This post is a summary of my midterm project for Live Web.
Concept: “Webcam Zoo”
Webcam Zoo is a website that aggregates streaming and live videos of different animals from zoos and parks around the world to offer a collective viewing experience 24/7. The concept is based on my experience with animal webcams. I like to watch animal webcams and streaming channels (i.e. Shiba puppycam on UStream). But I’ve been frustrated that I had to visit different sites and channels to keep up with all animals. So I thought of creating a site where I have access to my favorite animals online at once.
URL: http://itp.nyu.edu/~ji405/liveweb/webcamzoo/login.php (Works on Firefox and Safari. It does NOT work on IE)
Webcam Zoo, my midterm project for Live Web
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My initial sketch for the Webcam Zoo
Out of several ideas for the midterm for Live Web, I decided to run along a fun path: creating a webcam zoo. I’m envisioning this being a webpage aggregating different live videos and constantly-updated images of a various species from zoos, aquariums, national parks, farms and personal residences.
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For Live Web this week, I used QuickTime Pro and Broadcaster to develop a video streaming page. It was my first attempt to manipulate the environment that I’ve been interested in creating. Eventually, I want to create a video chat that allows two users to interact not only with video and text, but also with different materials, such as photographs, drawings, YouTube clips, etc, on one screen. The inspiration comes from my own video-chatting experience. When I talk to someone over a video chat, I often get frustrated by the fact that I have to open different web browsers to access URLs or go to “Downloads” folders to check out photos the person sends me. Why can’t I have them on the same screen? Read more
For the Live Web assignment I’m going to talk about Pandora Radio, because I’ve been using Pandora pretty heavily for the past few days, pumping up myself to finalize projects for the ITP’s 30th anniversary party.
Padora is not the first internet radio for me. I’ve been listening to streaming radio stations for several years since “Radio” feature was added to iTunes, which is one of main applications I use to access music. There are other radio stations I often visit, such as Proton Radio and Groove Salad by Soma FM, which have extensive collections of House and Electronica music I like.
ITP professor Nancy Hechinger taught me once that “being interactive means engaging the audience.” It’s so true for the internet radio too. I think what made Pandora so different from other competitors is that it has established a two-way communication through its customer feedback mechanism and personalizing algorithm. It’s engaging. Pandora’s users, including myself, feel that everything is custom-made and personalized. This “Just For Me” satisfaction makes Pandora so addictive. It’s like you have your own DJ who’s playing in front of you, mixing music based on your preference…how can you not like that?! You’re listening to the music DJ has just mixed for you, and DJ is listening to YOU, waiting for your feedback so he/she can perform better next time. This conversation never happened between me and other radio stations, as far as I can remember.
The Little Red Riding Hood book cover, available at Google Books
For the Live Web class, I collaborated with Craig Kapp to create an application that allows us to control and change the content that someone else is viewing on our web site using Javascript, AJAX and PHP. Craig has posted a blog about our thought process and how we landed on the idea of creating Web 2.0 version of a famous fairy tale, “The Little Red Riding Hood“.
Overall idea
- To create an interactive “The Little Red Riding Hood” in which readers participate to complete the story.
- User participation happens when they (1) vote for a character; and (2) provide comments as alternate captions for the characters in the story.
- A storyteller will have a full control of images and text to be displayed on the book.
- Technology: We will explore the use of Javascript, AJAX and PHP for the exercise purpose.
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You can’t get enough from an awesome programmer who’s also a teacher!
For the Live Web class assignment, I’ve paired with Craig Kapp, “the” programmer, to come up with a way to tell stories using AJAX and PHP, which were covered in class last week. Craig is intermediate in javascript, but I’m still new to AJAX, self-teaching each component including the javascript, so it was a great opportunity for me to see his coding techniques and thought process. After we decided on the concept, which I will explain after Thursday because it’s still work in progress, he briefly explained how we should structure our files. Then he began coding. Everything went by so fast! But as he coded, he explained why he’s using the specific variables and functions. He was really good at teaching me, going through step by step. I hope I didn’t ask too many dumb questions. Later, I found out that he IS a teacher at a school in New Jersey. No wonder why he’s so good at it! I will study his code, and the way he codes. I want to be able to code like him by the end of this semester. I learned so much from him today. ‘Hope tomorrow’s another good day like today. Good night 
Live Web is another class I’m taking this semester. Taught by Shawn Van Every, the class focuses on the types of content and interaction supported through synchronous communications such as streaming audio and video channels and chatting. I am very excited about where the class is going.
As the first weekly assignment, each student is asked to tell a story on a text-based synchronous online media, including IRC, IM, Twitter, Facebook status, etc. I was assigned to work via Twitter, the one that I’m sort of registered, but haven’t used much because I usually use facebook to update my status and check friends’.
Twitter
I’ve had a Twitter account (username: juridesign) for some time, but I needed to refresh my memory on how to write effectively on it. So I started posting random notes. Since the contents were pretty abstract and arbitrary, I didn’t get any response. I also realized at some point that I wasn’t using techniques like #hash tags and @mentions.
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