Ning

I have yet to receive my validation email from ning, which has made it hard to search for sites pertaining to my groups interest, but I have looked at some sites. I think it's pretty neat. They are clean sites, probably allowing a template, with many functions to ease the involvement of members. I saw one site has fields to fill to sign up for a newsletter, easy. However some pages are far too busy to be effective. As usual, I will try to keep things simple and clean on the page, but I definitely like how many options ning makes available. The nature of the site though, the having a member profile seems a bit half-hearted. "Oh, I have a profile at ning, look at what I care about." Given the public nature of online interactions, and the coming-to-grips with this fact, and the idea of crafting a public image may easily complicate the actual caring about something. Some people do get involved with social and political issues simply for the image and when they do that, they must go to protests and be active to maintain the image--online, with a ning profile, no one has to do anything but join a group to push an image of themselves.

Article comparison

These two articles would do well to listen to one another. The first states that the lack of interest in civil issues is made apparent by social networking sites. The second reiterates this lack of interest but seems to blame it on the formal education procedure. Both agree that my generation shows a degree of apathy- that we are not interested in formal groups based on interest as other generations were. However the second article seems to promote informal avenues as a way of motivating youngsters, the first shows by proof of social networking sites that this is not the case. I agree with the first article in stating that my generation is not motivated. And I don't think that a more informal venue for political expression or learning will rectify the matter.

Social activism topics

- unethical treatment of animals
- Chinese government's involvement in Tibet
- hate crimes
- Ahmadinejad's presidency
- domestic violence

Web site #3: General reflection

I did enjoy this project all in all. I understand why we worked in groups, if the reason was for us students to help eachother out and teach, because not every student has the know-how to redesign a site his or her self. This knowledge could be taught in a basic way but doing that is better suited for a web-design or programming course. I was not fond of the peer review. The basic criticism was color and excitement on the page, which is completely reasonable and well-received. But I feel that the criticism of the site map was ill-conceived.

Web site #2: Site design

I found that designing a site that would reel customers in is very difficult. I like straight forward sites that give me all the information I want, with perhaps a pleasant color scheme, but sites that need to sell something ought to be more exciting that. I put a border on some of the tables to make them easier to understand. And I found a ridiculous image of a chili with a sombrero and maracas, but given the student feedback, that seems like what people want. I also put contact information into the banner, for organization and fun, but I found that the color white didn't work. So I put in a reddish color that was already in the banner. It's still a bit difficult to read, but no one in my group, including myself, knows photoshop so I guess it will have to do.

Web site #1: Site maps

I found that site maps are much more difficult than I was originally aware. It is certainly a useful tool to understand how a website functions. The more complicated a site map is, then necessarily the more difficult a website is to navigate. An expansive and detailed site map of a major site would take up a lot of space. A lot of space like 15'x30' I'll bet. Especially if the site map was to indicate header use and all the fine bits of info on every page. But that would be more the most helpful, because one could then see how well the site was organized.