Final Projects

Great job, everybody!

Eli Dillard: A Poem of Poems

Jessica Jonas: 1000 Black Hoodies Project (videos and FB group)

Liz Bamford: Tractiveffort

Tabitha Surface: Poetry & Cockney Rhyming Slang

Kimberley Lynne: !?Y-Art?!

Cate Maire: Cate's Communal Writing Experiment/Star Hoppers

Roger Market: Lost Things: A Hypertext Narrative (click on "hypertext" link)

Akesha Scott: An Ode to Typography

For October 25th Class

Please blog at least two times (out of three blogs) about your plans for a video project.

During the week, use your video camera to record some original clips to use in class. You may also find clips on the Web. The content itself does not matter; the video will not be graded.

Bring enough to be able to work in class.

Video Editing: The Basics

The tools you’ll need:
•Access to a computer with iMovie
•Video footage
•Any music, photos, or text you wish to incorporate into your project
•A folder dedicated to your video project

Getting Started:
1.Create a folder that contains all the things you want to incorporate into your video (images, music, text, your video footage). This will help ensure that you can easily access everything as you move from computer to computer.
2.Open iMovie and import the footage you would like to work with:
a.File>import movies
b.Select the video file you would like to work with
c.Create a “new event” for your Event Library
3.Create a new project
a.File>new project
4.Review the footage in the event you created and select clips to move into your project.
5.Trim and move the clips until they are in the order you prefer

Resources:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie-hero
http://www.archive.org/

Student sites

Reality Bent - Kristi
The Unfound Island - Liz
Brad Leroy Cartwright
Eli Dillard
Jessica Jonas
Dredging the Choptank - Kimberley
Catherine Maire
Roger William Market
An Artist's Shameful Self-Promotion - Lori
The Solopreneur Lifestyle - Akesha
Samantha
Tabitha Surface: A Not So Southern Writer
Marie Thrailkill
Kari A. Waters

Link to video files for use in class

The Wheat Farmer: http://www.archive.org/details/wheat_farmer_1938
Underwater atomic test: http://www.archive.org/details/CEP00110
The phantom unmasking scene: http://www.archive.org/details/CEP147
Tacoma bridge collapse: http://www.archive.org/details/SF121
Film countdown: http://www.archive.org/details/IMB_SF_R30_C4
Texas longhorns: http://www.archive.org/details/TexasLonghorns

EPub Final Project - Due December 6

For the final project, students will choose one or more of the following web formats to create a new literary work or, in the case of an online lit mag or podcast, promote other people’s literary work:

• Online literary magazine
• Video series (posted on YouTube)
• Hypertext Narrative
• Podcast series
• Twitter/Tumblr
• Facebook/MySpace

Other types of projects will be considered, but must be approved by the instructor. The objective of this project is to create a project that stretches the web tool beyond its intended/original use for a creative outcome.

In addition to the electronic project, students will write a two- to three-page paper discussing their process, possibilities for promotion, and lessons learned. For any work that is considered part of an ongoing project, the paper should also discuss the project’s life beyond the class.

KEY DATES

Due October 25: Students will prepare a one-page project proposal including:

• Explanation of what web tools they will use, and why they are appropriate
• Description of planned content (text and graphics)
• Timeline for project

Students should feel free to e-mail Jenny and/or Meredith to discuss ideas before this date.

November 8 & 15: Individual conferences during class (Also, free lab)

November 22: Guest Panel

November 29: Free lab

December 6: Projects due. Presentations

EP Presentations - Due November 1

Students will work in groups of two or three to create a 10-minute presentation about their assigned Electronic Publishing topic, along with 20 copies of a one-page presentation synopsis to be distributed in class.

The presentation should address:

• What tools/electronics do I need to get started? Does it cost anything, or require any special skills?
• What is the intended use of this tool?
• How could I stretch the intended use for either 1) a more creative purpose or, 2) self-promotion as a writer?
• Are there any exceptional examples of creative use we should know about?

The topics are (to be assigned):

• YouTube: Vinnie & Mike
• Literary E-Magazines: Jessica & Brad
• Twitter and Tumblr: Liz & Cate
• Facebook: Roger & Lori
• Podcasting: Sam, Eli & Kari
• Flickr: Akesha & Amberly
• Etsy and other e-commerce sites: Tabitha, Marie
• E-book publishing sites: Kristi & Kimberley

For October 11

Don't forget, mid-term projects are due on October 11. Please bring the two-page paper printed out with your name (and URL, if applicable) at the top. During class, we will quickly view everybody's sites.

We will spend some time looking at optimizing InDesign documents for use in e-Readers, and then the lovely Meredith will tell you a little bit about the upcoming video editing segment.

Good luck finishing your sites! :)

A few Wordpress-driven online mags

Shaking Like a Mountain

The Light Ekphrastic

Harvest Magazine

Share

Search engine optimization!

A student asked about how to go about making her site more searchable by Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

Here's a decent article (with links to others) with a few tips on how to do it without throwing away all your savings:

Ten Search Engine Optimization Myths: Debunked!

Homework due September 27

In addition to three blog posts on the topics of your choosing, please also write the content you plan to use in your mid-term project. Bring a print-out of the content, along with thumbnails of any graphics you plan to use.

Midterm Project - Due October 11

For the mid-term project, students will create writer websites for themselves, using either Dreamweaver or a Wordpress blog for design.

The site should have at least four pages, all of which contain:

• A clear navigation back to the home page
• Content that suits the writer
• One graphic per page

Students who create their sites in Dreamweaver may choose to upload their sites to a purchased domain, or to the student space available to them via UBalt. (See old post about how.) They may also hand in their projects on a flash drive (which will be returned).

All students must write a two-page paper describing the process, the outcome, and hopes for where the site may go in the future. The paper must be printed out and handed to the professor on October 11, and should contain the student's name and the URL of the site, if applicable.

Homework due September 20

To follow up on our conversation from Monday, your three homework blogs this week will center around brainstorming ideas for your very own writer's web site. Think about what you might include in your own site, and write one blog each on these topics:

• Content
• Navigation
• Graphics/Design Elements

Next week, we'll learn more about your mid-term project, and we'll jump right into Dreamweaver. Please remember to bring the photo files you edited this week (2 jpgs of any subject, edited so they are 300 pixels wide). Don't forget, we'll be breaking around 6:45 p.m. so we can attend Kendra's reading in the Bogolmony Room.

Have a great week!
jo'g

Homework due Sept. 13

1. Finish setting up your blog in Blogger. Figure out ways of decorating it to make it your own.

2. Surf the web in search of cool writerly/literary sites. Find and blog about:

• One cool writer's site (self-promotion)
  
• One excellent online literary journal
• One example of hypertext narrative
• One online site/project you'd be interested in learning how to do
• One terrible writer's site
  

In each blog entry, talk about what the site does, why it works...and how you think it could be improved. Be sure to include a (URL) link to the site and a photo or illustration from the site.

3. I will post links to each student's blog on the right-hand column of this blog. Please take a look and "follow" other students' blogs. You will be expected to comment on at least three blog entries per week.

Links from Aug. 30 class

Litmags:
http://newpages.com/NPGuides/litmags.htm
http://www.redividerjournal.org/about/
http://shakinglikeamountain.com/

Creative Blogs:
http://xkcd.com/
http://indexed.blogspot.com/
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

Personal Promotion:
http://www.noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/Main_Page

Hypertext Narrative:
http://www.iamcal.com/games/choose
http://editthis.info/choose_your_own_adventure/Main_Page
http://www.andrew3000.net/floatingsushi
http://kineticprose.com/pages/buried_roots/
http://kineticprose.com/pages/JennyOGrady_Cat/
http://kineticprose.com/pages/ABCDarium/pages

FALL 2010 SYLLABUS

CWPA 781 - Electronic Publishing Fall 2010
Instructor: Jenny O'Grady
410-455-1711 (work)
jogrady@ubalt.edu

TA: Meredith Purvis

purvis@umbc.edu


Course Objectives

Electronic Publishing introduces students to alternate forms of writing and publishing on the Internet. Students will:

⁃ Learn basic web publishing skills using Dreamweaver CS4 and blog platforms
⁃ Broaden understanding of types of electronic publishing
⁃ Produce writing projects specific to electronic publishing
⁃ Engage in discussion of intention and outcomes of design choices
⁃ Gain confidence and knowledge to use the web as a reference and source of electronic publishing aid
⁃ Learn marketable skills in web publishing, video editing, blogging, etc.

Homework assignments, reading links, syllabus and class project information will be available online at http://creativeepublishing.blogspot.com.

Text and Supplies

⁃ Instructional guides to Dreamweaver CS4 and/or iMovie (suggested)
⁃ USB flash drive (required)

Assignments and Grading

Students will complete weekly assignments, as well as a mid-semester and final electronic publishing project. Students will be expected to blog three times per week, each week. Attendance counts toward participation. Following two unexcused absences, the final grade will be lowered by a half letter for each absence.

⁃ Class participation 10%
⁃ Weekly blog entries 10%
⁃ EP presentations 10%
⁃ Mid-semester project 30%
⁃ Final project 40%

For those Saving an iMovie project

If you are saving an iMovie project to a flash drive, I think you will find this tutorial helpful. It explains how to save and then subsequently how to reopen the file, which can be slightly tricky.

Making Your Web Site Better: User Testing

The Wikipedia page for User Testing gives a great overview of what user testing is...and isn't:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing

Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think" is a classic guide to re-thinking your site. It's easy to read and put into practice. This link takes you to chapter two, which talks a bit about how many users think about web:

http://www.sensible.com/chapter.html

Domains, Hosting and FTP...oh my!

Here's a quick and dirty overview of some of the definitions/processes necessary for turning your HTML files into legitimate web sites. Let me know if I'm missing anything...

HTML
HTML stands for hypertext mark-up language. Although we commonly refer to it as “code,” it’s essentially a specific set of instructions that explain how a web browser should display content.

WYSIWYG
Pronounced Whiz-ee-wig, this is an acronym for “What You See is What You Get,” and refers to programs like Dreamweaver that give you the ability to create web files without knowing how to write code.

Domain
This is essentially the URL for your web site, for example: http://iamcool.com. A domain name may end in various ways (.com, .org, .edu, .info, .net, .biz…etc.), depending on availability (a domain name may be owned by only one person at a time). There are many companies selling domains online; it is a good idea to do your research before committing to a contract, as the prices vary. A simple Google search of “purchase domain” will give you plenty to choose from. (I have used GoDaddy.com and found it to be fairly user friendly; I have also used Register.com, which is a little less so.)

Hosting
Once you find and purchase your domain, you must find a host for your domain. Web hosting is similar to "renting" space on the Web, either by the month or year. You rent that space according to the size and needs of your website. Many companies that sell domains also handle hosting, allowing you to work with just one account; however, it is not required that you host your domain with the seller of the domain. Here is an online feature reviewing the Top 10 hosting companies. There are many others to choose from. As with domains, it is best to do your research, as the prices vary according to services provided. (Some companies include e-mail, blogging, e-commerce, and other tools as part of the package. Be sure to read your contract before signing, and know beforehand what you really want and need.)

Uploading your Files
If you have designed a web site using Dreamweaver or other tools, you upload your files to the host account. Most host providers offer customer service sites with detailed explanations on how to upload files using their system. For GoDaddy.com, for instance, this explanation is provided. Mydomain.com offers this handy support page.

Once you have uploaded the files, they will be accessible from your URL on the web. Whatever file you have set as the index.html file will be your home page, and the other pages will connect as they did within Dreamweaver.

You should plan on keeping your Dreamweaver files intact on your home computer (and back them up on an external drive if you really want to be safe). If you ever want to change something on your site, you can make the change to the original file in question, and then load just that file onto the host to update it.

Applying a Domain to your Wordpress (or other) Blog
Let’s say you created an amazing Wordpress blog, but instead of having a URL with Wordpress in it (creativeepublishing.wordpress.com), you’d prefer to change the URL to something more like this: www.creativeepublishing.com. There are two ways of doing this.

1. Redirect domain to blog URL: By redirecting your domain name, a person visiting www.creativeepublishing.com would be rerouted to your blog; once they arrive, the URL changes to the creativeepublishing.wordpress.com URL. To do this, purchase a domain name (no hosting is necessary, as the blog acts as your content host), and follow the instructions given for redirecting. Within GoDaddy.com, it’s fairly easy. This generally doesn’t cost anything extra.
   
2. Map your domain to the blog: By mapping your domain, your readers no longer see the blog URL at all. For example, a link within your blog that before mapping looked like this (creativeepublishing.wordpress.com/about) would after mapping look like this: www.creativeepublishing.com/about. This is a great way of maintaining a web site’s branding within the blog format. There is generally an additional cost for remapping; GoDaddy charges $10 per year to remap to Wordpress, for example. GoDaddy’s customer service section offers instructions on how to map a domain to Wordpress, Blogger, and other blogs.

What is FTP?
People say FTP all the time, but what is it exactly? It stands for file transfer protocol, and in layman’s terms, it’s simply the process by which you transfer files from one computer (your home computer, for instance) to another (uploading to your host site, for example) over a network such as the Internet.

iMovie Tutorial

Here's the tutorial we created and went over in class.

Some things to remember as you prep for next week's class:

• Why should this be a video? What elements are visual?
• Is this video the entire story or just part of a story?
• Who will be watching this video? Be sure to address their needs.
• Also - think about ways you can use this video on either your site or blog.

We'll go over exporting a video and uploading it to YouTube in class.

Be sure to bring the following items to class (on a flashdrive):

• Video footage
• At least one photo (you can use a Google image, if you'd like)
• A song (if you don't want to use what's available in the iTunes free library

This page has outstanding step-by-step and detailed instructions related to iMovie. Check it out!

iMovie Project

March 4 & 11: Video Workshops!

GOAL: Create a short, simple video using iMovie. Subject matter is open.

RULES: You should use iMovie. If you're feeling ambitious or know the program, you can use Final Cut Express or Pro - but we won't be going over that in class. Also, if you have a PC and prefer a PC program - go ahead and use that. Your videos should be short (2-3 minutes maximum) and must contain the following:

• 1 title page
• 1 title overlay (a person's name, for example)
  
• 1 photo
• 2-3 transitions
• 1 song
• 1 ending page (more information page)

March 4: Rose will go over video editing, and the class will break into small groups of 2-3 people. You can also work alone, if you prefer. The groups/individuals will begin preparing what kind of video they'd like to make. If you brought your camera, you can even start shooting while in class - if appropriate. Over the week, you should shoot the necessary video and get photos ready so you can work in class on March 11.

March 11: We will work on the videos in class. Hopefully, by the end of class we can upload them to the class YouTube account: http://www.youtube.com/creativeepublishing (password will be distributed in class!)

Scroll over a photo, see some text

I had a question tonight about how to make a small message pop up when you scroll over a photo (without using a rollover image). So, I decided to look at how the good folks at xkcd.com do it. (Their comics always contain an extra punchline when you roll your cursor over the art. Today's is pretty awesome.)

The answer is to add a title attribute within the image tag. It goes like this:





Simple, huh?

UB Lab Hours - FYI

Monday: Noon - 11 p.m.
Tuesday: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Wednesday: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Thursday: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Friday: 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Saturday: 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Sunday: 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.