::shrugs coyly::

http://viralevolution.cias.rit.edu/spreadTheFire/
Don’t really feel like putting in more than that.

whoops, forgot to post a link for Workflow.

jck9604.cias.rit.edu/workflow/upload.html

John’s Assessment of Online Advertising

With the advancement of computers, internet, and internet speeds, it’s no mystery as to why online advertising is become more involved.  Like everything that’s advanced, it’s quickly been necessary to produce higher and higher quality pieces to catch the eye, and the mouse, while users surf the internet daily.  Banners have turned into short games, recently, for example, whereas before they were simply still pictures or animated gifs.  Instead, they invite the user to do something fun, like get Santa drunk and then rapidly click the button to beat Mrs. Claus.  A big problem that I find with these is that you’re rewarded whether you win or lose, so it’s kind of one of those things you learn once and then ignore the banners for the rest of your life.  Banners which contain video have become do-able as well, with all the high-speed internet running around.  “Roll over the move for fullsize.”  These provide eye candy, which I suppose is one of the main purposes of banner ads, but can sometimes be overwhelming or simply annoying.  Not to mention they use my internet lines.  Pop-ups have, of course…. well, pop-ups don’t really exist anymore, and I think we’re all happy of that.
The meat and potatoes, or the advertising that really matters, is the personalized stuff.  Viral marketing that sends stuff right to your digital doorstep.  The reason this actually works is because (A) it’s created to be fun, and (B)it’s created to not be annoying.  Especially when it involves user creation.  This allows the user to interact with the piece in depth and actually make something they can laugh at or be proud of before passing the link on to someone else.  The M&M’s creator is a good example of this (http://www.becomeanmm.com/) which of course, you’re probably familiar with.  Another form of viral marketing that I particularly enjoyed was an advertisement for a show called Dexter.  The show deals with serial killer of some kind, and the site (http://icetruck.tv/) allows you to enter in information as if it was sent by the killer, such as a note written in blood.  You then send it to the friend who’s information you added, and it sends them to a youtube-esque page, which describes in a news report format, information on a killer.  By using the information you supplied it, it impressively overlays text on the video, so it seems as if the killer is after that person.  Immediately after the video ends, that person is then given the same options to send to another friend.  Either way, viral marketing is made to involve the user in creating something, usually.
One downside of this interactive advertising is that users are sometimes forced into doing things they don’t want to in order to receive the information they desire.  For example, my roommate is constantly annoyed by having to work in an interactive website.  This is the side-effect of the incredibly simple designs of today’s GUI’s.  People have become used to having to do almost no work to get results.
Advertising solutions like viral marketing are much more expensive, which is one of the reasons they’re much rarer.  This is actually a good thing, I think.  If you received ninety-eight emails a day from people suggesting that you “make your own hobo!” or “Bob sent you a digital ottoman!” it would probably get equally annoying as the banner ads and you’d soon have Viral AdBlocker X installed on your computer.
Either way, online advertising is rapidly becoming a big part of marketing, most likely because of the popularity of the internet as well as one of the only marketing devices that allow people to interact with, and become interested in, the product.  Where it will go, I can’t predict.  I will prophesize that it becomes enormous, though.

jck9604.cias.rit.edu/dpd/covalent/covalent.html

version 1 is up and ready with a new design and everything.

My redesigned comp. Everything minimalized into one page with a simple design.

It’s one of those magical moments where I upload my comps. Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair… because they’re pretty bad.

After much thought, I’ve decided to go with a user-generated story, where people can upload sections of a story to add to the overall tale. As an added bonus, I’m going to attempt to set up the drawing API in order to allow these users to also add illustrations to go with their writings. Here’s hoping I can actually pull this off.

Oh my God, I have no idea what to write. I just went through 4 completely different drafts of this one blog. Maybe I’ll change this later, but for now this is as good as it gets.