NMI Student Show-Offs – Wednesday (12/5), 3:30P

We have been working on some crazy/wild/fun/innovative projects in the NMI this semester. On Wednesday (12/5) starting at 3:30P in the NMI Space (Room 412, Journalism) we are going to be showing off some of them. First up will be the projects from the Virtual Worlds class. You will be able to see and hear about how a group put together a series of Virtual Tailgates before UGA games (spirit wear, footballs, and snacks). Another group built a virtual version of Georgia’s Hospitality Highway (GA 400) – you can skydive, pan for gold, and experience a butterfly garden. The machinima group used Second Life to make a series of animated “films” – very cool. And in collaboration with the Music Business Certificate program a group put together a series of virtual concerts – in fact, you can see the NMI’s own Allison Weiss performing live in Second Life, then walk across the hall and see her in real life (I guess that is First Life, eh?).
After the Virtual Worlds projects, we will have an opportunity to learn about the student project in the NMI capstone class. This semester they worked on what we called the Converged Tourism Technology Platform (CTTP) – a way of bringing together media for computers, television, and mobile media into a single package to encourage tourism. This semester, the CTTP covered the communities and tourism attractions around GA 400. This year, Governor Purdue designated GA 400 the “Hopsitality Highway.” And before you start laughing, you really ought to check out all the stuff there is to do just a little off that road. We were all amazed.
These really are some fun projects. So join us.

Converged Tourism Technology Platform Presentation (Th, 12/6)

And I have a secret invitation to make to you as well. The Capstone students are also going to be presenting their Converged Tourism Technology Platform project on the Hospitality Highway in Alpharetta on Thursday (12/6) at 4P. Now this is a closed event but I have some passes that I can give you. If you are interested in attending, email me at sshamp@uga.edu. The event is going to be held at the Andretti Indoor Karting track in Alpharetta (http://www.andrettikarting.com/). Yep, that means go-kart racing! I plan on driving at least once. Remember, you mess with me and I’ll put you in the wall!

ICE Open House: Net Art – Th (11/29) 7P

On Thursday (11/29) at 7P in Room 101 of the Tanner Building, Ideas for Creative Exploration will be showcasing net art -- a form of cultural production that operates in and around the Internet. The showcase highlights the work of three artists.

Rick Silva is a visiting professor in digital media at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. Rick will show bits from his old (screenfull.net) and new (triptych.tv) collaborative net art work.
http://ricksilva.net
http://linkoln.net

Travis Hallenbeck (AB, Cognitive Science, 2004) will talk about 1-bit bitmaps as rubber stamps, monotimbral MIDI music, becoming an amateur virtuoso through heavy design constraints/rhythm, and the resulting virtual world.
http://www.anotherunknowntime.com

John Michael Boling is the creator of http://www.gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com, and is a founding member of Nasty Nets Internet Surfing Club. He is a recent graduate of the digital media program at the Lamar Dodd School of Art.

The event is free and open to the public.

New Media = Public Good -- NMIX 2020 Projects

Every fall semester I teach a large lecture class (about 25 students) called Intro to New Media (NMIX2020 – http://www.nmi.uga.edu/shamp/2020). This class is an absolute blast – we learn about a host of new technologies and have a lot of fun. For the final project, I divide students into teams and tell them they have to come up with a product. Then the whole class acts like a venture capital company and invests in the ideas. This semester the class had to come up with products that would serve the public good – as well as maybe making money. They have been coming up with some great ideas that have blown me away. Here are some of the ideas they have been presenting in class this week. And if you want to come hear about them they will be doing 12 minute presentations on Friday (11/30), Monday (12/4), and Tuesday (12/5) in Room 101 of the Student Learning Center.
• Safe.T.Net (http://eric4122.googlepages.com/safetynet) – a Facebook App for alerting campus about emergencies.
• InsuLend (http://www.lindyshoots.com/nmix2020/) a fashion diabetes wristband (in sharp colors) that tests glucose levels and uses Bluetooth.
• Transl8 (http://2020immigration.weebly.com/) a cell phone translation system to help new immigrants.
• SecondChance (http://www.secondchancesecondlife.org/) a domestic violence counseling system in the virtual world Second Life.
• BITtop (http://web.mac.com/gecsolutions) the Back In Time multimedia tablet that helps senior citizens download pictures and music.
• Food Health Alert (http://www.foodhealthalert.org/) a system that notifies consumers about food borne health dangers.
• iCare (http://pmclean.myweb.uga.edu/) is a wireless energy monitoring system that will help fight climate change.
• Election Island (http://capndurk.myweb.uga.edu/) is a virtual world portal for campaign and political info.
• Healthy Psyche (http://healthypsyche.blogspot.com/) provides an online identity-free way of sharing mental health experiences and resources.
• UNIFI/Fitbook (http://www.nutricomlabs.com/) is a wireless exercise assistant.
• Ikwit.org (http://ikwit.org/) a social network designed to help people quit smoking.
• STI (http://web.mac.com/elliottanderson/STI) Students Transmitting Information is a Facebook application designed to educate students about sexually transmitted infections.
• Yourasep (http://newmedia.co.nr/) a substance abuse education program in the virtual world Second Life.
• MOLR (http://www.molr.org/) My Online Legislative Resource is an online source of information about elected officials and campaign issues.
• moBAC (http://freewebs.com/mobac) the Mobile Blood Alcohol Content system is a Bluetooth device designed to stop underage drinking.

World AIDS Day (12/1) – watch the AIDS PPSAs

World AIDS Day is this Saturday, December 1st. The CDC estimates one million people in the US are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. There are 40,000 new infections occurring each year. AIDS is our generation’s number one health crisis.
In the New Media Institute, it isn’t enough to crank out technowledgeable students. We encourage them to explore the ways new media technologies and their newfound new media expertise can address important problems like AIDS. Our AIDS Personal Public Service Announcement project (http://www.nmi.uga.edu/AIDS_ppsa/) was an attempt to do just that. Bottom line, only when the non-doctors, the non-AIDS workers and non-HIV positive begin to care about this health challenge are we going to see things truly change.