2. Hybrid this week: Phill talks about Hypertext You read about Hypertext You answer a forum prompt… about hypertext. A transition where we briefly stop talking about hypertext and reflect on Making 2 and Project 2to talk about Memes Tumblr posts– 2 specific ones this week! (oooh, he’s mixin’ it up)
3. Announcements Grades should be up-to-date as of last week (at class time) If you can’t access Engrade, email me ASAP. If you have “m” anywhere in your grades, that means “missing” as in “you didn’t get this to me.” If I don’t have access to your Tumblr by Friday, you will receive zeroes for any missed entries. Likewise, if you have an “m” for project one and don’t talk to me by Friday at 5 p.m. you will receive a zero. Health update: I was doing much better, but I had a mild relapse this week. With any luck, I will be able to meet face-to-face next Monday (crossing fingers)
4. Keep in mind: Communication is CRITICAL with class happening almost entirely online. If you are confused, make sure you read/watched/listened to everything, then contact me. Don’t sit and wait. That’s a BAD strategy and will end up hurting you. Any problem you might have is something we can probably fix, but if you don’t talk to me, or your classmates, we can’t do anything to help.
5. Press Play Go watch this video The Machine is Us/ing Us
6. Why is Hypertext… …so important? You WILL use it in your career. No matter what career you choose. You’re going to be writing on the WWW, and that’s going to involve using hypertext to link things together. In fact, you write in hypertext already, even if you don’t realize it. That’s what your Tumblrs are.
7. So I’m harping on it… …because these writing skills, that you learn in this class, are your life. You live in text (even if it isn’t alphabetic text). Have you txted anyone today?Did you post a Facebook update? A link? A new photo?You do this. It’s important to know how it works and why it is different from how we write traditionally on paper.
9. Think of what you are making as a resource. Think of yourself creating a document that others can use for reference. In fact, you will probably be able to trade your projects around with the people who were in your group for the in-class activity last week. You will likely want to make this as a webpage, but my only requirement is that it is hypertextual and appeals to the audience.
10. You could do this… In MS Word On a blogin Dreamweaver or iWeb or FrontPage With a number of free online resources You could make a PowerPoint with links Or a PDF Or a video (YouTube lets you include linking) That is up to you. I will show you some basic web stuff next class.
11. Read! You have a number of readings for this week, but none of them are particularly long. The first few are definitions of Hypertext to give you a formal, non-Phillspeak way of understanding it. The next few are histories of the World Wide Web, which ties directly to hypertext but is also just something you should know. And the last one is an in-the-moment explanation of Mosaic, the first graphic based web browser.
12. Forums Two forum posts for this week. The first will be to post something to the “History of the Web” forum. What I want you to post here is twofold: the moment you entered the Web (date, what services you used) and something you found interesting or wish to know more about from the brief histories you read.
13. Forums II The second forum is called “Mosaic Audience.”What I want you to do here is think about the situation the Mosaic coders had to think about. Imagine that you and the rest of the class, with my help, have created Firefox. Previous to this, all web activity has been in single color text on a single color background.How would you, in less than a page, explain this graphic user interface and how the web will change? How would you explain Facebook or Youtubeto someone who cannot fathom that the web can exist outside of alphabetic type?
14. Shifting gears: Seq2 As I have said, you have a lot of time for the major project for Sequence 2. Remember that it is to be an audio podcast that tells us five important things about the culture you are studying. I’d like you to have the culture you plan to work with in mind when we conference this week. Also, if any of you want to work in pairs, we should talk about that during confs, too.
15. And the Mixtape/CD That is due soonish (October 20th). Remember that you will either include narration (verbally) or write liner notes. I am trying to make an example for you. I have the songs together, but I haven’t had time to record the transitions. I hope to put that somewhere online soon. Most of you seem to have a good start on it. Remember that if there aren’t a lot of requirements listed with an assignment, my hope is that you will do what you wish with it. I want to see you be creative and innovative.
16. And now… Memes I have talked to you ever-so-briefly about memes before. But what I want to do this week, in forecasting some of what we will do later (and in tying this hypertext stuff to our here-and-now), is talk more specifically about them. Let’s define the meme.
17. Meme= a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation); "memes are the cultural counterpart of genes“ From wordnetweb.princeton.edu
18. The term Internet meme is a phrase used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an esoteric inside joke. ... From Wikipedia, the bastion of definitions in Western Culture
19. So we’re talking… …about stuff like being Rickroll’d, or repeating the Kanye West VMA’s imagery, or “all your base are belong to us.” Next slide: Kanye interruption at VMAs and Kanye lyrics on New Yorker Cartoons collide (a Phill original– heh– original :P)
20.
21. Why Meme, why now? Memes are deeply, deeply cultural. Let me say that another way.Memes bank on cultural capital. If you don’t know what the meme is, it might not make a bit of sense to you. Because of this, memes create an insider/outsider situation wherein it is clear who is “in” the culture the meme comments to and who is not. A few examples. See how many you “get”
28. My girlfriend’s favorite You’re tearing me apart, Lisa! http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-room-youre-tearing-me-apart-lisa
29. Okay, so enough… …examples.I want you to play with the meme for your Tumblr posts this week. I am going to assign two posts, which means you only have to do one on your own. 1) Locate a meme you like that I didn’t mention here, and after posting it (or a link to it) briefly explain what you need to know in order to understand it 2) Make a meme related image or video to post
30. So, to repeat… A lot of this week is about getting work done on projects. Your tasks: 1) The class stuff on the other PPT re: time management 2) Read, post your two forum posts3) Your 3 Tumblrs, meme-tastic and fresh4) Your conference, which you won’t forget and will come to ready. 2-4 due Sunday, Oct. 17th at 11:59 pmREMEMBER: Mix CD due: October 20th!
