The Room to Dream Foundation teamed up with Lynda Onthank, Owner and Principal of Onthank Designs, and completed their most recent project. The project was to renovate a converted porch that was in poor condition to accommodate Jonathan, a four year old boy who cannot walk or talk and has global development issues. With the assistance of Interior Design Students from local colleges, the room was completely refurnished with new wallboards, hardwood floor, TV’s, ceiling track lighting, and fans. The new room was also divided into two areas, Jonathan’s bedroom and a play area. At the request of Jonathan’s mother, a love seat that converts to a bed was installed so she could monitor him when he is sick. Also, the TV’s were installed so Jonathan can watch them from his bed when he’s resting. A divider wall was also built to store various medical equipment that is needed to take care of Jonathan.
The Room to Dream Foundation is a Boston-based not-for-profit organization whose mission is to create healing environments for children who are facing chronic illnesses. As they recuperate and recover, the hope is that their renovated spaces will improve their quality of life, promote strength, imagination, self-worth, and aid in their recovery processes. The foundation typically undertakes 6 to 8 projects a year relying on donations and volunteer work, and the response to its most recent one was as positive as ever.
“We do not know how to begin to thank you for your time, dedication and creative talent,” proclaimed Jonathans’ mother. “Jonathan’s room is absolutely amazing! We feel blessed to have been selected for such a special project. Jonathan is settling in and the whole family is enjoying the space! Please stop by any time you are in the area. We miss you.”
Onthank Designs is a full service interior design firm with over 20 years of experience designing both residential and commercial properties throughout New England. The firm has a reputation for stylish and elegant designs catered to the specific preferences and budgetary concerns of each individual client. Lynda Onthank’s passion and commitment to creating a successful design team (client, designer, architect and contractors) along with her unwavering code of ethics has earned her the respect of both customers and peers alike. She has provided her insights and creative passion to the firms’ clients all over the nation ranging from small to large scale commercial hotel and hospitality projects.
For more information on Onthank Designs, call 508-653-6506, or visit http://www.onthankdesigns.com. To learn more about The Room to Dream Foundation visit www.roomtodreamfoundation.org. Press inquiries; please contact Joanne DiFrancesco, JDCommunications, Inc., 781-828-0323, or visit the company website at www.jdcomm.biz.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Mashable
Facebook's social plug-ins are now on over 100,00 websites. This is pretty incredible when you consider the problems with privacy that the social networking site has been having recently. According to the article, some of the sites that have adopted these plug-ins are recieving big gains in traffic. This reinforces what we have been discussing in class all year: social networking is becoming more dominant than broadcast networking. In other words, the mass public is more powerful when it comes to knowledge than the experts who can talk on a TV show or broadcast. Facebook's path to "web domination" seems to be on track, especially with the traffic numbers websites are generating because of the new plug-ins.
The other article dealt with how Twitter could replace the mainstream meadia when it comes to opinion polls. Researchers looked at the sentiments expressed in one billion tweets and filtered them according to the economy and politics. This is huge when it comes to information gathering from the masses. Twitter will eventaully be a huge resource when it comes to political elections and campaigning. One can only imagine what the future of information flow will be with advancements and innovations happening everyday on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The other article dealt with how Twitter could replace the mainstream meadia when it comes to opinion polls. Researchers looked at the sentiments expressed in one billion tweets and filtered them according to the economy and politics. This is huge when it comes to information gathering from the masses. Twitter will eventaully be a huge resource when it comes to political elections and campaigning. One can only imagine what the future of information flow will be with advancements and innovations happening everyday on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Friday, May 7, 2010
The Flow of Information Through Social Media
The way information is passed among individuals has been evolving since the beginning of civilization. When language was invented, information was passed orally. From there, written language was created and that was a means of retrieving and recording information. Over the centuries, different technological inventions and innovations have made information even easier to access. In our current state, social media like Facebook and Twitter is a very powerful arena for the flow of information.
In her article, Danah Boyd discusses how broadcasted media was the predominant form of constructed knowledge, but it is now being surpassed by networked media. This theory can be backed up by the discussion we had in class about the Phillies fan who was tasered. Millions of people saw the video and knew about the story because of social networking. By the time the story was broadcasted on ESPN, it seemed that everyone already knew about it, thus backing up the fact that information through networking is more convenient than information through broadcasted media.
The Phillies-fan-taser video also supports Boyd's article because she says the internet is dismantling traditional forms of distribution. I personally saw the video on Google Video, then about 2 hours later saw it on SportsCenter, and by that time it was old news to me. Distribution innovations through new media has been a common theme in the our class for the whole semester, and there seems to be an unlimited amount of channels for distribution with websites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, etc...
In conclusion, Social Media is completely changing the way information is dstributed. As Boyd says, the common man is now holding power to distribute media through the networking landscape of the internet. Although people are just learning of this power, it will keep growing and eventually everything will be linked together. It truly is the Information Age.
In her article, Danah Boyd discusses how broadcasted media was the predominant form of constructed knowledge, but it is now being surpassed by networked media. This theory can be backed up by the discussion we had in class about the Phillies fan who was tasered. Millions of people saw the video and knew about the story because of social networking. By the time the story was broadcasted on ESPN, it seemed that everyone already knew about it, thus backing up the fact that information through networking is more convenient than information through broadcasted media.
The Phillies-fan-taser video also supports Boyd's article because she says the internet is dismantling traditional forms of distribution. I personally saw the video on Google Video, then about 2 hours later saw it on SportsCenter, and by that time it was old news to me. Distribution innovations through new media has been a common theme in the our class for the whole semester, and there seems to be an unlimited amount of channels for distribution with websites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, etc...
In conclusion, Social Media is completely changing the way information is dstributed. As Boyd says, the common man is now holding power to distribute media through the networking landscape of the internet. Although people are just learning of this power, it will keep growing and eventually everything will be linked together. It truly is the Information Age.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Machine
Vannevar Bush's historic paper, "As We May Think," gives a vision of the future of new media that is very interesting. One thing I found is that he was pretty accurate in his predictions, even if they weren't exact. For example, at the time Bush wrote the article, all photographs that were taken had to be wet, whether at the time of exposure or during the development stages. He predicted that eventually a new media would be introduced that allowed dry photography. This is basically what digital photography is. Anyone can use their phone and take a picture, then "develope" the photos by uploading them on a site like Facebook or Flickr.
This idea of new media making things much easier is similar to Kevin Kelly's ideas in the next 5000 days of the internet. Kelly says that the internet will be more personalized, and everything will be linked together. Therefore you don't have to tell different netorwks who all your friends are, the internet will already know. The downside of this would be that you will have to be willing to give your personal information to the internet. This is another area of the the future of new media that both articles agreed on.
In Bush's article, he stated that all of the new sciences and technologies will start out being used by scientists first. Eventually, these new technologies will spread and be manipulated by the mass public. This is similar to Kelly's assumption that the internet being linked and personalized will start out with a smaller number of users, then spread to everyone. As often discuss in class, having this "web presence" will be an integral part of humanity in the next 5000 days of the internet.
The main difference of the articles was the effects that new media is going to have on everyones minds. Bush says that new media is going to expand everyones mind, giving them more knowledge. The way I interpreted Kevin Kelly's lecture, he felt the opposite. By having everything done on the internet, people are going to become more transparent. Everything is going to become automated, and rather than providing the knowledge of how to actually do activities. In other words, if the internet ever went down, it would shut down society, which is exactly the opposite outcome of the original purpose for DARPA creating the internet.
This idea of new media making things much easier is similar to Kevin Kelly's ideas in the next 5000 days of the internet. Kelly says that the internet will be more personalized, and everything will be linked together. Therefore you don't have to tell different netorwks who all your friends are, the internet will already know. The downside of this would be that you will have to be willing to give your personal information to the internet. This is another area of the the future of new media that both articles agreed on.
In Bush's article, he stated that all of the new sciences and technologies will start out being used by scientists first. Eventually, these new technologies will spread and be manipulated by the mass public. This is similar to Kelly's assumption that the internet being linked and personalized will start out with a smaller number of users, then spread to everyone. As often discuss in class, having this "web presence" will be an integral part of humanity in the next 5000 days of the internet.
The main difference of the articles was the effects that new media is going to have on everyones minds. Bush says that new media is going to expand everyones mind, giving them more knowledge. The way I interpreted Kevin Kelly's lecture, he felt the opposite. By having everything done on the internet, people are going to become more transparent. Everything is going to become automated, and rather than providing the knowledge of how to actually do activities. In other words, if the internet ever went down, it would shut down society, which is exactly the opposite outcome of the original purpose for DARPA creating the internet.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
New Media and Education
Education has been utilizing technologies since its orgins, and without technology it could not exist. The earliest forms of technology are language, reading and writing, and these are the basis of education. As Martin Ryder stated, the leading technologies have "defined its very nature." This is absolutely true, and with the rapid developement of new media technologies, the education system is feeling a strong impact.
One way that education is feeling new medias impact, as stated in "The Stuff of New Literacy's article, is how old tasks are being pursued in new ways. "Tech savvy" people are leading the way in this evolution. For example, Amazon's Kindle is a software and hardware platform that displays e-books and other types of media. With the introduction of this in the classroom, the task of reading a book or doing research can be done at a students desk on their laptop, iPhone, BlackBerry, etc... The argument of educational tasks being pursued in new ways from the "Stuff" article is also reinforced in Lankshear and Knobel's article.
In that article, they talk about web 2.0 and the introduction of blogging. They discuss the simplification of blogging, and how a mass new generation of bloggers has stormed the internet. Our New Media class is a perfect example of this, and as I am typing this sentence in my blog, I am proving that old tasks are becoming increasingly easy with the introduction of new media technologies.
One problem with new media in the classroom is the possibilty for technological errors. However, the use of other new media technologies can be the solution to these "bugs." In Dr. Vanslyke-Brigg's lecture, she talked about how one of her new media platforms that her class utilized bgan to malfunction. There was no worry though, because she used her cell phone to contact an IT person, and used a peer-to-peer website for more suggestions on how to fix the problem. Between these two sources, it only took her class minutes to troubleshoot.
Another problem that Dr Vanslyke-Briggs discussed was how the internet can have false websites, like the one that described the "Tree Octopus." This problem can be solved by filtering the internet, which is a problem that has been discussed on my blog numerous times, but can be easily avoided with reputable sources. Eventually, I believe it will be easier for students to filter the internet.
To conclude, new media is impacting education in several ways. From troubleshooting to how we retrieve our educations, it is evolving the way educational tasks are pursued everyday. As more and more classes are implementing new media like Kindle and blogging, it is not hard to imagine a classroom with a computer at every desk.
One way that education is feeling new medias impact, as stated in "The Stuff of New Literacy's article, is how old tasks are being pursued in new ways. "Tech savvy" people are leading the way in this evolution. For example, Amazon's Kindle is a software and hardware platform that displays e-books and other types of media. With the introduction of this in the classroom, the task of reading a book or doing research can be done at a students desk on their laptop, iPhone, BlackBerry, etc... The argument of educational tasks being pursued in new ways from the "Stuff" article is also reinforced in Lankshear and Knobel's article.
In that article, they talk about web 2.0 and the introduction of blogging. They discuss the simplification of blogging, and how a mass new generation of bloggers has stormed the internet. Our New Media class is a perfect example of this, and as I am typing this sentence in my blog, I am proving that old tasks are becoming increasingly easy with the introduction of new media technologies.
One problem with new media in the classroom is the possibilty for technological errors. However, the use of other new media technologies can be the solution to these "bugs." In Dr. Vanslyke-Brigg's lecture, she talked about how one of her new media platforms that her class utilized bgan to malfunction. There was no worry though, because she used her cell phone to contact an IT person, and used a peer-to-peer website for more suggestions on how to fix the problem. Between these two sources, it only took her class minutes to troubleshoot.
Another problem that Dr Vanslyke-Briggs discussed was how the internet can have false websites, like the one that described the "Tree Octopus." This problem can be solved by filtering the internet, which is a problem that has been discussed on my blog numerous times, but can be easily avoided with reputable sources. Eventually, I believe it will be easier for students to filter the internet.
To conclude, new media is impacting education in several ways. From troubleshooting to how we retrieve our educations, it is evolving the way educational tasks are pursued everyday. As more and more classes are implementing new media like Kindle and blogging, it is not hard to imagine a classroom with a computer at every desk.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Music in the Age of Social Media
Music has always been one of the most important forms of media. As technology advances with new forms of media, the face of the music industry is changing dramatically. In Joe Pignato's lecture, he talked about how the classic model for the record industry is becoming obsolete, and the music industry is now becoming a distribution industry as opposed to an ownership industry. The convergance of technologies, including the open source of the internet, is allowing consumers to get access to all the music they want with a couple clicks of their mouse.
If the music industry is to survive this onslaught of new media, I believe they have to follow the Spigot Model, just as Pignato mentioned. This model involves the consumer purchasing a subscription from a provider for some type of internet service, and through micropayment surcharges the downloading of music becomes "free" consumption for the user. This model will work because it will seem to be "free", and thus far new media's main impact on the music industry has been the illegal downloading that really made music free.
In conclusion, I believe that the initail impact of new media on the music industry was negative, and it caused music companies to loose money because of illegal downloading. Now, the industry is adapting, and eventually it will be alright. With media like iTunes and Pandora, the music industry is taking the first steps to saving itself, and eventually I believe the Spigot Model will be the ultimate savior of music.
If the music industry is to survive this onslaught of new media, I believe they have to follow the Spigot Model, just as Pignato mentioned. This model involves the consumer purchasing a subscription from a provider for some type of internet service, and through micropayment surcharges the downloading of music becomes "free" consumption for the user. This model will work because it will seem to be "free", and thus far new media's main impact on the music industry has been the illegal downloading that really made music free.
In conclusion, I believe that the initail impact of new media on the music industry was negative, and it caused music companies to loose money because of illegal downloading. Now, the industry is adapting, and eventually it will be alright. With media like iTunes and Pandora, the music industry is taking the first steps to saving itself, and eventually I believe the Spigot Model will be the ultimate savior of music.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Is the news dead?
With the creation and innovations of technology these days, and especially the internet, many people wonder if traditional news is dead. I don't think the news is dead, but people just have to modify the way they gather it. If anything, the news is more alive than ever, and different social media technologies just give you more access to news. And even with these new medias, traditional news outlets like newspapers still have their own benefits.
One thing about older forms of news that give it an advantage, as Sam Pollack said, is the credibility. When a person wants to know the truth, they can count on a newspaper to be a reputable source. If there ever is a wrong fact printed in a paper, like the New York Times incident, the repercussions are very severe. With the internet, there are almost an unlimited amount of rumors published everyday, on both news websites and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. This problem was discussed my Mark Little in his video, when he talked about filtering being a major part of internet news gathering.
In conclusion, I do not believe the news is dead, it's just getting a makeover from new media technologies. Eventually, I hope someone develops an easy way to filter the garbage on the internet so it can have the credibility of a traditional news source, like The Daily Star. By merging the values of traditional news with the convenience and up-to-date access of new media technologies, I believe the news will be more alive than ever.
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