It LIVES!!!

The PV site has gone live already thanks to Adrian’s handiwork and existing server. Initially I was having problems because I didnt know what to do with the ftp – and because of that I didnt know where to put the additional plugin files. After class yesterday, it only took Adrian two seconds to show me what to do and now everything is peachy again. All I needed to do was download an FTP client, plug in all the details for the live site and I’d be able to mess around the site like usual. The only difference is that instead of being just the PV personas on the site, Adrian and I have accounts too so we can see how people can interact within the site. We have yet to try the intersite mailing system, though.

I’ve realised I havent really been blogging my work. It’s because there hasnt really been much work done to blog about. It gets really tough to do work when you have to play tour guide all the time. Now that the cousins have left, I think everything should be back to normal. No more distractions. Well, there will always be distractions, I’ll just have to learn to prioritise.

I need to just go through all the comments that Adrian left on my Draft Lit Review which I got back on Tuesday and tease out all the problems that he had with it(and there were quite a few). I think when he was talking about people being careless with grammar and spelling, he was talking about me :S. hahahaah. I know I get that way so it’s all good.

I need to get back to the routine of doing my readings, analysing and trying to see how it fits into the bigger picture. As good as technology is, I think I might have to start using pen and paper again (after listening to Michael Dunbar’s talk). I’ll probably get a lot more done (minus the writing time) and it would probably mean a lot more to me. The reason why I chose to document everything through typing was because I thought I’d be able to get a lot more written down in a shorter time frame.

In the class yesterday, Adrian talked about the iterative process.

I think I already follow this process to an extent. In my study, there are two sets of iterative processes. One would be for the PV site itself and the other would be for the actual research practice.

With the PV site (or the more ‘hands on’ research, the experimentation process would be the actual building and trial and error with the applications on the site. The reflecting part of the process would be where I try it out for myself, show other people (such as peers or the supervisor) and gain feedback. This is the part where I try to tease out any potential problems with the existing layout or functionality of the site. After every aspect has been looked at, I’d have to decide whether it worked or not. In the engaging part of the process, I’d have to use the research that I’ve done external to building the site and try to analyse why and how a function in the site worked. (ie if it didnt work, why and how can we make it work. If it did work, why did it work and do we need to make it better?) This process would have to take place many times over to get the best possible outcome in the short time that is allocated.

With the actual research, the experimentation process involves a lot of reading and the documentation of ideas as I read. When I reflect, I try to pick out the more important points and look at how the points associate with each other. Yesterday’s class taught me that I had to expose my work to peers so as to gain invaluable feedback. I’d be able to use my blog to explain my work and visitors would be able to leave feed back there. In the engaging process, I try to find out how these important points fit in relation to the subject/ project and check if it works/serves the main objective of the project. This is where I apply what I’ve learned and see how everything fits together. There is also the why and how questions that I’d have to ask myself with relation to whether or not ideas work together. This process has to be done 2 to 3 times

General feedback for Draft Lit Review :S (I guess it’s self explanatory)

Must…blog…somemore…

After my meeting with Adrian yesterday, I felt quite happy about having been able to set up the Elgg site (of course there were a myriad of problems ranging from not being able to use the wireless on my laptop to not being able to access the site). After we got all that sorted, we had a discussion about the actual functionality of the site.

My task for this week is now to set up the actual site for PV, create 5 test subjects – create background stories for them, throw in an ‘observer’ who has a search criteria in mind and analyse the lot. I’m glad as part of the discussion, we came up with a framework on how the relationships between the test subjects were supposed to look like because I didnt really know what sort of structure the test had to take. This framework made things so much easier to envision. I now can think of these test subjects as real people and analyse their problems in using this social media site as though they were real people using the site.

I’m really excited to get started with the actual building up of the site, however, I’m trying my hardest not to touch it until I’ve got my Draft Literature Review all sorted out. So yup, nothing till after Friday. I really need to get the Draft Lit Review done by Friday!!!!

Also, because I havent been blogging as consistently as I’d like to, Adrian suggested that I should try using a program called Ecto – a learning software. I’ve already created an account but I have yet to test it out. This is supposed to be able to link up with WordPress so I can blog from there instead of WordPress. To be honest, I dont see how it is any different from blogging from WordPress because I’d still have to open a page to post that I wouldn’t normally open unless I wanted to make a direct post. He suggested this because I mentioned that I was using Word to document all the steps that I took to create the Elgg page. I think I just dont really know how to use Ecto yet that’s why I seem so unsure about using it. Anyways, I think I need to start getting work done for this Friday’s due date. I really should stop procrastinating now.