While the recent case is relatively well known and may seem like a one-off Facebook is no stranger to the realm of Intellectual privacy controversy. In ’08 and ‘09 the great facebook controversy revolved around facebook having the rights own any user generated content posted on facebook including Photo’s, one-liners and anything else created by users. So if you create a piece of art and post it up on facebook, facebook could potentially use it in an advertisement and not pay you a dime. This would in any other situation result in a lawsuit of some sort.

So do we have a right to digital privacy? There is no simple answer to that question both in legal terms. In moral terms of course some would argue that digital privacy must be ensured as much as it is offline. The amount of information we put up online and the unimaginable amount of data there is out there can help effect our lives in many different ways. Facebook can use the information we offer about ourselves on its site and then sell it to various companies so that they can bombard us with more information regarding what we should buy and where we should buy it. In essence they own all our information and are going to use it as they please.

There is an argument being made however for the argument that all of the above sounds like fear mongering. Face book is a tool and as long as we are careful with it and treat it as a tool it is difficult for people to use it steal your work or your information.  There are several articles online that teach us how to ensure that our accounts remain as private as possible and that we can have a safe private & most importantly ‘social’ online experience. So that we can get the experience that we want out of it while not being used and abused by the powers that be.

‘Facebook announces new privacy settings’ Wednesday, May 26, 2010 | 2:28 PM ET http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/05/26/facebook-privacy.html

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know Nick O’Neill on February 2nd, 2009 11:00 AM

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-privacy-2009-02

Facebook Turns the Privacy Fear Meter Up to 11

By Mathew Ingram Aug. 21, 2010, 11:25am

http://gigaom.com/2010/08/21/facebook-turns-the-privacy-fear-meter-up-to-11/

The Games market has grown exponentially at an amazing pace over the last few years, the 3rd generation consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3) have introduced high-definition gaming to the mass market and the phenomenal success of the Nintendo Wii which capitalized on ‘Blue Ocean’ which targeted non-gamers in particular has been spectacularly successful. But with the advent of all these consoles there is perhaps anther trend that has just as software in its popularity and mass awareness has almost become a competitive force on its own, and its on the PC!  I am of course referring to World of Warcraft the MMORPG that took the world by storm in late 2004.

WoW fits all the stipulations that a SaaS requires. It’s subscription based, delivered across the internet and Platform independent (runs on PC,MAC & Linux).  It further retains its captive audience by regularly updating its game with patches, releasing expansion packs and most important of all Creating a community that plays an active role in Shaping the software in itself. The sense of community is in itself perhaps the Single most important factor that has helped to engineer WoW’s success making it one of the most deeply penetrative SaaS’s ever!

In-application interaction with colleagues is part of the service, data objects can be stored for later retrieval by the user or trusted associates, actions are limited and defined by the level of experience and the role which the user has and the environment is persistent, changing and expanding for All users based on the actions of All users.

WoW has been called “the cocaine of the computer games world.” Which depending on whom you ask will be termed as completely humbug or revered as gospel truth.  The reasons WoW is so successful are mainly as stated earlier its willingness to listen to its audience, The fact that as an experience even though there is an endgame content is added on a regular enough basis that there is always more to do even if you are Level 90 there is always another raid another dungeon and more epic loot !!!!

WoW as a service is so effective it has managed to effectively create communities and sub-communities that manage to retain some sort of order in the chaos. The main reason it’s so effective is that the guilds that have been formed have formed relationships between people. Without a doubt these relationships have helped not only to fill Blizzards coffers but to also ensure that the coffers keep overflowing every month.

Cataclysm the latest expansion in the WoW series launches later this year With not only a considerable facelift to the game but a complete change of the entire game itself Cataclysm ensures that the grind  will continue, and all those fans who believe in Blizzard will continue to be supported. Far more interesting news however is that at Blizzcon this year Blizzard might announce a new MMO that’s an entirely new IP. Even more interesting is the fact that its aimed at an entirely different audience. Here’s to keeping our eyes peeled for this years Blizzcon !

References

http://www.silesti.net/home/saas-wow-it-realy-is/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft

http://www.wow-cataclysm.info/

http://www.wow.com/2009/08/06/researchers-study-wow-to-see-how-gangs-form-and-fade/

http://www.switched.com/2009/02/27/study-world-of-warcraft-as-addictive-as-cocaine/

Phooshop is necessary in order to enhance and embellish ordinary images into iconic ones that is why photoshop is becoming more and more useful as a software. It can be used easily as a fast and easy editor to modify and create proof of concepts on and easy to create wireframes and other utilities that make working with images easier. Filters are a tool that can make Photoshop extremely Amazing to use. You can put a filter over and image which can essentially chaneg how that image appears entirely. This is necessary to create illusions in terms of depth and visibility from time to time. You can also make a photograph look like an illustration using filters then there are a number of selection toold each of which offer the users different methods to select parts of an image and heavily modify them in any way that we sih to this helps us as end users in creating dynamic images

Thats it for the beggining of the photoshop tutorial

• open an adjustment layer( for this click on the windows tab and then see if adjustments is checked.)
• If that is the case then you will need to select the photograph in the layers menu and then Select Hue and Saturation you will now notice three sliders called Hue, Saturation and lightness now the Hue slider can be used to play with the colors in the image and quite literally change their hue Saturation will basically increase or decrease The saturation of colors in the image and  Finally Lightness increases or decreases the light in the image. Adjust these sliders accordingly to begin colour correcting the photograph
• After this deselect the hue & saturation layer in the image and select the Levels Layer Levels will allow you to color correct the image according to the levels of red green and blue in the  image so adjust these sliders accordingly

These are the basics of colour correcting an image for a basic user of photoshop you have just learned the basics of colour correcting an image!!

The idea is to create copy that a reader can absorb and easily commit to memory by skimming through the text this is due to the fact that most people online rarely read through copy word by word they tend to skim through it looking for keywords that catch their attention and sentences that they can retain this makes it necessary for writers of digital copy to keep their articles easy to read and thoroughly skimmable highlighting keywords without making them stand out so much that the users skip to them without bothering to read other important information Create chunks of text that are extremely easy to read and serve the purpose that you want to use them for. Also using images helps as always if the message you are trying to get across with your copy can be better delivered using visuals then do not for go that chance interactive and visual information is easier for the viewer to process as long as it is delivered efficiently.  It is essential that we learn how to write how to create effective and engaging copy for the online space since the number of consumers and readers who glean their daily entertainment and information from the internet is growing on a daily basis if not for any other reason then foor the old and simple reason that there is an ample amount of  work to be done and significant gorund to be broken yet in online copy if there is a chance left anywhere of being a pioneer it is probably within this space.

Apologies for the crude metaphor above but job hunting in the current market is not very different to the above scenario to prospective employers we are brands and the shiniest most presentable most effective brand wins and it helps to have at least 2 out of 3 in that list of requirements. I market myself to Developers as a designer who has experience albeit limited with large projects and has the ability to code I look on my background in game development as an asset that makes me more useful than a designer with no hardskills. The fact that I have experience with Independent as well as full blown AAA game development experience. Since I work in interactive entertainment I am already used to designing any object around the end user and what they need. Other added advantages are experience with Flash HTML etc along with experience in using 3d engines and designing and coding interfaces for Games.

I always shudder when thinking of myself as a brand unfortunately the current atmosphere is so competitive thinking of yourself as anything else in this job market is naive . I Think working hard and proving to your prospective employer that you tend to follow through and get things done is about as important as marketing your brand. Marketing your brand is important because networking is a key part of the industry in my experience the guy you sit next to is more likely to give you a reference if you are not remembered as a rude snob. Networking which is sometimes overlooked is often the most important part of getting a job the more people that say that they enjoyed working with you the higher the chance of a prospective employer saying those magic words “Congratualtions Youre hired” 

With any brand there are a slew of problems or issues associated the important things to remember are make sure that you work hard and that youre nrand retains a quality name in the marketplace. Thats it for today.

Design from the ground up is definitely the smarter way to design media because when you are building something from scratch you tend to look at it from different angles and think about how it can be more effective and also about how it is flawed. Once designing from the ground up becomes a habit you tend to start realising where you are making mistakes before you make them and it also allows us to see what people would like and what they don’t. For a beginner it at least allows you to try and cover all yout bases and when you make a mistake having a design that has been built from the ground up correcting it will be easier.

The issue with eyes closed guns blazing design is that while it will work rarely you have to be both very very lucky and very very talented to be able to get away with it. The problem again is that most haphazard design is based around what seems to be ‘a cool idea’ but unless there is a structure the idea no matter how good it may be will collapse and as designers our jobs are to ensure that out ideas do not collapse. Which is why we should create our ideas from the ground up.

As I said in my first post I am currently working on an Iphone application with a few friends. In the last week we had an important presentation for a few potential investors we were supposed to demo a working prototype of the app to the investors at the meeting. While the meeting went well as our Prototype held up to the rigorous testing that they put it through it was pointed out by them that while they were impressed by the product and the potential that it had for the milestones that were coming up ahead they would require extensive retroactive documentation of the process we were going through as well as documentation of all the design choices and the way they would be presented to the  EU . The importance of having a good blueprint before you build anything is common sense. It helps a designer to look at an active process of design and iteration and see how different the finished product is from what it originally was (Not in every case a good thing). More importantly sometimes when an idea cannot properly be understood/expressed in words adequately it serves as a visual aid that can clear doubts. Currently our workflow involves Documenting all the important Design decisions and iterations of our initial design plans. Documenting everything on a modular level is something that hasnt yet taken root. 

For the last 2 months or so I had been working on a particular feature for our iphone application . This feature was designed by me and another Designer/programmer in conjuction with the lead designer of our project. Two weeks ago while the feature was being tested by the whole team the Lead designer said that the result wasn’t what was discussed between us and that He had envisioned something significantly different from what was now being tested by everyone. In the long and rather unnecessary argument that followed we realised a few things. For starters there was no reference point to which we could backtrack to and say ‘here look this is what we decided on’ there was no relevant documentation regarding this decision everyone had gone ahead doing what they assumed was the agreed upon design. This definitely could have been avoided had we documented and described our process extensively more importantly it would have helped me win the argument and tell our lead designer that he was wrong but thats a story for another day.  This is precisely why having a blueprint is important arguments that veer into the messy I am right you are wrong territory can be easily avoided If everybody is clear on what they are doing other than relying on everyone to have a photographic memory the simplest way to do that would be to create a log that documented all decisions made and every step of the development process while it is extra work and something I personally consider from time to time to be a headache I cannot undermine its usefulness. I think that Good Information architecture is the foundation of any design oriented application for mass consumption. Thats all for this week .

Overcommunicate : at the end of the week if you’ve sent out the email about the new check in you’ve added to everyone in the team thats fine, but make sure you talk about your check in to everyone whom it effects. It doesn’t take much if you have a workplace walk up to their desks if you are a ragtag bunch of indie developers aiming to conquer the world from your garage/basement/humble domus  give each other a phone call IM each other whatever your preferred mode of communication is, just make sure everyone concerned knows what you are working on.

When we first started out 6 months ago our group was slightly larger, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to take on the world. That said we had absolutely no idea how to develop software for any platform, were completely disorganized and had no scheduling or planning whatsoever, The first three months were quite chaotic  in that sense, a blurry mish mash of design discussions,feature creep and rapid prototyping at the end of which we were no clearer to establishing a clear set of tasks and goals that needed to be finished. We were working from home most of the time and on any kind of indie project with a very low (or no) budget this is an insane hurdle to overcome. It reduced productivity a lot especially early on since all of us were straight out of an academic environment, We needed to hold ourselves accountable for the tasks we had assigned ourselves or at the very least needed someone to keep reminding us that we had deadlines set for each of our tasks. This issue is something we struggle with even today.After speaking with experienced developers regarding the issues we were facing we were told that hitting a deadline and meeting goals on time is a problem that a lot of companies in the industry face the only way to get better at it is to get more experience and complete a project cycle. In the last 6 months we have learnt a lot about developing software from the ground up, We are still excited about what we are working on and we still hope to take over the world. We aren’t as efficient as we could be but we are getting better, we have learnt the meaning of the word scope and we enjoy what we do to the fullest. Which brings me to my second point.

Experience: The only way to get better at something is to do it yourself this is really obvious and nothing new really but the only way to get better at anything is to iterate and keep iterating until you can do it with you’re eyes closed. Eventually you get more efficient and Workloads that earlier seemed impossible are now surmountable.

Thats it for now.