Final Week
The topic of our final lecture for this module was the Future of Social Media. We discussed in pairs what we thought the future of Social Media might look like, and what predictions we could make. The general consensus was for their to be more social media platforms, with reflection on the massive growth of apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat, and more recently Yik Yak. I discussed the growth of Yik Yak with my partner as I had noticed the massive increase in users since downloading the app only a few weeks ago. The class also felt that there will be much stronger commercial links with Apps, and businesses will make more use of popular social media to advertise and market their products through viral internet campaigns and social media applications. There was some division on the topic of the future of Facebook, with some believing it will continue to grow, while others felt it would decline. Personally, I feel that Facebook is going from strength to strength which is reflected in their profits. Businesses are realizing the importance of Facebook and other social media, so I believe it will continue to grow, though also become more commercial.
Group Project
At this stage, our group project is all but complete. We had to sacrifice some elements of the initial idea of the app due to time and technical constraints. We created a functional app which will list all first year UCD electives by their School, Subject, Module Code and Name. My contribution to the project involved organisation of group meetings; writing and giving the presentation in week 10, inputting the data for the Schools of Applied Languages, Architecture, Arts and Business for the Fusion tables; and helping to create and develop the Prezi and e-Marketing strategy for our UCD Electives app.
Sunday, 26 April 2015
Week 10 and 11
Week 10
Our lecture in week 10 involved a group member from each project to give a short presentation on our project topics to the rest of the Social Computing and Media Class. I gave a presentation for my group, so I prepared some notes on our project:
Week 11
The topic of Week 11's class was Ethics. We also had some readings to do involving Social Media Trends, and our readings introduced us to the feature of using Google Trends. Google Trends allows you to view particular trends in searching and social media by date and area. You can also search particular search terms to view a graph and timeline of how frequently that term was searched, and its general trend over time. There were two Dailymail articles involving Wikipedia, one which dealt with Wikipedia restricting editing access to pages of US electoral candidates, and the other with a Wikipedia hoax describing a fictional war which went unchecked by Wikipedia for 5 years. I also watched an interesting TED talk by Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia.
We also had our final end of year Quiz which accounted for 20% of the module on Friday at 9am of Week 11.
Our lecture in week 10 involved a group member from each project to give a short presentation on our project topics to the rest of the Social Computing and Media Class. I gave a presentation for my group, so I prepared some notes on our project:
UCD ELECTIVES
Group Project 17
1. How you formulated the idea for your App/Mashup?
- Met as a group to discuss possible ideas. Most ideas were to do with UCD as we wanted the app to solve an information problem that was relevant to us all
- Since the group was primarily made up of elective members, the topic of electives was very relevant, especially with the wide choice available
- Decided to make an app which would make it easier to choose an elective based on various factors
2. Name of the App and how the App/Mashup solves an existing Information Problem?
→ UCD Electives
It can be difficult to try and choose a suitable elective. Many people pick electives for different reasons, some picking for interest and others for something less challenging/demanding and relatively simple. While there is suitable information on electives online, we found that it could be difficult to navigate, especially for newcomers to UCD. We decided that it would be interesting to have a smartphone App which would incorporate this information, while also adding new search filters and an App rating system, which would rely on user involvement.
3. Difficulties encountered or overcome designing/implementing the App/Mashup?
We had some difficulties in trying to decide how to design our app interface to make it most convenient to use. We wanted to include a variety of search filters, such as App ratings, subjects, levels, times and whether there was an end of year exam or group-work involved.We tried a few different options before deciding on our existing layout of ****. Still in a stage of app development.. Difficulties inputting all the information and creating a database.
4. How the App/Mashup will work?
The App will work as a searchable information store which will incorporate user involvement through a group rating system. Students will be able to search for electives by level, subject, rating, time and day, and whether the module involves group-work or an end of year exam.
Having all the information in one place and giving more information. It allows users to search for a suitable elective for them based on different criteria
5. What Social Media you are using to market your App/Mashup?
We are going to make a screencast video and then share this primarily through Facebook to market our app as it should reach many UCD students if shared on each of our individual profiles. We decided on using a screencast video as we felt it would easily illustrate how the app may be used and navigated.
Week 11
The topic of Week 11's class was Ethics. We also had some readings to do involving Social Media Trends, and our readings introduced us to the feature of using Google Trends. Google Trends allows you to view particular trends in searching and social media by date and area. You can also search particular search terms to view a graph and timeline of how frequently that term was searched, and its general trend over time. There were two Dailymail articles involving Wikipedia, one which dealt with Wikipedia restricting editing access to pages of US electoral candidates, and the other with a Wikipedia hoax describing a fictional war which went unchecked by Wikipedia for 5 years. I also watched an interesting TED talk by Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia.
We also had our final end of year Quiz which accounted for 20% of the module on Friday at 9am of Week 11.
Week 9
Social Computing for Business
-Guest lecturer Lucie Bohmova
Our lecture this week was on Social Computing for Business and importance of businesses to recognize the value of using social media in order to market and advertise their campaigns. It is imperative for businesses to keep up to date with modern advancements, in particular in relation to social media. Social media provides businesses with massive platforms of potential customers with little need for spending massive amounts of money on marketing campaigns. It is recommended that businesses have as many social media accounts as possible, and to manage these effectively. Use of Facebook and Twitter in particular can be a convenient and rewarding way to keep in contact with customers and increase their positive feeling towards your business. Visual media platforms are in a period of growth at the minute, so more use of Instagram and Snapchat is being utilised by businesses to increase their customer base.
The use of competitions hosted on social media is also an important strategy of business. These can be through offering incentives and prizes for getting people to 'like', tag or invite friends, and share your Facebook page; re-tweeting your posts on Twitter etc. It was also important to not bombard customers, and instead to try and form connections with them by posting humorous posts which are not always strictly connected to trying to sell your product.
We were told to get into groups in this class and to make up a company/product, and to create a business strategy for social media for our company. Myself and the two girls I worked with decided to create a fictional fashion magazine called Millennial.s Our target market would be the millenium generation, primarily the 18-25 year old bracket. We would make use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat to market our magazine.We would offer giveaways on Instagram, and also sneak peeks of fashion shoots through Snapchat.
-Guest lecturer Lucie Bohmova
Our lecture this week was on Social Computing for Business and importance of businesses to recognize the value of using social media in order to market and advertise their campaigns. It is imperative for businesses to keep up to date with modern advancements, in particular in relation to social media. Social media provides businesses with massive platforms of potential customers with little need for spending massive amounts of money on marketing campaigns. It is recommended that businesses have as many social media accounts as possible, and to manage these effectively. Use of Facebook and Twitter in particular can be a convenient and rewarding way to keep in contact with customers and increase their positive feeling towards your business. Visual media platforms are in a period of growth at the minute, so more use of Instagram and Snapchat is being utilised by businesses to increase their customer base.
The use of competitions hosted on social media is also an important strategy of business. These can be through offering incentives and prizes for getting people to 'like', tag or invite friends, and share your Facebook page; re-tweeting your posts on Twitter etc. It was also important to not bombard customers, and instead to try and form connections with them by posting humorous posts which are not always strictly connected to trying to sell your product.
We were told to get into groups in this class and to make up a company/product, and to create a business strategy for social media for our company. Myself and the two girls I worked with decided to create a fictional fashion magazine called Millennial.s Our target market would be the millenium generation, primarily the 18-25 year old bracket. We would make use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat to market our magazine.We would offer giveaways on Instagram, and also sneak peeks of fashion shoots through Snapchat.
Week 8
Flickr
I enjoyed using Flickr and although I do not have too much interest in Video Social Media platforms, I would consider using it if I wanted to organize photos online. Here is a link to my Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131981386@N04/sets/
This weeks lab activity involved using the Yahoo based site Flickr for this week's topic: Managing Visual Social Media.
Firstly, I signed up for a Flickr account in order to complete this week's activity. I followed the instructions given to complete an advanced image search on Google to find sample photos which were free to use and share. I decided to download some pictures of UCD campus, without any students in them to avoid any potential privacy issues. I then uploaded these photos to my new Flickr account.
It was then time to organize and label my photos by giving them titles and descriptions and organizing them into a set. I also tagged my photos with some simple and relevant tags. Here is a screenshot of my editing in progress:
I edited each photo by assigning them Titles, Descriptions and Tags in order to organize my visual media more effectively. I then proceeded to upload my 8 photos to my Flickr account.
Week 7
Web Mash-Ups
The topic of this week was Combining Social Media to Produce New Services, i.e. Mash-Ups. The sample Mash-Up we had to create involved using Google Maps and data from Trees to create a Map which included details on some of the oldest and greatest oak trees in Ireland. We were given instructions and also two Excel data sheets of information to incorporate into the Map to create this Mash-Up.
I I also added labels to show the height in metres of each tree. My next step in the instructions was to add a picture of an Oak tree to one of my icons to give it more information. I used Google Advanced Search to ensure the images I used were free and safe to use.
The topic of this week was Combining Social Media to Produce New Services, i.e. Mash-Ups. The sample Mash-Up we had to create involved using Google Maps and data from Trees to create a Map which included details on some of the oldest and greatest oak trees in Ireland. We were given instructions and also two Excel data sheets of information to incorporate into the Map to create this Mash-Up.
After uploading the files successfully, I then proceeded to change the colour of the icons on the second sheet of data in order to differentiate it from the first. This involved changing the style of the icons.
I I also added labels to show the height in metres of each tree. My next step in the instructions was to add a picture of an Oak tree to one of my icons to give it more information. I used Google Advanced Search to ensure the images I used were free and safe to use.
Another of the tasks we had to complete during this activity was to use the 'Draw a line Feature' to trace the outline of Dartmouth Square Park in Ranelagh, County Dublin. I used the ruler tool to measure the outline of this park and found it was approximately 429 metres judging by my measurements.
Thursday, 23 April 2015
Week 5 (UNFINISHED)
Using Prezi
This week's lab involved creating a Prezi and learning how to use Prezi for visually stimulating and effective presentations.
This week's lab involved creating a Prezi and learning how to use Prezi for visually stimulating and effective presentations.
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