The Process of Creating a Cause Website

This is definitely my favorite project of the semester. I like how I can directly interact with my group mates through the site, as opposed to just working toward on it together like with the Website redesign. It seemed like a pretty overwhelming project, but when you put four heads together that contribute with an ample effort, it actually turns into a rewarding experience. It feel it combines your overall creativity and the ability to achieve a desired goal better than any project we've completed thus far. I initially wasn't too fond of the way Ning looked and operated, but as usual, I have grown accustomed to it and enjoyed many of the tools that they have to offer. I really like the layout once you have chosen which features you want to include. It makes editing and creating on the site easy and efficient.

3 Potential Forum Topics

1) The most notorious scams
2) The legal implications of scams
3) What you can do to spread awareness

3 Topics for Cause

After doing some research, I think topics of interest for scams are:

1) Academic scams-Online Degrees, scholarships
2) Job scams, quick cash scams
3) Foreclosure, financial bailout scams

Ning Reaction

The site is very different from anything I've ever used before. I like how it has the snapshot of the page which also serves as the link. Just to get a feel for it, I searched for current issues in general. I came across "Green Passports" which were supporters of environmental responsibility on an international level. I also saw a site on obesity which looked to require some involvement and a very persuasive page about a California politician. I can see how this pages can influence opinions and beliefs towards a certain issue. I think the site could have a better search system because I had a hard time finding specific issues.

Boyd vs. Bennett

I thought that both articles were interesting to read. They both were similar in regards to how they explained this new era of "self-actualization" and how it differs from typical involvement and citizenship. Bennett's article, however, makes it seem like the new school thought process is something that has to be accepted and can actually be an opportunity for society. Though Boyd comes off as a little extreme, I can see what he means when he says that SNS's are an egoists dream and ultimately hinder willingness to seek other social realms. I can see it when I use Facebook. So much of the same information is circulating amongst the same people that the group thinks it must be true. It's human nature. It's natural to gravitate toward something when you know group consensus will support it.

SNS Article

I thought it was kind of cool taking a look at the evolution of these social networking sites. A different way of looking at it is that you are developing relationships with people in your extended network rather than total strangers. I thought that the problems that Friendster encountered were great to learn from moving forward for SNS's. The issue and main concern that has been resolved is the privacy, security, and the trust the public has in these sites. Sites like MySpace and Facebook have done the job right by learning from past failures. What MySpace did correctly was respond to customer demand and create a free way for people to network. Why in the world would anyone pay for something when there is an almost identical product for free?

Five Issues That Really Concern Me

1) Scams-Insurance, Home foreclosure bailouts, etc.
2) Global Warming/Environment
3) Corruption in Government
4) Police Brutality
5) What's going into our food

Web Design in Retrospect

I really had a good time with this one and I think my group members did as well. I think it was very much they fact that the project was much more incremental and team oriented than the others, and if something like this wasn't, it wouldn't be nearly as effective. I liked the fact that we didn't have to be web masters to create this project and we got to use what we knew to be creative. It helped that Google sites was basic enough to the point where we weren't overwhelmed once we became accustomed to it. Sure, it wasn't the best template to use, but it helped us achieve the main goals of this assignment. I'd be interested to see what our new page would look like if we expanded the entire old site.

Applying the Finishing Touches

So last night I made some finishing touches to the aesthetic appeal of our website. I made certain text bold to make it stand out better and changed many of the fonts to give them a little more flare. I also corrected small symmetry issues on the main page while still maintaining the same alignment. Barring any changes that my group members deem necessary, I think the site is pretty much ready to go. I would just like to attribute some of the clashing of colors between our page background and link colors to the fact that Google Sites did not allow us to change the color of the link. Either that or the process is something we overlooked/not easily accessible.

My Web Design Experience

When I was first introduced to the idea of this assignment, I'll admit I was a little skeptical about how it would turn out. As the cohesiveness and communication with my group became stronger, the ease with which we completed the redesign became stronger as well. I also thought that the approach to this assignment was a little bit different when we first covered it. I thought we would be completely re-making a page and need a good deal of web design knowledge to complete it. I also thought that my group members and I would be doing almost identical things. The different roles that we all took in making this project a success proved my prediction wrong. Each part that we did was crucial to the project as a whole.