E-PUBLISHING AND ME

I can’t believe I have come to the very end of E-publishing course. I have always had a great interest in Media, bring it old or New media. E publishing have also given answer to some of my question about Publishing. We discussed about many topic concerning media, I also learned about so many secrets of media. I call them secret because I believed that before a piece can be created, one needs a publisher, a huge amount of money, a sponsor and so many other things need doing before one can be able to even publish a book.

The many topics we talked about and the ones that interest me the most were Blogging. I was not aware of blogging until my E-publishing class. we were giving a task of entering a blog each week for the twelve weeks of the course. A blog is an online journal, it can be a list of stories. A successful blog is when users keep adding comment on it. Blogging is seen as a primary source of news for people. It has become the head source of news for a large number of people. Most of the bloggers have no journalist qualifications. Blogging as an art form has also become a political tool in which politicians have no control over. Blogging is seen as a way of life.

We also learned about Value chain. There is four-value chain on what a book goes through. Acquiring symbolic content. The industry has the first right to the symbolic content of a published book for some years before the owner. I also learned and understood more about copyrights. Before looking into a content of any media work, I have to make sure that the copyright issue is settled.

In my awareness of the effects of new media technology, in the old days, typesetting was used but today, word or page makers are being used. Before, you have to pay and send off your writing to be typed and printed, today one can skip a paying a typist. One can set their work, chose font etc and get their work done the way they want and faster. When one has a particular kind of audience in mind, this is seen as a better way to get at them.


PDF files are a document and can be chosen instead of postscript because in postscript, one can only print the whole file.
ibook is an internet book, they layout is different from physical books. It has a mark up language. Mark-up language has always been in the past, you have to mark up a work before they are typed. HTML is a substant of mark-up language. XML is a standardised version of a book before use and it is really important. It is a format used before creating a book.

Online publishing LuluI found Lulu really interested and hoping to use it over the future. Lulu is “publishing a book made easy”. Online services such as lulu, blogs, podcastes, e-mailing and managing a site are what I call E-publishing because they are internet based and give one that opportunity to reach audience quickly and easily.

Interactive fictions

This is one of my favourite topics; I am looking forward to producing a piece for my final assignment. In an interactive fiction, all one needs is a writer. Technologies that can be used are flash, programming and animation technologies. They main technology is the programming XML these are sensible mark-up languages. Digital sound is a core technology that can let the user change photography into a sound.


I also learned a lot about Internet security. Every computer on Internet has a number, if you don’t have a number, then you can’t be on Internet. The Internet is not as safe as we think it is. There is no privacy on Internet. With social sites, one have to know where to be exposed and where not to, joining active groups that decide to meet up is not a good idea some times, mostly when it a media group or a group acting against the government. Sights like Facebook and Twitter are not save for people who want their voice to be heard mostly by the government.

Refernces:

Weboeida. (2009). [online] at http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2005/pdf.asp

http://tlrg.bangor.ac.uk/uxs3036/week2/thompson.html

E PUBLISHING & TECHNOLOGIES

What are the E publishing technologies today? are they still going to be the technologies we use tomorrow? Technologies never stop to improve; they are getting better and better each day. Ten years ago when people were still been introduced to the Internets, programmes such as interactive fiction, visual novels, blogging, websites such as lulu and publishing on demand wasn’t available.
· Blogging consist of :-links, internet, data base, word wide web, RSS

· Interactive fiction consist of:- XML, programming, algorithms, software, internet, distribution, content and inform।

· Visual novel consist of ;- Audios, development platform, contents, distribution, internet, animation, flash, programming, graphic, editing, software, digital image etc.

· Lulu consist of ;- ip/tcp, internet, website, forum tools, PDF, word processing , image, Editing, XML, post script, Access to cc resources, login verification, secure saver, image editing, encryption and many more

· Publishing on demand consist;- of data basses, printers, PDF, photocopiers, internet, website, books and post script.

VISUAL AND INTRACTIV FICTION ENGIENS
Visual novels and interactive fiction are also becoming more aware to the rest of the world other than China and Japan. Today, visual novel can be created in any part of the world. The Internet provides engines that can help create these novels; some are free while some are for more advance users who can pay and use the engines effectively. With these engines being available, it will be easier to create visual novels and interactive fictions.

There are so many visual novel engines of which one can use, the most familiar ones are:
· Ren’Py: this is a free and cross platform visual novel engine that helps one use words, pictures and sounds to tell stories with the computer.
· Blade Engine: This is also a free game engine and construction kit aimed at making visual novel easy to construct and is fully localized into English.
The most used Interactive fiction engines are:
Inform: This is the biggest interactive fiction engine, some people find it hard to use, while some don’t. It allows one to use media in your adventure such as sound, music and photos. It is also based on virtual Z-Machine invented for Zork
TADS (Text Adventure Development System) is a freeware programming system for many platforms.
Adrift: this engines is very easy to use and has gained ground beside the established inform and TADS.

To read more about these Engines, check out the websites below.


Blade Engine (online) [2006] (last updated November 2006) at
http://www.bladeengine.com/BladeEngine/whatis.php

http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/games/zork.htm

http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7/Welcome.html

http://www.tads.org/

Social websites are growing and getting better, first there was Myspace, thousands of people found it so interesting because one could upload videos from youtube, write on peoples walls, create little profile about them self, see how many friends they have and even see and chat with this friends when online. Then came facebook which is still the leading social network today, keeping its audience by creating new features, making it even easier to upload videos. There are other social net works such as bebo, orkut etc. twitter is taking off the huck and has been centre of attention over the past few months. There seem to be a great competition out there and for social networks to survive, have to keep creating more new and easier applications for its audience to still stay in the market

RSS FEEDS

RSS feed stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication, it is a simple XML format used to syndicate mostly news headlines. This are page that allows one to browse and read headlines form a web sit without going into the websites. This headline attracts the reader and can help them decide if they want to read the news or not. It can be also called News feeds, or web feeds. It is currently used for a number of applications, including news heading syndication, weblog content distribution and exchange of other timely information such as software release notes. RSS feeds are useful for regular Newsreaders who most of the times like to quickly read and keep up with multi news sources. Content such as Blogs, Podcaste, video, image distribution and online news can all be distributed by RSS. RSS feeds are also used by major Internet portals such as Google, AOL and Yahoo for their users to personalize and get information they want delivered to them an example is My Yahoo where ones Avatar can be created to socialise with other users through chatting (Messenger) or playing games (Xbox Live). Web browsers such as Firefox, Safari and Opera makes it easier to add or remove RSS feeds. They also have the built in capability to add this feeds by simply clicking on the icon that appears in the address bar of a browser, this bookmarks the site and connects the RSS feed on the page one is using.

There care some popular programmes developed for reading feeds such as NewzCrawler, FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, while some web-based services that create a personalized Web page for featuring headlines of all these feeds are; GoogleReader, Bloglines and NewsGator.

Some websites can create and publish RSS feeds, either for free or for a particular fee and can also be paid by advertisers. Creating a feed is easier than creating a Podcast. Computer and Internet are the basic things needed.
· Text coloured grey is required, however does not need to be modified and can be ignored.
· Text coloured red is an explanation of the feed and should not be included in an actual feed.
· Text coloured blue should be replaced with ones own data

The value of using an RSS reader is for one to be able to read content from dozens or more sites all in one place without having to visit all the sites. Some early users mainly online journalist tried to attract it customers into their sites by giving them, a brief headline and making them come into their website to read the main story and if possible respond to adverts and divert to other things of interest. This wasn’t seen as RSS feeds

The Google Reader Blog reported that the Guardian is the “first major newspaper in the world” to have full text RSS feeds. Because they have no intention of attracting a user into their site but are aiming to giving them they news they want in brief.

How is RSS feed useful to Media?
RSS feed has always been in existence in the good old news papers, example are they brief news that looks more like a head line, not more than 30 words or even less. Some news in the papers before the Internet, were just headline which explains a situation. Today, the Internet has made RSS more obvious, brief, short and simple, all one need to do is click and news from a particular site is periodically download and presented to them. Almost all media companies are based online today, they find it easier to reach to their customers and with programmes such as RSS feed can always reach a customer. RSS was formally known as RDF before changing to RSS.

Reference:

Columbia Journalism Review. (2009). [online] (last update 17 December 2009) at
http://www.cjr.org/feeds.php

Publishing. (2009). [online] (lat updated 29 October 2008) at
http://publishing2.com/2008/10/29/guardian-launches-full-rss-feeds-first-media-company-not-to-suppress-rss-adoption/

RSSboard (2006). [online] at
http://www.rssboard.org/rss-mime-type-application.txt

INTERNET AND PODCASTING

Today, the Internet has made it easier to do almost every thing online. From publishing a book, to creating audio files. And in all these, when taken serious one can make a lot of money from it. Podcasting is the ability to create and distribute an audio or video programme using the Internet. They mainly come in MP3 MP4, MOV, MPG, WMV, AVI and MPEG, or a similar file format. The producers of Podcasting make their programmes available with RSS feeds. This is a tool that allows listeners to select programmes they wish to download. The internet is the key factor behind most of this new technologies allowing the development of new ideas, without the internet, most of these programmes including social network sites wouldn’t have been possible today.

Does this mean Internet is a great influence behind these programmes? Yes but the main piece of Podcasting setup is the computer. Computer is used through out, from the production of a programme to the distribution. The computer needs some basic things such as microphone for voice recording and then, Internet access for the distribution of the show. One will also need both hardware and software in order to record, edit and publish a Podcast. Some other things that can be needed but not essential are photos, web-cam, video/video enable phone and Blog. One can also create their own RSS feed, this can be important because it alert subscribers when a new file have been posted to a website.


What is the future of programmes such as Podcasting today?
Today, some recognised audio editing program such as Apples Garad Band, Adoe’s Audition or Audacity and many others are open resource program that allow one to receive inputs from microphones, voice recorders, which actually produce most of the shows. VoIP program such as Gizmo Project or Skpe help record shows such as interviews, which includes an integrated recording. Gizmo Project allows conversations to be recorded between the presenter and any telephone in the world. While these few are out there, some other easier programs are still to come. Since anything with voice, photo or video moves so fast in the Internet. With the great awareness of ipod, which was where the name Podcasting was derived in 2004 blending the word (iPod) and (Broadcasting), created awareness. The New Oxford American dictionary named “Podcast” its official “word of the year”. Personal media devices capable of planning audio and video which are built in many phones today, can allow one to view and enjoy Podcasts any where any time. Millions of people use this programme without knowing the name and what is all about. Since much is not required to start a Podcast, and there are some free sites that allows a free sign up, mainly the young generation will be looking up to this programmes.


Podcasting is rapidly representing a new exciting word where things can be easily done without taken days or months but only some few hours. Materials such as course lectures, reports, maps, meetings, research manuscripts, talk shows etc can be recorded as audio and video files and delivered to either subscribing users or targeted audience automatically. One can also take their business, interest or passion and turn it into an interesting audio or video show. Uploading an idea on the web and broadcasting it to the world.

Reference:

Pdodcastingpeople. (2006 – 2009). [online] at http://www.podcastpeople.com/faq
Wikibooks. (2009). [online] (last updated 10 May 2009) at
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Podcasting
Podcastpickel (2009) [online] at http://www.podcastpickle.com/

Wise-women.org (2009) [online] (last updated 23 February 2006) at
http://www.wise-women.org/tutorials/podcast/
The New Oxfor American Dictionary (2005) [online] at
http://www.oup.com/us/brochure/noad/

VISUAL NOVELS VS INTARACTIVE FICTON

I don’t really understand the difference between visual novel and interactive fiction.
Are visual novels interactive fictions?

Interactive fiction descries software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. They are seen as a text adventures, everything is based on text and the player have to visualise the environment and tasks. Text adventures are one of the oldest types of computer games and form a set of the adventure genre. As the player uses text input to control the game, the game state is relayed to the player through text output. This text uses and understand simple languages like “go south”, “turn right”, “get key”, and many more. Today, there is a big market for games, so many competitions going on, from 2D to 3D. One doesn’t see this text adventures games competitive any more. Players choose to play games where all the visual world and fantasy are there to see, and all you have to do is use your game console to control what is going on. There are weaknesses to this, there is only one story line and the character is obligated to follow it.

Visual novels have extremely minimal game play. The majority of a players interaction is limited to clicking to keep the text, graphics and sound moving. Some of them have multiple storyline and many endings. The players have a choice and can select a direction in which to take the game. These can be more closely compared to story driven interactive fictions. Visual novels are interactive fiction taken to a further level. Majority of them are still text based but then have pictures, music and sounds. Majority of these games are Japanese or Chinese originated, there is a huge market out there for them, the rest of the world still doesn’t find it that eye catching. Is it because the player has to do most of the jobs?


Is Inanimate Alice is a visual novel or an interactive fiction? When shown in class, some student found it uninterested, while when the Ren ‘Py Game was shown, students found it a lot easier to understand, because there were three simple things involve. Music, picture and story line, with the help of simple techniques such as dissolve, hiding and showing of characters makes it less complicated. Students accepted that Ren ‘Py games are much easier to make and understand. We all agreed in class that in interactive fiction, all you need is a writer. But one like Inanimate Alice, you need more things such as programmer, graphics, maintaining the website. Technologies that can be used such as flash, programming and animation technologies.

The term interactive fiction is also occasionally used to refer to adventure games, which are also called hypertext fictions, it is also used to refer to literary works that are not read in linear fashion, and rather the reader is given choices at different points in the text. The readers’ choice determines the flow and outcome of the story.
Ren ‘Py Visual novel Engine is highly familiar to people who make use of it because of its easy to make stories. It helps one use technologies such as, sounds, pictures and music to tell a story. People find it easier to play around with 2D animations, other games that can be created with Ren ‘Py are Cook books, dating games and many more.

The largest company producing works of interactive fiction was Infocome, they created the Zork series and many other titles among them.

After some research and reading, I know more about Visual novels and interactive fictions. Most of all is that visual novels have to do with pictures, sound and music and one have to click majority of time to move on. With its multiple story line, one have a choice of which story to follow. While in interactive fiction, which is know as the oldest form of games, is mostly text command based. One have to obey the language and rules in other to move progressively in the game.

Reference:
Blade Engine (online) [2006] (last updated November 2006) at http://www.bladeengine.com/BladeEngine/whatis.php