THIS JUST IN : LIFE! Now New Media!

Capstone . New Media?

What Is New Media?
By:Vin Crosbie

New Medium for communications. It is a new communication medium that, like Sky for prior transportation media, bridges the mutually incompatible characteristics of prior communications media.

(Never thought "New Media" would be defined in such a one sentenced word. The reason why we never read this before this class, so we could tell our friend's what our major was is astonishing , :P)

So from my understanding it becomes new media when you are able to use a project/installation/etc. to further what was not able before. I would understand that this has a clear and conscise relation to such a transformation of analog to digital. Things become possible that never were before, opening up spaces.

This is key for any project, but all the time what I really wanted out of my project. All the time we are being fed information using "false mediums", and we never take the time to see what is possible, but not online or with a paintbrush, max msp, etc., but our very own lives. Hopefully, this project is a realization of the person through their experience. I believe so many people go on day by day voiding themselves of the outside world for whatever reason. Hopefully, people will want to get out and experience things once they see the amazing things going on in the world, and "Bridge" out their lives.

Mediums come in all sorts of forms, and it seems as though Crosbie is saying if those forms somehow combine other forms, or take those forms to a different level, it becomes part of the new media realm. What metonymy of "medium" was once implored would be the same as my project being a web site. Now, the web site is no longer the medium, so for me the ideology of the project becomes the new media portions of the project. The website is one way to convey the new media portions of the project.

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I agree with Crosbie mostly, he talks a lot in metaphors about Land, Water, and how Sky was revolutionary for those forms of "medium" or transportion, which are like metaphors.

A website can be a vehicle to display Mass Medium content, which indeed is how most newspapers, magazines, and broadcasts use it. However, that merely replicates online the hallmark limitations of Mass Medium vehicles and doesn't take advantage of the New Medium's ability

I think this is true to an extent, websites do do this in a sense, but it seems that when a project's reliance is partially on networked culture, you run into more problems. My entire project, I have been thinking about whether or not to couple my project with some sort of Experispace installation, which I may still, which may be a traditional new media (traditional new media?) jump as to bring out new qualities in the "transportation", but a lot of my project focuses on the transportation of the body as a medium, the life, and the stories.

Capstone Figure 8's - Jenkin's Style

This is a defense of my new media capstone project based on :


Eight Traits of the New Media Landscape
http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/11/eight_traits_of_the_new_media.html
by Henry Jenkins

1. Social and Cultural Experimentation

Experispace I believe does experiment with the culture. For people to post their memories for everyone to see is a big step, of course people already blog, and that is an obvious step, but many myspace profiles and such are becoming private. It seems like the online world is becoming more hermitizing then digital means once has been, which is also a big portion of what I hope to achieve with this project - the getting outside of the computer box.

2. Where New Media Meets Any Media

they use the web to talk back to media producers or tell their own stories about fictional characters.

This project is about telling your own stories. In some ways though the convergence portions depends on your intent of the project. The idea of memory has been long lived over many cultures, this is just one interpretation of sharing memories and stories as the natives do orally.

3. Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday, Everyday

This is the big focus of my project. Even if i have to integrate some sort of texting technology/gps type deal, that will suit the project well. The goal of this project is to make it very easy to log in, click on the map, tell some stories, and if people want to spend more time with it, they could upload pictures, find 6 degrees of themselves, etc. etc.

4. RE - RE - RE Mix

The core of this project has a digital space on the web, so the idea of remixing it seems a little off handed, though I would not be against people taking the project and doing new things with it. I myself did a variation or two on these projects. One that was called Digital_Worlds where users would mark their MEMORIES of digital spaces in a map of the WWW, and the other being one where maps of fictional lands could be created maybe for tv and episode guides, or an imaginary place where you played as a child. Therefore, the core components of the project are very simple, sharing memories in a visual space.

New modes of entertainment, such as computer and video games, depend on our active engagement: we do not simply consume them; we make them happen.

Very simply many people take works and reinterpret them in many different ways, like Jenkins quotes above, it is possible as long as there is active engagement. For example, a video game based on a world of memories could be made. A game in which you have to travel through this world of real memories and fight your way through the good and the bad. Maybe you would feel more worldly afterwards, or at least one is playing a game about the things in the real world

5. Networking Lives

Another strong aspect of my project in an obvious sense. People are coming here to share memories and stories with each other, and network based on those, finding similar qualities over place and time.

-- trying to decide how to communicate their ideas only to those people they want to see them while maintaining privacy from unwanted observation.

Unwanted observation is always a tough spice when you trying to allow such an open community of stories. But, Experispace has a quality and tone to it, which I hope to set from the get go. Serious stories about things that people feel were large or very small milestones in their lives, whether it be a death of a favorite aunt, or learning a new recipe, anything can see big or small, but the point is to reflect on these occurrences and realize that life is changing and taking notice makes all the difference.

6. From Maine to China and Back to Beijing and Bucksport

To be global can be difficult with cultural and language barriers, but as Jenkin says :

Some worry that the most economically powerful nations will overwhelm the rest, insuring a homogenization of global cultures; others contend that such a world requires the constant production of cultural difference

There is a debate over this, but the good thing about Experispace is that every single person whether from U.S.A. , Germany, France, or Indonesia, has stories to tell. I think the cultural diversity that Jenkins spoke of is the important part and the homogenization needs to stay away. What kind of people are we if we were to go to Experispace and people in China were having the same experience of those in Maine. One of purpose of this project is obviously to connect people based on like experiences and maybe someone in Maine and someone in China both got their first jobs. The contexts of those stories will probably be very different, yet somewhat similar.

7. From My Kids to My Grandkids to My Great Grandkids until I can't count anymore

To be generational can at times be difficult. Something that can be passed on no matter what the age. I think something that is "Remixable" has the same potential to be generational. Relationships to media will always be different. Experispace is generational in the fact that if one's great great great great great grandchildren (many years from now) were to go on, they could find their ancestors and look at their experiences, and though that is not generational from a medium standpoint, it is relative to digging up old photos from the attic. People are interested in the past, and Experispace is a neat and clean place to work with these topics.

8. If I give you a piece of candy and you give me a rock, do i feel like an ass or what?

Communities need to be communities in the obvious definition of the word, but many times you find communities with a lot of "guests". There are problems with this because if someone is going to buy in they want to see it before even signing up. Samples work in these cases, but I hope the community for Experispace grows, and people want to be part of the sharing process

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Out of these 8 new media qualities, I think overall most of the categories fit some nook that Experispace tries to offer. I think Jenkin's did a very good job of laying out some of the qualities of New Media. I do not think that anyone will ever come up with a DEFINITION of New Media that I feel is suited, but qualities of NM rather. These 8 qualities are some of the important aspects of NM for most people, but even as we learned in 206 thinks like autobotography, hacktivist, etc. are parts of this web.

A_5

Another maptype, would use flash, zooming in, experiences would be different colored pebbles.

A_4

When I was thinking about more approaches to do, I came at a crossroad, from here my work will be basically developing what i want interfaces to look like and fine tune the rest of the features, which is what the approaches are about. A lot of what my project about is the experiences and places and the tone to go with those. As i have stated in the past, the point is not just "oh, i went to burger king on main street, and i had good food", but rather "i went home for the holidays for the first time in 4 years, this is what happened" then some sort of reflection on the experience and the place.

In thinking of how users are going to upload stories, it would be something sort of the Experi and the Space part. Possibly seperate so the person can think about the story, then in the background after think about the place specifically.

I have a personal example I drafted up.

For this version I am just going to type it up, then later do a mockup of that page, when I am working deeper with site design.


Who? - Matthew Leavitt & Rebecca Hickman
When? - Sunday, November 5, 2006

What?

On this morning, I was woken up my friend and neighbor "Bex". She was standing at doorway with a bloodied tissue. We had both went to bed very very late the morning before, her at 4 a.m. and I at 5:30 a.m. due to some friends we had over. I was very out of myself as I was woken up on about 4.5 hours of sleep.

She needed me to drive her to the hospital because due to her history of artery failures and them bursting, she could faint on the highway. I quickly got dressed, not caring about my obligations for the day because there are moments that you know you are needed beyond the things you mark down on your daily planner.

I drove her to the hospital and when we got there, we had to register, which is a great process, since they care more about getting your money first and then helping you second. Fox news was on, and we talked about Sadaams Death Sentence, which was being covered for 10 minutes at a time in between every single other story. We talked about the things we did not like about the war and the state of the goverment.

She was brought into see the triage nurse. She brought a book entitled "When Things Fall Apart", which had a lot to do with Tibetan Buddhism with a lot of advice about embracing fear and instead of always running from the fear, knowing what it is and how it affects us. I am in no way a religious and barely spiritual person. I believe there are things outside of our understanding, and there may be a big blue light in sky waiting to take us. One term used in Buddism referred to as Samsara, states that in Theism the only thing we do is wait for our inevitable death, and though that brings hope, what it brings more is the despair that we are waiting for death, waiting for heaven, then reliving again only to face to same uncertainly. Rather we should embrace the moments of now, and here. Though, I did not gain a lot of religious output, i think daily life suggestions it gave a lot of, and I would not have even thought to read this book unless I was there.

Bex came out of the triage nurses office, and later taken into the doctors. I proceeded to read for a while. An interested story within there the author Pema Chodron describes one of her friends was having intense nightmares about these demons chasing her. When asked what they looked like, she did not know, so curiousity branched in her mind. The next time she had the dream she turned around and faced them, though odd looking they resembled normal animals. She never had the dream again because she faced her fears. I think there is practical advice everyone can take out of that. We live in fear daily, we all have limits, and part of the fear is reaching those limits, and not knowing what is coming. I think I learned just a little bit more about myself in reading some of the book.

Bex came out, they had to caudorize her artery with nitroglycerine. We left the hospital, and soon realized her mom had driven from Houlton to come see her, so we turned around, and i brought her car back to Orono.

In reflection, I think i learned a lot about everyday small life. Helping a friend, even if something simple as driving to the hospital, there is a kind of bonding that happens when someone is in fear, especially after a lot of surgeries in a hospital. It means a lot to a person, and i think it made us better friends.

Where?

Interestingly enough, I had my fair share of visits at EMMC. We went through the Webber building to get into the Emergency room, an area I knew all too well. My freshman year of college, i was very very sick with something after 8 months of blood tests, MRI's, Catscans, Gamma bone scans, and testing for everything else under the sun, doctors could not diagnose. Meanwhile, during my sickness I always had to go to EMMC for the big tests (blood work could be done at Cutler). I already have a previous affliction to hospitals especially the smell. I had not been to EMMC since my last MRI where they brutally stuck me with screening fluid with 3 misses into the vein, 1 injecting radioactive fluid into my tissue with an incredible burning on my part.

It is amazing how a place can make you feel so uncomfortable. I realized a lot though reading the book about embracing fear, so i used the same kind of knowledge to embrace this place. For me, it was a place that got it wrong so many times, stabbed me with their steel instruments, and left me undiagnosed, but for Bex, knowing the specific problem, they were able to help her (maybe not in the quickest of time, but help nonetheless). I still do not like hospitals, as i think there is a lot wrong with medecine in America, but on this day it was simply a place of reflection with a book, and helping a friend.


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I do not know yet if it will be a WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN WHY HOW type deal, odds are not, but did that to easily break the what and where of the story, i will think of something more clever , but the thing is a lot of what i realized about what happened today came from the reflection in writing about it, especially the place. I thought a little about the hospital while there, but moreso when i was writing about the place it happened. I think it will be successful if people buy in, which will be the later part of getting my project to work !!

A_3

This is a screenshot of what experispace project could look like. I put a basic explanation of what the project was about on the front page, but if you were logged in that would change to a menu, also there would be a menu, but i couldn't decide how i wanted that exactly so i left that out for now, but the explantion along with map example are on the front, then a login bar.

A_2

This is a close-look into what a typical map sequence could look like. The basic interface would explain

A.) Milestone Meter - what type and how important the experience was to you

B.) Where it happened - the 2nd / equally important part of the project

C.) a short descprition (with a link to read more)

D.) Links to read more, visit the user, and comment on that specific experience / place.

A_1

Within my proposal I had talked about something called "milestone meters", which would in turn for each person be a rating system for their personal experiences. The meters can be colored according to types of stories, and scaled based on importance to the person (not a community standards) mainly because what you and I experience may be the same, but it may be more impacted in my life based on previous experiences. This is a quick description of how some of the meter features could work.

mileStone

So i have been playing a lot with the thought of milestones in a human life and with stones physically. I think design wise this could create a real continuity, as I described in my text based proposal. I made a parti today symbolizing that. Basically stones would be markers, and their size could represent the importance of that story in that person's life. The connection to place is very concrete as stones are in a certain place on the earth, and by putting a rock there that is your story, it reinforces the tie between experience and place !

Here is a parti, two children walking down the street, i wanted to replace balloons with rocks, with little quotes in them to show how two people can experience the same place, but differently. I also came up with a little....not logo, but visual in the "mileStOne" down in the bottom righthand corner.

Text Based Proposal

Experispace

A text-based proposal

A project about milestones

Abstract

Every single person has some kind of personal experience with time and space. Experispace is a project aimed at mapping and networking those experiences with the physical realm and somehow retelling and sharing those stories.

Why

...this is needed now

With technology becoming more and more advanced, consumers as well as artists are finding easier ways to accomplish once mundane tasks. The media is becoming faster, more storage, mobility, and accessibility. All these are great advancements, but even our roots are becoming digitalized. Experispace's goal is to revisit the physical being of experience and space. The investigation that takes place is an important one, so we do not lose sight of the importance of the realm outside of the monitors.

Many problems arising in raising children, education, entertainment, and even organization in making things easier and faster so they are done and over with. Digital saturation of our brains overwhelm the population, and Experispace is an opportunity to go back to the times we went swimming at the lake and had barbeques at grandma's house, then take those experiences and see how we relate back to people, since even our social networks are becoming more digital.

The question arises of how Experispace will be any different from other social networking sites minus the addition of mapping technology and story-based networks. I have complete faith that even in a digital space, when people are "uploading memories", that they will revisit those places in their minds, and the consolation they will feel from knowing other people (even if it is half-way across the world) felt those same ways. I firmly believe we need this as a culture more than ever with the media blitz taking over our minds. We need to relearn how to go back out and experience and share outside of the screen revolution and bring it back to that space to re-connect our synapses with the feeling of the world.

An homage to who we were, and how we will experience in the future.

Where

...this problem arises

The problem of losing one's roots happens everywhere. Many cultures that are not as technologically advanced still have their connection to place and experience, but with some form of a computer and internet in the homes of people today it makes people apprehensive to go out. Experispace is not a way to get people to stop using technology as the core participation of the project comes from mapping and networking through the means of an online community, but provokes people to step outside, and when they come back into the digital space not to forget what happened.

The problem arises in many places. As a culture students are learning the ways of digital culture more so than they are with the concrete culture outside of their houses. In an article published by the new york times, a story about an 8 year old who would private message her mother when she wanted something, and even worse when verbal communication such as “dinner is ready” that was delivered in an instant message. The problem with creating a culture such as this is that even families are blurring the lines on communication by depending more on digital technology, and though this project is about digital technology it is a reminder that digital technology was only ever made possible by experiences that happened in the outside world.

What

...I propose

My proposal is for a re-investigation into place and experience with a project tentatively called Experispace. The main aim is to create a community, which essentially can be any person who has ever had an experience in this ball of green and blue. The puzzle pieces are the poeple, and the completed puzzle is a vision of people coming together to share their memories and stories of places they experience. For ages, people have told stories in oral fashions in many cultures, and this is a re-interpretation of the "carving your initials into the tree 'Lynn Wuz Here' down by the bay" phenomenon. Many themes in this project are stretched from times before digitalization occurred. Even today, children and teenagers without the internet are always out trying to find something to do. The "small town phenomenon" can be learned from because even with a little the human can produce extraordinary experiences. Some experiences may not be conscious such as going on a trip, but rather just a time and place. Cities are a whole different deal; a lot of experience can depend on people rather than place, which is completely fine, as those experiences still happen in a given place. Maybe they are in a night club instead of a farm yard, but even those two stories could share common threads. Therefore, this project is to bring people together, investigate our experiences, and learn to live again!

Features of the solution

Using mapping and tagging technologies, as well as other Web2.0 advancements, my goal is to create a fluid and easy way for people to connect. Many sites out there such as Facebook.com and MySpace.com has the ultimate goal of connecting people with common interests, while Experispace brings you on a road trip of your own memories with layers of personal history, then allows you to see how your life may be affecting other people's. For instance, were you and your now spouse once at the same banquet when you were both and college and never knew? The technical solutions are a small part of the overall conceptual solutions that allow us to find the overlapping events and memories in our lives.

I envision a community based online where milestones are the concept. When first thinking about the term “milestone” we think of getting married or having a child, but in reality milestones occur each day for us, minor decisions, meeting a person, being sick, can change the outcome of a life. The project focus is not on paths of our lives per say, but how those small moments (and big ones) can mean different things for us.

The project will be mainly features around the metaphor of stones for milestones. When we think of stones, they are a place on the earth, which is symbolic of the places I want people to mark in their lives. There is a very nice parallel flow between stones and milestones, and even something for logos, icons, and continuity. The relationship of milestones and physical rocks is a very distinct connection between the physical realm of nature and human experience, which I believe could be a very strong transfer into a digital space. By investigating milestones with the constant reminder of pebbles, rocks, boulders (different sizes for different types of milestones), the project focus (the tie between experience and place) would be reinforced.

F E A T U R E S

Milestones – These milestones are very important, they are the stories that we share and network throughout this community. There would be a sort of breaking of the work milestone in the sense that milestones could be various events:

· a chance meeting with someone walking down the street (who later became a best friend or spouse).

· A vision quest

· A conversation between friends during a hard time

· A risk someone took

· Or something just as simple as seeing someone each day

Milestone Markers – Milestone markers are sorts of tags. When using a stone as the icon, if you feel that a story was very important you can increase the size of your mile ”stone”. Also, these stories are coupled with actual text tags such as “relationships” , “communities”, “buildings”

Mapping – Milestones are going to be a visual process using mapping technologies. Either using flash based or google-based mapping systems, the hope is to mark experiences with small stones onto the map, so that when people are looking for similar experiences within an area, they can toggle based on milestones (also reflective of milestone sizes as described in “milestone markers”)

Describe the outcomes you expect

The ultimate outcome for this plan of action is to start with a base community in the area where I live. People posting their memories, mapping places they have lived, worked, played. Eventually, after launch, branch out hoping to reach a wider audience. Everyone can benefit from a project like this, not only to chat with people that have similar histories, but also to keep track of their own history. In the distant future, people will look back at experiences they mapped in 2006 feeling nostalgic.

Timeline

See Attached Gantt Chart

Collaboration Needs

With a project that could be as big as this depending on who buys into the community, collaboration is a key part of the project. I know personally I can come up with concept and design for the project, but coding (such as PHP user accounts), and some advanced DHTML are some things I will need assistance with. Also, to start a community, you must have a general community to start with. I will obviously be contributing to this project throughout the process, but within beta stages, it needs to be tested by people in the outside world, telling their experiences and navigating for the purposes of building a community and helping notice bugs.

Also see attached Budget Proposal.

Visually Complex Maps

http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/

A friend sent me the above link last night, and I found it very interesting. The site centers around visualizing complex networks. From Protein complexes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to CIA World Factbook Visualization. The maps are very complex which is not exactly what i want for my project, but in thinking about the types of networks that people will have, those systems (visually) could be complex. Seeing this site and being able to see a visual representation of many networks that you may not think of as networks, allows room for thought about how Experispace's network could be linked.

Obv. there are many threads, Everyone who grew up in a certain town to everyone who learned how to ride a bike on Nov. 7, 1990. My project isn't aiming at being complex, on the contrary, but i think it is important to see how systems are networked when you are creating your own.


visualization of the amount of pedestrians in a given area. Thought this was similar to the type of networking that would be happening in my project. The similiarity of imprints on a space.

A song for sleep.

Last night I was watching a foreign film "Pan's Labyrinth", which is about a little Spanish girl who's mother marries a coronel during the 1944 Spanish Civil War. She finds a Labyrinth with a minotaur living within it's confines. He gives here three tasks from a book he gives her. The coronel is a horrible torturer, and she must find time to sneak off to do these quests. Without giving too much away (because everyone should see it on their own), I realized during a part where one of the maids sang Ofelia (the little girl) a lullabye, that those are the small simple yet important things I want to deal with. While she was singing, I thought it would be great to have audio clips of lullabyes. Lots of children rely on lullabyes to go to bed each night and is a memory trigger. Maybe not being a focal point, but could be an interesting idea for promotion.

Approaching a Homepag

this was sort of a rendering, I am not completely happy with it, but it is a decent start!

Logoing it Up

I dislike both of these, but I am still working. I want to achieve something that remains natural yet has a digital function, maybe i need to step away from the tree idea....

the 2nd logo is about half done, i am creating these in illustrator, and I am not used to creating my own graphics, but I figured i should for this project:

Logo 1:



Logo 2:

I enjoy the idea of the carving but i don't want people to get the impression this is only about the outdoors. it is about homes, vacations, experiences, so i have to broadened my spectrum...maybe do a cluster.

Fav Icon : enlarged


Fav Icon : Actual Size : :




I was thinking about doing a series of these, ones of cities, houses, and then the fav icon on the site could change with each logon using javascript.

other than that. i need to branch out of the tree idea (pun intended! bing) I have been having a very hard time thinking up of a name, and kind of logo / scheme feel for the site... :( more brainstorming required.

By Other Means

Either because they feel their instructors require it or because they cannot think outside a particular technological box, many capstoners start with a technological approach to a given problem: "I don't know what I want to make, but I know it's going to be a Web site/video/interactive installation." Or just as bad: "I don't know what I'm going to make, but I know it won't involve programming/design/editing." It's certainly easier to envision finishing your capstone if you stick to a technology you're familiar with, whether it's HTML, FinalCut, or Max/MSP. Unfortunately, no matter how competent your manipulation of a given medium, your capstone will fail if your approach to the subject matter is naive or not thoughtful.

To help you think outside the box of a particular medium, this assignment asks you to envision an alternative version of your current intent without employing "typical" new media--ie, no Web sites, videos, or interactive installations. Your goal is not to come up with a totally different project, and you may end up returning to one of these media in your final choice of capstone. But for this one assignment, I want you to imagine and propose some activity or object that gets at the heart of the issue you're interested in without using one of these technologies.

Describe this alternative vision of your project in enough detail so I can see what happens in my mind's eye when I read your post. Where and when does it take place? How many people are involved? Are there objects they hear, see, or handle? Then tell me how you think this alternative version would speak to the same issue/s that interest you about your original, technology-oriented intent.

This is not an easy assignment, but just think about the themes from your Daily Me that got you interested in the first place, and imagine them playing out in a totally different space: the dining hall, a sports arena, a forest, anywhere but in a Web site, video, or interactive installation.


__________________________________________

I think I have been in a good boat because with my project, most of the research I have been doing has nothing to do with technical issues, and i am really still thinking which platforms I want to use.

When i was thinking about this lately... I have been thinking of new names and things for this project like "whereabouts", which sounds more fun or something to do with Homage to the Places, which sounds more like an installation, but I need to come up with something soon.

When envisioning the core of what my project is really about, most simply it is about our experience with place which also has some relation to time. There are a lot of complexities within the tone of the project for me though as far as what qualifies for an experience worth retelling and in some respects reliving. In some ways the project is made itself in the respect that people hold the keys to unlock the doors to the project, and i simply want to bring them together to share. The New Media aspect I believe at the core is the connection of our lives to each other, something for the people and only for the people that has a deep investigation.

In thinking of different ways this project could be presented minus the website / installation ideas I have already been playing around with, I thought of some sort of way where people as they were experiencing or going to a place they experienced could transmit information. For example, if I used to go to an old fishing hole all the time when I was little, and I remember the time I caught first fish, i could go back to that spot and with some kind of device take pictures/write text/etc, which stores it. More simply, something that can give as much information about the place including the person's personal experience. This would obviously be a new device, one more handheld, but there are some cons in that idea. The fact is I feel like we glow to much in front of our screens, and the purpose of this is to relove places outside of a digital space.

In the end, I will probably use digital means to portray the physical spaces, but if there was a way to portray the physical spaces with physical information that would be great. I think the biggest analog version of that is the stereotypical engraving into trees. Lisa <3 style="font-weight: bold;">A QUICK STORY :
A friend was telling me last year a story about how when she moved into the dorms she got a call from two girls at about 1 AM. They proceeded to tell her all about how much fun they had as roommates in that room, and all the things they did. Maybe my friend did not care, but regardless in some way she learned more about that room knowing the types of people who had been there before. The good times or what no.

That is the kind of felling I am trying to convey, the "hey, here's what has happened here"

Intent Three : Mapping our lives

INTENT THREE: Mapping our lives

We have all experienced a time within a place on this crazy little green ball mostly covered in blue we call earth. Every person grows up with a certain set of standards in their life marked by certain milestones. These milestones are there until the day we die including relationships, jobs, etc. Milestones are a big part of our lives, but also small experiences can imprint themselves into our lives. I want to create a project that networks our experiences with places and time together back to the places and through each other.

This project aims at bringing together those milestones and small experiences to a map. When we experience things whether it be a first kiss or a wedding, they happen someplace that means something in reaction to the stories that they hold. Though these experience may be positive or negative in the case of a fatal car crash or a miscarriage, many times we remember the places these things happen because they hold significant meaning to us.

Mapping experiences seems to be a very visual way of connecting us together. Through implementing a tool set where users can mark experiences on a map, common threads of experiences over a given time can show us how much we relate to place and each other. In the grand scheme of things, the point is to allow us to investigate places because in some cultures place is just as important as people, but I feel we neglect and take for granted a larger portion of places.

An interface of a map will allow people to toggle through time reading people's stories, uploading their own as well as pictures, and any sort of mementos that the place holds. Many times people live their entire life someplace, but each year marks new experiences, and some places have had many people living there over time, and each person may experience the place differently, but also people may leave part of themselves behind in a place.

Intent Two: Mapping the fun

INTENT TWO: Mapping the fun

Mapping programs have been used for a lot of things in the last few years. We have been able to find directions for road trips, been able to mark our friends on the map, and even at times been able to write about worldly events on a map. These things serve as practical and political uses, but what about just for the fun of it.

I hope to take mapping technology to a fun place. Using maps and a given set of tools, users will be able to map all their fun road trips, slumber parties, concerts, or whatever they feel like it, but wait there's more. Is there a world you live in that no one else does? Make it up and put it on the map. Have a childhood lab when you were little, sure that's fair game. Want to map Desperate Housewives's Wisteria Lane or Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Sunndydale in a visual episode guide? DO WHAT YOU WANT. The map is yours for the taking. Add friends, and share maps, creating your own networks and play until every map place , fiction or non-fiction have a place in this world!

Intent One : Mapping the Weird

THE NEXT FEW POSTS ARE INTENTS THAT I WROTE FOR CLASS TO CHOOSE A MORE SPECIFIC DIRECTION , I am thinking "Intent Three" is the one i am pursuing most, but i find them all interesting!

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INTENT ONE: Mapping the weird

Time is one thing that we rely on each day yet cannot fully fathom. Time can degrade people and places, but what about the mystery of time and place. People often leave behind a legacy of themselves over time at given places. Native American cultures will stay on land for a long time honoring their ancestors, whereas new neighbors claim their house be haunted.

Time is a very mysterious thing that is hard to visualize. Once we are gone, do we remain? Does time give us insight into itself with deja vu? That is what this project hopes to investigate. The mysteries of places. Many times we see shows of haunted places, read in books, but how are all of these things connected.

Using mapping and tagging technology I hope to investigate times decay on places. Many times we feel like we have been somewhere when we have Deja Vu, and these experiences may be related to the paranormal. Historic layers and personal experiences can be helpful for this. From hearing a weird creak in the bathroom or having a dream come true, the unexplainable may become more visible on a visual space, and maybe visualizing the weird things that happen to us can better help us deal with them!

Mother of All Posts

This is a compliation post of some different links I have been sent through the last few days with some really great information :)


\\\\ 1 \\\\ layering our now history

Geopolitics: Beirut before & after
http://workshop.evolutionzone.com/2006/07/31/geopolitics-beirut-before-after/

This was one of the projects that I felt really spoke to what I want to do with my project. The site shows Beirut before the bombing because sparks of questions like "why is beirut now burning on google earth". These are the exact same things I want to approach in my project, layers of history etc, so if you went to beirut in 2000 it may look one way and a day or 6 years later could be completely different.

Beruit BEFORE / AFTER

a link through this article there is a google earth blog at:
http://www.ogleearth.com/2006/07/haret_hreik_bef.html
basically what this blog creates is image overlays to the current theme of google earth. These are before and after's which is one thing i 100% want to create in my project. In my initial blog entries I talked about layering, and I think this is a great resource for this.

They use KMZ files to utilize more features with google earth, which I do not know a lot about but I am sure it is something that i will need to do.

Ogle Earth has done a lot of projects about putting art on google and other things, which is a close relation to what I want to do. These seem to be more like political etc, features which i am still flimsy in my mind which route i want to take it, but I know i want a large portion to be for the people. Especially now I know some people are doing things with google earth.

This is also expecting that I end up using a google earth interface. I posted about "mapping sex in america" a few posts ago by the museum of sex, and I really like their interface too, so taking that to another level could be something for me.

I am keeping Ogle earth in my SAGE so that I can keep up with the types of things they are doing with mapping!

\\\\ 2 \\\\ the lebanon bomb

http://almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/300/350/355/july-war/index.html

Lebanon has been going through a lot with their bombings, and as a visual culture i think we are sometimes strained to see the things going outside of our vapid american lives (opps). The site above has included KMZ files of the lebanon bombings and exactly where they have happened, and to date. This is the exact type of feeling I want to get with my project, mapping for a reason. I want to have people mapping their lives, but things that really matter to them, milestones, things that changed their lives.

Lebanon, mapping the bombs

It reminds me of this summer at Upward Bound staff training, we all had to come up with three important events in our live, and tack them onto the wall in a timeline of when these milestones happen. It was very linear, and I did not care for it because things happen different for everyone, and those are the kinds of things I want to foucs on whether it be a happy marriage, or a horrible sexual abuse experience. I want to incorporate the things that make us, us. I think there has been some groups doing some of the things I am aiming for such as this Lebanon mapping system. The bombs that go on in our life rather than the physical bombs that go off in the world. Sometimes people need to see networks, and these mapping KMZ's are making it better for everyone.


I would love to be ambitious and come up with my own system, but i am seeing that KMZ files could be a way to go technically if things aren't going as planned in my mind

Also, like i said before I really liked the mapping sex in america interface, and think that could be a great system.


\\\\ 3 \\\\ Tagzania

Tagzania
http://www.tagzania.com/item/14070/tag/flickr/

Tagzania was great to look at for my project. There are icons that when clicking on a map have something to do with. Basically this just takes a location and gives it an icon, which is an interesting idea, tag names is already something i wanted to incorporate into my project, maybe iconic stories could be something.

Tagzania seems to be doing something relatively close to my thoughts, but how I want to make it different is not just tagging the planet. I saw on the site it tagged a place in India where there is a shipyard. Basically, what they do is say what is going on, with a small picture, where I want to network and tag similar experience of the people, that way we can see how we relate to each other on this earth, sometimes by events is a good thing but sometimes by personal experience can connect us so much more.

Indian ship yard tagged

So far the things I have looked at are about sort of work events, etc. So I am feeling comfortable with heading on with people and their experiences.

\\\\ 4 \\\\ Paula's Outrage

http://paulalevine.banff.org/

A similar site in interest paralelled with the Lebanon bombings, was this site by Paula Levine, a cry out to stop the bombings. Though I had a tough time with loading a lot of the parts of the site, I found this site to be very closely related to what I want to do with people. The purpose is that baghdad and san francisco is superimposed so people get a feel for what bombings in Iraq are like right now. Clicking on certain places in either will bring up a picture and description of what is happening in that location.

A paralell of San Francisco and Baghdad with civilian, military, and bombing marks

I really enjoyed this interface too, something like this for each state may be something I want to look into, which would include learning flash, but that is something I would do if that seems like the best route. Maybe more discussion will lead me into which way is better for what I want to do!

This gives me an idea that people on my project should be able to create new types of maps, etc.

\\\\ 5 \\\\ thinking outside

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/008975.php

This was an interesting article about a soundscapey type project where the user hears environmental sounds with headphones on. Basically environment and music could have a symbiotic relationship where harsh sounds get eliminated but you are not trapped away. This was a very interesting addition to reccomendations for me. I have said before i wanted to do something outside of a net project, which I feel my project has a very appropriate place on the net, but I also want to do something in a physical space for tone.

Audio Environment, how do we experience sound of a place?

This audio project is a perfect experience of what I am trying to capture, feeling , hearing, and experiencing our surroundings.

I want to investigate the physical part of my project more, because though a net presecne is appropriate, we experience outside of the net the place we live. play, work, etc.

\\\\ 5 \\\\ I found you.With.AJAX

http://www.seomoz.org/ip2loc/ip2loc.php

Aside from the fact that this site (IP LOOKING - lets you put in your IP and find yourself on the map) says I live on Broadway in Bangor, i found this to be powerful for my project. If people can somehow much in information about something they want to network with their experiences, say they put in a PHONE NUMBER they could track history of their old phone numbers, which I believe is a place a lot of young teens spent their time instead of exploring the outside world, but even if they were keywords

Look its me, but not really, BUT a tool worth using!

say you were focused in Maine, and you put lobster it would popup all experiences pepole had with lobsters, i think AJAX is something I will have to look into for quick searching of people's locations and experiences.

This could be powerful in this story telling domain where tags could be extended into such a system!

\\\\ 5 \\\\ My Final Thoughts

There were a lot of great suggestions with some similar projects to mine, which helps me create more of a focus for my own project. I like how there are places already layering events that matter in our culture because i want to layer events that matter in our personal lives, and really investigate those things. I got some ideas for interface whether that be google earth files, or some flash interface, and really saw that mapping is something that people care about (as well as I do), and I know we care about ourselves, so I think as far as the "you and your audience should care about your project" goes, that is all set, which makes me happy. Now in writing my intents I know I have my solid milestone one, but for a branch off I may use some of the events, and maybe some other things to portray some possible tones to the project, which is really the last thing i need to define more. Other than that, I think this has been a very productive day in capstone research :)!
\\also thanks jon for all the great links! VERY HELPFUL!

Which Way

I found this image and wanted to incorporate it into a page. I liked how there were directions going everywhere, in this picture they are different places, which is an option for a sort of menu in the experience.

Also each of these direction signs could be a different place within the site. I want the navigation to be simple, but creative, and that is why i put the "welcome.." portion in the image :)

A Multitude of Stories

I wanted to portray a given amount of images with some examples of stories.

I figured pets, scenery, family, and depression were symbolic categories, for emotions, experiences, road trips, etc. Just a kind of quick image of the things going on in our lives :)

Plug-in your Life

This was a quick idea about how to integrate story sharing with easibility. People are able to upload stories with a simple plugin.

Also if needed, a cell phone extension could be implemented for GPS positioning with the site :)

Heart of the Hearth

I talked to Joline about my last parti, and she talked a little about story related to the home and the hearth, so I was going to do a piece with objects on a hearth that were representational of family, friends, stories, etc.

As i was looking for "hearth's" this desert was a picture, I went to the page and it went on to say -- "Aboriginal Hearth". That really spoke a lot to me and what I kind of want my project about. For some of my approaches I wanted to focus on the outside world of the house. I find it very important because I know growing up, i made most of my memories with my friend Angela throughout the town. We used to go to the playground a lot to have talks, and just walk around town.

Then the meditating womann kind of just completes a serene feeling showing at the hearth can be anywhere you feel at place.

Though i think physical homes are interesting too, and will be a focus, i thought this parti could be more about the anywhereness of the project.
:)

Parti Over Here!

F O R D E S C R I P T I O N
O F P A R T I
R E A D B E L O W

My basic concept with this was to extract a few tones / themes I want my project to be about. I chose a tree (with a house in it) because I feel like a lot of homey memories spread from play. Treehouses are an example of a makeshift house with boundless possibilities.

The tear drop with the sky in it represents emotions that I want to convey from these experiences.

The eye is sort literal in the fact that when we experience we use our eyesight, but also metaphorical for our other senses. thought my project will be hard to convey taste, scent, etc. I want to incorporate them (possibly in the installation)

There is a road with an inkwell coming out from behind the tree, which is sort of the long road ahead, able to put it down on paper (the digital story telling portion)

Finally, the fetus inside the heart represents growth. Physically we grow with our places, our time, and our stories. Emotionally and mentally, it all comes from the heart of these experiences , the deep meaning (like the heart of the tree / heart of the experience)

Pushing The Envelope : Mapping Sex In America

Mapping Sex in America is truly the closest thing I have found to what I want to do with my project. The interface, though not very community driven (though I do want community focus is still on storytelling).

The Museum of Sex invites you to participate in its national project,
Mapping Sex in America. Record your personal sex history and become
a part of this ongoing archive chronicling Americans' stories of sexual practice
and the evolution of America's sexual customs.

Mapping Sex in America takes our private stories and allows us to share them in
an environment that encourages our contemplation. What are our boundaries?
Prejudices? What turns us on and what offends us? What are the implications in
terms of sex education, crime prevention, and disease control?

From the mundane to the passionate to the scandalous and everything in between,
these stories have the capacity to captivate us, heal us, and educate us; but perhaps
most importantly they connect us in a colorful world heretofore shrouded by the
conventions of discretion.

I think those paragraphs describe the project very throughoughly, but can be checked out here :
http://www.museumofsex.com/USAmap/

The way they craft their stories, with categories, places, and stories are a close example to what I want to achieve, but without the main focus being sex. I have thought about how to go above this, but I think just the subjct matter alone will go above this. Sex, obviously important, could be a part of the site, but childhood memories, love connections, anything that sparks strong emotions.

Almost like the Daily Me : Personal Editions we did, but maybe even a little less superficial.

I think the look, feel, and interface of the Museum of Sex site is very much what I am looking for in a feel, but wit a little more interface of connection of people. I want the same sort of networking, but I think they really capture the (sexual) feel to a given place, so this remains very interesting to me.

With their map you can get VERRRY close to the street depending if there are a lot of stories etc, so I want to achieve a certain amount of what they did but with much more of a connection of energy and people in a different way.

Pushing The Envelope : Digital Storytelling

I found some stuff on "Digital Storytelling", which sounds very interesting. I want the site to be easy, but also dynamic and creative for people to explore.

Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling.
Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice
together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters
situations, experiences, and insights. Tell your story now digitally.
-http://electronicportfolios.com/digistory/

I really want to integrate a social aspect of storytelling, but want people to feel comfortable bearing a little of their soul, which will obviously call for a tight and trustworthy community. I think the digital storytelling portion sounds very interesting, so that stories can be textual, but images, sounds, etc. gives a lot of extra to our senses and sometimes can help us picture us there more.

There are many reasons we tell stories, a lot of the examples in the digital storytelling site above, talk about stories being tied close to family and descendants. I find those aspects very interesting, about a legacy of yourself living on, even after you are gone. Therefore in the respect of digital storytelling.

As far pushing the envelope on digital storytelling I will have to think about some more because it includes all the different medias to tell the stoies you want. I believe in the sense that a location that can be mapped and have multiple digital stories there at once will add something, and i want people to feel connected to this site, but minus the installation i want to do, this is a digital project, and the places we experience are mostly physical, but that may raise some interesting research on digital places as well as concrete places. I think with integration of the three components I want for this (stories, networks, mapping) I will create something new.

Another place on the web that is interesting in storytelling is The Fray. We've talked about this site in a lot of different new media classes of mine, and for a good reason. There are categories of stories, and each story is a form of digital storytelling, that allows you to tell a similar story to at the end, if you navigate through the whole story. This is a way of "burying the button" so people won't post crap, and also give insight on a subject. I would love to incorporate some form of feedback, or discussion of some sort to adopt into my project.

Stories really are the main focus of my project, the other things come inherently from what I want this project to present, so i want to spend a lot of time working with this and trying to push stories a little more.

Pushing The Envelope : More on Frappr/Mapping

I went over this project a little in class beforehand, but this really examplifies the network I wish to create with my project. The greatest thing about Frappr (Friends + Mappter) is the fact that you can create your own maps for different common threads, i.e. - "people who like ace of base", or "people who want to fly". Sort of like groups on myspace, but visual, which is what I like about this project most, how visual it is. We are a very visual society, and seeing where the common threads of your interests are is an important dynamic.

Frappr has profiles and the whole nine yards, the only thing is the design is a little shoddy, and though there are a bunch of people on the server, not nearly as many as myspace/facebook.

That is the one thing I want to avoid in doing my project. Frappr is great, but their goal as stated here:

Ever want to see all your friends on myspace on a map? Well now you can!
Check out our totally sweet myspace map feature. All you do is put in your
myspace url, and we’ll build a map for you! Its that easy

Frappr is about creating a network exactly like myspace, but in a mapping program.

I want my project to push beyond the social networks out there already. I obviously want there to be a social aspect, but I want storytelling to be the main artifact within the network. Maps are a great idea, but I think with design, and posting initial stories i can set the tone above "i like this band" or "i like juice and cocaine". I really want to investigate places we inhabit, visit, experience, and that requires a more serious audience.

http://www.frappr.com/?a=createmap2&mapid=2608490

I found an article that talks about a network of social maps based on the obesity of children. This is NOT the tone I want to set, that we are looking for trends (other than we share some sort of connection to a place), but I found this article interesting and seems to be closer to what i want than a myspace replica.

http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,67680,00.html

Either way the point is to find a deep connection of energy in a given place and sharing it with people through different forms of meida and connecting with each other on the same level.

Clustering

Presentation Outline

CAPSTONE PROJECT

1.) Mapping (tools, interface)
2.) Network (tags, story netowork)
3.) Storyteling (deep connections to places)

2 parts

1.) Functional Site
2.) Installation

Zombie Holocaust

This is more of a story that could be used as an example of sort of story for the project in the future. / sort of a flashmobby type deal.

(NOTE, THE ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST PICTURES BELOW ARE JUST FOR SHOW, I HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE I FOUND IMAGES OF, BUT NOW AM VERY INTERESTED, SINCE ZOMBIES TAKE UP 8% OF THE LOVE IN MY HEART)

I came back tonight around 8:30 to play some trivial pursuit, then some friends left. One of my neighbors / friends came back with a few other friends and we were just hanging out. Later we decided to play hide and seek in the dark, but step it up by acting like zombies. We ended up calling it zombie holocaust where theres of the game (though changed a few times) eventually became



1.) 1 person seeks for the "dead" person holding the flashlight artifact
2.) 1 person is a slow zombie
3.) 1 person is a fast zombie



the person was to make their way through the place I live, finding the flashlight without getting killed by the zombies. This was all in complete dark, and we scared the shit out of each other.

One thing I really want to investigate with this project is energies that the places we live at produce. There was such an energy of fun of also fright tonight. I really think energies and feelings are what places are about, and if a place is fostered with enough of the same energy that it will carry on.

Tonight was a night where I really stopped caring about the other stuff going on in my life with classes and work and whatnot, so I think that is a really important moment to focus on and is a great moment of epiphany of content. Talking with joline really gave me some focus, and i think tonight was the kind of night where there was just a random, mysterious, but energy filled event that lasted until about 20 minutes ago (its now 3:10 am). Meghan Lucas-Maguire was here for the fun too, so in the grand scheme of things, if we both told the story or just one of this, we could tag and be part of the same network.

I was thinking about energies a lot, and there should be a measurement of energy, if an area has lots of anger, it should have a different feel to it than say my story tonight which was almost just childish fun. Hopefully these memories can trigger when thinking about the types of things on the site.

I don't want to overflow with techncal stuff. I want the site to be functional and interactive, but be about the heart and core of the stories, energies, and mysteries of why the places we experience are different and what about them makes them special!

...and zombies rule

Sound Advice

I went in to talk to Joline about a few things (one being capstone) the other day, and i think i got some great perspective on my capstone project (which is good because I have been mostly talking about technical things about the projet).

I want to couple an installation with the site, to get people into the flow of what I want this project to be about. I want the project to investigate the deep meanings and mysteries of the places we inhabit and experience things. Obviously, we all have memories and stories in a house, but what about the spaces outside , the land outside of construction. A tree house is a structure that holds children's memories, and children have a very unique insight into place and time for their minds are not brushed with society too much.I want people to have fun, but also explore the deep meanings of places.

Joline noted the Hobi tribe cannot sell their land ever because when they die they become part of the earth (buried), and then they literally are part of the food that is grown nourishing the future generations. I think these are interesting aspects, and the sorts of things i want to explore such as how the places that surround us are viewed by different people historically and culturally.

I hope to do that by doing an installation that couples the feelings and mysteries these places represent, then do those same portions on the site so people get an idea of how the site feels. This would include some deep things and then some more fun things to balance out the site.

She gave me some other resources to look over, so i hope to start some research in these areas.

http://cordova.asap.um.maine.edu/~blaisj/presence/

Then some books to check out!

**The Spell of the Sensuous, D Abram
**The practice of the Wild, Gary Snyder
**Songlines, Bruce Chatwin
**Dreaming Aboriginal paths

Storytelling

Though there are many things to consider when coming up with this idea that I feel will be a fun and serious project in different respects. Community, Networking, and Storytelling I feel are the main components. I want to focus this post about the storytelling aspect because I feel like it is really the meat and bones of the project.



When I first came up with this idea, I thought a lot about my own experiences. In most ways the first time I thought of this project was the Summer after my first year in college. i was thinking about projects to do for 206 because I am lame and do NMD in summer too. I envisions a crayon map of my hometown where all the places I lived in the town were highlighted (roughly 12 places), and different layers of stories were flowing off the screen. This really sparked my interest of the network of places where I have lived. I feel like there are common themes in the places I myself have lived such as the fact that I always had a cat. I envisioned the how the places i lived linked besides me, and also how those stories link with the people living there now. As part of my capstone, hopefully since I feel like I know basically what I want to do, after I get a sense of what I need, I can start, and then have the website component of the whole thing, and i was also thinking about doing part of an installation of the places I have lived...or maybe even the dorms, so that people can really see that this is going to be about who we are as a society and who we are as people not just facebook profiles.

Storytelling has a lot of important aspects, sites like the fray really innovate the way we tell stories, so i don't want to limit it to blog like postings, I want to feel that people can do what they want to tell their own stories, videos, pictures, text, other things.

I think the fray is a great example of the way stories are told that involve other people. There is a story told in some way or form then people can post their reactions or similar stories to this. The setup I believe is great, and my project shouldn't limit a little white canvas, if people can play around with the map they should be able to feel like posting is a creative process also.

In conclusion, I feel like my own part in this project (all the way back from crayon maps) to the other things I feel are important such as the maps networks and community will pull together for a very successful project, which is part of the reason I want this to break out beyond the walls of the net, and maybe do an installation portion. I also just had the idea of doing an analog project along with it, taking sidewalk chalk and drawing memories wherever, which may be illegal in some parts, but just some preliminary thoughts.

Frappr For Friends

in doing, research, i thought again about a site that has not taken off yet, but I think should/will. the site is Frappr. Like friends mapper. It feels a lot like the project I want to do, but somewhat different. I obviously do not want to rip them off, but think they have some great features.


My favorite is :

My Maps - you can add "maps" like "I love Ace of Base" and it will show on a map with dots all the other people in your network. I think this is a great idea because then you see a visualization of people that have things in common with you. I want to do something like that but less vapid. When you go to maps like "my birthday is this day" you see all the people in your birthday network, which is neat, but I want my project to be a little more intense. Though stories could be about your cat dying when you were 12, tags can include CAT PET DEATH, etc, and see the map of those experiences. Sounds a lot of like, but i hope to tweak it a little more so it feels different.

Frappr has a lot of potential, and I can feel what they are trying to do, their base of people is still small, and i think i will be able to learn the most from this project for my own. frappr is sort of a myspace of a mapping program, where i want the integration of frappr, the fray, myspace, and human creativity. Sites should make people feel like the site was made for them. I don't want my project to just feel like 2 parts fray 1 part myspace 2 parts this and 4 parts that. I want it to feel like a new place on the net for stories and community.



I hope to investigate frappr more and see what details i want to integrate.

VISIT FRAPPR HERE

Mes Amies

I want to really delve into the whole network aspect of this project. In looking around for things I want to do to integrate sense of community, the obvious social networking sites out there are facebook and myspace. I want there to be a large network, but like i said in my last post i don't want it to feel to bloggy. Therefor I want some in between of the two. I think Myspace and facebook can be to fake with the facade that people are great friends and this and that, which isn't a wrong thing, just I want the project to feel less like you are just shopping around for information/friends etc.

BUT, I 100% want to include community into the project. People are telling the stories, so inherently they are part of the stories and networks of people with like stories and such. I feel like it will be easier finding people you have common interests in if two people went through the same experience, or at the same place. Therefore, there should be a portion of the site, where you can have a profile, customizable with "notes". The focus is obviously the experiences, so giving people the ability to blog/bulletin and whatnot like myspace seems overdramatic for purposes, though i do not want to limit myself, so I do want to ask what people think about how much/how little to expand upon.

The things I am thinking about are:
1. Information - name, age, likes, dislikes, that whole spiel
2. maps - recent places you have mapped and tagged , along with people who's maps network with yours
3. customization - people should feel like they have their own little map on the WWW with the site.

I am open to suggestions. what better way to see what people want by asking them. It will be a community abode on the internet, so people should be able to control it, with some minor walls to keep from abusing. Like recently, I have been getting SPAM friends (not even like people wanting to see naked pictures of me, just advertisement friends), which is a problem, so it is a good thing I still have my "design for community book" because i think reading over some sections in that will help me determine the level I want to achieve.