Onthank Designs Completes Project for The Room to Dream Foundation

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Participatory Movement

Back when the internet was in its infancy, and even as recent as a few years ago, the sites were mainly used to go to retrieve information. Nowadays, the internet is mainly used for participation and creation. As Boyd says, we live in a stream on the internet, and we "add to it, consume it and redirect it." This statement is totally true, and one can easily use Twitter as a perfect example. People can use Twitter and participate by following people that are experts in the fields they want to excel at in life. At the same time, the experts are creating micro-blogs that give this valuable information to the followers who are participating.

This new participatory movement is revolutionizing the way people interact, and even how kids learn. As Jenkins said in his lecture, the participating and creating on internet sites actually enhance ones ability to think critically when it comes to reading and writing. Students can look up any information at there own convenience and critique what they learn themselves.

In conclusion, the participatory movement is changing the way everyones lives their lives. Both Boyd and Jenkins comment on how it keeps getting easier to become a part of this participating and creating phenomenon. Anyone can buy a cellphone with a camera and hook it up to a computer to upload a video on Youtube, thus creating a form of new media.

Frankenstein and Humanity

The 1931 film adaptation of Frankenstein was a good attempt at horror if you consider the time period it was made. However, it is 2010, so now the movie can be looked at comically based on the production. For example, a scene at the beginning of the film has Fritz climbing a gallows pole to cut down a hangman. When it is time for him to jump down, the film cuts to Henry and you hear Fritz yell, "I'm coming down," then he suddenly appears. This scene generated a lot of laughter from the audience because it was so simple and corny.

Another problem was the censorship imposed on films during this time period. They were not allowed to show a lot of violence because of the production code of 1934. It is surprising that a scene was included where the creature throws the little girl into the lake where she drowns. Even by todays standards that scene would cause controversy. If you can look past the time period the film was made and the comical production value, the film actually conveys a very powerful message about life and death and what it means to be human.

The themes of what makes us human is important in the film. The characters fail to recognize the humanity of the creature several times. This ultimately leads to the creature going rogue and killing innocent people, before he is eventually killed as well. There are certain qualities that make us human, like being self aware and making choices instead of acting on instinct. Humans are given choices in life and can become any type of person they want, whereas animals are born with instincts that help them survive. Human beings also have morals, and we know that some things are wrong, like murder. The creature in Frankenstein possesses a lot of human qualities, but also lacks some. One example is when he throws the little girl in the water and kills her. It is obviously inhumane to do that, and it makes him look like a monster instead of a human. After he does it, he clearly shows remorse, which is indeed a human characteristic.

Overall, he creature in Frankenstein is more of a defective human. It is hard to classify him as strictly a monster or strictly a human. If the creature was nurtured more when it was first brought to life, it might have learned to control his anger. The fact that he had a defective brain probaly made it so he didn't know how to act under stress, so he just eliminated the source of the stress. In the case of Frankenstein, the source of his stress was the people who failed to recognize the human qualities in him, and called him a monster.

The Consequences of Technology

The articles written by McConnel and Healy, as well as Baudrilliard's theory on Simulacra and Simulation, all convey common themes in regard to technology and its consequences. They basically say that the inventor of a certain technology is incapable of seeing the undesired and negative consequences of the aformentioned technology.

I agree with these authors in that aspect of their theories. Healy mentions the Internet and cloning as two examples of incredible innovations in technology that have different scopes of negative consequences. In my opinion, the only negative consequence of the Internet is the amount of porno that is watched while using it. I'm sure the creators of the world wide web did not intend for seventy five percent of its users to be accessing the Internet for sexual reasons. Some may argue that it reduces the privacy of people, with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. In reality, if you think those sites invade your privacy, just don't use them!

The other technology Healy mentioned was cloning. This technology is highly controversial, although it is still in its early stages. The main problem here, as mentioned in the article, is the possibility of human cloning. The cloning of humans could bring all sorts of ethical and political problems. I personally think cloning should be aloud, as long as it is regulated and administered by the government. If human cloning happens successfully, doctors could harvest unlimited amounts of fresh and healthy organs to give to patients in need. An obvious undesired and negative consequence would be having someone like Hitler step forward and breed an army of superhumans to take over the world, but I think this is a little too "science fiction" to actually happen. I believe the only real negative and unforeseen consequence of cloning is from an ethical standpoint. McConnell also noted this by talking about Frankenstein creating life, which is basically the same thing as a scientist cloning a human. They are playing God. The ramifications of this could lead to world-wide fanatic religious wars.

In conclusion, pretty much anything we do can have unanticipated consequences, not just technology. I could wake up and decide to wear a t-shirt, and undesired and negative consequences could occur for the rest of my day because someone doesn't like the slogan on it. As long as technology is advancing, there will always be negative aspects, but there is also all the positive results. Without technology, infant mortality rates would still be high and I wouldn't be able to check on my girlfriend's Facebook whenever I think she's cheating! Just kidding. Basically, unless technology becomes so controlling that a cyborg is sent from the future to terminate us, I think technology's positive advancements outweigh the negative ones.