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September 26, 2004
Bryant Park
Blog assignment for next week: What did you see in Bryant Park? Do you think
wireless is a good thing for the park? What factors contribute to the
success/failure of this project in your opinion? How does it relate to what
you’re been reading about good public spaces?
Having dealt with installations i found the park interesting in a few ways one is distances and interference and then the design layout.
I have install over great distances, and also through problematic materials like jungle. why is Bryant park have any problems with connections? funny we sat near the fountain and it was almost impossible to connect, I sit inside a house 200-300 meter an ap in a tropical downpour and have no problems. seems strange but that fact is 802.11 equipment is just inconsistent it make life hard installing and is quite a shame so I learn one must be on top of all the news. even one AP version to the next can have major repercussions on a project.
next as a designer by education it was lovely to see that a park know to be a simple place of standardized objects was about to get the space new life by making the park seem and feel more like a elegant back yard. having the table and chairs the way they are is a wonderful addition the park experience... glad to see the old picnic tables were thrown aside.
these two aspects above make for the park's problems and glories invisible and easy to works around they help to give a easily empty void space a great possibility to by known and recognized and appreciated for what is truly is worth.
Posted by dimitri at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2004
Thoughts on Live Journal
LiveJournal.com is part of the collection of tools available online today for people to create journals known as web-logs or blogs. Journals have traditionally been used for an inner dialogue, usually with the intention that no one else will read it. "Journal", like "diary", connotes a level of privacy that seems to stand in contrast to anything that is broadcasted, or "live", yet LiveJournal.com pushes journaling into a public space, where the journal becomes a communication tool, connecting the user with his/her friends and communities. The site serves as an outlet for introspection, much like a physical journal does, as well as allowing its community members to explore and sculpt their public personae.
On LiveJournal.com, a user's circle of friends is a constant presence, and an integral part of the experience of the site. Each LiveJournal.com user has the opportunity to select other users as friends, and the interface allows for all his or her friends' latest entries to appear on one page in chronological order, so the user can easily see when a friend has updated. All LiveJournal.com posts have the potential for comments, though this feature can be disabled. Unlike the pen-and-paper journaler, a LiveJournal has an ever-present audience to keep in mind. Instead of being closed back into the notebook, each new entry lies in wait for feedback. Exhibitionism and voyeurism are allowed to flourish.
Like Tripod and Geocities communities in the early days of the web, each user's LiveJournal is centered on the individual's thoughts and interests. Visitors come to a user's site because those thoughts or interests resonate with the visitor. When people visit a LiveJournal, the prominent link to the friends and user info pages, as well as other users' comments on the entries, encourage them to meander through to other users and communities. Practically every mention of a LiveJournal.com member on the site is linked to his or her journal, which encourages users to seek each other out. This emphasis on making direct connections is also reflected behind the scenes with the ability to manage your friend relationships from high level navigation links in the software itself.
However, LiveJournal.com does not completely reject the idea of privacy usually inherent in a traditional journal. LiveJournal.com's unique feature, in comparison to other blogging tools and online communities, is the way in which various levels of privacy are controlled. Unlike Blogger, Movable Type and other blogging tools, LiveJournal.com lets the user decide who will be able to read which post. A post can be declared public, visible to anyone on the web; private, visible to only the user; friends-only, visible only to other LiveJournal.com users who the user has selected as friends; or to certain user-defined groups of friends. This feature allows the user to navigate the different worlds he or she moves in and out of, while maintaining a consistent identity. A person, for example, may post an essay-style entry one day and a personal soul-searching entry the next. The audience for each would be different. In real life, an individual gets to choose which information he or she shares with which people. LiveJournal.com builds this capability into the software, which makes it a more sophisticated tool for managing online identity than many other blogging or online community tools. This feature alone pushes the tone of LiveJournals? from broadcast to conversation.
Meeting people on the Internet often feels risky because one does not know if the people one meets are truly the people they claim to be. By its nature, the Internet is a step removed from reality, which allows people to put on different masks much more easily than in real life. The community-oriented nature of LiveJournal.com and its layered privacy controls provide users with a feeling of security that they may not feel on the web at large. LiveJournal.com users often feel comfortable being honest about themselves. Their interaction may start out as a conversation with themselves, but their willingness to open the conversation to others allows communities to form. The act of controlling privacy options, both for individuals and in groups, lends an inherent feeling of security.
Though signing up at LiveJournal.com is a brief process, creating an identity and becoming part of the communities requires investment. Because access to other users is largely at their discretion, and connections are often made through existing friends, communities and individuals can weed out users who seek to deceive or abuse them. Potential abusers understand that what they say, they say to an audience, and they can be easily closed out of the discussion, perhaps even more easily than real life.
LiveJournal.com does not dictate to its participants the nature of what a community or group should be. The interest box in the user info area is free form and comma delimited. There are no friend requests, which might promote social anxiety; instead a user can filter which friends can read which posts without the friends' knowledge. There are closed communities for those who choose them, and open ones. Additionally, not all one's friends have to be listed on one's public friends list, another level of privacy.
The traditional journal or diary is a way to keep a memento of one’s life just for oneself. It is a very personal artifact and evolves into a private ritual, with random marks, images, doodles, or scraps of material collaged together from various places visited. LiveJouranals? are text, images, quizzes and other plug-ins that this Opensource community creates, still a collection albeit less freeform. LiveJournal.com trades the tactile experience of a private book for a more social exploration of self without sacrificing the safety and control that a diary offers. The consequences and new conventions born of this form of socialization are still evolving.
Posted by dimitri at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)