trying to stop malware and phishing, but those are the less exciting (background) features, and as a result, they’re less exciting for me as a user. I am thankful that I’m not being hacked (that I know of), but that’s about as far as it goes. Also, there are some moderately entertaining pages that pop up when things happen, for example, if a page doesn’t load properly, there’s a screen that pops up that says “Aw snap!” letting you know what has happened. Or if a tab crashes, there will be a picture of a sad tab on your screen. These are helpful and somewhat entertaining. I like that Google has tried to create a user friendly and efficient browser without trying to be super uptight about it. Having fun with the browser appeals to me, but I do see where this may not be the best for businesses. Overall, Google Chrome equals My Dreamboat.

 

Sources: 

http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/features.html

and 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(software)

and

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-01-n47.html

So, as I’ve been reviewing the different businesses out there that are up and coming in the IT/Web 2.0 market, I couldn’t help but find www.Moximity.com. This is a newer site/business that allows you to let your friends know where you are and let’s you find cool stuff around you. We’re thinking of switching our project to this business, but I’m going to learn more about it and then I’ll let you know more later.

I got a new cat!!! Her name is Linux. She’s a Libra. She’s a tabby. She is ADORABLE!! 

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/24/exclusive-crunchgears-kindle-2-unboxing/

I’ve just viewed this entire video and read a bit about the kindle. Essentially, the kindle is to books what the ipod is to music. From what I understand, you can download books and view them on the kindle. The kindle seems to be very convenient and light weight. 

What I’ve taken from this is, well, I want one, but more importantly, I’m seeing how this would be really convenient for text book use. One of my most prevalent school related gripes through the years has been textbooks. To begin with, textbooks are considerably more expensive than they really need to be. I’ve looked online before and it seems that E-Books are considerably cheaper. E-Textbooks (from what I can  tell) could easily be viewed on the Kindle 2 if Amazon so chose. Amazon sells Textbooks and the Kindle, it makes sense that they would be able to sell Textbooks for the Kindle. Another factor, textbooks are generally very heavy. They fill your backpack and you can only fit so many of them, and at the end of the day, your back hurts from carrying around these heavy books all day that you’ve honestly only used for a few pages. If your textbooks were on your Kindle 2, then you could just carry your light weight Kindle 2 around in your backpack all day and have considerably fewer textbook related back problems.

My only gripe about the Kindle 2 is that it is a bit on the pricy side. The kindle 2 is $359 on the amazon website. I don’t see myself spending $359 on the product any time soon, but I do think that if they marketed the item to students and gave some sort of a student discount, then they could dramatically increase their sales. We live in a technological age and students want to use technology, so it would seem that this product would be perfectly suited for students…. makes me wonder why it hasn’t been marketed to us as students. Maybe I just don’t understand big business.

In my Web 2.0 class, we were asked to watch a few videos that Dove (Unilever) has made that are aimed at improving women’s self image and focusing on how unrealistic the image that the media creates. One of the videos was not by dove, it was by GreenPeace (I think) and it talked about how dove is cutting down forests to make palm oil. To me, this sounds counterproductive… “natural beauty” or “real beauty” shouldn’t involve cutting down a whole forest. That’s just my two cents.

Slideshare is basically broadcasting themselves as a Web 2.0 website that allows users to upload powerpoint presentations (or really just slide shows) similar to the way YouTube allows users to upload videos. As far as possible users, the possibilities are endless since pretty much everyone uses powerpoint.

Main customer bases:

-Students: Students use power points for everything school related from age 5-25 (or older). Students love powerpoint presentations because they’re generally easy to create and we, as students, have been practicing presenting with these slides in the background for so long that it seems unnatural to try to present without one. The ability to upload these powerpoints and share them with other students, friends or even professors would only make the students’ lives eaiser. Instead of having to email the presentation to anyone, you could just upload it. If you need to open it in class, just go to the website and log in. This really seems like a great iea.

-Professors: Professors know that students have really short attention spans, the use of PowerPoint helps to combat this issue directly. Students may not hear everything you are saying or read every slide, but between the two options, we know what you’re saying… which, I think, is the point. That may sound terrible, but it seems really smart to present the same information in multiple formats. Slideshare makes the learning process even easier for both students and faculty – the professor can upload the presentation to the website ane all of the students can view the presentation (repeatedly if necessary) and learn the material. This again, sounds like a great idea. Most professors are already uploading their presentations via WebCT, this is just another avenue for doing the exact same thing.

-Business Men/Women: The business world has (thankfully) embraced the powerpoint presentation. The ability to upload a presentation would be helpful for these individuals in a similar way to the way it would be convenient for students. The real added bonus is that you could upload the video at home and view it at work without risking infecting a work computer using a memory stick from home. This may sound silly, but businesses are at a high risk for viruses and I’m sure they’d appreciate any help they can get in the area. Also, the presentations could be sent to clients or potential clients as well as coworkers and bosses.

-Student Organizations: As a student organization leader, I know how annoying it is when you need information and it just isn’t available. If presentations were uploaded, it would reduce the amount of “who has the presentation? on what computer? did they graduate? did they take that information with them?” Uploaded presentations could be viewed by the current organization administration without having to chase anyone down or get them to send you the information (whenever they get around to it).

Since I am doing my group project on Slideshare, I have taken some time to try to learn a bit more about the company. There are 3 main people that I would say are “in charge” of Slideshare… They are:

Jonathan Boutelle – he is the founder of Slideshare, he is listed on their site as the “head geek”. I think he would be the most interesting person to interview or talk to based on reviews about him on other websites. He also has his own website that I intend on looking over more closely: http://www.jonathanboutelle.com/

Rashmi Sinha – the CEO of the company. She seems more like she is in charge of building the community support around Slideshare. She seems to be the face of the company for marketing and whatnot. She would be interesting to interview for a number of reasons.  She went to Brown and seems highly intelligent (as should most Web 2.0 developers). Also, I really like that there’s a girl “on the team”. Her website is: http://rashmisinha.com/   <– notice she twitters

Amit Ranjan – he heads the “team”, which to me says that he’s the one actually building the website. I think he would be interesting to talk to because he has a lot of first hand experience in dealing with the coding and problem solving associated with creating a successful website. His website is: http://www.amitranjan.com/

I just got a new cell phone. I got the LG Lotus. I’m very excited about it… I’m going to have the internet on my phone for the first time ever. For once I will be able to email, twitter, etc. from my phone. I love it! 

And I just learned that I have WAP to thank for it.