My neighborhood; FC

Most people think I am crazy, but my husband and I can not have enough of FC in our lives. Always here (when not skiing or running around the National Parks on the weekends). Foster City is warm, near major freeways, and water-front.

See my cool new map that I created on google MyMaps to demonstrate all of the amazing go-to places that anyone visiting FC should stop by.

I really enjoyed using this tool from google, it was quick, simple and more importantly very organized. there wasn't many times when I felt like i didnt know what I was doing, and the "help" page was definitely just that, helpful.

This program can be used for meetings and conferences in various cities. Eliminate any confusion or extra work, if a link to a "map" was simply sent to all participants of a conference, meeting, event, etc. they can see the venue location (with map), local hotels, restuarants and any other nearby attractions relevant to their specific agenda. This is quick and easy, and most everyone has google by now, so very compatible as well. This can also be used by various tourist companies as well as families and friends to keep in the loop of where they have been and whats a must-see for others.

MyMaps to Foster City, CA:


View My neighborhood friend in a larger map">

Social Networking and I

Describe your history with and use of social networking

I began networking socially once we purchased AOL back in the mid 1990's. I remember sitting in front of the computers for hours, listening to the strange "connecting" noises until I would finally have a chance to instant message a friend, and go into chat rooms and make new friends. Following AOL, I had created my first MYSPACE page when that was a big social hit. I no longer use either AOL or MYSPACE. Probably because I now have gmail, and I use Facebook instead since its more about the people and less about noisy graphics and unneccessary advertisments. Other than keeping up with friends back on the East coast through pictures on Facebook and accessing my general email on gmail, I do not go overboard with the digital forms of social networking. I am a people person, and would much rather see someone, meet someone and hang with somoene rather than text, email, call, etc.


For a NEW-TO-ME Social networking site, I decided to join TWITTER under a fictious name (as I will definitely never be accessing this site again)

Twitter, is very much resembling facebook in terms of cosmetics. In fact I had to double check and make sure I was on the right site. Known for its ability to track peopleon the go and give hour by hour reportings of where your friends are, this sure may be (in my opion) more helpful for business's rather than netwroking for the sake of keeping up with friends. The goals of the users on this network is know whats happening RIGHT NOW (key words) around the world, an instant connection to your friends, business contacts and everyone they know.

Digital Social Networking has come a long way since the days of dial-up AOL and chat rooms. I invision that this trend of the "need to know" will only increase and blast through the roof with even more advanced, and more frightening precise ways of contacting past relationships,and knowing more about people than they know about themselves. There are endless possibilities of how this can go, and I look forward to seeing where it ends up, but hoping deep down inside that the world does see the need for a more people-trend, rather than just a digital-trend. I can not emphasize the importantce of seeing and talking to your friends and business contacts alike in person, rather than just digitally.

A Dipty Timeline of my Weekend & Today

My experience with Dipty was quite pleasant. it was an easy site to navigate and reminded me a bit of Twitter in its similarity of the use of "now". Especially in todays world, everyone wants to know where you arekm what time you got there and what you are doing there.

With websites such as these, twitter and other social networking outlets, there are various uses from business to personal on how these can be used. Personally, I am a bit more contained about my plans and choose not to inform all of my family and friends about what I am doing and when I will finish all the time. Others however, specifically more for business needs (at least thats what I think) find it necessary and extremely valuable to know such details.

With medical records, in specific, this can be a crucial way of recording patient records, and sharing with each new physician as well as family inquiries. Today, there is a lot of back and forth in medical records, since the majority of the system has not switched over to electronic filing. A flaw such as this, means more more for the doctors, less time with the patients and more hassle for the patients when they need to re-do exams they alaready did in the past (because it wasn't recorded properly the first time)


Hyperlink:

May 1-2nd weekend on Dipity.

Research Design Questions

Components in the interface which provide me with TEXT-based information:

• There are varius components such as this in the vrtual world, Kaneva. From communicating with someone (there is a box to type in), to various games you can play in different places you attend (the 3D dance party I attended), and lastly, shopping is all text-based. I approach a store owner and when I hit the "tab" key, I am informed of all the various things I can do in the store (buy, trade, sell, etc)

Components in the interface which provide me with NON-TEXT-based information:

• All of the visuals and graphics are simple enough to understand and interact with without having an actual text-tutorial guiding you through it. Dancing and expressing my emotions through various emotes is non-text based. As well as walking around and exploring the city of Kaneva.

COLOR/SHAPE/CONTRAST/POSITION/MOTION & SOUND

• In Kaneva, all of the graphics are fairly vivid and realistic. The music at the disco party I attended was great and all of the flashing lights and noise made me feel like I was actually at a party/event. The positioning is a bit wierd, as you can not simply "go around" someone, and insteadwal right "through" them. Something to get used to, I guess

TASKS & GOALS

• I used a tutorial to get around the city and understand how to communicate and achieve rewards and credits. Otherwise, there was a very basic communication at the start of the program asking me to customize my avatar and it walked me through various ways to earn points and become popular. I assume that as I continue to be a part of this virtual world, there will be less and less instructions and more for me to fugure out on my own.

FEATURES WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO AN IMMERSIVE FEELING/WHICH FEATURES BREAK IT

• Like I mentioned earlier, definitely the spontanrous dancing and communicating as well as all of the customized wadrobes for everyone make the world seem more realistic than it actually is. The one thing that breaks my spell of the "reality" of the world, is the fact that the characters do not move in a fluid motion, can literally "walk through" eachother, as if they are ghosts.

SOCIALIZING WITH AVATARS

• People were not as nice as I would have hoped them to be. In attempting to socialize with other avatars at the disco party, some people simply told me to "move" out of their way. Others were a bit nicer and asked me my name and what I am up to. It is a bit unrealistic how people can scale the walls, levitate in the air, and jump from one story to another without getting hurt.

FAVORITE IN-WORLD ACTIVITY

• This was definitely the ability to shop without actually spending any money :)

BASIS OF ECONOMY

• I wet to an employment agency and was given money for the work that I put in. I need to return in another six hours and complete more work or recommend friends to the agency in order to make money. You need money to shop,trade, sell etc. items. I participated by going to work, buying a dress and dong various activities that promote me in my status and earn me money (going to different places, trying new things, doing contests)

Virtual World Event

So last week, I attended my first virtual event, the Dawnomite Night Club dance party (see attached image). It was more fun than I expected it to be, but the people inside were not very nice to me. I kept my distance (or so I thought) and watched others as they danced and interacted. Afraid that people would judge me and my cool new outfit (I baught a black dress at the mall), I didnt spend too much time talking to individuals. I did press my luck and send out a group chat, saying hello and introducing myself.

I also decided to come out of my shell for the evening and play DanceParty 3D, I even scored some points! (must have been the dress).

Reflecting on this evening, I would say that it was pretty amazing how real it felt to be there and dance amongst my peers. The club looked amazing, and this is a place I will definitely be re-visiting. In fact it made me think of ideas of hosting a dance party of my own. I will definitely try and open up and attend more events and hopefully can meet some cool new people.

A Kaneva Sunshine

For my first virtual-world experience, I decided to go with the world of KANEVA. My avatar is named Solnashka, which means sweet sun in my natve language, Russian.

Solnashka, is a rock child, and a bit of a loner. Interested in meeting new people but afraid to open up about her past life of sex, drugs an rock and roll. Solnashka had a tough upbringing in Russia. With little money and no parental control, she was left to her own devices and began to sell narcotics and dances toolder gentlemen for a living. After moving from Russia to the United States of America, Solnashka decided to change her deviant ways and resume a normal (or close to normal) lifestyle in society. Scared and afraid of what other avatars may think of her, Solnashka is keeping to herself and exploring the virtual world slowly and carefully. Ready to fall in love and meet someone that will accept her violent past, she is open to the opportunity to reveal herself to someone worth doing so. With a talent for fashion and art, Solnashka hopes that these goals in her life will keep her grounded and on the right path to success and long lasting friendships as well as business partnerships.

Struggling to remain non-digital

In this world of endless digital possibilities and ever-growing technology, I find myself being one of the few resisting the movement to "be digital".

I was gifted a beeper at the young age of fourteen after I begged and pleaded with my parents for months. I probably had no more than four text messages from my best friend at the time before I lost the beeper. At the age of sixteen I had my first cell phone (the Startek), once again not enough calls and too quickly lost and/or broken. Cut almost a decade later and I find myself attached at the hip to my 3G iPhone, Blackberry Curve and DELL laptop. As each generation is a modification of the previous, I am frightened to see how far technology has come and how necessary it is in our daily lives to function. This piece of device gets more mileage out of me than anything else ever has, from taking pictures, getting directions, playing games, browsing the web, etc etc etc. I need it, bottom line. The blackberry curve functions as my work phone, and basically keeps me on a leash in case my boss decides he needs me then and now. The same goes for the laptop, but I have to admit I use each device more than I would like to. Microsoft Outlook haunts me from day to night with "reminders", blinking and beeping.

Being older Russian immigrants from the Ukraine, my grandparents wouldn't know a bit from a bite and an atom from a hard drive. To give you an example, my grandmother got call-waiting installed only about a year ago. Prior to this, it was impossible to get a hold of her. If given the opportunity to play with the current technology, Grandma would certainly disapprove and say something like " why waste your time starring at a screen that hurts your eyes". I will have to say, she may just be onto something.

I can only speak from myself (but I am sure I speak for others) when I say that there has been times when technology has left me disappointed by the lack of compatibility with actual human thought and behavior. In "Being Analog" by Don Norman, he describes the phenomenon as " living in a technology centered world, where the technology is not appropriate for the people". Things that people are normally quite poor at doing, like accuracy, dates, times, concrete facts, are exactly the kind of things that are needed by computers and other sources of media to function properly. It's the moments when you spent over an hour on ask.com trying to figure out the problem with your excel formula, when you could have simply picked up a calculator and done it yourself.

You can't blame grandma for being analog, she's from a different generation and culture, one thats quite different from the current but not necessarily in a bad way. You also can't blame Steve Jobs for invading your office and home, while people are expected to be digital and handle the complexity of everyday life, the iPhone is making those complexities that much easier to handle.

Whether I prevail in my efforts to hold onto a sense of being analog like my grandparents and parents have managed to do or give in to the digital world, I hope that as each generation finds itself needing to learn more and more, they as well as I, find the time to just be in the moment.