A Preview of HTML5

HTML5. The word has been thrown around for a couple of years and while it has sparked all kinds of opinion and debate it is definitely not too soon to find out more about what many are calling “The Future of the Web’.

Development of HTML5 up to this point has been around 5 years and it is expected that the language will not be completely supported until 2022. That said, there are many powerful features available in browsers today.

The purpose of HTML5 is to give designers and developers more more flexibility and ease exchange and use of information. HTML5 introduces a whole set of new elements that make it much easier to structure pages.

As the web is constantly evolving and HTML5 is still in development, features of the language are likely to change however there are currently many great sources of information to curb your curiosity.

Preview of HTML5

Smashing Magazine – HTML5 The Future of the Web

HTML5 Cheat Sheet

What’s your personal brand?

I attended an interesting talk given by Patti Church, a brand strategist and social media marketer on the power of online branding. It is incredible just how much the online world has changed the way we network and socialise, and just how much of you can be revealed (for better or worse!) by google’ling yourself.

The term ‘branding’ is thrown around so much these days and many of us associate it with corporate logos, slogans and maybe that catchy theme tune. Branding itself is an easy word to define but personal branding opens up a number of questions.

Patti’s talk inspired me to really think about what my personal brand is. Who I am? What I do? My key message. It’s delving into questions about my passions, how I can take initiative and lead on matters that are important to me. I am still working hard on figuring these questions out.

A simple portfolio theme in WordPress

I was very interested to read that WordPress has just released a simple portfolio theme, named rather appropriately SimpleFolio. Some may think that having a portfolio site created in WordPress is a way of avoiding the work involved in building a website from scratch. I however think that a portfolio site that is simple is a great way of showcasing work.

There seems to be a certain amount of pressure in how multimedia students should represent themselves on the web. That maybe the flashier it is, the more qualified we are.
I don’t think this is the case at all.

The beauty of interactive multimedia is that it is so multidisciplinary and that how we choose to represent our work and ourselves should most closely reflect our strengths and talents. We all have different weaknesses and strengths, some are better coders, some are better photographers, others may feel most comfortable designing. I hope that themes like SimpleFolio will encourage to look at simplicity as a strength.

Having looked at the theme briefly, SimpleFolio does seem very clean and simple. It includes a blog, 2 different page templates, and a front page slider to showcase porfolio pieces. The fact that it is so simple means that it can hopefully be altered easily to reflect the person using it as a platform, and more importantly, it is free to download! I will definitely be checking this one out.

Stop motion

I have long been drawn to the stop motion animation technique. I guess much of that is to do with just how labour intensive this technique is, even if it is to create just a couple of seconds. It also reminds of some of the children’s television programs I used to watch like The Magic Roundabout, Morph, and Paddington Bear. All still excellent today.

For those who are not familiar with stop motion, it is an animation technique using models or objects usually made of clay, plasticine or cloth. The object is put into a certain position and at that moment a picture is taken. The object is then moved to another position and the same thing happens again. The pictures played in sequence (and usually amounting to thousands) create the illusion that the object is moving.

The use of stop motion continues strongly today. Aardman Animations, the brain behind Wallace and Gromit, have kept this technique very much in the limelight and it is also a popular technique for advertisments and music videos. One video I saw recently from the Fleet Foxes uses stop motion exclusively and the result is pretty breathtaking, Stop motion has come a long way since Paddington Bear and I hope with the emergence of far more sophisticated animation technologies that it isn’t forgotten in the future.

Vintage Ottawa

I am a big fan of old photographs. You know the ones with the washed out yellow tinge. It was during a look through some old photo albums over Christmas that I thought I would try create a few of my own with recent photos I took of Ottawa. I ended up playing with curves, photofilter and colour balance in Photoshop and ended up with these. Not sure how successful they are in recreating a vintage look but any suggestions or comments are welcome.

Law of diminishing returns

I had every intention of going downtown to take some photos, sun was shining, it was the weekend and for some reason I didn’t. I was in a far more solitary mood, happier to take pictures of my cat Cassie and cook. When I finally did sit down with a bowl of stew and glass of wine, I still felt that I had had a good day. So often we try and work in order to feel productive and push away the guilt. I have lost count of the number of times I have stayed up late in front of the computer for the sake of it, only to feel exhausted and annoyed at the little of amount of work I had managed to achieve. A classic case of the law of diminishing returns where beyond a certain production level, productivity increases at a decreasing rate, in other words, just go to bed when this starts to happen.

It’s a vicious cycle that I am intent of breaking out of this term and on that note, Good Night.

Olympic Fever

It’s the New Year and all and I am still trying to come out of hibernation mode, and back in the swing of term. It’s happening, only very slowly. What I am finding hardest to believe is that this is my last term before graduating. Now I am finding the thought of this both gratifying and terrifying at the same time so rather than get into a panic about the state of my resume and where the hell those backups went, I thought I would focus on a couple of pieces I did manage to find from the rubble currently labelled untitled. With the Olympic season soon upon us, I thought I would display some posters I designed last year for the London 2012 games. I decided to design these, more out of protest and disgust at the official and now infamous London 2012 logo

Official London 2012 logo

I stuck with a simple design that could be incorporated into the different sports represented at the Olympics. I felt the use of simple lines and graphics add flexibility in designing for different sports and the various themes could appeal on a personal as well as a cultural level. A condition for a sport or discipline to be included in the Olympic program is that it is widely practiced around the world. These posters I hope would be relevant internationally. As you can see there are three design concepts, a soccer theme, an athletics theme and an aquatics theme. I would love to hear any comments and suggestions on what you think.

World of Warcraft

Launched in November 2004, World of Warcraft has become one of the most popular games in the online world. The game’s extraordinary success can largely be put down to the millions of users who play it online, and the fact that the game gives its users a completely online experience. The key word being ‘experience’, World of Warcraft creates an online world , which can be explored and visited at any time by the user.

The video below shows a brief inside look into the World of Warcraft experience. Fans of the game, Marcus Ghanem and Adamo Marcantonio kindly took time out to talk about how they first got into playing the game, what the game means to them and how the World of Warcraft gaming experience has impacted their lives.

The Finnish Way

Finland has become the first country in the world to declare broadband a legal right. Hoorah!

According to reports, the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications has passed a law that will force telecom companies to offer a minimum of 1MB broadband to all of the country’s 5.3 million citizens by July of 2010. This comes ahead of an already ambitious plan by the Finnish Government to make 100MB internet access available to all of its residents by 2015.

With 96% of its citizens already online, Finland is one of the world’s most connected countries.

The new law will force telecom companies to start providing high-speed internet across Finland. Residents will still pay a monthly fee but the price of a broadband connection remains low. A connection is also not mandatory.

Oddly enough, this development comes at a time when the EU is making a controversial move to pass legislation forcing ISPs to shut off internet access without evidence or trial to anyone accused of copyright infringement.

It is difficult to predict how individual country laws could co-exist under such EU legalization if it were passed. This legal recognition by Finland is likely to further complicate the EU process.

France earlier this year ruled internet access a human right. While this allows French citizens, legally and morally to access the internet, Finland’s move goes further to have internet access protected by law.

Personally I feel that this Finland’s stance on internet access sets an example for other countries to follow, if at the very least, to legally recognize the importance and status of the internet in our day to day lives. So much of what we do requires the use of the net. This move by Finland goes a step further in recognizing the importance of easier access to vital services such as news, health, education and government information, particularly in the country’s more remote areas.

It is unclear what the financial ramifications are for such a move by Finland, especially with the additional costs of connecting up the remotest areas of the country. In the very least, it breaks the sad mold of internet access in so many other countries, including Canada, which is shaped by unfair and uncompetitive practices by telecom monopolies charging through the nose for an average internet service.

Recent comments by Rupert Murdoch at the World Media Summit demanding search engines to pay for content adds to this sad reality and threatens our right and access to information.

Finland’s move will hopefully pave the way for other governments to recognize the importance of unrestricted and affordable access to information and I for one applaud it.

My Five Personalities

Inquisitive
Never too far from asking a possibly silly question.

Problem-Solver
“Do what you can where you are with what you’ve got.” (Roosevelt).

Reflective
I feel it is so important to take some time out for quiet thought and contemplation.

Good-Humoured
Including being able to laugh at yourself too..

Content
A term not used very much but I can safely say that I am pretty content where I am.