Cloud Computing & Search/Research

What is "The Cloud"? Hint: It has nothing to do with the sky!

The Cloud, in short, is internet storage. It is anyplace other than your home computer, phone, or other personal device that stores your files. For example, your images on Google+ are stored within the Google+ servers. Same with email, or your Facebook images, etc.  

Why The Cloud is a great thing:

• If you lose your phone (or it falls out of your pocket into a river like it did for my dad last summer!), or your computer crashes, you won't lose the files stored within another server (aka The Cloud).

• You can access your files and info from any device. If you leave your phone at home by accident, you can log into your email or Facebook or Pandora from someone else's device and still access your stuff!

• Less memory is needed if your stuff is in the cloud. Those other servers are doing the work so that your phone or computer doesn't have to.

Things to watch out for with The Cloud:

• Accessing your files on the cloud means you have to have internet access, and as of now, this isn't always an option.

• If you are constantly accessing your stuff on the cloud, that means you are using a lot of bandwidth or data, especially if you are doing things like streaming movies. Check with your data provider to make sure you don't go over your allocated data usage and get charged extra... sometimes hundreds of dollars extra!

• Check privacy settings! You may think it is a great idea to have every picture you take automatically backed up in The Cloud, but who has access to those images? Where are they being shared? Automatically to your Google+? You may not want that happening... been there, done that. 

Using The Cloud for Education

MS Office 365 Online VS. Google Apps





My two older children were required to have a Google account for school by the time they were in middle school. They use Google Apps regularly to communicate with their teachers and to work on papers and presentations.  I think the best benefit of having an online classroom in "the cloud" is that students can't say their dog ate their homework. They can access their work from home or school, work on it and it is automatically and consistently saved - no chance of losing it! Their teachers have access to it to see how they are coming along, plus as a parent, I can take a look to see what types of things they've been working on at school. Kids can't get away with as much as they once could when it comes to homework, that's for sure! Since I also use Google Apps regularly for school, work and play, I feel familiar with that option. I didn't even know that MS Office existed, however. Here's what I've learned when comparing the two:

Google Search and Research - My Life Has Just Begun!

The future is now with all the many options available in Google for searching and researching!  I've learned so many awesome tips this week, my mind is kinda about to explode. I'm going to link to the videos below so that I can refer back to them later because there is just way too much information to retain it all. 

Here are a few of my favorite mind-blowing Google Search & Research Tips:

• There are options in Google other than that blank bar! You can do a specialized search by clicking on the grid in the top right corner, going down to "even more from Google", and then clicking on one of the options under the "Specialized Search" category. For example, you can choose "Scholar" and search scholarly articles of all types. You can search by author, by topic, by date, by phrase, etc. This is very useful if you are a student or if you are studying anything and need solid data to back up your stance on something. 
• CTRL F (or command F for MAC users)! This just saved my life. I can't believe I never knew this. From ANY PAGE, you can use the key "Ctrl" and the letter "F" at the same time and search bar comes up. You can search for any word that might be on that page. The fact that I didn't know this proves just how much I need to work on my search literacy! But this simple tip is a great start and will help me be more efficient. 
• Automatic citing is a real thing that I also didn't know existed but will now forever change the way I conduct research!  I will probably never go back to original Word software on my computer -- Google Docs is the bomb! From Google Docs, you go up to the "tools" tab (there's lots of fun stuff in there... "Voice Typing" is one of them, but I don't have a microphone on my computer so I haven't been able to try it, yet), click on "research" and a side bar will show up where you can search all types of information, quotes, images, etc. When you find what you want in your paper, you just click on "insert link" and then "cite" -- BOOM! Footnotes and all! Of course, like spellcheck, you have to make sure it is accurate and is a good source, but the fact that you don't have to sit there and type out your citations is probably the most time-saving gift that Google ever could've given students! You can also type in notes for yourself to go back and look at later, among other helpful tools that just don't exist in regular Word. Sorry Word! Word. 

Blogs, Websites and Social Media - All Becoming One in the Same

Let's start with some simple definitions:

Blog - A web site on which someone writes about personal opinions, activities, and experiences.

You are reading a blog post right now! Blogs are a website, and can be used as a type of social media network, as well. This blog is all about what I am learning in a multimedia applications class I am taking right now.






Website - A place on the World Wide Web that contains information about a person, organization, etc., and that usually consists of many web pages joined by hyperlinks.

Websites are not always blogs or used for social networking. Such as is the case with a business web page. You can visit my photography business website for an example of a straightforward website without a blog or social aspect.

Social Media - Forms of electronic communication (as web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).

Social Media Networks allow users to both create a personal website, as well as post short personal experiences which is a form of blogging called micro-blogging.

I enjoy social media and want to be a social media marketing manager after college. I feel that the impact of social media in the near future will far surpasses other forms of media, including television. It is a powerful tool that can be used to share information - the true stories that aren't filtered by a middle-man. I've used social media to promote multiple businesses, help people, raise awareness about social justice issues, gather communities together, and so many more good things to impact our world in a positive way.

How are these various online platforms and spaces used?

As you can see there is a lot of overlap here. Some people use social media networks to blog with, such as on Instagram or Tumblr. These are not elaborate blogs with links, tabs, etc. They are short (micro), simple, to the point and perhaps have an image to go with them. Some people also use their social media network as a website, for example a business Facebook page which I've used as my #1 sales and advertising tool in my business... and it's free! In this way, social media is very multi-functional and powerful.

Websites are great for a more in-depth web presence consisting of solid/factual information that isn't going to change a lot; it is organized in multiple pages connected by tabs and links. There is not a successful business out there today without a good website. Many website platforms offer a blog page because many businesses today want to share stories and news, so the best way to do that is through a blog on their website.

Blogs are the new website - they are very versatile, but have a more personal feel than a straightforward website, and they are constantly being updated and added to. Many platforms have the capability to create a blog that is so in depth it can also be used as a website for a business. Blogs are often designed by a creative person trying to self-promote and share their work in an online portfolio. Blogs can be about anything or anyone, custom-designed to match that person or theme, videos and photos can be shared, and people can comment.

There are endless blog, website and social media platforms available for anyone who would like to create their own online space. Below are some examples of the most popular (and some of my personal favorites).

Popular Blogging platforms:

• Blogger (very popular and what I'm using here! user friendly for computer-savvy beginner blogger)
• Wordpress (Very popular for those familiar with and advanced in blogging. Often used by large companies and news sites)
• Squarespace (modern templates, simple and straightforward use, all done online.)
• Kidblog (for teachers & students)

Popular Website Platforms:

• Google Sites (kind of basic and limited, good for a beginner)
• Weebly (I use this for my church's website. Pretty straight forward for someone who is computer savvy, plus the online platform makes it easy)
• Joomla (very advanced, required download of software. I was overwhelmed by this one)
• Wix (beautiful templates, beginner-intermediate user friendly, online platform. This is what I use for my business and I love it.)

Popular Social Media Network Platforms:

• Google+ (since everything is run by Google, this is pretty much a modern day requirement)
• Twitter (share your thoughts with the world in 140 characters or less) 
• LinkedIn (professional networking - you connect with people you already know in the business world and promote yourself for new job opportunities. I just set one up, it was pretty easy and I've already connected with a few people)
• Facebook (the most popular social media network, probably due to its versatility. Connect with friends and family, post pictures, videos, thoughts; promote events or businesses, etc)
• Pinterest (the sharing of ideas with anyone who wants to follow you, mostly food recipes, home decor, arts and crafts, lifehacks, etc)
• Instagram (pictures, pictures, pictures, and some words but no one pays much attention to those. This is a must have for the smartphone photographers of the world)
• Snapchat (for fun! tell your story in pictures that you send privately to anyone you want, then set how long they are available for viewing)
• Youtube (videos, videos and more videos. Follow youtubers you enjoy watching and post your own videos to try to get followers... maybe one of your videos will go viral!)

Elements of Design for Your Online Space

There's so much that goes into designing your online space. Lots of beginners out there don't know what they are doing and end up with confusing, unattractive websites that no one wants to come back to. Here's some suggestions for making your space something to be proud of!

Colors - Choose a color theme and stick to it. Less is often more, but remember, colors are powerful in the way they impact people's moods. You might want an exciting color like red or orange for a food blog; but for a spa website, perhaps blues or greens are the best option.

Check out this Adobe Color Wheel to help pick colors that go best together!

Content Focus - For blogs, the message is in the words, so let the main focus be on the content. 

White Space - All that empty space surrounding the words and images? That's good, you want quite a bit of that to keep things clean and easy to follow. Clutter is confusing so embrace the minimalist perspective on this one. And most people prefer their white space to be a light color.... like, white.

Typography - AKA Font. Best to stick to a standard and easy-to-read font. Also, don't bother with funky colors and risk someone having a hard time seeing it. Black is always a winner.

Social Prominence - You want your reader to have easy access to share buttons so they can share your page or blog post on their social media networks. Increasing your chances of fame and fortune! Or, at least a few comments. 

Readability - As you can see here in this blog post, everything is split into chunks for quick scanning of the page. Bullet points, summaries, and diagrams are other ways to keep things moving along for the reader. 

Be Professional - Especially if you are promoting yourself in any way. If you are sending potential employers to your webpage, you shouldn't have tacky clip-art, misspelled words, or plagiarized words or images. Think it through and review it... even have some close friends preview it... before hitting that publish button.

I tried to improve upon a few of these design elements in this blog, but was limited on templates (there's really none I like!). The plain white ones don't separate the sidebar and it makes it look cluttered. So I chose this one that doesn't have a side bar, but there's two little buttons on the far right side that easily direct the reader to my other posts, so that works well. 

The New Literacies Needed for Success in the Creative Revolution of the Future

There was once a time when we heard the word "literacy" and thought simply of reading and writing. However, today, with the digital world taking us by storm, there are new literacies becoming apparent that aren't just for fun - they are a vital necessity for success in the modern world where digital creativity is a required skill set. It is indeed an exciting time as the art world continues to evolve and merge with technology!

There are six NEW LITERACIES that students and educators should take note of:

1. Digital (ability to seek, learn, organize, consume and create information online)
2. Media (ability to analyse, evaluate and create multimedia messages and products)
3. Social (ability to communicate within social media)
4. Digital Safety & Citizenship (ability to make safe and appropriate decisions online)
5. Information (ability to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information)
6. Visual (ability to interpret and create visual images that convey a message)

Why are these so important? Let me give you an example. Let's assume that you work for a company (most of us do) and they are planning a huge community event and everyone has to pull together to make that event successful. Let's say it is a fundraiser of some sort, as well. These days, you can't just ask your local newspaper to post an ad for it and be done! Your event will surely fail. Each new literacy comes into play to make this event a success. Here's how:

1. You have to choose a venue, caterer, DJ/Band, etc.  You will want to research different companies and read reviews. You will likely most easily find this information online! Doing this takes digital literacy. 
2. Then, while you are doing your online research, you might watch some videos and look at some photo galleries of these companies and their products. This will help you make a more informed decision. Though you might not realize it, doing this takes media literacy. 
3. Next, you might find yourself on some of these companies Facebook or Instagram pages. You will scroll around, look at photos, watch videos, read reviews and maybe communicate with them through instant messenger. You might even post on your own social media page asking your friends for their suggestions for who has the best bartender or roasts the yummiest pig! This all means you are socially literate. 
4. What you wouldn't do is tag a specific company in your Facebook post and say "ABC Catering SUCKS! I heard they spit in their food and serve left overs to people, #GROSS!" Also, you definitely wouldn't send a message with personal information to any sketchy companies that your uncle's best friend's sister's boyfriend runs out of his garage. Why wouldn't you do these things? Because you are literate in digital safety and citizenship and don't want to harm anyone, put yourself in danger or give yourself a bad reputation.  
5. You might not know how many people fit in the Great Banquet Hall, or what the proper etiquette is for invitations, but you aren't going to give up or cry about it. You will find out the answers thanks to the endless about of accessibility to information in our world. This is information literacy and it is awesome!
6. Lastly, you will design a creative theme for the party. You will create the invitations using an online photo editing application. You will create online events using matching images in all of your social media platforms. And, since you clearly have this visual literacy thing in the bag, you will upload that same image to an online party supply company who will create matching napkins and centerpieces to round out the theme.

Now, I want to expand on Visual Literacy a little bit. As a photographer and digital designer, I thought I knew a great deal about what options are available online. I was wrong! I never knew until today that there are apps for your computer. My life is changed! Today I downloaded two new photo editing apps from The Chrome Web Store. I created this meme with Fotor Photo Editor.

I also downloaded FotoJet - you have no idea how much this program is going to help me! I do all of the digital design for my church's events and have been starting from scratch in Photoshop which can be very time consuming. This app allows me to use templates for posters, invites, cards and so much more. They are beautiful! I can hardly believe this is free. Here's a quick poster I made using the app. It literally took me three minutes.

So, as you can see, just like with reading and writing, all of the new literacies are something that we will continue to develop as we engage in our changing world. I know I am a lifelong learner, and I hope you are, too. So, get out in that digital world and have fun creating new things, remixing old things to make them your own, communicating, inspiring and most importantly learning! These are the new literacies needed for success in the creative revolution of the future. 

Copyright & Fair Use... What's Up With That?!

Any creative person or consumer of creative things should have at least a basic knowledge of copyright and fair use, not only to protect others but to protect themselves. As a photographer, I've had to learn this the hard way. Here's a general breakdown of how to avoid copyright infringement and how to slow down sneaky thieves from stealing your work and claiming it as theirs. 

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According to dictionary.com, copyright is defined as: 

"The exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video, etc. Works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of the author or creator and for a period of 50 years after his or her death."

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So, in other words, the author/creator of something has the rights to copy (aka copyrights) his/her own work unless they give or sell those rights to others. period. If you, as a consumer, have not purchased or somehow obtained these rights (via a letter of permission, usually) to a piece of art, literature, music, etc. it is probably ILLEGAL, via Copyright Law, to alter, print, post, share or sell that work. Even if it is of you, such as in the case of photography. 

That's right! When you have family portraits done, you do NOT automatically have the rights to print those images... you agreed to this when you hired the photographer (it's an unspoken rule, though most photographers either explain it, have it in a contract, or have it detailed somewhere on their website). The photographer is the creator, and thus has the rights. Photos of your children? Same thing! You don't own those images unless you purchase them from the photographer (or get permission... in writing). You can't really do anything with the images without permission from the creator. period. You can't take a screen shot, upload it to Instagram, edit it and post it on Facebook, for example. Can you tell I've experienced this with my clients? ;-)

It's not their fault. By and large most people have no concept of how any of this could hurt someone. So, let me touch on a few things, specifically that photography clients, shouldn't do if they want to avoid... dun-dun-dun... breaking the law!

• Taking screenshots reduces the resolution of the image, creating a pixelated and low-quality photo. If anyone sees this blurry, unprofessional image, they think it came from the photographer like that, which doesn't help business.

• Editing photos yourself in a phone app or some other consumer-grade program creates a "homemade" editing appearance as well as further reducing the resolution. The photographer more than likely will be embarrassed - or, in my case, utterly humiliated - at the site of these because potential clients will not see the true quality and professionalism of the photographer and will instead see a joke!

• Sharing online without permission is a huge no-no. With the social media craze, this happens all the time and usually the artist doesn't even know! Always check first with your photographer because he/she will likely have a large resolution image that will look professional when posted for friends and family to see. This enhances the appearance of the artist's work and won't hurt their reputation.

• Printing at home will never look professional no matter what kind of printer or ink you have (unless you spend many thousands of dollars on building your own print shop). The drug store or local department store printers aren't much better, but us photographers realize this is sometimes the only option for families on a budget or in a time crunch. In this case, you will still need a letter of copyright release in order to have prints made, so discuss these options with your photographer.

• Avoiding communication with your photographer will lead to a waste of your time and money! If you are dissatisfied with the images that your photographer has created, talk to him/her about it. Any good photographer will want you to be happy and will re-edit the images, or if needed, schedule a follow-up session.  If they aren't cooperative, then talk to them about obtaining the copyrights to the images. Once you have the rights, you can do what you wish with them (may be limited to personal use, so get the details IN WRITING!).

Bottom line is this -- the artist knows their work the best. They can help you get the most out of their work while also maintaining a professional reputation for themselves. Don't embarrass or degrade someone else's skills and creative ability by taking matters into your own hands. GET PERMISSION! This goes for any type of creative work from poetry to music and from movies to literature and everything in between. Copyright protects the artist's work.

But then... There's this thing called "Fair Use" which says we can use some parts of others' creative works.... Say What???

There is a place where copyright law ends and public use begins. It is sometimes considered "fair" to use certain parts of someone else's creative work. Such as the case when students use small bits of information for research papers (as long as they use proper references), or when someone's art is being critiqued in a blog, or when a song is being rewritten as a parody or used in satire. As long as it isn't harming the original creator in any way and is giving credit where credit is due, it is often legal to use small pieces of another person's creation.

Again I will use my personal experience as a photographer. Now, there are people who purposely steal photographers images and post them online as their own. Because of this, I have to make sure every image I post online has my watermark in a location that would make it difficult for the person to photoshop out, and I have to keep the file sizes small so that if someone steals it, it won't be a good quality for them to use. I use other security measures, but I'll save that for another blog post. 

Today I want to talk about what happens when people copy my ideas... The short answer is NOTHING. I come up with lots of ideas for themed photography sessions (such as the "school days" theme below). Once I publish those images, someone else can take that idea and use it themselves. Copyright doesn't protect ideas because there is no way of tracking where ideas come from or who had them first. So, this is considered "fair use". 

While it can be frustrating for me as an artist to see someone copying my ideas, I am grateful that I can be inspired by other people's ideas without committing copyright infringement! Because, let's be honest, we all get our ideas from somewhere. We may think we came up with our own original idea, but ideas are just a compilation of previous inspiration and knowledge gained from other sources. And, as an artist at heart, I wouldn't want to ever copy someone else's work exactly, but I do love looking at Pinterest for new concepts and ideas.... so, really, how is that any different? Below is some of my newborn work which no doubt was inspired by something else I saw online at some point. The internet in general is the modern day epicenter for fair use! So go be inspired by what you find! Just make sure your work is yours, and that you treat other artists the way you'd want to be treated. 

According to New York Times Bestselling Author, Austin Kleon, there are no original ideas... so, "Steal Like an Artist!" Watch this video first, though. And tell me what you think in the comments :-)