Final Project Proposal/ PPM and DWD
For our final project for Dynamic Web Development, Jadie, Nanna and I have been in the process of developing an idea for a cell phone application that would allow you to automatically upload the media from your cell phone (text messages, photos, video and contacts) to a website that would store them in a personal profile page. The site would function similar to flickr, in that you would be able to list your information as private, only for friends or family, or public (although we will also include a function that allows you to make your info private and only you can see it). You will also be able to tag your content and search for others content based on their tags, username or email. Jadie also had the idea, based on a Korean version of flickr I belive, to allow users to take other users' content and put it on their own personal page if they found something that they particularily liked. You would also be able to give other users comments and send messages. Initially, we imagined that this site would function as a kind of personal storage or a journal for all of your cell phone media, while also allowing a user to interact with other users and development connections through the content that was displayed. We were also very excited about attempting to create the actual app on the cell phone, either in java or flash, that would allow users with phones able to support the app to automatically have all of their information uploaded without having to send an mms or sms message. We would still leave that as an option for those whose phones do not have that capability.
In our research, however, we found, of course, that similar websites already exist this being an example that Jadie found. And after hearing Jay Dedman speak in my Prdocuing Participatory Media Class, I began to think about how we could make the site more functional as a new way to communicate with mobile video rather then simply being another copy of journal/storage sites already available. So I came up with the beginnings of an idea.....
One of the things that Jay spoke about that I agreed with was the fact that most forums for video online currently, while exciting in their existence because they are relatively new, are simply reposting popular content, popularizing irrelevant original content or giving an outlet for people to produce journals with video (most video blogs I've seen). While it is interesting and relevant that people are able to publish low-end video in this way, I feel that what is currently going on simply mimmicks TV or personal diaries. The problem seems to be that there are no, or limited, public forums where people can communicate using video in a way that promotes connection through relevant or interesting information. I also feel that the potential for using cell phone video has not been fully realized, in part becauase of the limitations of many cell phones currently, but also because there are no places online that encourage people to communicate this way. I am most excited about the potential of mobile video because I feel that it not only removes the editing process and places the power of media creation more completely in the hands of anyone, but because your phone is always connected while you yourself can be anywhere. This means, obviously, that you can capture something and have it published online immediately. The possibilities for average people to record things that ordinarily would not be seen, at least not in such an immediate way, are exiciting to me.
In thinking about this, we have decided for our project to include the possibility of forums within our website. The forums would be created by users and other users could subscribe to the them and contribute content. You would be able to search for particular forums or browse through available forums. When you upload your video from your phone, we are hoping that we can create a way through tagging (perhaps in the subject line) so that you can place a video within a particular forum. One of the problems that I have run across in searchiing through video content online is that it very difficult to find what you are looking for, especially if you have a limited idea as to what you are looking for. By creating these forums, people would be able to find video based on what they are interested in, what they would like to talk about or comment on etc. It would also be a way to filter out content that is irrelevant to you. I also feel that it is a much more relevant way to organize video rather then simply relying on tags (as flickr does for photographs). Video is much more like a conversation, and it also takes a lot longer to watch and search thorugh. Relying on tags alone would be much more time consuming then if there was a speciic place you could go to find content and stories on a specific topic. And because these forums would be user controlled, we are hoping that conversations and interactions would develop so that when a new user enters a particulaar forum they are not only able to watch things of interest but also view other users opinions, comments, thoguhts etc.
Our ideas are still in the development stage and we obviously have to continue to brainstorm and develop the project more completely. We are also very happy to have help from both the PPM and DWD group if anyone is interested and wants to join us or provide us with feedback....