What is copyright?

Copyright is a law that protects any form of artistic work including literary, musical, sound recording, etc. from being reproduced without the permission of its original owner.

Why is there a copyright?

Copyright acts as a moral right towards an original work or artwork giving them exclusive rights; also to let people create many more expressive works that benefit society.

Larry Lessig’s TED talk:

In Larry Lessig’s TED talk, he wonderfully presents the ideas on how to bring about a balance between the copyright laws and the remix culture of the new generation. Copyright law is good to some extent, personally, I would not want someone else to take credit for my work. But there is always a line that needs to be drawn to what extent the law takes can act upon. There is nothing wrong with taking original content and using it to transform it into something amazing as long as they don’t just copy-paste the original work. The idea behind that sort of transformation and remixes is still something that needs to be appreciated. The digital world needs more of that sort of remix culture and not worry constantly about a law that you may break knowingly or unknowingly.

 

 

Reflection Blog Of My CT101 Journey – Arrivederci!

It’s that bittersweet moment where I have to bid farewell to CT101 and Professor Ryan. It sucks that the semester has come to an end but I have to be very honest in saying that I’m quite relieved. It has been a difficult one and the workload was ridiculous but CT101 was the diamond in the rough! As a senior graduating, writing this final reflection blog post seems like a full circle moment not just for this class but my last semester. I must admit that I struggled with assignments and overall school which isn’t a normal thing for me but mental health issues are very much real.

     

Looking Back  . . .

At the beginning of this class, I did not know much about digital editing, websites, or even making memes/gifs. I have, however, learned new skills that I can’t wait to keep utilizing. I am an avid meme collector so now I can add meme creator to my skill set. My very first blog post was not the best, to be frank. I enjoyed writing and expressing myself and picking cool videos and memes to use but the format, layout, and overall style were disorganized and I decided to leave it that way instead of making changes as a reminder of where I started. My second blog post though was beautifully done in my opinion 🥺. I found a better flow for my media and my storytelling. I even got to create my own meme with one of my favorite shows “enchantment” which was fun, I thoroughly loved doing that. My third blog was equally done well and had a good balance of media.

By the fourth blog post I feel like it wasn’t as exciting as my others. I was pleased with the assignment and my results with that. I learned how to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I had to teach myself but I would never think of doing so if it wasn’t for this course.

By the time the midterm came I had learned a lot already and reflecting on that, I can see how I grew in terms of writing much lengthier blog posts.

What did you enjoy about our class and how you will apply your new skills to the world? 

For one thing, I can say I learned how to write a blog and tell my story, thoughts, and ideas in a digital journal. Every week a new skill was taught and it challenged me to push myself creatively to figure out what do I really want to showcase and share with the class. I look forward to building my website more, adding more features and widgets, writing more blogs, embedding more content from social media, and hopefully share that with friends and family.

Were there difficulties? 

Yes! Of course. I’m no expert and I found some things quite challenging. Picking domain names for one wasn’t as easy as it would seem. Keeping up with blog posts was not as easy as well. I admit I fell off at certain times but I feel like I put a lot of effort into ensuring that when I completed my assignments they were thoughtful and to the best of my abilities.

We Have A Website! We Have Landed Earthlings!

My website took a while to be born but when she finally landed it was worth the extra time and effort.  My website –> https://thereslifeoutside.com I am very proud of her, what she stands for and how far she has come.

Into the Universe, We Go!  –> This website was created as a tiny speck in the multiverse that is the internet for the purpose of showcasing everyday life and interest. A place where people can gather to bond over shared intrigue. I hope this space I have carved out brings someone laughter, happiness, or peace in any form.

       

Building my website was not easy and it took a lot of trial and error to figure out what I wanted, what worked, and what I wanted to share. The lab videos provided much help in maneuvering the basic features and I got to a point where I just played around with the customization until I settled on something I loved! For example, I really toyed around with the site identity, background, and color pallet for a while. I wanted catchy slogans and quotes, I wanted the page to look trippy! I think I achieved that and it was a hassle to get it to that point. Below are some snippets of my website I hope you like it!

Will you maintain and keep up your new website? If so, how? If not, Why not?

I will most definitely maintain my website. I put a lot of hard work and effort into it and I want to continue sharing my blog post on everyday things. I have big ideas in store for where I would like to take this website next. I have ideas on future content such as talking about sneakers and other conspiracy theories, much more stuff about space and astrology and I’d like to keep customizing it.

My website so far has a few blog posts and I think my favorite has to be the one about the impact of social media. I embedded really cool tweets from Twitter that gave me a good laugh. I also added a photo gallery because I’d like to upload pictures of space and other interesting topics from Tumblr (giving credit of course to the creators).

Creating a website isn’t easy but Professor Ryan made it such a fun experience and with ups and downs I managed to create something I truly love. It has given me a new hobby to continue over the summer. Thank you☺️!

What Grade? Let’s See . . .

I feel like I have not been the best with my assignments in terms of chronologically keeping up (this semester kicked my butt!) but I have completed all my assignments but more importantly, I think I produced really great quality content. I have tried my best to showcase the skills I learned every week. I also try my best to sit and write really detailed blog post and I hope it reflects. I think looking at where I started to where I am now I have made great improvements and for that, I think I deserve an A.

With that being said, I’d like to bring this final blog post to an end. I can’t thank you enough professor for this course. It was really one of the best courses I have taken in all my years at York. It not only allowed me to be creative, have a digital journal, make my own website but at my own pace, and in the times we are in right now that is deeply appreciated! With that, I bid you farewell and enjoy your summer break!

   

Adios Amigos!

The Nissan 400z has been picked for week two. Please leave a comment for the rival car http://speedspectech.net/.

Here are some fun racing clips

 

The best part of CT101 so far. Yes, registering my own website. The whole process of registering and deciding my domain name was a great experience indeed. I finally ended up choosing iamanju.com as my domain name.

Most of my domain name choices were available so it was really hard to choose one. So I decided to stick with a general domain name. One reason why I didn’t want to narrow it down to a specific website was that I might plan to change the contents in the future as said earlier I have lots of ideas going on. I have a few ideas that are juggling around my head but not fully satisfied with. But right now my plan is to work on the idea I already started with which is to make a new series of blogs filled with interesting and fun facts. It is kind of educational, interesting and fun at the same time. You can call it a science blog if you want to. But yeah I love to research things like this so I thought why not write about it? But nothing is permanent, if I get a better plan on what to do with my website in the future I will surely switch to it. And that is my current plan!! Until then…

First off congratz to everyone for owning their own websites. Yayyy!! Each website was so unique and interesting and some were mindblowing. The two websites that mainly caught my eyes were: Bazán and Breanna Rowe.

Bazan’s website Mono Pillowtalk was one of the best and stood out for me. I enjoyed reading her short stories. My favorite story was Wallflowers, Sunflowers & Petals. They were so well written with the perfect titles. I wish I could write like that! Also, loved the way she decorated it, giving it an aesthetic feel. It was a beautiful website overall. Really enjoyed it and had a great time navigating around the site.

The second one was Breanna Rowe’s Brees brunch. I love Brees brunch because I am personally a foodie who also enjoys reading and watching cooking blogs/vlogs. On her website, she posts brunch recipes and I am down for it!  Love her french toast for the most recipe and looking forward to more amazing recipes!

Heyyyy Guys! I have a new blog post all about copyright. Not the most exciting but this blog post is quite interesting and I liked putting together different pieces to make this post come together. Please let me know what you think. Any feedback? How do you feel about copyright?

Copyright, What is it ? It’s Important? More Than Just Law?

I finally made a new blog post and I am really happy with this one! Check it out, I think you guys would enjoy the tweets I have embedded! Feedback? Thoughts? What do you think about saw and final destination? Welcome, Earthlings!  👽🌎✨🖖🏽🛸

Discovering Other Websites / Impact of Social Media

 

Looking back at this semester, if I had to guess where I’m going in the near & far future, it’s going to be wherever my skills will propel me. This class has shown me that I’m not as crazy as I thought I was for awhile and all I ever needed was the knowledge and tools combined with the right outlets. Harnessing the skills I’ve learned here in CT101 and marrying them with my other classes, I can say I have a clearer picture of my future now than I did at any other point in my life.

 

Going back to my introduction post which to me could not be more dry, I say to you, “hey we all gotta start somewhere”. If I had to sum up this semester from both an academic and personal hurdle stand point. I’d say I’m somewhere between…

And…

 

At the time of this writing I don’t know my final grade. But if I had to guess, I would refer you back to my Mid semester assessment post where I outline what I feel I’ve earned and why.

What did you enjoy about our class and how you will apply your new skills into the world?

My greatest joy from the class came from making memes and gifs that fit my narratives and/or perspective. The right meme/gif is like that perfect pair of shoes to a suit, or better yet, the punchline to a perfectly setup joke. I tried to tap into that with my first gif post. Click on the one below to see what I mean.

 

Will you maintain and keep up your new website? If so, how? If not, Why not?

I definitely plan on keeping & maintaining  my website. Over the summer, not only will I take it upon myself to continue to tinker with the customizing of it. I look forward to the moment when being the administrator of my website makes me feel like…

 

But I’m also changing my minor to journalism to give myself the perfect outlet to do one of the things I’ve always wanted to. I made a video for another class stating that.

I really want to expand on this video lol. But I also really look forward to reading my new book over the summer.

 

Confronting, attacking, dissecting, and maybe even presenting solutions to all the issues plaguing American culture and humanity is something I look forward to attempting.  From my perspective…A Strange Perspective.

At this point in time in the  semester, I have learned details about memes and giphy . I would always see , use and most definitely share laughs and togetherness through expressions via social media thru meme sharing. I can say I never once looked into the history  of memes or the journey of it’s progression. However, if I had known creators were making large sums of money , I would have changed my career  direction much sooner. I look forward to learning more about “domains” and ” website creating, because it is clearly  the future of internet conversation. Originally , I took this class with the intentions of learning more tips and trick of how to use different programs on a computer , but when Professor Seslow began talks of building my own website I completely drew a blank.

Now that time has passed , paying attention during virtual learning I was able to understand the direction of “CT101 Digital Storytelling”. Honestly what helped me most is the recordings and direct emails to the professor and his attentiveness to my emails.  I do however believe I’ve done a decent job of keeping up, in hopes of receiving a passing grade in this course.

 

After some slight confusing , I finally decided what my website will be dedicated for. I find in such chaotic times, people fail to take time for them self. Living in the city that never sleeps, New Yorkers have adapted to living on the go. With my website, I invite anyone interested in  becoming more mindful with addition to tips and trick of how to slow down.

In the meantime , please check out this YouTube video to give  an idea of the direction of the website.

 

Farewell

I remember the first day of class, when we all met the professor and realized just how great this course was going to be. Months later I still feel the same way and am happy with all of the work I have completed thus far.

What have I learned?

In this class I have learned many things regarding my blog posts and ways to customize the different aspects of my website.

Since the beginning, we have been practicing how to make our work more engaging either by inserting a few relatable GIFs in between our paragraphs or links to different videos and articles about a topic.

My overall creativity has grown and I see myself making different design choices that I am impressed that I’m able to make.  I feared that I wouldn’t be able to make an appealing website due to my lack of creativity in the past, but this course has definitely helped me with that.

What grade do I think I’ve earned?

I believe that so far in this class, I have earned anywhere between a B and an A-. This is mostly because I have always tried to put out creative blog posts each week that really brought out whichever new WordPress feature we were tinkering with.

I haven’t always been as active on my classmates other posts however, so that may end up hurting my grade more than I am anticipating. I do look at my peers’ work for guidance on how they completed certain assignments or for inspiration that I could use to enhance my own posts, but I just haven’t commented on much of their work.

Other than that, I feel like I have been doing pretty well in the class and have been staying on top of everything.

What did you enjoy about our class and how you will apply your new skills into the world?

The thing I enjoyed about our class was how high spirited it was. Each week we came in felt never felt like a chore and I somehow looked forward to attending the lesson. We also always learned something new that I would be able to use in order to better my web designing skills, so that was also something to look forward to.

In the future, I hope to apply the skills I have learned from this course to the websites that I will design in the future. I plan on finishing my major in Communications Technology and bein able to design sites for myself or any businesses/customers that may want to hire me.

Will you maintain and keep up your new website? If so, how? If not, Why not?

I will try to maintain my website as best as possible for the remainder of the subscription that we were given earlier on in the course. There’ll be many more cuts that I perform on myself that I’ll be taking pictures of, and that site can be the perfect place to store them all. I’ll be able to come back to it whenever I want to look back on my haircutting journey and how much my technique has transformed.

My Website

I decided to name my website Cuts By Juss ( I know, catchy right?). Its supposed to focus on the different haircuts I have done in the past and the ones that I’ll perform on myself in the future.

Here is the link to my website: https://cutsbyjuss.com/

You can see on the home page that I have uploaded many of the assignments from our CT 101 course on the site just to populate it a bit more. I have it separated by categories from my content related to Haircuts and the Waves Hairstyle.

I even have a photo gallery ( shown above) where I keep some of the pictures from previous cuts.

I was also able to link my Instagram directly onto my contact page so people visiting the site can look at some of my posts.

Something that I’m happy about figuring out was adding a piece of music to my website footer that anyone who visits can play just by scrolling to the bottom and clicking it.

The process of building that website wasn’t exactly frustrating, but intimidating. Having to learn how to utilize these different systems and aspects of customization isn’t easy, and it took me a while to understand exactly how I was going to organize everything.

After sitting down and gathering my ideas for a bit, I found a place for everything that I needed to include on my site and I am very pleased with the outcome of it all.

Overall, I am glad that I have taken this course and am excited for the future courses in the Communications Technology major that will help take what I have learned to the next level!

 

 

 

 

A reflection of my semester in CT101:

 

Final Course Reflection Blog Post:

Before this class, I was a very nervous if I’d be able to keep up because I had no background in this area, but Prof. Seslow does an awesome job making this class easy to understand.  His process has allowed me to not only keep up but to relax enough to be my authentic self and show my personality in these creative assignments.  I’m no filmmaker yet, but I can now make a mean meme, gif and so much more. 😃

A recap of what I’ve learned in CT101 & reflection/assessment of grade earned:

I’m still have a lot more to learn before I’ll feel confident in setting up my own website and getting it to look cosmetically the way I’d like, but from where I started prior to the class having no background in this area of study to now, I feel I’ve earned a solid A.

I feel I earned this grade because from where I started having little to no knowledge of creating gifs or memes, adding media and captions, registering a domain name and host set up and WordPress install, setting up and customizing my very own website, working with blog navigation menus, widgets and adding plug-ins, working with blog pages, categories and even setting up a Twitter and IG account and embedding content from those sites and cross posting them into my blog and adding hyperlinks…this was all a foreign world to me prior to this class and now I can figure it out somewhat on my own now or by referring to Prof. Seslow’s video tutorials.

This kind of technological wizardry made me really nervous about it before this class, and now I’ve done it all with Prof. Seslow’s help.  I feel good about it and think sticking to it even when I had anxiety about some of the tasks and seeing it to completion has earned me an A. 😃

What did you enjoy about our class and how you will apply your new skills into the world?:

I think the thing I’ve learned the most is everything in this class, how to make a gif, a meme, how to arrange them on the blog with narrative so that it flows and it pleasing to the eye, to keep all the images uniform size.  There’s not one thing I’d say I’ve learned the most.  It’s all been equally beneficial.

Likewise, what I enjoyed about our class is the same, everything that I have learned that I can now use even after the class is over for personal or business purposes, which is pretty exciting. 😃

Will you maintain and keep up your new website? If so, how? If not, Why not?:

I was taking an Online Journalism class this semester, so CT101 came in handy with helping me learn tools to create online news stories with my new website for the class.  I even figured out how to make a pretty nice 5 photo slideshow with detailed captions for my Online Journalism class.  My Online Journalism professor even asked if he could use my slideshow project to show the class to give them ideas for their project.  That made me feel pretty good.  I feel the tools I learned in CT101 gave me the skills to maneuver around WordPress to make a pretty nice slideshow.  That’s something I’ll take with me for my future classes and even my personal projects outside of school. 😃

My new website link URL, successes, frustrations, and an over-all assessment of building and having a website:

My domain name for my new website is “Sankofa Talk”.   My website link URL is https://sankofatalk.com/.

As of now, my new website is still pretty bare as I’ve only used it for CT101 assignments and news article assignments related to my Online Journalism class.  Because my new website was created at a time that I really needed it for my Online Journalism class, I decided to keep it simple for now and just use the website for school purposes.

I did have some struggles deciding on a background or theme to use for my home page.  These cosmetics will probably come to me when I decide what I actually want to use it for beyond school.

However, what I found pretty successful was navigating around my new website since it is WordPress and operates similarly to Commons, particularly the dashboard which was helpful.  Because this is my very first website, my indecisiveness in how to set it up can be pretty frustrating, but again, I think once I decide what I really want to do with it, ideas will come to me.

Over the summer I definitely plan to play around with my new website and spruce it up.  I’m still not exactly sure what I want to use it for but I have some ideas, which is exciting. 😃

This class has been really rewarding and more than I could have asked for.  The tools I learned are invaluable and can assist me creating a website even for business purposes which is great.  I’m saddened that the class is over but glad I now know these new tools thanks to Prof. Seslow, an awesome teacher.

 

What is copyright?

Copyright is a form of protection obtained by owners of creative/original work that ensures other people won’t try to take their ideas. The law allows the owner of a work to also determine how other people can use it.

 

Why is there copyright?

Copyright exists so that working people like artists looking to promote their latest work or a company spokesperson coming up with slogans won’t have their ideas and work stolen and posted by another. This gives people security over the work that they have done, while also allowing for others to get just a glimpse at it.

 

How much should users of the web think about copyright as you and others share, re-share, and remix content on the web?

It’s very important that for people to keep copyright in mind when using other peoples’ content on the web, especially for sharing, re-sharing, and re-editing the work. If the owner decides to take action against you for doing so, you can be fined for a large sum of money and potentially get time in prison depending on how bad the violation is. People trying to remix content on the internet should always try to get the permission for the work’s originator, or simply credit them towards the end of the video/post/etc.

 

What is fair use?

Fair use is a doctrine that allows people to use brief excerpts of copyrighted material for a limited and “transformative” purpose without having to first get permission from its owner. Everything should be fine long as large chunks of the original content aren’t being included and it’s clear that the person using the work isn’t violating the originator’s copyright.

 

Assignment Option #1

“These tools of creativity have become tools of speech. It is a literacy for this generation. This is how our kids speak. It is how our kids think. It is what your kids are as they increasingly understand digital technologies and their relationship to themselves.”

– Lerry Lessig

I find this quote from Larry Lessig’s talk compelling because it reminds us of the importance of this technology, especially in the future generations’ lives. All of the children raised in the near future are going to be interacting with technology and the media, which is why Lessig says that these copyright laws should lay off of people a bit and allow people to show their creativity.

 

Copyright and Fair Use

A. How much should users of the web think about copyright as you and others share, re-share, and remix content on the web?

After watching both Larry Lessig’s and Andy Baio’s videos, I now think web users should definitely think about copyright before sharing, re-sharing and remixing content on the web.  Neglecting copyright laws and asking the original artist permission to use their content and paying the appropriate fees to use the content could find those sharing original content being sued or settling out of court and paying huge amounts of money.

B. What is fair use?

Fair use, in lamens terms is the ability to use copyrighted material for the narrow purposes of parodying, commenting or remixing without needing the copyright owner’s permission.

Though, remixing original content falls under fair use, it is still wise to think before acting to prevent copyright infringement and being sued.

The quote that I found compelling by Larry Lessig is “UGC (user generated content), spreading in businesses in extraordinarily valuable ways like these (i.e. YouTube , flickr, Revver, etc.), celebrating amateur culture by which I don’t mean amateurish culture, I mean culture where people produce for the love of what they’re doing and not for the money”.

I liked this quote because technology makes remixing and transforming original content into something up to date and new, whether remixing dance music for the love of it for a party, whether using a movie or tv image you love to print on a t-shirt, or remixing a tv or movie clip with different music behind it for fun.  We see this all the time.  And most times these content creators aren’t sued, but it makes you wonder, have they created a space where they can be sued?  It’s a lot to think about after watching Larry Lessig’s and Andy Baio’s videos. 😮