week 7 - (the progression of the group project)

This week our group focused more on the editing of our wiki as we found that our wiki has alot of useful information, but there was far too much information on one page, which makes it look unattractive and mundane so we had to insert images to make it appear more user friendly and make it look alot more attractive in terms of web design. What I am finding quite difficult is the overall layout of the page i.e. particularly when inserting images, however, I am trying my best to solve this issue by inserting the images into tables which makes it look alot nicer in terms of layout.

As a group I feel that we need to include more theory into our wiki. I have managed to incorporate some theory on virtual reality and how it corresponds to second life. Theory from Featherstone, M and Burrows, R - Cyberspace,Cyberbodies and Cyberpunk (Cultures of Technological Embodiment) - 1995 Sage Publications

week 6- Self Directed Study

This week we more or less concentrated on our group project, which I must say is coming along nicely and it is clear that everyone has put quite a bit of effort into it. My only real concern is the actual layout of the page, especially after looking at some group work from the previous years which I must say was amazing and very insightful. It looked as though they all had experience in the field of web design. In addition, it looked as though they had spent alot of quality time on it. I think with our project, we need to make it more user friendly by adding less text and more images; looking/analysing examples of good and bad websites definitely helped as we could identify with bits that worked and bits that didnt work in terms of web design.

For tomorrows lesson I am going to try and incorporate some theory into our group project which I have found through reading some texts such as Slevin, J (2001) The internet and Society Polity Press UK and Gere, C (2002) Digital Culture Reaktion Books.

week, 5 Good and Bad Web Designs

This week we looked at writing and what it means in terms of web design, it is alot different writing on the web then on paper as you have to be more creative and insert images that immediately captures the readers eye.

Already, I managed to find some examples of good and bad web designs

• Evite.com - In short, this website is crying out for an overhaul. With more and more sites emphasizing flexability and user control over content, Evite's fill-in-the-blanks approach feels clumsy and to and extent dated. The ads are intrusive and as for the navigation, it's slow, your never quite sure what you are clicking on because some of the pages are blank it also takes a while for some of the pages to load, need I say more. The service has also been slow to adopt some of the media sharing tools that have become a standard way of the web. Definitely not recommended for those of you who maybe in a hurry.
  

• Myspace.com - One of the most popular social networking sites and also one of the top ten online destinations overall. It seems as though this community has become infested with marketers and various other opportunitists who create false profiles and essentially spam other users.

www.jeansstore.co.uk

This is an example of good web design because it is informative and it is user friendly and the navigation is really good as well, I also think that the layout is very good and the brands are clearly marked which makes the consumer want to buy jeans because of the way how each pair is marketed. In my opinion, definitely concised.


Another example of excellent web design is asos.com, which is a relatively new online fashion retailer which specialise in current trends as seen by the celebrities. In my opinion their website is very good because it is easy to navigate, also there are still images of the clothing followed by a catwalk so you can really see the product which makes it much easier for the consumer to decide where or not the product is right for her/him. The website also allows you to zoom right up to the product so you can see what the material is like and the texture.

Week4's lesson, Wiki Formation and information on Second Life

In this week's lesson we were given an in depth understanding of what is meant by the terminology 'Online communities' and what that also means about who we are online . Online communities inevitably aims to address issues of sustainability, regeneration, social inclusion and healthier economies by focusing on the use of new communications technologies in communities and neighbourhoods.

This week also gave us a chance to progress with our group wiki, which I must say is coming on really well. There is some really good information inputted on it, however, I feel that we need to sort out the overall design and layout of the page as there is far too much text on it and not enough images. I do realise that this is an academic piece of work but I also know that it's meant to be user friendly for students.


We were each assigned different parts to focus on for this project, my part is 'deception online'.
For this I will be giving a concised definition of what 'deception' actually means. I will then be illustrating the three main questions which I have choosen to focus on for this section as the subject on deception is so broad.

• Are we really who we say we are online?
• How easy is it to hide your identity online?
• How easy is it to commit identity fraud?
  

With reference to these three questions I will be analysing Dyson, E (1997) article on 'who are you and does it matter?' in the Guardian Online Dec 1997 p.11, Baym, NK (1998), The emergence of online community' in Jones, SG ed. Cybersociety 2.0: revisiting computer-mediated communication and community, Sage California and Donath, S.J (1996) 'Identity and deception in the virtual community' at http://judith.www.media.mit.edu/Judith/identity/identitydeception.htm

In addition, I will be looking at social networking sites in particular Myspace, facebook and second life. Are we really who we say we are on these sites? as we could potientially be a paedophile.
There are countless anecdotes concerning online deception, in particular the story of a (multi-user-domain) which I will elaborate on when inputting information on the group wiki.


I read something in the 'London Lite' that was very alarming to me about Second life and I thought I should share it with you as well as using it as the basis of case study for my group project.
The article reads:

'Child abuse fear in Second Life'
'Internet detectives are hunting for paedophilies using the web community to
abuse virtual children. A probe into Second Life, a site where users can create
and control characters, found that paedophiles had created a playground to
carry out sex acts on virtual children. Police now fear that the abuse could
spiral into the real world and said "We'll infiltrate these rings." 'John,G London Lite Wednesday 31st October 2007 pg3


I think that we need to be more cautious online although there is security maintained in 'net communication' and not take certain things online for granted.