so far i have been a little overwhelmed with the amount of save, share, read, mark, tag, options that are available for the individual media experience. this blog is intended to be among other things a way for me to design an appropriate effective media relationship. this will be a quick post to help clarify what i have learned so far, for you, and for myself.
facebook, gmail, ferrisconnect, youtube, pandora, delicious are only a tiny fraction of the networks that modulate my interaction with contacts, photos, research papers, bookmarks, news music and videos. that vast array of information is accessed in just as many ways. i chat with friends using facebook, i write and edit papers using my google account, i bookmark interesting and informative content using delicious, i listen to music by utilizing a number of websites, pages, forums, and downloading streaming suites. all of this while often exciting and fun, quickly becomes overwhelming and time consuming.
tv is interesting because it does not conform to the web medium. It has resisted the powerful absorption properties of the internet. but as lines between cable, satellite, and broadband telecommunication networks blur so will the tv/web experience. as this process continues i will probe the difference between tv and internet. i would like to be able to watch live cable television on my pc. i could take screenshots and be able to do interesting things with this in-process media journal.
so far i have began to shape up my online footprint. i want to be able to utilize the web without becoming consumed by it. here is where i am along this process:
i need facebook^^^^link profile. agh. this website offers a clean easy template to create, manage, and share a personal profile of yourself. it allows you to connect with people you do and dont know, and is an organized way to maintain personal relationships. it has worldwide the most users of any other social network (cite this in natgeo). not to mention, i have an extensive library of photo albums that i share using facebook. so far facebook remains an integral part of my online experience.
on the other hand, is facebook sufficient for handling all my media needs, would it be proper to use facebook to conduct this sort of journal(blog)? while facebook does contain blog like tools(notes and links) i have not found these features compelling or appropriate. i do not think that i would like to share all of my web discoveries on my profile. i belive facebook is more personal and that a library of scholarly bookmarks although convenient would be ultimately innappropriate. while facebook is a sort of journal in its own right it is a journal i would deem more private or managed than what other tools may provide. i will continue to monitor integration possibilities, because ultimately ONE digital journal remains temptingly utopian.
next, i need gmail. ^^^facebook has a mail feature but i would have to invite someone to facebook if they wanted to communicate***interesting point of distinction to discuss here. gmail is a robust email suite that allows access from any online computer and has an array of extension products making it nearly universal. it also is more professional facebook. i do have a number of other email addresses and again this journal has inspired the process of combining and managing these sources of contacts, information, and communication.
gmail also contains the advantage of a google account. this includes interesting features such as large file uploads, googledocs, Picasa, (blogger), a calendar, and many more. what this means is that google provides a conduit for electronic communication. gmail aside, with googledocs i am able to create, upload, share, and edit word documents, powerpoint presentations, and excel spreadsheets. i still utilize microsoft office products, but googledocs has been changing this with opensource nature of their product, and the beautiful management interface that is accessible from any computer. google calendar offers the same universal accessibility. picasa is a similar photo management software that lets me share and store photos online. i have not even mentioned googles outstanding search engine which is, at least now, a foundation for using google so broadly(or is this a good reason?***)
problems i have encountered with google is their current bookmarking tools. in the midst of google bookmarks, google chrome, google notebook, google books, googledocs, and googles history feature i became wearingly lost. from an ultracomprehensive history bar to a disconnected tagless! relationship between g bookmarks and g chrome, to a great but oddly misplaced sync feature in googledocs the concept of bookmarking seems to be lost on the giant of search engines. and so tragically google does not provide any sort of effecient, comprehensive, universal, diverse bookmarking process. in a perfect tech world i could bookmark from any browser on any computer, have tag and folder capability, sync options, and an multiple share capabilities. while the rest of the google suite is, so far, essential, the bookmark process is sadly inadequate and has spurred my attention to...
delicious.^^^link my delicious page
THUS! i am using delicious for the brun tof my bookmarking work. it offers access from any computer, easy tagging/organizing, and multi web browser support. i still bookmark particular sites in firefox, as well google bookmarks( ikeep a gadget on my igoogle page for often used links), and i am leaving open the option of using google chrome for this task. but for now the load of bookmarks i deem necessary to save goes to delicious.
so this is where i am at.
the goal is to be able to deal with accomodate any and all sources of information. i also want to be organized and precise. i also want to critically sort and sift the web to obtain the most meaningful relevant material. it is often overwhelming for example feeling like i need to read every single nytimes top stories blog update. i am considering how to filter this voracious stream of information properly and consciously. and even more importantly how to break out of the mainline this stream tends to flow with. what i mean is discovering unveiling creating information that is valuable, relevant, important, and unconsidered, unspoken. i cannot allow one two three even really good sources to dominate, train, and prescribe my thought. i must remain closely introspective parrallleing each channel of thought alongside my deep solemn contemplating self.
one of my next tasks is to filter my delicious bookmarks of advertising, of sites that only influence me to want. i figure if i want so adidas kicks ill go buy some. i dont need to have their website bookmarked. this is oddly difficult but should be rewarding. it will help my digital self my database to contain a purer content. ha maybe only superficially. well see.
alas this is one of my first real blog posts. i am learning how to make websites, how to read, save, cite, and share on the web. i am proud that i have a decent system established. i am still learning. next i would like to jump the hurdle that is making my home computer a server(accessible from anywhere on the internet). i sometimes feel the vanity of this enterprise is overwhelming. ill try not to lose that. please read. peace
