Something More

Compact Canada

2010-06-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

Social Media

2008-02-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

What is Social Media? Social Media is a WebSite designed to allow you to interact with friends, relatives, and the general public. You can share information, develop your own space and create your own personality for others to view. It is Interactive and allows you to be in control (to a large degree) or how others view you and communicate with you.

Our IMM Class had the priviledge of having a visit from Wayne MacPhail. Social Media is rapidly growing with Sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter and del.icio.us, to name a few. Wayne, along with a very impressive media resume, has become a pioneer in the field of Social Networking Consulting.

Social Media is also catching the attention of Companies and Industry and they are rapidly creating their own unique Social Media Pages. A business may try to start out using some of the social applications to advertise, but soon find that this is frowned upon by the community. To use a social media as a promotion to your company, it has to be created as a vehicle for the community. A company would have to get "involved" by giving back to the community. People that use Social Media discover very fast the motivations if your sole purpose is advertising, you are soon blackballed. A company must contribute to the Outcomes (common good) with, collaboration,community, conversation.

Social media is Social Behaviour based on Social Observation. Case in point, Susan Reynolds and the "Boobs on Ice". Susan is a New Media Consultant who frequently used blogs and various social networking, she is also battling breast cancer. In 2007, after a needle biopsy on her breast, she used frozen peas to help with the pain of the procedure. She then uploaded a picture of her with the frozen peas from that image, The Frozen Pea Fund was launched. People all across the internet were supporting her in the fight and within days, peavators were uploading images of themselves with peas.

De-lic-ious is a social book marking site that moves behaviour from the desktop, to the "Cloud" (internet). Bookmarking allows you to submit your favorite bookmarks and share them with others. You can find out with bookmarks, how many people have tagged it.

Quote from Wayne MacPhail and his talk, You don't use a Social Network, you become a Part of It.

Krista Yeo

Visit from James Eberhardt

2008-01-23T07:26:00.000-08:00

The guest speaker for our IMM class for Multimedia Pioneering was James Eberhardt. We have previously been looking at building applications for the large viewing media. The second half of our Course we are looking at building applications (prototypes) for small media viewing such as cell phones.

James is a Director of Technology and concentrates more on development than designing. His list of work includes speaking at the FITC in Toronto in 2007 speaking about Flash Lite on Building Mobile Applications for usability. He was previously the Director of Technology at Marblemedia and now works at Design Axiom and teaches Flash Lite at George Brown College in Toronto.

His credits include (but not limited to) the following:

The Border Mobile Contest
Seductive Shorts
This is Daniel Cook

Some of the key points of James' talk was a brief history of mobile devices and that although we have progressed, we still have a long way to go in the development of computing. This is good news for those interested in entering the field of mobile computing. He covered various information on Devices, SMS/MMS (Short Message Service and Multimedia Messaging Service), GPS (Global Positioning System), 2D Barcodes and Flash Lite.

He provided a few demonstrations on capturing images and how the GPS can track the location where the picture was taken. Another demo was of the 2D Barcodes which is currently being used to provide information t hat you capture with your cell phone and it will provide you with more information on the site you are visiting. 1D Barcodes are used by Groceries Stores to all you scan items, Post Offices, etc. The 2D does not replace the 1D, but rather the 2 technologies will co-exist. 2D allows you to hold more information making it perfect as an enhancement. Barcodes that were used were QR, Shotcode and Dynametrics.

Communication and Streamlineing have always been very motivating for me. I believe that mobile computing will be more predominant in a few more years when costs for Internet access is reduced. As James pointed out, there are not many jobs for Mobile Programming, but it is great to get a head start on this exciting technology.

Visit from Simon Conlin

2007-11-29T11:36:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, November 29th, our Interactive Multimedia class was privileged to have Simon Conlin visit our class.

Simon is originally from England and came to Canada a few years ago. Simons first passion was music and this developed into a love for Interactive Multimedia. Like the professors of IMM Sheridan, Simon is another pioneer in this ever growing field. Click here to go to Simons Site

Simon is an ambassor to Flash in a Can. Flash in a Can is A “Do It Yourself” festival for new media designers and developers who will learn the latest in interactive techniques and technologies and how to apply them to their own work. World-class speakers, Canadian debuts of new media art exhibits, a prestigious international awards show and late night mixers round out the festival, providing an energizing round-the-clock experience for the delegates. This Paragraph was copied from the FITC Site.
Click here to read more of the Bios of Flash in a Can

Today Simon took us through some of the amazing things that are being done in IMM. Here are a just a few of the examples,
Tracking Fingers with the Wii Remote
Mine-Control
Diffusion
Marble Marshall - Interactive art by Zack Booth Simpson
RNA Folding - Interactive art by Zack Booth Simpson

Dan Zen, our professor then took us through some of his Focuso and Lightshow work.
From flick'r
Dan' Focuso Site
Dan's Lightshow

This 2 hour presentation provoted thought, ideas and passion of the History and Future of IMM.

CLF 2.0 Standards and Guidelines

2007-10-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

I was surprised to find out the other day that a website has to allow access to everyone and this is a stringent law. Click here to see the Common Look and Feel for the Internet.

This would include Flash Sites only sites. This is still something that I am researching and will provide more information in future.

Visit to Gesturetek

2007-10-13T03:31:00.000-07:00

On October 12, we visited Gesturetek (Video Gesture Control Technology) as part of our Multimedia Pioneering Class. We met with Vincent John Vincent, the President and Co-Founder.

Our class met at the Gesturetek office on Adelaide; and like the company, it is beyond the norm. The atmosphere and architecture is a mixture of taking something that was old and renovating it to retain the orignal beauty giving it an air of the surreal. The same can be said for their technology. Taking older technolgy (video cameras) and mixing it with human gesture and the latest cutting edge technology to create a product that is not only for entertainment, advertising and gaming, but also for education, assisting the disabled and provide a way to exercise. Vincent John Vincent and his partner, Francis MacDougall are true pioneers in this industry and encompass everything that Interactive Multimedia is all about.

Vincent John Vincent gave us a demonstration of all the latest technology. We experienced the gaming, interactive walls, tables, and floors. One of the highlights for me was when he was giving a demonstration of how this technology has assisted in physical rehabilitation by using the gesture technology. Each person has a session programmed for them to follow along depending upon what they need to work on. I was very impressed.

Go to the GESTURETEK WEBSITE and you can see for yourself all the groundbreaking Computer Vision Technology. They are too numerous to display.

Jelauddin Rumi - 13th Century Mystic

2007-10-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

From Santas Little Helper Simpson to Rumi. But here goes.

In our Web Authoring Class we talked about Creativity. One thing that struck me was one of my favorite quotes "The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep!"
-Jelaluddin Rumi, the 13th Century Sufi mystic

Read a great article on Rumi

2007-10-04T20:38:00.000-07:00

Tutorial Creation Software

Free Tutorial Software similiar to Camtasia if cost is a factor.

http://www.debugmode.com/wink/

Visualization Lab

2007-10-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

Today we took a trip upstairs to visit the Sheridan Visualization Lab. I was impressed with the atmosphere and the culture.

We were shown some interactive multimedia applications by going through the Lab's project site.

The first example was a application created for the Police. Go to for a look. This was used for many reasons but the one shown was developed for Police Officers as an investigation tool to enable them to write a report for a traffic accident. This was a Flash-XML based application.

The next link was for Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) was using an XML Driven Engine using Flash 6. It was an imported swf that plays fla files. This is a Go to

We also were shown a demonstration using Facial Recognition Software.

I was surprised to learn that the graphics used for game type programs was from a graphics applications, but more complex using api. The free Opensource graphic engine that they used with a game type application using OGRE

I was also happy walking around seeing some of the manuals, books and software that they use.

Go to their site. Amazing and you don't have to physically be there.

Click Here to go to the Sheridan Visualization Labs Main Page

2007-09-23T02:35:00.000-07:00

A Quote from the movie Second Hand Lions. This is one of my favorites quotes from a movie.

"Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in."

Something More

2007-09-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

I have named my Blog Something More in appreciation and gratitude of the Book "Something More" by Sarah Ban Breathneath.

I have read this book many times along with Simple Abundance. Truly a life changing book for women.

Whatever we are waiting for - peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance - it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart. Sarah Ban Breathnach