Final post...:-)

Hello everyone!

Today is going to be my final post on this blog...

Monday,we uploaded with Mette the last pictures that were missing on our pages while Leda and Khristina were trying to set up a conclusion. By the end of the class, as a group, we made a list of what was missing or had to be added/formated on the WIki page. On thursday, after handing in our essays, I met Mette in the university library and we went throught the entire Virtual4 wiki project together. We added the missing pictures in the bibliography, some links and most important of all, we wrote the conclusion.

I remember our group had a pretty slow start as we couldn't decide on an exact topic for our project. The Internet is now part of our daily life; it is part of a large picture, therefore it was difficult to focus on a specific subject that without digressing into too many areas. After consideration, our group agreed to mainly focus on a particular social networking site (Facebook) and how it relates to the idea of "community" and "identity". Each week, after doing more reading and research, new ideas popped up in the group and were added.
Regarding the actual design of the project - I first didn't like the "look" of our Wiki at all... I found it too simplistic in terms of design compared to last year's projects Nigel showed us in class. Now, after adding pictures/links/boxes, I am really satisfied with the look and content. This feeling of satisfaction appeared last week, when we realized that adding simply a table or picture on a page could significantly change the esthetical aspect of it. Small changes made incredible differences.
In terms of group work, as I wrote in my previous post, it was a good experience in terms of working with people you don't really now. Except with Mette, I never worked with Leda and Khristina and despite some general misunderstandings at some point of the project, we really tried to produce a piece of work reflecting everyone's points of view and research. I think we handled our differences pretty well and used them to see issues in our subject from various view points.

It was interesting to see how theorists such as Howard Rheingold that we explored in this module, have also been studies in our thursday class with Chris Sam. Both classes helped me get a better understanding of modern online communities. I was writing an essay about Cyberpunk literature and how themes strongly embedded in that literary current - such as Utopia/Dystopia; community; technology disrupting the social order of things - could be related to our contemporary society. Because of the Internet's greater accessibility and use, one may argue if an online community such as Second Life is not a modern human constructed Utopia? We have seen in our group project that new technologies are disturbing our traditional/face-to-face communication. With a group of young people such as the Fluokids (first postings), who cannot spend a single minute without checking their emails/blogs or MySpace profiles, one might wonder if they are not living two parallel lives. Is Second Life really a Utopia as one can entirely reconstruct its physical appearance and personality? Is it a mean of escape from reality? Can one have a Second life account and not isolate himself from the "real world"? Is the Internet creating a new space parallel to our "real"/traditional world? All these questions are part of debate emerging from today's developments in communication and information technologies.

I just reread chronologically my postings and I am really surprised by the length (but also the content) of each of them. I first wrote short sentences/paragraphs and progressively it became much longer, personal and reflective. When we first started blogging - or as soon as we set up the blog in class!!! - it was for me the scariest process in the world!
Now, to be honest, I would love to set up a personal blog besides by Facebook account. Why? I think a non academic blog is much personal then an account on a social networking site. It is also much easier to set up and post pictures and videos! I remember when my best friend in Paris set up a personal blog during her two months world trip with her father. I though it was great! as I could follow her journey online with loads of pictures, comments, and personal reflections on what she is seeing around. She travelled to India straight after Japan and found it really hard to cope with the reality on the poverty around her. This blog gave her the opportunity to express her deepest emotions - and later she told me - to "survive" to the changes she was experimenting during her short world trip.
I think for me, this blog gave me the possibility to dig deeper in the subject as it was not only about our Wiki project, but also about general issues raised in class in relation to terms such as "community", "identity" or "groups", etc. One of the reasons why I would consider keeping a blog in the future it that it permits to be critical/reflective of yourself and obtain a broader picture of a subject you are analyzing.

Week 8 - finalizing the group project... and reflection

Problems with the Wiki

Monday, as agreed, Mette and I started putting all the written work on the group wiki page while Leda and Khristina were looking for additional videos and pictures we could add. Since the beginning of the project, Mette has been the one taking care of our wiki page so we agreed that I would help her. We experimented quite a lot of problems when editing our wiki pages and therefore it took us longer then we though to put the work up. Even if we are working on wiki and not building up our own Html page, formating the text and posting links was not as easy as it seemed to be. For example, some parts of the text appeared underlined or in another color when copy/pasted from the word document and then were really difficult to change on the wiki. We are putting a lot of effort in the presentation of our project but we worry a bit about the grading. Other groups seem to be using Html for their pages and therefore their group project can seem to be esthetically more appealing and sophisticated then ours. 

Unfortunately, Mette and I had to leave earlier to talk to the second year students about our work placement reports. Before leaving, we agreed with Leda and Khristina that they were going to upload some pictures/videos on the Wiki and start assembling the key points of our introduction/conclusion for the remaining half an hour of the class.

Reflection….

Since the beginning of our group work, the main issue that caused tension within the group was the referencing - and it has been quickly solved. 

This week, personally, I felt really disappointed by the miscommunication and misunderstandings regarding the work that had to be done for the following lesson. It was the first time that I felt so much nervousness within the group.

Last week, we all sat down and went through our entire written work to see what was missing/what could be added and everyone was appointed particular tasks. I had to do some changes in the Virtual Communities document and send it off to the members who then had to do some changes themselves. I know that everyone has its own issues, preoccupations, jobs, other assignments to do, etc. - so I understand if one week a member is not able to do something but it is important to inform the group if you do so. There is a solution to everything... 

 

To be honest, this term has been very hectic for me in terms of work and time management. I am really stressed and exhausted – like the rest of the class I think! – As we had quite a lot of written work to do for other classes throughout the term. I have also started doing my research for my dissertation and I have to finish before the end of the term my applications for postgraduate studies. I am really pressured by time by the Universities because you have to apply early in order to be even considered!

 

Favorite part of the project… J

My favorite part of the project - or the part I most enjoyed contributing to - was when I interviewed with Mette the students outside of the university. I have always liked journalism and I have been practicing my interviewing skills through other practical courses during this degree (Radio, TV Production, Cultural Criticism, etc.). I am really happy that we had the opportunity to add the students' opinions as they bring an interesting contrast in our project to the theoretical perspectives coined by theorists such as Rheingold, Castells, Anderson or Calhoun. I think the practical courses of this degree helped me to map out my career goals and find out more which areas of media and cultural studies I enjoyed the most. I know I am supposed to reflect on this Multimedia Project Module, but I though it might be interesting to see how it participated (with the other courses) to my personal development. 

 

Throughout the project, my role was mainly to do online research and chose some study cases we could focus on. I really liked doing research on the Internet reminded me of my last year’s work placement when I was working as a Trends researcher for about 5 months and had to search the web (blogs, online magazines, etc.) for emerging consumer trends. The only part of the project that I found a bit boring was the editing. As I said in my previous posts, we had problems with referencing and with the “harmonization” of the written work. I spend a lot of time rereading and rewriting some parts of the project. We also had numerous quotes in some sections of our project, so it was important to rewrite in our own words some of the theories found in books. 

Remember – TIME MANAGEMENT and communication…!

I have learned this term and from this course is the importance of time management. I am happy that we divided work between each other every week and then edited it before planning further research. I found the emailing within the group very productive and less complicated then working directly on the Wiki. Despite last week’s tensions, I hope this group work is going to end on a positive tone. Group work is important in terms of developing communication skills and show your capacity to interact and adapt to each other within the group. You have to be careful with the words you use when commenting on other people’s work to that it does not appear patronising, intimidating, too critical, rude etc.

When looking at the overall outcome of the project, I think we managed our differences quite well. It was the first time I was working with Leda and Khristina (I have already been doing projects with Mette) and despite some miscommunication, the problems were quickly solved!

 

Next Monday: 3^rd of December!

Next Monday’s class (last session already!)  is going to give us the opportunity to finalize our project. Everyone in the group has agreed to map out main points for the general introduction/conclusion (we already started a list of what we wanted to include) that we are going to write all together Monday morning. We are planning to work on the project the whole day as a group.

Well girls, if you read my blog, this is the last week before the end of the term… so “courage” as we say in French – we are going to be fine! J

Good picture we could put on the page with the student interviews.

http://www.weblogcartoons.com/cartoons/facebook.gif

Week 7!

Since Wednesday, Mette and myself have done the "student survey" at LCC. We asked students outside of university about what they thought a "Virtual Community" was . Most of the students seemed to be very confused by the word "virtual" and were much more responsive when we changed it to "Online Communities". As soon as we mentioned "Online Communitites", students asked: "Oh, ok, do you mean MySpace or Facebook?". It was interesting to see that students associated "online communities" only to these social networking websites. Most of them had an account but not all of them used it. We are in a University in which communication, networking and exhibition of your work is very important in order to find a pathway in the media industry. Because of this, I was really surprised that not everyone was keen to use these websites. Personally I have Facebook and I find MySpace too complicated. I think MySpace is more about listening to music/watching videos/finding out about vnues or concerts and maybe talking to people you have never met, whereas Facebook seems to me more private... On Facebook, I have created a Media and Cultural studies group for our class which permits me to send messages to the members regarding issues about the course (as I am the Course representative of the class). The problem is that not everyone in the class is on Facebook, therefore I have to email people as well... but I still get quicker responses from my Facebook messages then from emails. People seem to be checking their Facebook profiles more often then emails!
After all these issues, it is difficult to come to a general agreement around the use of social networking sites...!



Since the meeting, we have been communicating with members of the group via emails and have been progressing in our work without having to meet each other outside of classes. With Khristina, we emailed our work and received prompt responses from Mette and Leda. As soon as changes were made, the documents were e-mailed to each of us. Everyone seemed to be really stressed out regarding the project but progressively it was coming into existence. In my opinion, the aim of our project is now clearly defined with specific study cases.
Having been editing the documents, I now think it is important not to add information but to "harmonize" our already written work. On monday, we are going to put all our information on our group wiki and make it as interactive and interesting as we can. Because it is an online project, we have the chance to add different media such as pictures, links or videos. We have clearly defined sections with bullet points and are trying to avoid having just a big written paragraph (not very attractive to read).
It was difficult not to write too much, cut down on theorists quotes, make the project more personal and not to simplify the different theories. At the beginning of the project, we asked ourselves a number of questions (in the introduction of the project and then in the different sections) that we were surprised to find answers to most of them.


TO ADD TO OUR WIKI
Dangers of Facebook on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMWz3G_gPhU



How online community websites such as MySpace or Facebook are used by theifs to hack in for example bank accounts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYz6Q_q2UQA&feature=related



Have a read again:

http://webcommunityforum.com/




REFLECTION ON BLOGGING
There are only two weeks left and I am surprised how my attitude towards blogging has changed. I remember being very scared to write my personal reflections regarding the project/class discussions/questions because I felt too "exposed" as anyone could read it. progressively I started writing more and more as it helped me to keep track of the work I was doing. I also received feedback from Nigel :-)


Next week - monday hopefully- we are going to finalize our project and ask Nigel for quick feedback if it is possible. The written work is now ready- we have to work on the presentation now and link all our work together.

Wednesday 14th November: group meeting...

Today, as agreed, I was supposed to meet Khristina and Mette in the library in order to work on our group project. Leda told us she couldn't come as she was moving houses so she send us a document on "Online identities". Mette told us at the last minute that she couldn't come as well as she was feeling really ill but that she would do some work at home. She asked us to email her our work and tell her what she could add/do to make the project progress.

Regarding the work done on Wednesday... I went through the written work that has already been done and also added some of my own research. There was a lot of editing to do as everyone writes in different styles. I made my best to
-harmonize the work (grammar, sentence structure...),
-make it visually appealing (bullet points, paragraphs, titles...)
-clarify our different points (introduction, questioning, different theories...)
-rewrite the introduction

The main problem I encountered was with Leda'a work as she did not reference her sources. In her document, she put only the year of the book she took the quotes out without puting the page numbers. In some cases, other details were missing. I think it is really important to reference correctly so I send her an email asking her to go through her references and add the missing information.

By reading all other people's work, I realized people had entirely different styles of writing and that it was important (for each person in the group) to go through each others work in order to bring a new perspective on it.

Week 6

It is already week 6! time passes by so quickly!
Roles in the group are pretty defined by now: Mette and Leda did theory research, Mette has also been updating our wiki page, whereas Khristina and myself have been looking online for links, images, videos, ... (in other words, specific examples of virtual communities).

Today we discuss in the group things we could add/change in our wiki page.
So far, we all agree that it needs to be more interactive. We also want to make our research easier to read by playing with the layout: bullet points, subtitles...

We also had the opportunity today to look at last year's projects - that looked really impressing by the way! We saw concrete written work and some realized that it was not as academic as they thought it should be. I think it helped the class to have a better understanding on the outcome of the project.

Reflections and work done this week...

WEBSITES

I found it really hard this week to find a "bad" and a "good" website.
In my opinion, instead of looking at a poorly designed website (easy to find when you use Google), I started thinking about websites that I personally had difficulties with when I was navigating online. I have been to both of these restaurants and I have never been so disappointed by a restaurant's website like with Sketch.

WORK DONE.. PLANS... EVOLUTION OF MY PERSONAL FEELING REGARDING THE BLOG..

Following last week's session, we decided to include, after the theoretical definitions of "Virtual communities" a list of definitions from students from LCC (not from Media and Cultural studies) that I had to interview last week.
Unfortunately, (and I apologize to the group), I was not able to interview the students last week as I was focusing on a seminar that I was presenting.

Despite not being able to conduct the interviews, I read through Leda and Mette's work and noted some changes that could be made.
I also continued my research on the existence of different "groups" within a "virtual community". This expression can be contested of course as there is certain confusion between the terms "group" and "community".

What do we mean by "community"? - Does that involve more personal investment then if you are part of a group?
In my opinion, a community is a group, BUT a group is not necessarily a community.
For example, our class is a group, but except our studies, there is no particular specific criterion that keeps us "united”.

I am happy that this project is finally taking a shape and I am looking forward for Wednesday when we are going to put all the information as a group together. I have started lately to enjoy the idea/concept of blogging! Really! I was feeling so uncomfortable at the beginning because a personal reflection -for me- was "personal"! Not to be posted online for everyone to see.
My view has completely changed as now this blog helps me to keep track of my work and post information for my group. I hope I am not repeating myself - but it is something I think about whenever I am writing on my blog. I observed in the group that I was not the only one who's feeling regarding the blog evolved throughout the weeks.
Only slight disappointment: I do not receive a lot of comments!