I have a lot on my plate these days. I’m editing one of my novels. I just finished the Beginner level of the online drawing program I’ve been working through for the past couple of months. I’ve finally decided to put myself through an intensive study of knowledge management and information architecture.
I’m also trying to move back to the original Rebecca Thomas Designs website.
The original site was structured to meet the needs of the person I was when I started blogging. Each of my interests had their own blog, blocked off by Multiply. The design was clean, simple, able to be appropriate, regardless of which blog you were looking at.
The problem came when my focus changed, and the multiple blogs no longer reflected the person I realized was hiding in here. The person I am is a blend of teacher, content creator, and leader/coach; and now I want my blog to reflect that.
It would seem like some of the old blogs could just be re-purposed to fit this new me…but I want something more complicated. I want all of my blog entries to show up in the main blog, but leave people the option to see only the topics they want within these three major spheres of my life (preferably without the pain that comes with managing a blog broken apart by Multiply).
A couple of weeks ago, I started playing with FriendFeed and Yahoo Pipes to create a pair of all-in-one stops for Dead Bunny. Using tags and categories in his blog, Delicious, goodreads, Twitter and YouTube, I’ve pulled together an easy-to-use lifestream. It was fairly simple to put together, and running Yahoo Pipes through Feedburner has already allowed people to take advantage of subscribing to Dead Bunny’s content and getting it emailed to them. My next step is to figure out how to pull it into my original blog, and then to create a specific corner for him on the original website.
I’m already looking at creating a Yahoo Pipe for my design content. It’s really forcing me to think about how I use websites and tags to present and organize my work.
Even more importantly, I’m also starting to look at this as a means to pull together some sort of portfolio. I may have to build a few to reflect my work in different contexts, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.
In short, tags and categories can be used through FriendFeed and Yahoo Pipes (or other lifestreaming/mash-up tools) to create focused streams of your content. You can also use Yahoo Pipes to pull together information on topics that you’re researching.
Posted by Rebecca as Personal development, content development at 10:08 AM EDT
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This week’s installment in the Dead Bunny’s Guide to Algebra series just went live. This time, he’s sharing the two rules that govern multiplying and dividing positive and negative numbers.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKG0E-QwhI]
The main problem with this particular skill is that students catch on to the rules for quickly, and then try to apply them to adding and subtracting positive and negative integers. Unfortunately, this gets them in a lot of trouble because the two are governed by their own rules.
On the production side, this one seems plagued by two problems. The audio track has a tinny sound to it that I’m not sure where it came from. When I was recording and editing it in Audacity, it sounded fine. In fact, I spent far more time cleaning up the audio tracks for this presentation just trying to remove the background sounds. The second seems to come from the compression both Windows Movie Maker and YouTube put it through. This time, it seems to be affecting both the video and the audio instead of just the video. I’ll need to figure out what’s causing that and try to avoid it.
I may take a break after the next video is finished because my computer is finally home from the shop, and I’ll be transferring back to it and then learning how to produce my videos on Ubuntu. (Advice is welcome. Leave a comment, or email me at rebecca[at]rebeccathomasdesigns[dot]com.)
Posted by Rebecca as content development at 11:27 AM EDT
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The next video in the Dead Bunny’s Guide to Algebra series just went live.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDunXx-yMyA]
This video was challenging at every step. It started when I was trying to find a good framing problem. For some reason, every single one I came up with was actually an addition problem instead. It wasn’t until I was reading through my feed aggregator that I realized I was coming at things all wrong, and finally found the perfect framing problem.
So then I wrote out the storyboard and script (three drafts, thank you very much), and typed everything into Google Docs. Except I’d miswritten two of my example problems. I actually didn’t catch one of them until very late in the process. And then I found the script wasn’t fully edited…while I was recording the script. I was also fighting losing my voice while recording, which just seems to be tradition now.
I finally finished the slides and the audio tracks, and loaded everything into Windows Movie Maker and started putting the video together. This is normally one of my favorite parts of the process because it lets me freely embrace my inner perfectionist. Well, Windows Movie Maker has this weird quirk in Vista where the preview function just stops working. No one knows why. There is no fix, and no consistent workaround. I tried a couple of the suggestions I’d read on the forums, but nothing worked. I finally gave up in despair and let it go for a couple of days while I battled a sinus infection.
When I made it back to Windows Movie Maker, the preview was working just fine, and I finished building the video. Unfortunately, it was far too late to run past my normal panel of critics, so I’m really holding my breath and hoping for the best here.
This particular video has far and away been the most stressful one to make so far. I’m almost finished with the next one, and it’s gone together far more simply. Thank goodness!
Posted by Rebecca as content development at 8:14 PM EDT
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A couple of months ago, the Illustrators’ Partnership created a bit of a sensation in the art world when they released an interview between one of their members and the general counsel of the Copyright Office regarding a new version of the Orphaned Works Act that was set to recirculate through Congress in May. IPA (and others) interpreted this interview to say that Congress was legalizing a way for those wanting to use a piece of art to get that piece labeled an Orphaned Work (a work whose creator is not available to release the copyright) so they can use it for whatever means, regardless of whether or not the artwork in question was actually orphaned.
If you look through the IPA website, you find that they’ve had a long history with the Orphaned Works Act, often debating the Act’s merits and weaknesses when it appears in Congress. So they have quite a bit invested emotionally in this topic. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Orphaned creations are a nightmare on so many levels because of the copyright issues.
However, it appears that while registering might become an encouraged option, it does appear Congress is working to make sure orphaned works remain accessible or viewable while at the same time being sensitive to the current copyright laws. Of course, not everyone is convinced. Those in the nonprofit sector (museums, libraries, and public television) are also concerned because they’re often the ones trying to deal with the curation of orphaned works. If a work is deemed “orphaned” and the original copyright holder turns up later, the institution is in trouble.
What can we do? Well, for starters, we can educate people about copyright, both from the creator’s point of view and the audience’s point of view. Doug Johnson offered a great two-part series on copyright not too long ago that’s probably one of the better places to start. Teaching young creators to get into the habit of signing their work, tagging their work with contact information, doing something to make sure interested parties can find them, will save them headaches down the road regardless of how this Act shakes out.
We can also watch our own behaviors. If you’re a creator, make sure you yourself have tagged your work with your contact information. Create an artist’s mark to mark your visual work if you need to. Be vain. Sign everything. If you want to offer your work to be used by others, use a Creative Commons license to make it clear which rights you’re willing to give up. If you’re a consumer, respect the rights of the creator. It’s one thing to appreciate someone’s work, to imitate their style while you work on developing your own; it’s another thing entirely to just steal or copy without attributing that work to the original artist.
With diligence and education, it’s possible to minimize the number of works caught in this Act.
Posted by Rebecca as content development at 10:21 AM EDT
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I’ve been trying to get back into the creative swing of things over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been more actively taking pictures (I’m even starting to wish I had a slimmer camera to carry around with me) and I started an online self-paced drawing program. Over the weekend, I made my very first video, a tutorial on absolute value.
Nearly every single day, I’m uploading something I’ve made, and I have to sit and think about how I’d want that material to be reused. Let’s face it- anything online is pretty much viewed as fair game, anyway, because we aren’t adequately educating people about rights. The war for copyright has become such a farce that no one’s really sure where to fall anymore.
My problem, and so many other creators’ problem, is that I’ve been inspired by other people’s work, and I want those who feel inspired by my work to be able to incorporate what inspired them. That’s why I love Creative Commons. I can maintain my ownership while at the same time allowing others to build off my work within parameters I set
Recently, assigning the right license has become a challenge. When I’m just showing off my class assignments, I can’t give away those rights because I’m following a set of instructions written by someone else. When I’m showing off my photography, I have a license in place to allow people to create derivative pictures under certain conditions. I think I bounce between a few different licenses for my jewelry.
How do you decide which rights to share with fellow creators? How do you decide what you want your works’ future to look like?
Posted by Rebecca as content development, creativity at 2:33 PM EDT
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