As this is a day late, I suppose I'm using one of the grace days.

I would really like to do a creative project for the end of the year. I'd like to take this opportunity to do something totally different as academic work, seeing as how we write papers pretty much constantly in college.

It's probably obvious by now that I am a huge fangirl (I blame Battlestar Galactica's season finale for this being late! ;) and I have been searching for a way to incorporate my passion for fan/audience studies into this course. Fans produce tons of creative work in all kinds of media, and I was thinking that I would undertake such a project myself and then supplement it by applying both the process and product to our readings in new media.

For most of this semester, I've been working on starting a lifestyle magazine for Pomona College. The analogy that I've been using to describe it is that All-Nighter (the name of the publication) would be what you would get if you turned the brain of a college student into a magazine, sort of a cross between Vanity Fair and collegehumor.com. My creative project idea is to design the website for All-Nighter. But I don't want the website to be just another iteration of the format used in so many other online magazine/newspaper sites. I'd like the site (www.allnighteronline.com [still under construction, but we have secured the domain]) to be one that reflects more of the actual print magazine.

My critical project would focus on how the democratization of the internet affects marginalized groups of society based on race, class, and gender.

Synopsis:
The internet has become a part of our lives, and especially for future generations, the internet may be the only medium of choice because people can use the web to watch movies, television, read news, etc. anytime and anywhere. The democratization of the internet allows for anyone with access to declare their ideas no matter who he or she is. However, as many theorists (in the future readings of Nakamura and Bailey) have said, it is the privileged (racial/sexual majorities & middle-to-upper class) who have access to this type of democratization.

With abundant digital medias and technologies at our disposal, we should know how to distinguish advantageous features from excessive ones. Since these items are highly advertised and their abilities are constantly updated, the judgment is hard to make. An example of this technology is the GPS, a mobile navigational system. Installed in vehicles of customers who opt for this choice, the GPS interacts with users by mapping out their destinations with directions on its screen or through an automated voice.

It seems convenient. I know that my own directional skills could stand extra assistance on the road. The GPS navigational system is a very useful and revolutionary way that society has combined information with technology. Yet it is sometimes the easy way out that does not lead us anywhere beneficial.

I'm hoping to take the text out of hypertext. I beg for your feedback to help me direct this project better, but I'm excited by the possibilities. Basically, my project will be some sort of photographic image-map hypertext. Needless to say, that's under the creative project category rather than the critical project.

What's an image map?
You've seen them around, even if you don't recognized them by name. This map of new york is an example. Basically, an image is broken up into lots of little pieces, and each piece links to a different page.

My Proposal is a series of YouTube videos on "Pomona's Secrets". You can see my whole thought process on my blog, but here is my latest entry and my proposal:

I blinded myself from what I wanted to do. All I had to do was take a step back to realize what the true essence of my project is about. The title of my blog, Pomona Secrets, summarizes what I want to do; I just did not put two and two together. My thoughts were so concentrated on figuring out a series of videos that every college student could relate to, but was experienced by students on campus. With that thought in mind, I came up with the ideas for asking where to sit in class and who to sit next to. It also led me to the idea to ask what types of secret concoctions people created in the dining halls with limited ingredients. Try to make the videos transcend colleges ended up limiting my perspective. I have, however, overcome my limitations.

I guess my term proposal is going to be fairly similar to my mid-term project proposal.

As you can see, Prof. F noted (last batch of comments, bottom of page) that the issues I originally wanted to explore regarding Facebook were too broad to cover in the amount of space we were given for the midterm, so I augmented my focus and only discussed the issue of privacy, free speech and appropriate conduct between students and college administration.
While doing research for the mid-term I came across some really interesting stuff that fit into my original proposal that I would like to explore, so I'm thinking that's what I'll do for my final term project. Also, looking ahead on the syllabus, there appear to be some readings that I feel could be a good basis for analysis for the Facebook issues that I want to explore. This proposal feels a bit like a rough sketch, hopefully as the semester goes on, with more readings to springboard off on, I'll be able to pinpoint more specific areas and points that I want to put in my project.

i don't know how many of you have read/seen the LA times magazine this week, but it has an article on a girl named cory kennedy. coincidentally, she is from southern california like i am, and even more coincidentally, her best friend/business partner went to high school with sarikayla.

anyway, cory kennedy is a 16 year old pseudo celebrity with a blog, myspace, and fansites all over europe, documenting her status as a "fashion icon," and socialite. she is essentially the 16 year old paris hilton (whom, coincidentially, she has been photographed with numerous times).

Coincidentally, I would like to do my midterm project on the phenomenon known as 'Facebook.' I'm guessing most of you are pretty familiar with it so I won't go into describing it.
According to statistics, something like 85% of the nation's college-going population use it. As I am part of the minority that doesn't use facebook, I think it would be interesting to get it and experience firsthand what it does for my relationships. Will it replace other forms of social interaction and/or communication? In what ways is it more advantageous or detrimental? Also, there is a lot of concern regarding privacy, as seen when there was backlash when the creators of facebook put in the features 'News Feed' and 'Mini-Feed,' and I would like to explore how far reaching that is.

So, I have been a member of Lemonfingers for about a year now, this is a new version of DeviantArt for writers. The site is not exactly like DeviantArt, but it has the essential elements that DeviantArt holds. Lemonfingers allows its members to post poetry of any type, prose of any type; it has forums where one can discuss poetry, prose and other features of the site. The homepage of the site shows new pieces as well as the different genres, and the announcements regarding the site. As for what I will be analyzing, I suppose the network of people this site has created, as well as what it means to have such accessibility to this medium. Of course, the site is of interest because I am a part of it, but also because it allows many people-- the majority teenagers -- to post what they believe to be poetry, even at its worst. The majority of poems written are cheesy poems about love, clichéd; and there are many small groups that discuss their poetry, but never to the whole intent that it seems it is supposed to be in a writing workshop. Perhaps the site is not supposed to work as a workshop, but more as a means to allow people to get their pieces out there to be read by others. The angle that I will take, well, I don't know if it is clear in what I've already typed, but perhaps the benefits of this type of site as well as the dark side, and the lack of importance given to the medium of writing for expression? I have no clue, yet, but I will try to think of what exactly I will be analyzing. This is my proposal, as for the site it is: Lemonfingers