Additional Tools

In this final post, I will outline some additional tools and plugins, as well as final thoughts on the module IS30240: Creating and Publishing Digital Media.

Additional Tools

ePublishing: EPUB is a free and open source format for electronic book (e-books) publication. E-book files have the extension .epub which can be read on many eReaders or easily converted to do so on other eReaders that don’t support .epub.

Learning Programming/Coding: CodeAcademy is an online interactive platform that offers free coding classes in HTML, CSS, Javascript, iQuery, PHP, Python & Ruby.  It is quite a useful resource for learning some of these valuable codes.

Blog Hosting: WordPress.com (the website you are currently on) is a free cloud based blog hosting platform.  This version is wordpress.com, however wordpress.org is slightly different to the .com variant. WordPress.org is a free open source blogging tool and content management system (CMS) built on the same code. The difference is wordpress.org is a blogging software and wordpress.com is a blogging host. If you’d like to start your own blog, I’d advise you to sign up on wordpress.com.

Signing up can be done here: https://signup.wordpress.com/signup/

Useful Plugins

• Contact Form 7 – plugin for adding a useful contact form to a website.
• Really Simple CAPTCHA – plugin for adding security code to your contact form to make it safer from SPAM.
• Lightbox Plus Colorbox – plugin for adding image overlay effects to images.
• AddThis – plugin for adding social media sharing options to a page.
• WooCommerce – plugin for adding an e-commerce shop to your website.

Of course various other plugins and widgets exist which can be added to webpages, these are just some to mention, mainly for use on WordPress.

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 Final Thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed the IS30240: Creating and Publishing Digital Media module. I never thought I’d be much of a blogger type person but wordpress.com just makes the process so easy and fun to do. This module was very useful for learning about the various different ways in which digital media can be created and published. Furthermore, the assignments were a lot of fun to do as I already have a strong interest in creating various forms of digital media.

To view my blog posts from the start in chronological order, please start from the bottom of my WordPress blog page. Thanks for following/viewing my progress =)

Image: Unknown. Retrieved from: http://ragingcreations.com/pages/digital-marketing-in-a-multi-touch-multi-channel-world-part-1.html

Image: Kuldar Leement [Artist]. (2013). Culprit. Retrieved from: http://kuldarleement.deviantart.com/art/Culprit-368795468

Image: Anthony Samaniego [Photographer]. (2014). I'll remember you. Retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmaybones/14274378069/

Social Media Promotion

In this eleventh post, I will talk about Social Media, how Social Media can be used for promotional purposes and some audience engagement tips.

Social Media

Traditional media: consists of a broadcaster and an audience; you can read a newspaper or watch a report on T.V., communication is one-way. However, there is limited potential to respond with your own thoughts on the matter.

Social media: are computer mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks. As opposed to traditional media, everyone has the ability to be both broadcaster and audience with two-way communication.

Social media is user driven, transparent, engaging, inclusive and sincere. Social media has a number of roles such as:

• Publicity – (Facebook & Twitter)
• Customer Service/Engagement – (Twitter)
• Loyalty/Community Building – (Facebook)
• Collaboration – (Wikis & Blogs)
• Networking – (Twitter & LinkedIn)
• Thought leadership – (Twitter, LinkedIn & Blogs)

Social media can also be used to promote yourself or your products, to create and share content, to drive traffic to your site, to distribute special offers/competitions, to give instant feedback & to raise brand awareness.

Social Media sites

These are just some of the most popular Social Media sites at the moment, I’m sure you are already familiar with all of these and if not a user of most of them.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• Diaspora*
• SoundCloud

Audience Engagement Tips

• Register with all Social Media sites that your target audience uses.
• Promote webpages, news posts, products & services socially.
• Respond to comments/feedback as soon as possible.
• Friend/Follow people who can grow your social network.
• Listen to audience feedback and incorporate findings into future content and structure.
• Add ‘Friend/Follow Me‘ or ‘Share This‘ features to your webpages.

Anyways, I know what you are all thinking, how can I find Marc Brophy on various forms of social media? I am on various social media websites, but mainly active on Facebook. To Friend/Follow Me on Facebook, please refer to the content sidebar to your left where the option to do so is listed. =)

Image: Unknown. Retrieved from: http://trendingdig.com/beta-wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/socialmedia.jpg

Image: EMBRZ [Artist]. (2013). Make Your Way - artwork. Retrieved from: https://soundcloud.com/embrz/make-your-way

Search Engine Optimization

In this tenth post, I will talk about Search Engine Optimization, how to apply/practice it, and some useful Google Tools.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or web page in a search engines result pages (SERP) through changes to the content layout and the site language.

HTML supports various methods to allow  the focus of your webpage to be highlighted with the use of keywords or written site descriptions (HTML meta-tags)

Search engines, such as Google & Yahoo, use indexes to index websites for their use of keywords or search terms. These indexes are then used as a ranking system to determine which websites appear higher in search results.

Organic SEO

This can either be Onsite or Offsite SEO

Onsite SEO

This is the process of improving  a web page’s position in search engines by way of changes to the page itself.

• Keyword Research: This is the practice of finding and researching key search terms people enter into search engines when conducting a search. Identifying and using key search terms which your target audience will use will increase SEO.

Google provide a keyword research tool called Keyword Planner via the AdWords Service.

Offsite SEO

This is the process of using other efforts to promote a web page, such as Social Media campaigns or Content & Inbound Marketing.

Tools to help for Offsite SEO include:

• Google Analytics
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Open Analytics
• Google Trends

Screenshot of Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics). 

Image: Julian-Faylona [Artist]. (2014). Invasion of the Cubeship (Variation 2). Retrieved from: http://julian-faylona.deviantart.com/art/Invasion-of-the-Cubeship-Variation-2-458705933

 

Navigating the Digital Commons

In this ninth post I will discuss copyright, underlying & derivative works, fair use & public domain and copyleft.

Copyright

This legal concept gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. It refers to the right to copy and gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to decide who can adapt it, who may perform the work, who can financially benefit from the work etc. Copyrighted works are as seen as a form of Intellectual Property (IP).

Underlying & Derivative works

A derivative work is an expressive creation that contains major copyright-protected elements of the original (the underlying work).  The transformation, modification or adaption of the original work must be substantial and feature traits of the author’s personality to be original. Common derivative works are translations, cinematic adaptions and musical arrangements. These works are only copyrighted with relevance to the original parts from the underlying work.

Fair Use & Public Domain

• Fair Use refers to a limitation to the exclusive right granted to the author of a creative work. It is a doctrine which allows the limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the copyright holders.
• Public Domain refers to works where the intellectual property rights have expired, been forfeited, or are inapplicable. In this case, no copyright limitations exist on such works.

Copyleft

A play on the word ‘Copyright‘, Copyleft is a general method for making a creative work as freely available to be modified, and requiring all modified and extended versions of the creative work to be free as well.

Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organisation founded by Lawrence Lessig which promotes copyleft. Creative Commons releases copyrighted licenses known as Creative Commons licenses free of charge to the public.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image: Justin M. Maller [Artist]. (2013). Division II. Retrieved from: http://www.facets.la/2014/339/

Image: Unknown. Retrieved from: http://wallbase.cc/wallpaper/2269708

Digital Image Management

In this eight post I will discuss digital image management. I will expand on image file formats as mentioned briefly in previous posts and also look at image hosting services.

Image File Formats

These are a standardized means of organizing and storing digital images. As mentioned before, images files can either be raster ( composed of pixels) or vector (based on geometric data). Most images tend to be a combination of the two. Especially seeing as files must be rasterized to pixels when displayed on most graphic displays.

Image files can be stored in a compressed or uncompressed file formats. The uncompressed format is known as lossless compression. Lossless compression algorithms try to reduce the image size without losing image quality. The compressed format is known as lossy compression. Lossy compression algorithms discard invisible information which may not be visible to the human eye. However, at the highest compression levels, image deterioration becomes visible as compression artifacts and images can become pixelated.

Common Image Formats:

• JPEG: compressed/lossy
• PNG: compressed/lossless
• GIF: compressed/lossless

• DNG (RAW image): uncompressed/lossless
• PSD: uncompressed/lossless
• TIFF: un/compressed/loss(y)less

Image Hosting Services

An image hosting service allows individuals to upload images to an Internet website. The image hosting service will store the images on its servers and allow the individual to edit the way they want to display these pictures to others. Popular image hosting services include Flickr, Imgur, DeviantArt, Photobucket & Instagram,

 

Image: Unknown. Retrieved from: http://minus.com/i/jxW9DL1woL70

Image: Aurelie Curie [Photographer]. (2013). IMG_6573. Retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/_aurelie_/8397871042/

Image: Kuldar Leement [Artist]. (2011). Choice Mission. Retrieved from: http://kuldarleement.deviantart.com/art/Choice-Mission-243517791

Digital Media Presentation

In this seventh post, I will talk about digital media presentations. There are many digital media presentation tools available which I will also discuss. We are required to create a digital media presentation using Prezi.

Digital Media Presentation Tools

There are various digital media presentation tools available. Probably the most well known and used is Microsoft Powerpoint. There are however other alternatives to Microsoft Powerpoint. These alternative presentation tools include Keynote, SlideShare, Prezi, Google Docs and Open Office.

A problem with digital media presentations can be that they are poorly designed and fail to capture the audience’s attention for various reasons. I would recommend checking out this SlideShare presentation by Jesse Desjardins entitled ‘You Suck At Powerpoint’, which points out in a humorous manner some tips on how to avoid creating bad presentations.

‘You Suck At Powerpoint‘ URL: http://www.slideshare.net/jessedee/you-suck-at-powerpoint

Prezi

For our digital media presentation assignment we will be using Prezi to create our presentation. Prezi is a cloud-based presentation and storytelling software tool used for presenting ideas on a virtual canvas. Prezi employs a Zooming Using Interface (ZUI) which allows users to zoom in and out of aspects of their presentation to give it a more 3 Dimensional element. I’ve been using Prezi for a year now and I am a fan of their more visually appealing way of creating presentations. A tip though, try not to excessively use the ZUI feature, otherwise your presentation can just become nauseating for some.

For help on getting started with Prezi check out: https://prezi.com/support/article/steps/get-started-with-prezi/?lang=en

Image: Catrin Welz-Stein [Artist]. The business men's goodbye. Retrieved from: http://www.redbubble.com/people/catrinarno/works/7234561-the-business-mens-goodbye

Digital Image Editing

In this sixth post I will talk about digital image editing and software applications to do this, as discussed in this week’s lecture. I myself am highly interested in digital image editing and have been experimenting with and editing images in various digital image editing programs for several years now.

Digital Image Editing programs

Probably the most well known digital image editing program is Adobe’s Photoshop line. This Photoshop line has become a de facto industry standard tool for digitally editing images. The most recent versions of Adobe’s Photoshop line are CC and CS6. They however aren’t cheap to acquire. These digital image editing programs are known as raster graphics editors. Raster images are made up of pixels and are ideal for editing .raw or .jpg files from digital cameras. However, most modern raster graphic editors use elements of vector images, which are more based on mathematical values such as those used in geometry. Anyways, technical bits aside, there are many other popular raster graphic editors available such as, Corel Photo-Paint, Jasc PaintShop Pro (PSP), GIMP & Picasa.  For our weekly assignment we will be using Picasa to edit an image from ReTouchPro’s restoration challenge.

For help on how to use Picasa, refer to their Getting Started Guide at: https://support.google.com/picasa/answer/157000?hl=en

Images to be edited part of ReTouchPro’s restoration challenge can be found here: http://www.retouchpro.com/archive/

Image: Adobe Creative Cloud - Photoshop CC - icon art. Retrieved from: http://www.photoshop.com/

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This week’s task:     ReTouchPro’s restoration challenge

These vintage pictures kind of creep me out but at least they were fun to edit. Picasa is ok but it’s very restrictive in terms of editing capabilities. So I took the liberty to edit a restoration challenge image in Jasc PaintShop Pro and even colorize parts of it. By the way, the women mightn’t actually be wearing those colors in reality, I simply chose them as I thought they suited her. =)

Picasa:

 

Jasc PaintShop Pro:

Publishing and Hosting Podcasts

In this fifth post I will discuss how to publish and host podcasts. For our podcast assignment we are required to output the finished podcast and upload it to a web host along with an RSS link for subscriptions.

PodOmatic:

For our assignment we are required to host our podcast on PodOmatic. This is a website specialized in the creation of tools and services which allow its users to find, create, distribute, promote and listen to audio or video podcasts.

For help on creating a podcast on PodOmatic, check their help page at http://www.podomatic.com/faq.

Screenshot of my podcast on PodOmatic:

 RSS feed link:

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a method in which people can subscribe to a feed to be alerted when information is updated such as in blog entries, audio or video podcasts, and news headlines. RSS feeds involve the use of metadata, such as a summary text, the author’s name and publishing date, usually in the file format of XML files to ensure compatibility across platforms/programs.  Software known as RSS feed readers then check the user’s subscribed feeds for new updated content.

Many podcast RSS feeds are then submitted to iTunes where they can be made more readily available to a larger audience.

For help on how to create a podcast and submit it to iTunes, visit iTune’s help page at: https://www.apple.com/ie/itunes/podcasts/specs.html

Image: Kuldar Leement [Artist]. (2013). New Paths To Helicon. Retrieved from: http://kuldarleement.deviantart.com/art/New-Paths-To-Helicon-353849160

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This week’s photographic task:      Portrait & Landscape

Landscape:

Portrait:

Audio Recording

In this fourth post I will talk about audio recording and formats as covered in this week’s lecture. I myself am very interested in audio production and editing. 

Audio formats:

Here’s a quick breakdown of audio formats available on most computers. Audio data can either be uncompressed or compressed. Compressed audio data involves reducing the transmission bandwidth and storage data of audio data. This creates smaller audio files as a result. Audio compression works by reducing the accuracy of certain parts of sound that are considered beyond the auditory range of most people. This is known as perceptual coding. Be aware that audio compression may result in a loss of audio quality.

Some common audio formats are:

• MP3: MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III is a patented digital audio format that uses a form of lossy data compression. This format is probably the most common audio format available and is seen as the standard for consumer use.
• WAV: Waveform Audio File Format, as known as WAVE, is an audio file format developed by Microsoft and IBM for Windows computers. It is a common file format for raw and uncompressed data.
• AIFF: Audio Interchange File Format is a file format co-developed by Apple Computers as an uncompressed audio file format to work on Macs. It is essentially their version of WAV.

Audacity:

Audacity is a free open-source audio editing software application. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems. We will be using Audacity for editing the audio we recorded for our podcast assignment. I am already familiar with Audacity as it is a tool commonly used by music producers to edit file samples. It is of particular use for creating vocal acappella samples  to be used in electronic music tracks.

For our podcast we are required to use this software to remove background ambient noise, cut/trim the recording, tweak the dynamic range and to export the final result as an MP3 file format using the LAME plugin for Audacity.

Screenshot of my podcast recording in Audacity:

For help on the any of the above, Audacity contains manuals and tutorials on their site: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/

I would also recommend searching YouTube for any relevant tutorials as I find step-by-step videos are the best method to learn how to use various software applications.

Image: CandyMuffin [Artist]. (2011). Music Bokeh. Retrieved from: http://candymuffin.deviantart.com/art/Music-Bokeh-216256911

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This week’s photographic task:    Shutter Speed

Fast shutter speed: individual fountain water droplets captured

Slow shutter speed: long exposure shot of car lights on M50 highway

Digital Photography

In this third post I will talk about digital photography. I will discuss different camera workings and things to keep in mind when trying to take good photography.

Camera workings:

Aperture is the opening window or ‘iris’ through which lights passes to enter the camera. Aperture is measured in f-stops. F-stops correspond to the depth of focus in an image. The higher the f-stop count, the deeper the depth of focus will be, or the more objects closer to the camera are in focus.  A small aperture opening results in a higher f-stop count. A large aperture opening results in a lower f-stop count with a shallower field of depth.

Shutter speed describes the duration of time in which light is allowed to enter the camera. A shorter exposure allows less light to enter the camera , this results in more detail being captured. Fast shutter speeds are used to capture fast movements. A longer exposure allows more light to enter the camera, this results in less detail being captured. Slow shutter speeds are used to capture motion blur of individual objects.

Composition:

When taking photographs, there are important things to be weary of. A well-taken image tends to have a clear subject of focus. Changing your position or using zoom functions on your camera can help to isolate the subject from other objects in the scene. Be aware of the impact of the background on the subject of the image. Adjusting the depth of field can help with softening the background.

Take into consideration whether the scene would be best presented in either landscape or portrait mode. Be aware of your position relative to the subject and how a change in position can cause a change in the effect of the image. Many cameras have grid-lines which display the rule-of-thirds view. Consider lining up objects within these grid-lines.

Be creative with the ways in which elements in a scene can either express a story, the passing of time, or some sort of movement.

Consider capturing geometry, shapes, or lines of force. Additionally, paths, reflections, and repetitions can also be captured.

Anyways, try to take all these aspects into consideration when capturing photography. Just try to be creative while experimenting around with all these aspects. =)

Image: Unknown.  Vintage Camera Retro Pop Art Print. Retrieved from: https://www.etsy.com/listing/19721050/vintage-camera-retro-pop-art-print

Image: Adam DeSio [Artist]. (2012). Nikkormat. Retrieved from: http://desiostudios.com/vintage-camera-art

Image: Unknown. Camera Art Design. Retrieved from: http://becuo.com/camera-art-design

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This week’s photographic task:         Aperture

Small aperture: Foreground more in focus due to higher f-stop

Larger aperture: Background more in focus due to lower f-stop