Author: james

I had to create a 90 second video clip about social media for a module I’m studying, here it is: How I made the video. Using an open source application Freeplane, I did a brainstorm of ideas for the presentation. I concluded that I would need to deliver the presentation as audio-visual to include the many ideas, although the majority of initial points were eventually omitted due to time constraints on the video. I then completed a storyboard to help me put the seemingly disjointed ideas into a logical order. I planned each section and then viewed the media resources available to include one image per point raised. The media was useful but because I didn’t have time to listen to all the music available, I decided to select a commercially available piece to help create the atmosphere I desired. (Corner Stone Cues – Requiem for a Tower). Due to file size constraints, in order utilise the 60-90 seconds available to me; I decided the final presentation needed to be 640 x 480 resolution (with 1500 bps) and having PAL-compatible 25 frames per second. I found Google Picasa too restrictive for this purpose and it didn’t allow me to crop[…]

Crowdsourcing is the model by which a party can outsource activity to a larger unspecified group of people. Activity may range from processing, assessing through to, in the case of Kickstarter, financial funding ad benefits are gained from the size and variety of a crowd. As discussed in the interview from The Strand (2010), Kickstarter allows “micro financing” small projects in a non-traditional investment model where projects tend to be “driven more by creative expression than some sort of commercial interest”. A project’s success mutually benefits stakeholders and relationships tend to be relatively more involved between investors and organisers. Kickstarter operates through a website that enables individuals or groups to list a creative project that requires financial funding. Projects need to have clear goals with something produced on completion and are only successful if funding goals are met or exceeded. Potential funders are encouraged to donate by the project’s goals and (strictly non-financial and non-equity) rewards such as crediting funders or receiving an item from the project’s limited initial production. Different tiers of donations are rewarded differently. Kickstarter handles payments securely through third-party payment processing providers to ensure money if protected. Card details may be given but no money is[…]