Reflective meta post & nominated 3 blog posts

Reflective meta post

My blog stats: views per week

According to BlogOhBlog its important to analyse traffic that comes to your website because it can really make or break it. Of course in the case of this very blog I never really intended to generate any traffic but rather use it as purely an assessment piece for my Networked Media Production class. At the beginning of my blog I was rather adamant that people would actually read my blog, well apart from the people in the Networked Media class. I can say now – after becoming somewhat addicted to checking blog stats – there’s always someone who’s interested in what you have to say no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.

So back to analysing traffic… by looking at my most basic data – the average visitors to my site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis – I can measure my blog’s overall activity. BlogOhBlog comments on this approach:

“It would appear on the surface that the more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is mostly an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your website visitors to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.”

This is obviously true when you consider the amount of people who come to my blog purely by accident and not intentionally visiting or reading content from it. One way of further analysing this is to find out how long on average my visitors are spending on my site. If the time spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out what that problem is.

It was interesting to look at the search engine term stats for my blog as I noticed my top search term (at 10 hits) was “hollie bracewell”. Hmmm. Very surprising and slightly creepy.

In terms of how my audience is using my site, my stats revealed that my most popular pages/blog entries were Project A, Project B and my About me page. This doesn’t come as any surprise as I would presume students from the class were interested to see what I’ve created and everyone likes to sticky-beak around the person who has created the content.

Top posts for "Hollie's Network" blog

The referrers for my blog were directed mostly from my fellow students’ blog, “Marijike”. I would presume it was mostly Marijke herself who was clicking on my blog as I am listed in her blogroll. My other top referrer was this tumblr site but I can’t work out for the life of me what this web page is, or who it belongs to. If anyone knows, please share as I would love to know.

Referrers for "Hollie's Network" blog

A lot of other referrers were directed from WordPress’s tags. For example, my Twistori tag for one blog entry was listed in this WordPress page. This makes it evident that tags are really key to the functionality of networked media even outside my own blog.

In relation to how my blog functions as networked media it has allowing me to contribute ideas and information to the production of media. By linking my blog with many other various sites I am allowing it to be actively part of networked media. My blog is part of the blogosphere which subsequently acts as a global connection.

The role of such a service as blogs allows me to share my opinions and views. It is a tool to stay informed with cultural issues and to reflect culture back into society. Its a way to be culturally aware and contemporarily aware of the social issues around us.

By discussing and analysing already existing content, ideas and opinions I am actively particpating in the network effect: the more people who use a service, the more effective it becomes. In other words, I am basically helping to share content, ideas and opinions.

Nominated 3 blog posts

1. Data visualisation bringing trends to life and creating a focus on big picture thinking
2. Multiplicity and crowd sourcing: online fundraising
3. I am a sponge: a cultural sponge.

Project B: geo-narrative

My Project B: geo-narrative

Check out my page for Project B rationale!

Data visualisation bringing trends to life and creating a focus on big picture thinking

After the data visualisation lecture I was left feeling more acquainted with the benefits of this networked media tool in comparison to my previous blog entry about this topic. 

Most data visualisations caused me to question what the purpose and real benefits of data visualisation are. After watching this clip spoken by data visionary Hans Rosling at TED I was left feeling more certain that there are indeed many great benefits.

As opposed to boring statistics, data visualisation helps to tell a story and a pattern for the world which is easily read and understandable. Being able to present data in this intuitive, animated and stunning way helps to create solutions for real world issues. It is a completely new way of looking at things. Rosling is truly bringing trends to life and creating a focus on big picture thinking.

Hans Rosling at TED explains his data maps

Rosling raises some interesting issues about the need for a search function to enable access to publicly funded statistics freely. Doing so will give rise to more data visualisations. This will subsequently allow society to increase their understanding of social and economic development in the world. Rosling commented on this topic: 

“Some countries accept that their databases can go out on the world, but what we really need is, of course, a search function. A search function where we can copy the data up to a searchable format and get it out in the world.”

Rosling ends his talk by examining the increasing number of internet users in the world today. Fittingly this demonstrates how significant it is to make publicly funded data available. 

“Rosling believes that making information more accessible has the potential to change the quality of the information itself.”

- Business Week Online

Have you lost your WordPress blog stats?

So I was just trying to work out what happened to all my blog stats. Seems as though WordPress has replaced the old blog stats chart with an Open Flash Chart. Read the full story here.

New stats chart for WordPress

I thought I only had a graph showing just the total views and no apparent information about Referrers, Clicks, Top Posts & Pages, and Search Engine Terms. It seemed as though they had disappeared. But it’s just a matter of looking where they disappeared to…

Within the four headings: Referrers, Top Posts & Pages, Search Engine Terms, and Clicks you have to widen the results to something more appropriate (I just use “All Time”). Due to this new chart the default for WordPress blog stats seems to be set to the current day and hence why it appears as though there isn’t any stats there (obviously only if you haven’t actually received any hits for that day). And when you click one of the four headings the default there seems to be set to the “7 Days” view.

Hope I have solved this problem for anyone!

Multiplicity and crowd sourcing: online fundraising

Previously I found this website called Fundable which is an online fund raising site aimed at anybody and for just about anything. People can use it for personal projetcs, collecting money for events and trips, short films, vet bills and even fundraising to help pay for friends and family presents.

Similar to online auctions, Fundable’s pages are created by people who use this site. Each project has a description of how much money needs to be collected and what it will do. Once enough pledges (not payments) have been collected, Fundable turns them into real payments and sends the total to the project’s organiser.

No one takes a risk when making a pledge: if a collection expires before reaching its total in pledges, Fundable deletes all pledges and never charges money. This lets you participate in a group purchase or fundraiser without worrying about what other people will do. No one pays until and unless everyone else makes a pledge!

Similar to Fundable is the website ChipIn. ChipIn allows people to go in on a purchase together. The big difference with ChipIn is that it’s free, unlike Fundable where it charges 8.9% for its services. There are smaller differences as well like the capability for users to offer products or services for sale to groups. But ChipIn doesn’t require that a project reach its goal before it will disburse money; you can configure a project to send whatever is collected to the organizer after a certain amount of time. Fundable is all-or-nothing.

Another similar type of crowd-funding website is SellaBand. People invest in a SellaBand artist or band and once they have achieved the required amount of investment, investors receive a limited edition copy of the album. On top of that, the artists and their fans share equally in the revenues of the album. SellaBand is an exciting way of discovering new music, changing the face of the music industry and being part of the fun.

These sorts of crowd sourcing websites make it quick and easy to raise money for something which would deem physically impossible without networked media. It’s an innovative way to build a network and reach potential donars that are beyond people’s immediate reach.

Andreas Gursky and multiplicity

The aesthetics of multiplicity remind me of a photographic exhibition I saw recently when I was in Melbourne. This was the exhibition of German visual artist Andreas Gursky. His photos in essence are concerned with the experience of life in a globalised world.

Being able to view the photos face-to-face I was blown away by their huge size, intricate detail and the use of vibrant, bold colours. Gursky uses computers to edit his pictures and creates art in a larger space than the subject photographed. Although his work isn’t typically considered as using multiples it does present the same beautiful qualities that multiplicity presents like the notion of ‘many-ness’. Like the complexity of data visualisations, Gursky’s photos are appealing and captivating.

One particular photo which I was really fascinated by was “99 cent”. It is amazing to think that you can find beauty in some of the most strangest things like this 99 cent shop. This snapshot of many-ness shows how the most mundane things can be interesting to look at.

Andreas Gursky's "99 cent"

Similar to Gursky’s work is the photographic collection of Peter Funch, titled Babel Tales (as found via Networked Media Production delicious bookmarks). I really like how he has combined photos to create a new scene. It’s yet another example of how using lots of something is more captivating to the eye.

Peter Funch: Babel Tales

Like re-mixability, both photograhers capture moments in time and alter them or combine them to create something entirely new.

Both the works of both photographers I have just discussed are not elements of networked media, however I thought they wer worth discussing in terms of multiplicity. They both demonstrate, in some form or another, the same aesthtics of multiplicity.

Data Visualisation changing the way we view content

Recently after a ‘Contemporary Issues in Design’ lecture I became quite fascinated with data visualization and the many original and intriguing ways it can be represented.

Smashing Magazine describes data visualisation:

“The main goal of data visualization is its ability to visualize data, communicating information clearly and effectivelty.”

Information Aesthetics is one weblog I found which explores the symbiotic relationship between creative design and the field of information visualization. I particularly like this infographic advertisement for Sprint:

The fact that this is an advertisement really shows the power of data visualisation. The way the information is given to viewer is very engaging and actually quite amusing. (Definitely beats looking at some crappy Excel pie graph). Data visualization is changing the way we view content.

It seems that with all this social media around us on the web we’re being inundated with locations, opinions, emotions, hometowns, and photographs, all of which are being sorted and compiled in some way or another. A great example of this is Twistori.

Having looked at Twistori got me thinking whether data visualisation (when used in this manner) is a useful tool or not. Okay so I know there are definitely lots of examples of data visualations that have benefits. But what about sites like Twistori, Twitter Blocks, We Feel Fine and Digg Labs. While they are entertaining and intriguing, how could these data visualations be effective? Are they enhancing our lives or helping us to reach goals?

Right. So those where more thought-provoking questions. Attempted to answer them but failed to get anywhere which sounded somewhat intelligent. The best I managed to get at is that these particularly useless sites are just another networked media tool which allows for greater social comment and discussion. They also allow us to understand ourselves better to some extent.

On the other side of the useless sites are the more beneficial sites. One site I found which could be very useful for analysing web traffic is Crazy Egg. Crazy Egg lets you explore the behavior of your visitors with a heat map. More popular sections, which are clicked more often, are highlighted as “warm” – in red color.

For some odd reason I really liked this site. Probably not very useful unless you are looking for any lost luggage but either way I thought it was rather fascinating. Is This Your Luggage is a photo collection of several pieces of lost luggage, unpacked and photographed for your voyeuristic pleasure (or to find the right owner, according to the website). The thought of me traveling overseas soon makes me feel a little unsettled that my panties could be on display for all the world to see in the event I did lose my luggage…

Despite the seemingly useless data visualations on the web they are becoming more important to network media.With so much information available and a rapidly increasing digital age data visualisations are popping up everywhere. In fact I found a a million examples which I wanted to document in this blog entry. They have the ability to enrich the users experience and to help understand more about the world around us and ourselves.

Recommended sites/blogs about data visualisation:

Smashing Magazine

Viget Labs

Flowing Data

Visual Complexity

Mashable: The Social Media Guide

Found this rather very-NMP-related blog today. Definitely worth checking out. Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Networking news. It reviews new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web.

Twitter: talking to no one and EVERYONE

In my attempt to write a paper for another unit, once again, during online research I managed to find a million things to write about with relevance to NMP. It’s difficult not to think of something to discuss when this unit is about all things networking. And well, thats what the internet manages to do so well: network. 

Stumbled across this guys blog and found this youtube video which comments on the dissenting views of Twitter. I think it sums up my outlook on Twitter very nicely. 

Admittedly I have my own Twitter account. I am following people but am I actually interested in their so called “tweets”? No, not really, in fact I never actually look at them in the first place. Do I want to make tweets? Once again, no, not really. I don’t think what I have to say in one 140 word sentence could be at all interesting or necessary to read. And like the youtube video brings to issue, who am I talking to anyway?

No one and EVERYONE. Oh so true! No one cares but everything is readable by everyone. 

In a highly communicating world I would never think that Twitter would be such a revolutionary approach to a new means on communication and networking. Are Twitter users just exhibitionists who are convinced that people care about what they have to say? Or are they tapping into something which I’m not fully understanding the benefits of?

Ah, who knows! Either way one less social networking site for me to want to use is always a plus: I spend way too much time online.

Following that last post…

I suck at life:

I lost my iPhone.

Waaaah!!

It’s like losing a best friend. Over exaggeration? I think not.