Let It Be (Meta Post)

The Let It Be album of blog posts. I started this blog in naming it after The Beatles, and I'll finish it by naming it after The Beatles.

Firstly, my top three entries:
Datavizual (Week 11)
The Literal Error (Week 6)
Multiplicity and Beyond (Week 10)

So, The Grey Album. As part of the NMP unit, it was supposed to be an example of networked media itself, along with the other criteria such as a place where we would have to individually reflect on readings and lectures and develop our various projects.

In terms of content, I see my blog as sticking to the criteria. I noticed myself adopting my "internet voice" when writing out my responses to each week in a blog post. When I was writing these responses I feel I was (subconsciously) keeping an eye on the fact that my fellow students would be those reading it the most. And, it being the internet, a place where I've travelled many times before, I felt more informal. This reflects themes we've encountered during our lectures, such as the death of print media and the openness of the internet, where anyone can post. If anyone can post, it's more informal and less prestigious.

Secondly, typing it directly into the little box affected me too, I think. If we were hand writing responses and handing them directly to our tutor - I can only assume I'd be more formal. In posting it on the internet I am submitting myself to the world at large, so a kind of lax attitude to the content was more obvious. I did, however, make sure I reflected on each week's lecture content effectively. In putting it into my own words I feel as though I've learnt a lot more.

The audience, I feel, was pretty limited. The blog itself is obviously much more relevant to students completing the course this year, and this semester. I did, however, end up having unusual visitors to my blog, such as a friend who was curious as to what I was doing at uni this year, and even my high school English teacher, who would frequently email me in response to my blog posts. This connectivity was a result of my own networking - via Facebook and real life social groups - and not so much a result of visibility on the internet.

I have attempted to research what my most popular content was and wasn't, or where I have gotten traffic from. But, after vigorous Google searches trying to investigate the manner, I discovered that with this blogging platform, Blogger, it is not so simple. To investigate page hits on single entries I would have to install a page counter on each one; something I did not consider when creating my blog in the first place, but something that probably would not have worked well at all. I could have put a page counter on my whole blog, but in doing so I would not be able to see which posts were popular and which weren't. I could have put a counter in every post as I posted it, using HTML coding, but this wouldn't have worked very well either. It would only have worked if people clicked the direct link to each individual post. So if you read the post via my blog's main page, this would not have affected the counter.

If I judge the popularity of my blog via the comments I received on entries, it would be like the nerdy kid at school. I have only been able to judge whether or not people have been reading it via references in their respective blog posts, or if they have told me face-to-face. The latter would be less likely and only happened with close friends.

As an example of networked media, I think my blog does have the potential. I am listed on other people's blog rolls, and in creating The Grey Album I checked the box which the blogging platform provides, asking if you wish to be a public blog viewable by other people on the same platform. Obviously I am not a blogger of much interest to recreational users, as my content is very specific and relevant to few. But I do have connections, at least.

To observe my blog's connectivity to the wider web, I did a google search. First, I googled 'networked media blog', only to find a bunch of links not even related to this unit at all. Narrowing it down a little, I added the phrase 'canberra university' to the end of the search, to have a link to Michael Honey's Icelab website at the top of the list, followed by a few more irrelevant links, and then some actual students blogs (namely, those who mentioned 'University of Canberra' in any posts). I tried adding my first name, to no avail, and then various tags I've used for posts. Nothing. It wasn't until I typed in the exact title of my blog that a link came up.

Obviously my blog is only a tiny, tiny part of the massive thing known as the internet; it is also only a tiny part of the millions of blogs that are part of Blogger.com. This is obviously where the tags assist in narrowing it down. Since blogging I've come to see how networked media-savvy they really are.

In the end, however, my blog is significant as a product of this unit and its fundamentals. From the learning outcomes:

I have come to understand the cultural and creative implications of digital communications networks for media production: my informal voice and ability to post whatever I like whenever I like on a public medium like my blog are an example of this.

I understand and demonstrate fundamental processes of networked media production: the internet is a huge place, and is made by its connections. It was through Project A, as well, that this was fully established in my mind; live feeds made the web much more accessible and allowed you to interact with multiple sources of content in the one place.

I am able to navigate and analyse networked cultural and creative practice: in creating my blog I was directly part of the public medium that is the internet we constantly referred to in lectures, and was able to interact with other sources on this public medium, too.

And I am able to position my own work appropriately within the context of networked media practice. Both Projects A & B allowed me to reflect on networked media practices, both physically in actually creating a functioning exhibition, and conceptually, such as observing the implications of social networks in my geo-narrative.

But on the whole, I think the NMP unit has been one that was the most reflective and significant out of my other units for the Media Arts and Production degree. The way we share media is rapidly changing; without realising it I had contributed to this change just by watching Youtube videos. It was these kinds of experiences I knew best about, and could happily blog about all week.

From the team over here at The Grey Album (I have always wanted to say that), I'd like to thank the epic lecturer Michael, and the ever-cat-in-funny-costume obsessed Stephen for making the internet and world of networked media cooler than it already was.