Towards an understanding of corporate web identity

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RAISE: Parental Monitoring & Facilitation for Visual-Spatial Development

“RAISE”: Parental Monitoring & Facilitation of Visual-Spatial Development It is the children of today, which will eventually fill the future ranks within the engineering and design fields. It these tribes of makers and creatives which drive innovation and transform insights into tangible, problem-solving solutions. Inherent to this passing of the torch is the necessity for children to be properly educated within STEM areas. Given the paternal desire to position their children on promising technical career paths, parents experience increasing pressure to provide the highest quality preparation, including visual-spatial development. Further exacerbating this issue, familial trends indicate longer work hours, limited parent-child interaction, and parental fatigue/desire for peace of mind. Now, the market is flooded with the pre-school “constructive” toys, such as LEGO. Although clearly engaging visual-spatial practice, such traditional constructives do not empower parents to precisely monitor and facilitate their child’s visual-spatial progression in a dynamic, growing fashion. Here lies the opportunity, where one may question how may the parent be assisted towards these ends for children (ages 3-5 years)? Towards this end, semi-structured interviews and contextual inquiries of15 parents were conducted, along with a literature review. Through the lenses of the user, business, technology, and secondary research, product benchmarking was conducted, parental needs were determined, technological options were compiled, and psychological/biological aspects of learning were considered. This illustrated the significance of 4 aspects of visual-spatial development (imagery, transformation, spatial orientation, perspective-taking), supplementary benefits of constructive play (physical, cognitive, social), and the imperativeness of social learning. This research was analyzed for convergence and insights towards the elucidation of design criteria and realization in product form. Results suggested 6 key design criteria, including: 1) Parental monitoring, 2) Developmental facilitation, 3)“Growing” functionality, 4) Sharing capability, 5) Mobility, and 6) a System-centric approach. These core aspects are intended to amplify the rudimentary benefits of traditional constructive play through delivering content directly to children, encouraging play and digital embellishment of children’s “builds” with parents, thereby increasingly parent-child interaction, and allowing parents to assess their child’s performance, initiating either the next, more difficult task or instead through iteration. This was accomplished through the design of a proprietary constructive and an integrated system. In conclusion, STEM-based skills will be the driver of future innovation, particularly through visual-spatial alacrity. Through the use of the “RAISE” concept, not only will such development be strengthened, but also the need for greater parent-child quality interaction will further be ameliorated

Designing the Tangible Experience of Interactive Memories

The process for memory keeping in the digital age has become easier, immediate, and more efficient thanks to the advent of sophisticated pocket-sized toolsets that can capture everyday experiences. Consumer-level photo and video recording products are introduced regularly and boast more fidelity, faster speeds, and greater control than their predecessors. More often than not, these expanding feature sets do not properly serve all of their users\u27 needs. While the technology exists to allow for a near-complete record of one\u27s life to be made through the use of sensors and storage media, problems involve how best to meaningfully learn from and engage with a lifetime of collected content. With the intention of designing a system to streamline the storage and review process of digital memory keeping, I devised a conceptual framework of tangible objects and interactions to centralize memory media and provide a tangible experience for the review of life content. Focusing on the design of products for lifelogging, the recording of everyday experience through digital sensory inputs, I researched human memory, memory making processes, and the Quantified Self movement. My resulting concept is a system of interactions that incorporate physical objects, digital interfaces, wireless communication, and cloud-based storage that is meant to be a tactile, precious, and centralized way to review and engage with one\u27s memory

Merging Special Collections with GIS Technology to Enhance the User Experience

This analysis evaluates how PhillyHistory.org merged their unique special collection materials with geospatial-based progressive technology to challenge and educate the global community. A new generation of technologically savvy researchers has emerged that expect a more enhanced user experience than earlier generations. To meet these needs, collection managers are collaborating with community and local institutions to increase online access to materials; mixing best metadata practices with custom elements to create map mashups; and merging progressive GIS technology and geospatial based applications with their collections to enhance the user experience. The PhillyHistory.org website was analyzed to explore how they used various geospatial technology to create a new type of digital content management system based on geographical information and make their collections accessible via online software and mobile applications

De-hierarchization, trans-linearity and intersubjective participation in ethnographic research through interactive media representations: www.laviedurail.net

This article reflects on the advantages as well as the challenges of interactive media productions as a form of (re-)presentation for ethnographic and anthropological research. It draws upon the example of the interactive website www.laviedurail.net, which retraces the Malian part of the former Dakar-Niger Express train track. The website invites users to take stops at different stations where mutual influence with the train determines life along the rail. By choosing an order in which media elements such as photos, videos, sound recordings and texts are addressed, the recipient creates a subjective path of knowledge. While a multimedia presentation offers a de-hierarchized and trans-linear approach, at the same time it cannot avoid the selective character of the material. Therefore, it becomes necessary to perceive and reflect recipient, informants as well as researcher as subjects of the project.Este artículo reflexiona sobre las ventajas así como sobre los retos de los nuevos medios interactivos como forma de (re-)presentación para la investigación etnográfica y antropológica. Me baso en el ejemplo de la web interactiva www.laviedurail.net, que pone de relieve el aporte maliano en la construcción de la antigua línea férrea entre Dakar y Níger. La página web invita a los usuarios a detenerse en diferentes estaciones donde la relación que se establece con el tren va determinando el devenir de la vida a lo largo del viaje por la vía férrea. Escogiendo el orden en el que fotos, vídeos, gravaciones sonoras y textos son presentados, el usuario crea un itinerario de conocimiento subjetivo. Mientras que una presentación multimedia ofrece una perspectiva desjerarquizada y trans-lineal, no puede evitar sin embargo el carácter selectivo del material. En consecuencia, resulta necesario percibir y considerar el receptor, los informantes así como el investigador como sujetos del proyecto.Cet article aborde les avantages et les enjeux des media interactifs comme forme possible de (re)présentation pour les recherches ethnographiques et anthropologiques. Ces réflexions s’appuient sur l’exemple d’un site web interactif www.laviedurail.net qui décrit la partie malienne de ce qui était au paravent le train Express Dakar-Niger. Le site web invite les utilisateurs à s’arrêter à différentes stations où des interactions, provoquées par le passage du train, influent sur la vie le long des voies de chemin de fer. En choisissant l’ordre dans lequel les éléments audio visuels, photos, enregistrements sonores, vidéos, textes sont présents, le spectateur crée un accès subjectif au savoir. Alors que la présentation multimédia offre une approche sans hiérarchie et trans-linéaire, en même temps cela ne permet pas d’éviter le caractère sélectif du support. Ainsi il devient nécessaire de percevoir et de concevoir comme sujets à part entière du projet les destinataires, les informateurs et les chercheurs

Cloaked Facebook pages: Exploring fake Islamist propaganda in social media

This research analyses cloaked Facebook pages that are created to spread political propaganda by cloaking a user profile and imitating the identity of a political opponent in order to spark hateful and aggressive reactions. This inquiry is pursued through a multi-sited online ethnographic case study of Danish Facebook pages disguised as radical Islamist pages, which provoked racist and anti-Muslim reactions as well as negative sentiments towards refugees and immigrants in Denmark in general. Drawing on Jessie Daniels’ critical insights into cloaked websites, this research furthermore analyses the epistemological, methodological and conceptual challenges of online propaganda. It enhances our understanding of disinformation and propaganda in an increasingly interactive social media environment and contributes to a critical inquiry into social media and subversive politics