The name secret location says that this is something exiting and thrilling. When you jump into the site there is big letters that says “ The Secret Location” . Then there is like a black and white movie where a man sits in an office, probably his office. Here he finds a note where it says go to the secret location and follow the woman in white on the other side. Then you see a woman in a wedding gown passing by his office door, it feels like a ghost passing by. And this man starts to pursuit this woman. This site appeals to the curiosity inside the human being. And I myself got very interested in what happens next. It is designed like an old black and white movie, and the genre might be a thriller or action movie. We follow the man to a train station where there is a box, containing an item, a chalk. I did not know what it were at first , but understood it later in the “story” Here the users of the site get to affect this man search of the location, whether to take the item in the box or not. Actually it feels like you are the man, even though the filming indicates that you`re not. Then it gets back to following the lady in white. There is sort of a panic feeling in the way the man moves and the camera angling when he almost looses the sight of the woman. Out of the train station there is a car waiting for him. The driver gives the man a note, where there is a picture of a deer and a number and a letter 4Q. Here there is an opportunity to ask the driver where “we” are heading. But the driver don`t reveals nothing. Although you have the opportunity to choose the questions, it boils down to the question where the secret location is. But the driver won’t give you any answer. The drive ends up at an abandoned parking lot. He sees the sign of the deer, which has been on one of the notes, and the letters 4Q that is a number on the parking lot. Here there is an sort of “magical” door. When you use the chalk to draw the stapled line, it opens a door to a room. In the room there is a television, where you see a man in his office. And then the story starts again.

Outside the “story” frame, there are several options to choose from. The menu is a hand holding a remote control for televisions. This can be interpreted as the user’s hand, controlling whether to stop and start the movie again. You can also navigate around the other aspects of the site like about, ideas, work and e-mails. It feels like you are sitting in front of the TV, just switching between channels. When clicking on one of the menu bards it is sort of fast forward the video and then goes to the information you seek for.
The colors they use is black/ white with an extra hint of purple in it. The menu bars are purple, the notes in the movie and the chalk are purple. So are the highlighted answers to the question when you point over it. This makes the site very simple but the purple simplifies that this item is there something more to. Purple is a mixture of the color red and blue. Red is an warn color while blue is a cold one. And there is a balance between them. The purple color often stands for royalty. But can also be perceived as a mysterious color. I think that is the reason why they used this type of color in this site. It leaves a mysterious feeling. If they had they been using red, it would be perceived as danger. That would not necessarily destroy the excitement of the tour around to the secret location. But the red would be a more stress full color to use, as the video itself gives you kind of the stressing feeling. Instead you get that calming but yet mysterious feeling when purple is used.

Besides from images and purple colored notes, there are also sound effects. There is no music, but just regular sounds that relates to the surroundings he is in. You can also hear is footsteps as he run towards the white lady trying to reach her.

In the scenario there are several options for the user to choose. The user gets the feeling that he/she can decide what the man in the scenario will do. When the man opens the box after the train station, you can decide whether to take the item or leave it. But later on when you need the chalk to open the “hidden” door, it says that you have forgotten something, and then it reverses back to the box, and then you collect the chalk. The site provides the user a choice, but in the end there is no choice after all. It is an illusion of choices. It forces you to make the “right” choice for the purpose of the site. I believe that is because what they are trying to tell us with this story only can be understood by making these choices. Or else you don`t get anywhere. But by having choices the user feel it can influence the story and it gets more exciting than just to sit and watch it passively. It feels like a video game.
In the setting there is an object to follow to the secret location, this object is an woman in a white dress. I believed at first it was a marriage gown, and this was some sort of a proposal act. But I was wrong. But the question is what the meaning of woman wearing a white dress is. The white color often connotates purity and cleanliness (Chandler 2007). Is the woman a connotation for his conscience? Does he have something he feels bad about, and by pursuing this white dressed woman, will it help him clean up something he have done before. But what does it then mean, when everything in the end goes back to scratch again. Maybe they are trying to tell us that you can`t run from your life or your conscience. If you have done something that you`re not so proud of, you can`t run away from it. Because you life/past will always in some sort of way catch up sooner or later, and then you are back to scratch again.

With the sounds of quick tapping “foot sounds” and the unstable filming makes and impression that this is an stressfully situation for the person. The image and sound complement each other to make the feeling of being stressed are very effective. And they manage to keep the excitement to the last stop at the journey. Although maybe many probably would be disappointed that it ends with going back to the office again, there is a message behind this.

Bibliography:
Books:
Daniel Chandler, The basics semiotics, Routledge 2007 second edition.
Internett
1. http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-messages-meanings/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-purple.html. 24.03.09

2. http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-messages-meanings/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-white.html. 24.03.09

Introduction:

In this essay we would see how the website Sun.com (Sun 2009) use different rhetorical effects to promote their product and different sections of their site. The use of connotations and denotations (Chandler 2002:173), signifier and signified, and the use of colors. To clarify the signifier and signified we will use the model created by Saussure (Chandler 2002:14).

General layout

The page itself have a consistent and clean look, with no disturbing color use. The website is divided into different sections on the main page. On the top of the page it has a navigation bar which is quite easy to understand and it also contains a search field. Top left beneath the navigation bar we have a download button and some featured products with direct hyperlinks to each product. Botton left there’s an advertisement frame, which change once in a while. Top right beneath the navigation bar we have the main content frame. This frame holds the newest news, and on the right side it has to boxes which contain information about a trial version of a product and the other one has a link to information about cloud computing. Bottom middle frame contains a short information about free trials and hot deals that are available at this time. Bottom right contains a news feeder based on RSS technology. The contains a set of links to different parts of the site which provide specific information about that part, either it’s a privacy policy or terms of use.

Semiotic analysis: the findings.

In this section we will focus on the findings from the semiotic analysis and point out why these different parts acts as they do. First up we’ll take a look on the download button on the right side of the page. This orange button is distinctive from the general color scheme of the website. The button is clear and easy to notice, it’s almost as it says «click me». It signifies a link to the download page, where the download page is the signified. Next up are the content frame and of course its content. The content frame have a little navigation bar on the top, which can be used to get different content based on the category viewed. We’ll concentrate on the «featured» category and the main image which shows us a big container, a short piece of text, and two small frames with additional related information. The latter will not be discussed.

While focusing on the picture, we can see the big shipping container with different logo’s from software provided by Sun, and the Sun logo itself. On the right side of the picture, we have a short text that says: «The Internet. In a Box. The Internet Archive’s vast and growing database is now stored in a Sun MD.» The first line, containing «The Internet» text are colored orange, to make explicit that this is what all the fuzz is about. The next line, which states «In a Box» are colored white, like rest of the text. So, what is this? Can we contain the whole Internet in a box? How big is this box? Which box are they talking about? This statement can be understood differently by every person that reads it. If you know what a Sun MD is, this will give you another meaning rather than a person with no experience would maybe interpret it as «storing the whole Internet in a cardboard box». These two different meanings can be different connotations, as Daniel Chandler (2002) states in his book: «The term ‘connotation’ is used to refer to the socio-cultural and ‘personal’ associations (ideological, emotional, etc.) of the sign.» The text itself would be a denotation, which is the literal meaning of the word or the sentence as a whole (Chandler 2002:137). The sign here would be the arbitrary text along with the rest of the image as a whole that generates a new meaning, that would be «you can store the whole Internet in this type of container». While the text and container in the image promotes different signs alone, they provide a more complete meaning together.

Summary

This website contains signs that are obvious, the download button stands out because it’s orange, when the rest of the layout is black and dark colored. This causes the user to see where they should click to get to the download page, and it’s hard to overlook. As mentioned earlier the content frame contains different material based on categories in the form of tabs. The main focus are on the featured category with the container image, which provide different meaning to different people based on the previous experience with the Sun MD (Modular Datacenter). People with the appropriate experience would see the the right sign, which is that this modular datacenter can contain all the webpages on the Internet because it can store up to 2 petabytes of data. While others would begin to wonder how this is possible, to contain the Internet as a whole in a box. It doesn’t matter what type of box it is, some would possibly interpret the box as the container, while others don’t.

Conclusion:

The semiotic analysis of the Sun.com website provides a set of different things to focus on. The layout itself is pretty neat with a dark colored theme. By using a dark colored layout it is possible to point out specific things on the site with other bright colors, like the download button which is orange. The website is also built up by using different frames for different content, which gives the user the impression of a good structure and easy to understand user interface. The main focus of the semiotic analysis is the featured tab in the main content frame in the middle. This image can give different people different meaning based on what the user knows about this topic. All of this points out that the website can give very useful information to the people who needs it, and may be frustrating for others.

Words: 1006

Sources:

1. Sun Microsystems. 2009. Sun Microsystems. Http://www.sun.com [Downloaded 27^th march 2009]

2. Chandler, D. 2002. Semiotics: The Basics. London New York : Routledge

kvifor er du her?

eg får så veldig mange besøk frå huin105-bloggen. eg lurar på kvifor. så sei det. har nerdebloggen blitt blogganalyseprosjekt etter at eg måtte droppa emnet eller noko slikt? og bør eg i så tilfelle skjerpa meg for at bloggen skal innfri som analyseobjekt?

for all del. eg likar masse besøk. eg likar dei som kjem utan grunn òg. hald fram med det.

(viss ingen svarar må eg skriva dette på engelsk av omsyn til dei framandspråklege besøka, og slik språkskjending vil de ikkje oppleva, tru meg.)

This paper is about conducting a semiotic analysis of the website The Dumbest Generation, which is a website about the book “The Dumbest Generation, How the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future (Or, Don’t trust anyone under 30)” by Mark Bauerlein.
Semiotics is the scientific study of signs and the way in which these signs construct and reconstruct meaning (Example essays.com). Put short it is the study of signs. A sign is a meaningful unit which is interpreted as “standing for” something other than itself (Chandler 2007, p 260). Signs can be words, sounds, images, flavours, odours etc. but they have no meaning before we give one to them. In Saussure’s model of signs he composes a sign into two elements, a signifier, which refers to the image, or sound that refers to the thing of concept, and the signified, which refers to the thing or concept itself (Chandler 2007, p 261).

This paper will look at the sites different discourses (which are socially constructed knowledge of reality (Kress and Leeuwen, 2001), the paper explains the discourses as modes because discourses can only be realised in semiotic modes which have developed the means for realising them (Kress and Leeuwen, 2001)). Furthermore it will see how the different modes operate as a semiotic resource. It will also look at the different elements to see how they work together to create meaning, and describe the site’s appearance.

The site’s main point is to promote the book “The Dumbest Generation, How the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future (Or, Don’t trust anyone under 30)” by Mark Bauerlein. The purpose is to make the book seem interesting so people will buy it.

In the book Bauerlein criticize the young Americans relationship to technology. He say they pay too much attention to technology instead of reading literature, learning American history and politics, go to museum etc. But who are Bauerlein really attacking? Is it teachers and parents or students? He argues that the digital technology has erased the boarder between space and time (Don’t trust anyone under 30?). Therefore a young Americans social life goes on constantly. Bauerlein asks the grown ups to take back control and make youth’s disconnect for an hour a day (Will generation Y be dumb or great?).
Bauerlein argues that the youth’s don’t write creative enough in their academic writing, they only get the facts and ideas straight. But in the digital world filled with social networks and blogs they are much more creative in their language. Bauerlein notes that the youth’s language comes in two flavours (REPN TRI to the FULLEST!!!). He uses this metaphor “two flavours” too underline his point about the different ways youth’s use to express themselves.

The first site to appear is the welcome site. It’s divided up in tree boxes. The header which shows the title, ”The Dumbest Generation”, the menu on the left side and the contents in the biggest box showing the book cover.
The menu helps you navigate the site. You can surf the sites to get information of the book, like reviews, articles and other news about it. In that way the menu gives you an overview of the sites contents. Since the site is made to get people to buy the book it obviously has a link for this in the menu.
There is a subtitle saying “50 Million Minds Diverted, Distracted, Devoured”, and under that you see a dynamic text going from red to black, which is the sites main colours. You may think this text just is annoying because it catches your attention, but it does not disappear on the screen for a long enough period of time so people are able to read it. Even a native English speaker is unable to read it. Why is it so? My opinion is that Bauerlein want to distract you with this text to emphasize his point above. The dynamic text reinforces the word distracted. And the words diverted, distracted and devoured reinforce each other because they all say the same. Seen it like this the two modes operate as a resource for each other.

The title “The Dumbest Generation” may be associated with another book called “The greatest generation” by Tom Brokaw, which is about men and women how fought under the World War II (Wikipedia).

The book cover displays the name of the book with an illustration. Bauerlein have used the word dumbest, not dumb or dumber, but the most extreme of these three. The est-ending helps to emphasize the word. And the words red colour helps intensifier its meaning. Because the red colour catches peoples attention, and it stands for hot, strong, violence and warfare (About.com). I like to think Bauerlein chose a red colour to create these feeling in people. To make them see and react to his book, to make them interested and provoked, so they starts to care about his concern.

The book covers illustration shows a group of robots holding an American flag. This picture looks a lot like the one from the World War II where six American men raise an American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima (Wikipedia).

It seems that Bauerlein plays with this connection because he means the connotation of the picture isn’t available or obvious to everyone. One of his points is that the youth’s don’t see this connection even if they have collage education, they can’t see the historically aspect. They only see the denotation that in this case may be robots or transformers waving a flag. My thoughts to this is that Bauerlein tries to reach out to the youth’s with something that is familiar to them like this illustration who may look like it’s taking out of a videogame.

In the books subtitle “How the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future” Bauerlein uses the verbs stupefies and jeopardizes too point out the title. Verbs are important because they give a sentence meaning, and they help us understand the sentence. Bauerlein describes in a way what he means by “The Dumbest Generation” in the subtitle, why they are “the dumbest generation”. At the end of the subtitle Bauerlein has put a star which is explained in an asterix. The asterix say “Or, don’t trust anyone under 30” and may be seen in connection with the “don’t trust anyone over 30” slogan from the 1960s and Jack Weinberg, a leader of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley (Bartleby.com). Yet another time Bauerlein refers to history. Again to point out that youth’s may not see this connotation. They only sees what’s there, not what’s underneath.

On the website’s home page they give you an idea of the books content. And they display some pictures of social network sites and games with an ironic comment. It also displays a link to buy the book.

In summary Bauerlein books website display its arguments through articles from news and media and reviews, written by him or others. It has the thesis that the digital generation is filled with ignorance. Bauerlein plays with a lot of metaphors too view his arguments. And in many of his arguments you find a disguised meaning. I feel the designers manages to give an idea of the book through the welcome and home site by showing the book cover and explain a little about the book. The articles and reviews also help to give an impression of the books content.

Words including references: 1328

List of references:
• The Dumbest Generation
• Example essays.com
• Don’t trust anyone under 30?
• Will generation Y be dumb or great?
• REPN TRI to the FULLEST!!!
• Pencils, schmencils, I need a laptop
• OMG! Experts says today’s kids are stupid
• Wikipedia – The greatest generation
• About.com
• Wikipedia – Raising the flag on Iwo Jima
• Bartleby.com
• Daniel Chandler, 2007: Semiotics: The Basics, 2nd edition
• Anne Cranny-Francis, 2005: Multimedia
• Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen, 2001: Multimodal Discourse

The Dumbest genereation?

This assignment is about analysing a website representing a book by Mark Bauerlein. The book is named :The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30). The name of the book almost speaks for itself , what it is about. . So in this paper i will try to analyse the site, this means the representation of his work , how the design and the signs in the site benefits the meaning of his book. For us to understand the underlying meanings of the way text and image is used , we need to know the signifier and what it signifies. A signifier is what we see, it can be a word or a image. For example a picture of the ocean. The picture can just be a picture of an ocean, but it can also have other meanings. An picture of an ocean can be associated with calmness ,  freedom and relaxation. This is what the picture signifies, it is an deeper association or meaning behind the picture than just a picture of the ocean. (Chandler, Daniel : 2007). The signifier can  have different meanings. We talk about denotation and connotation in that case. For example can a picture of a lion associate with courage, which then is the denotation . But a lion can be associated with Norway`s national arms where there is a picture of a lion, that will be the connotation of a sign. Because the association is based on cultural conditions or emotional condtition. (1)

At a first glance on the site, the site has a very simple structure and not to much use of colours. The colours is approximately white, black and red. The background is white, and the letters is black and red. There is a menu on the left side of the site, here you can find what the book is about There have been many reactions to Bauerleins book, and they are gathered here on this site, under articles or in the news.

The first page consist of the title of Bauerleins book is ” The dumbest generation” this is written in big letters on the site. It is written in black, but the word dumbest is written in red. This really draws the attention towards this word.  The letters are big and red in contrast to the other words in the title. So why have they put the word dumbest in red colour. Red can be associated with many things like love or danger. I believe that in this context red signifies danger. It is kind of a warning of the dumb generation who is gonna be in charge and run the country in a few years from now.

At nearly on the top of the site there is a some random facts that slides into the site, first with red then with black colour. It changes way to fast for one to read, so i don’t think that this is fact for us to read and to understand but more of a statement that the  ” the dumbest” generation” often get`s distracted. It can also mean that in this generation everything is up to speed. Everything must be done fast and in a hurry so there is just time to scratch the surface of facts and text. By that i mean just stroll fast through  the text to see i if there are any relevance for them to use. In the article ” Is stupid making us google” by James Bowman, he discuss the reading habits of this digital generation. They don`t read anything offline, and when they need to gather information or facts writing a paper they just use google. Rather than read the book about the topic, and then use their own word and their own thoughts to tell the information.  It means that they use google as a “second brain” , they don’t need to use our own anymore, because you can get information in seconds by searching on the Internet . Why bother to remember those “boring things” when Internet can provide them fast and easy.

In the middle of the text there is a figure,  there is some robots holding an amercian flag. The robots are transformers, and transformers are kid-toys robots who can shift to an sort of vehicle. Transformers were really popular some years ago, and there have also been a film making of these robots. And the position their in, is from the battle at Ivo Jima. Ivo jima is an island near Japan. In world war two, the Americans wanted to use the island for surveilling and attacking  Tokyo or Japan. The picture is from when they sat the flag down after conquering Ivo Jima (2). So the lines i can get out from this picture in the site is that the digital , dumbest generation is taking over America. This generation will someday run the country, and if they are the dumbest generation how will the society work. Like digital robots who only knows how to communicate over the Internet.

Earlier in this text i discussed that the red letters were som kind of a warning sign. At the bottom of Bauerlein site there is a black box, and inside it says ” *Or dont trust anyone under 30″. This box is really a parental advisory sticker, which is used to label cd`s who contains explicit content. Content like bad language or controversial songs. This book is quite controversial, it it categorizing a whole generation as dumb people who use google for almost anything and spend most of their time “socialising” on social networks like facebook or myspace. I bet that many people will find themselves offended by this book.

We get an idea what the book is about when we read the homepage at this webiste. It is a texst about what topic Bauerlein discusses in the book. That the technolgy that was supposed to help people , stupefies them instead. That the younger generation uses the Internet for social networking and online games, and not to improve their knowledge.

Bauerlein has written a really controversially book, and many people may think that he is right as well as wrong.There have always been a concern for a younger generation. For example the rebels back in the 60 – 70`s , i think that the older generation wondered what the world would be when the greew up. And i think it is the same the older generation this time, they se new technology as something scary and something they can quite understand , and then it is really easy to criticise it.  I will not say that Bauerlein is wrong, because he has some points. But there is a saying that says You must not treat all alike”,  and that goes for both generations. But i do think he is kind of dramatic in the conserns of the future, even though he puts it on the edge so people get more aware of the fact that technology can be stupifying when it is used for to much fun and to little learning.

Books
Daniel Chandler, The basics semiotics, Routledge 2007 second edition.

Internett
1.http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/conndeno.html
2.http://historicalresources.org/2008/09/15/ivo-jima-maps-february-19-1945%E2%80%93march-26-1945/
3. http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/is-stupid-making-us-google

Introduction:

Mark Bauerleins (2008a) book have generated a lot of controversy through the aspect that today’s youth are dumb and gets dumber by using the technology available for them. Bauerleins main point is that the technology that should have helped today’s teen’s had an rather different effect than what one should expect. To point this out, we’ll make an semiotic analysis of the website associated with the book (Bauerlein 2008b) which contains different material related to the book.

Semiotic analysis of the website: The Dumbest Generation

Mark Bauerleins new book, The Dumbest Generation have as mentioned earlier a webpage accompanied by the book, for supplementing reasons as extra material in form of interviews, articles and so on. First thing up in this analysis are the use of signs, the signifier and the signified, as defined in the Saussure’s model of the sign (Chandler 2002:14-28).

The first page we will analyze is the Welcome page, which is the first page you’ll see when browsing to this site. At the first glance of the page, you’ll be presented with a menu on the left, where you can navigate to different parts of the site. On the top we have the header, which states «The Dumbest Generation» and on the right we have the content. The content on the welcome page contains a string of text which can be arbitrary, an animated text compilation, and a big image that have the text: «The Dumbest Generation: how the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future (or, don’t trust anyone under 30)». (Bauerlein 2008c).

Now we have all the elements of the page laid out, and it’s time to evaluate them one by one. First runner up we have the navigation menu. It’s quite simple and have a boxed layout with grey text.

On the other hand, we have the headline, which states «The Dumbest Generation» with the color red. The use of the color red will arouse different feelings in people. «Studies show that red can have a physical effect, increasing the rate of respiration and raising blood pressure» (Bear 2009). With this in hand, we can see that the use of red might be a rhetorical move, in the way that it play’s with our emotions. «Flashing red lights denote danger or emergency. Stop signs and stop lights are red to get the drivers’ attention and alert them to the dangers of the intersection.» (Bear 2009). One could interpret this as a provocative move since it states that it’s the dumbest generation and play’s it out by using a color which, as stated earlier, arouse different emotions within every individual and can provide signals that there is a danger about the claim. The color red is also widely used for getting attention and prevent the message from disappering in the content as a whole. (Bear 2009).

We can also see another string of text, which represents a second headline that states «50 Million Minds Diverted, Distracted, Devoured». This text is in the color blue and Jacci Howard Bear defines this as «Blue is calming. It can be strong and steadfast or light and friendly. Almost everyone likes some shade of the color blue.» This applies a bit to irony, whereas the message is strong and contains an important statement it get’s buried by the use of the color blue. It is as Bear defined it calming, and it gives a calming effect on the statement.

The elements described now, are the static elements of the website. These elements are on every page and in the same form. Next up is the specific elements for the welcome and main pages. As explained earlier, the specific elements related to the welcome page are an animated text compilation and a «dumbest generation» image, which also is the cover image of the book.

Welcome page

Animated text compilation

The animated text, can represent different things for different people. In fact this animation of the text can be associated with games and advertisement, due to the change of color and size of the text from the start of the animation to the end. In the beginning of the animation the text’s size is big and fades down to a standard readable size and changes quickly from the color red to black. When Saussure’s model about signs are taking into concideration here, we can see different signs. The animation signifier can represent different signified’s as scrolling credits text in a movie or a game. The animated text compilation contains information about what the American youth have available, what they do in their sparetime, and what they don’t do, or won’t do. The way the animation is made, draws the attention to it, and makes it interesting for the viewer.

Image

As the next element for discussion is the main image on the welcome page. This image contains different elements. There are some robots rising a flag, a parody of cd’s explicit content warning sign and some text. The robots rising the flag is a ironic parody on the picture of the soldiers rising the american flag on Iwo Jima. By using this link to the World War II, it’s possible to say that the «the dumbest generation» statement can be a play with words, based on the book called «The Greatest Generation» by Tom Brokaw. A part of the text is also colored red, as mentioned earlier the color red can arouse different feelings within people and is often used as a way to get attention.
On the bottom of the image, we have the well known explicit content warning label for compact discs. The use of this warning label, in addition to the text in red («dumbest») causes a warning effect. That this issue is something one should address and take a closer look at. When we look at the image as a whole again, with the robots rising the flag and the warning signs. This tells us that the dumbest generation can or will not perform a simple task like rising the flag and need some help to accomplish it. With the explicit content sign and the red text in place, this also works as another sign in the image, which creates an effect of warning and fear, which on the other hand can be considered silly by others.

Home page

This page contains a short introduction to the book itself. It’s explained how this generation could be called the dumbest generation.There is two images on this page, and both of them have some arbitrary text which explains how this can be the dumbest generation. On the bottom of the text, there’s an paragraph headline that states «the not so greatest generation» in red. Which mentioned earlier kan have different effects on people. This headline also connects to the content of the paragraph, which states that some might think this is only a tradtion to think like this, but in reality there are studies proving the dumbness of this generation.

Summary

This page contains different way’s of promoting it’s content. There are many parodies and much irony. The use of the color red in specific places and by the use of well known sign’s, show how this generation may be the dumbest.

Words: 1298.

Sources:

1. Bear, J.H. 2009. Color Meanings – Explore Palettes and Symbolism – Color Meaning and Colors That Go Together. About.com. http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/color/a/symbolism.htm [Downloaded 27^th february 2009]

2. Bauerlein, M. 2008a. The dumbest generation : how the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future ; (or, don’t trust anyone under 30). New York : Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin

3. Bauerlein, M. 2008b. Dumbest Generation. http://www.dumbestgeneration.com/ [Downloaded 27^th February 2009]

4. Brokaw, T. 1998. The greatest generation. New York : Random House

5. Chandler, D. 2002. Semiotics: The Basics. London New York : Routledge

In this assignment we were to collect the different sites that all the students had made, and make it easier for users to find the information they needed.
start-thomas.html

I did this by browsing through the different sites made, and found the similarities between the different sites. This made me group the sites into 5 categories;
– Studentsenteret
– Upihl
– HF-bygget
– SV-bygget
– Diverse

I needed a Diverse-group to limit the number of categories. Some of the sites had a theme that would not easily fit into the other categories i had made.

Å laga ei samleside

Vibeke, Marchus og eg lagde denne sida. Me fekk mykje hjelp av Regine, som lagde ei eiga side etter same arkitekturprinsipp. At dei norske bokstavane ikkje verkar kjem ikkje av feilkoding, der var det ein tenar som sleit.

Fredag såg sida slik ut:

(sjå, no kan eg print screen!)

Sida sin arkitektur er valt ut frå våre evner til koding, og av omsyn til brukaren. Me valde å samla lenkjene i enkle undergrupper som ville verka meiningsfulle også for personar som ikkje kjenner til området frå før. “Mat” og “bygningar” forstår dei fleste, medan “Sydneshaugen” og “Ulrikke Pihl” utan annan informasjon ikkje er like sjølvforklarande.

Det vart skrive fleire individuelle sider om nokre av bygningane/stadene i guiden. Me har valt å lenkja til eit utval av desse, men tenkjer oss at ei seinare organisering av sidene kunne hatt fleire nivå – slik at om ein trykkjer seg vidare til HF-biblioteket, kjem ein til ei samleside for alle sidene som er laga om biblioteket.

Hadde tid og evner strekt til ville me truleg nytta bilete for lenkjene på samlesida òg. Det hadde jo til dømes vore fint for vitjarar som kjenner til bygningen sin utsjånad men ikkje namnet. (No skal ein ikkje sjå aldeles vekk frå at dette enno kan skje. Helga er enno ung.*)

Referansar til pensumlitteraturen var det litt verre med, kjenner eg. (Kan det vera noko i den boka biblioteket ikkje har fått tak i enno, skal tru?) Men me har iallefall ikkje kategorisert slik.

Sida er enno under arbeid og vil venteleg sjå noko betre ut på måndag. Den noverande utsjånaden (og den noko ustabile kjeldekoden bak) tek underteikna alt ansvar for.

(*det lagde seg masse turre vitsar ut frå denne setninga. orsak!)

eg lurte på kva i alle dagar han dreiv med,

denne mannen som ser ut til å eiga alt eg har av pensumlitteratur i vår. i tre relativt sjølvstendige fag. hadde eg visst betre kring 15. januar hadde eg investert i ei bok som utelukkande tok føre seg Halliday sine teoriar, og spart intenst mykje peng på å sluppe å kjøpa resten av pensum. Halliday sitt pensummonopol har gitt meg mykje gratis samtlege tre fag, så eg skal jo ikkje klaga heller.

det var ein avstikkar, for eg skulle jo finna ut kva han dreiv med. nettet kunne melda at han var ein lingvist, frå england og australia, som hadde studert kinesisk i lange tider.  han utvikla den systemisk funksjonelle lingvistikken. det er stort sett denne lingvistikken hans som tar aldeles av oppe på HF om dagen, og infiltrerar dei andre språkteoriane me har brukt aldri så lang tid på å læra inn. orda er ikkje setningsledd lenger, no er dei funksjonar, eller vent no litt, ein kan framleis bruka setningsleddnamna på dei, berre ein er medviten på at dei samstundes har funksjonar, og forresten heiter det ikkje setning heller, men prosess, eventuelt kallar me berre verbet prosess og resten noko anna, for det kan vera masse prosessar i ein setning, delsetningar heitte det før, men det må de ikkje skriva på eksamen, då vert funksjonane lei seg. dette må de ikkje ta for god fisk, for den mest Hallidayske pensumboka driv og blandar inn ein del andre – også dei aldeles nye – teoriar i Halliday si tenking. det går stort sett i andre namn (termar!) på ting me kjenner frå før. men altså, i denne pensumboka, to nye termar for kvar gamle term.

denne lettbeinte tilnærminga til teorien hans var eigentleg ein grov avstikkar frå poenget. poenget er eigentleg:
han var lingvist altså? kva gjev du meg? eg må innrømma at eg venta meg noko litt sjukare enn det. iallefall ei lengre utgreiing om korleis han kom fram til teorien sin (som visstnok skal høva best for ikkje-indoeuropeiske språk). kanskje noko om den halvkriminelle framgangsmåten han truleg nytta for å få teorien sin til å verta einerådande i pensumlitteraturen. men Halliday var berre snill og grei, han. det sjukaste eg kunne finna var at han studerte i kina i nokre år. tekstane er omlag slik: “Halliday studerte kinesisk. så studerte han lingvistikk. så fekk han jobb. så fann han på den systemisk funksjonelle lingvistikk-teorien. så jobba han litt meir.”

det er jo gildt å vita at ein kan vera snill og grei samstundes som ein finn på sjukt heftige lingvistiske teoriar.

eg laga dei obligatoriske lenkjene mine heilt åleine

det er omstenda kring dette som er vanskelege altså. å koma seg inn på datarommet (kortet verka). å gå attende i tankane og freista å hugsa korleis ein logga seg inn på hoguslg og secure shell. å finna ut kva som er gale når lenkjene ikkje verkar på fyrste, andre, tredje, fjerde og femte freistnad. (då las eg meg fram til korleis det skulle gjerast i kjeldekoden til dei andre studentsidene. effektiv sniking. men eg meiner at eg gjorde det riktig fyrste gong då, ikkje godt å seia kva som hende der.) det var forresten direkte utruleg at datarommet var ledig. nett so da sko’ vå telaga.

i førelesinga idag fekk vi høyra at fargen gult representerer sjukdom og daude. der fall det nokre brikker på plass! til dømes forklarar dette rimeleg greit kvifor eg er ei katastrofe i blodbanken. det er sjølvsagt veggjene i blodgjevarrommet si skuld. meir dyster gulfarge skal du leita lenge etter, den er omlag slik:

bør dette kombinerast med blod? nei. bør det inngå i fargekartet på eit sjukehus i det heile? truleg ikkje.
men eg døydde ikkje, eg sit jo her og skriv. (no har eg mist markøren, det var ilt irriterande) ikkje mista eg synet heller, ikkje ein gong fargesynet (diverre, det hadde eg jo kanskje vore tent med, m.o.t. veggjene), slik eg plar i liknande situasjonar.

…men eg oppmodar til å gje blod då! (opp alle jordas fargeblinde) også oppmodar eg blodbanken til å måla om, samt å setja inn vindauge. og nokre skiljeveggjer.

takk til: paint, for utlån av umotiverande farge.

I came across this article I enjoyed, which might also be related to what were studying at HUIN105.

http://justcreativedesign.com/2009/01/28/who-needs-skills-we-have-software/

På seminaret i dag (fredag 23.01.09) diskuterte vi noe av det Jakob Nielsen har skrevet om det å lese websider. Her er  Jakob Nielsens side hvis du vil lese hva han har skrevet selv

Jakob Nielsen nevner at folk ikke leser web sider ord for ord, men at de skanner sidene. Det er var gruppen enig i. Jeg gjør det ihvertfall ofte selv, særlig hvis jeg søker etter en spesiell ting vil jeg bare lese overskrifter og deloverskrifter for å se om jeg finner noe som høres interessant ut i forhold til det jeg leter etter.
Det samme skjer når jeg leser aviser. Jeg leser overskriftene, og undertitlene og klikker meg inn på det som virker interessant.

Videre nevner han at linker kan bygge opp troverdigheten til en side. Hvis en side nevner noe fakta og har mange linker til forskjellige sider som mener det samme synes gruppen det hjelper på troverdigheten. Men hvis en side bare har masse linker til andre sider som relavante iforhold til den siden mener vi at det ikke utgjør noe forskjell for troverdigheten. Så det kommer ann på hva siden handler om og hva linkene handler om.

HUIN105 uses Facebook as a way to reach the students.
I think its a good idea to use Facebook as an addition to the ususal way of students communicating.

I am one of few who doesn’t use Facebook at all. And as a student studying Information science some might find it odd that I have no profile at Facebook.
The reason for my skepticism against Facebook is because i doubt the safety of the information that is stored there. I have often read about how easy it is to access others useraccounts. And as Facebook evolves, more and more intricate data might be stored about people. Thats why i took a stand and said that I wouldn’t use Facebook anymore(Yes, i had an account once…), although I miss it sometimes.
That is also why I think that Facebook should only be used as an addition to the usual form of communication, and not as a primary or single solution.

I chose HUIN105 because I have some experience with webdesign from before and I would like to delvelope my skills further on.

Out of the few options i considered, this course stood out as the only one that really interested me.

I seminartimen igår diskuterte me Jacob Nielsen sin tekst.

Poenget i teksten er at lesarar av nettsider ikkje les teksten ord for ord, men scannar den etter interessant informasjon. Dette må ein ha i bakhovudet når ein skriv tekstar for nettet,  og tilpassa tilpassa teksten scanninga ved å disponera den slik at den er lett å scanne. Jacob Nielsen sine tips er å nytta:

• highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others)
• meaningful sub-headings (not “clever” ones)
• bulleted lists
• one idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)
• the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion
• half the word count (or less) than conventional writing

Eg meiner: Eg veit ikkje om eg tykkjer han kjem med revolusjonerande nyhende her – men så er jo teksten frå 1997 og, då. Dei same tipsa lærte me for skriving av avistekster òg..

Ein kan òg spørja seg om han sjølv tok omsyn til funna i si eiga undersøkjing då han valde å smetta inn den utruleg keisame tabellen nedst i teksten. Som attpå ikkje er særskilt forståeleg (korleis kjem ein fram til 124%?). (Truleg var det eit medvite val då, ut frå den snudde pyramide-stilen – han hadde allereie presentert poenget, og det var ikkje så farleg om lesarane ikkje ville lesa tabellen òg.)

mine favorittar frå universitetsområdet:

marianne, med si russiske pensumbok.
dei hadde lært bokstaven k idag, trur eg.

mitt kjærkomne returpunkt frå dei farne tider då eg budde i allégaten.
og nokon har rydda kring det!

eg kan lika trappa i boktårnet til HF-biblioteket. det luktar veldig godt her…

…og så har einkvan hengt opp livssoga til amalie skram mellom 1. og 2. etasje!
(einkvan har diverre ikkje bytt ljospære, det er difor det ser ut som biletet er teke i eit symjebasseng)

eg kan godt lika johanneskyrkja òg. og utsikta ned til sentrum.

eg har eit hat/elsk-forhold til denne klokka.
den var på sitt verste då eg hadde tyngre tysk grammatikk vis-à-vis.

Her er litt bilder fra min tur rundt på universitetsområde:)

Huin105 går ut på webdesign og webestetikk.  Har hatt et fag som kalles interaksjons design tidligere , hvor man også hadde fokus på funksjonalitet og design av websider eller andre interaktive oppfinnelser som f.eks fjernkontrollen.  Mens dette faget tar for seg det estetiske og visuelle utrykksformer i webdesign.  Huin105 virket derfor intressant i forhold til det jeg har hatt tidligere. Det at faget også innebærer en del praktiske oppgaver teller også en del for valget av dette faget.

Som en del av faget Huin105 har vi fått i oppgava og lage en blogg.  Blogging har ikke vært min sterkeste side før,  det vil si  jeg har ikke blogget noe før .  Grunnen til dette er at jeg har ikke hatt noe behov for å blogge.  Men nå er det altså skjedd Tonje har fått sin egen blogg!  Jeg er kjent med fenomenet blogging før og har vel kanskje vært innom en eller aen blogg i min surfetid på nettet.  For eksempel der folk jeg kjenner har vært ute og reist og i den forbindelse laget blogg for å kunne se hva som skjer, det kan være litt kjekt og følge med på.  Når blogg blir brukt på den måten syns jeg ideen om blogging er greit, og når man kan diskutere om hobbyer og slikt.  Men føler kanskje det er mye useriøse blogger med mye fjas også ute og går, og det er vel derfor jeg ikke har begitt meg utpå denne bloggingen før.

kvifor eg valde å ta huin105. her kan eg lett gå på ein smell av typen “få sparken frå jobben grunna noko eg skreiv på bloggen” (“verta kasta ut frå uni”-versjonen). nuvel. greia er at eg går på bachelorprogram i språk og informasjon, med spesialisering i tysk. sidan dette er eit program er dei fleste faga bestemt frå byrjinga av, og eitt av desse faga synte seg å vera huin102, som (- no kjem det bitre -) ikkje har noko særskilt relevans for språk og informasjonsstudentane. knapt eit touch av relevans i det heile, faktisk. unnateke tekstkoding, som nokre av oss kom borti i praktisk informasjonsarbeid. (- no sluttar det bitre – ) det er då det syner seg at nokre av mine medstudentar tok huin105 som valemne våren 08 (- me andre valte i same tidsrom å fokusera på spesialiseringsspråket sidan det strengt nok framleis fanst hol å tetta – ) og oppfatta dette som meir relevant for språk og informasjon sidan det var mykje meir praktisk enn huin102. så – då vil jo eg òg, endå eg ikkje har tid eller noko (bachelorprogrammet stiller sterkt med to obligatoriske emne i vår). men eg prøver.

og – her er grunnen til at eg ikkje deltok i undervisninga førre veke. ein noko impulsiv (studie-)tur til berlin:

helene bommar skikkeleg i sin freistnad på å lyfta brandenburger tor

odin og janne drikk verdas beste grøne chai latte på caféen med verdas suraste service

under alexanderplatz

framleis under alexanderplatz og nokre truleg utilsikta rykningar

No skal eg ta stilling til kva eg tykkjer om at huin105 har si eiga Facebook-gruppe, om korleis universitet bør nytta Facebook, og om verksemder bør ta Facebook i bruk i sin nettstrategi. (Omlag slik, for eg er ikkje så god i engelsk i utgangspunktet, og har i tillegg nytta to timar i dag til tyskoversetjing.)

Her er mi synsing. Eg er ikkje noko fjesbokfan frå før av, endå eg har profil. Eg er det klassiske dømet på ein fjesbokbrukar som følgde straumen dit fordi all kommunikasjonen mellom vener og kjente plutseleg skulle gå føre seg der. (Kommunikasjonen har heldigvis seinare gått noko tilbake til før-fjesboklege kanalar) At det no finnast ei huin-gruppe på fjesboka er forsåvidt greit, endå det ville vore meir naturleg om dette var noko studentskapt – så vidt eg veit er det lærarane som har oppretta gruppa? Eg tykkjer ikkje universiteta treng nytta Facebook i det heile, me har allereie informasjonskanalar nok, som studentportalen og fagbloggen. Om det vert naudsynt å sjekka fjesboka også, vert det eit ekstra stressmoment. Men eg reknar med at dersom Facebook skal nyttast i universitetssamanheng vil det vera for særs uformelle meldingar og slikt.

Det med verksemder og organisjonar veit eg ikkje heilt om eg forstod heilt, kanskje de snakka om det i undervisninga førre veke? Eg tykkjer Facebook er for useriøst slik det er i dag til å kunna takast effektivt i bruk av verksemder. Dette er likevel meir grunna at Facebook verkar så useriøst, enn fordi teknikken ikkje ville innfridd verksemdene si trong. For organisasjonar fungerar det sikkert betre. (Alle organisasjonar eg er tilknytt er på Facebook iallefall)

“Have you ever blogged before? Do you read blogs? Link to some blogs or other websites you enjoy. Do you like the idea of blogging?”

Eg har blogga tidlegare, og i skrivande stund har eg høve til å bidra til tre bloggar. Min første blogg er ein felles veneblogg som “gjengen” heimefrå oppretta for å kunne halda kontakten då me flytte til ulike kantar av landet etter vidaregåande. Denne bloggen, kaaten, er framleis oppegåande, men sjølvsagt ekstremt intern. Like intern er portvinsbloggen, konsept og blogg utvikla saman med Ane. (Portvin- og kaaten-bloggane kan de finna i vevlogg-oversikta til høgre.) Denne bloggen, nerdebloggen, er den einaste bloggen som berre er min. (I den grad ein kan krevja eigarskap til noko på nettet, då.) Nerdebloggen vart oppretta i samband med faget huin102, som eg tok i fjor haust. Eg likte så godt å blogga at eg byrja å blogga utanomfagleg, og heldt fram med blogginga etter eg var ferdig med faget.

Eg likar å lesa andre bloggar. Eg les mest bloggar til folk eg kjenner, då eg tok huin102 følgde eg òg med på bloggane til medstudentar for å vera mest mogeleg oppdatert, og å få andre sine innfallsvinklar på faget. Diverre var me ikkje så mange som følgde opp blogginga,  så så veldig mange vinklar vart det ikkje.

Her er to sider som er ei vitjing verd:  Mariell sin vakre fotoblogg. Ho har eit prosjekt gåande som de gjerne kan vera med på om de vil! (ho gjer PostSecret på norsk, for dei som kjenner til dette.) Eg likar òg tjuvlyssnat, ein blogg der folk skriv inn overhøyrde samtalar. Denne bloggen er svensk, det finnast ein norsk versjon òg, men den tok aldri heilt av. Eg reknar med det finst mykje slikt på engelsk òg.

Eg likar blogging, truleg særskilt fordi bloggar er dynamiske. I motsetnad til personlege nettsider gjev dei høve til meir aktivitet og innspel frå andre enn sida sin eigar. Dei er meir levande.

Kristian sitt bilde var kjempe fint, han er en god fotograf!

Her er linken til Kristian sitt flotte bilde:
Krisitan’s blogg