It is the final day before the class presentation of my project and I am nervous but happy with what I have achieved.

Project Happy 2009 has achieved many things including user interaction and content generation, as well as creating a greater understanding of a social networking community and how this works to alter the way we communicate in a dynamic situation. Throughout DIGC101 this semester, these have been some of the key elements of Web 2.0 that we have focused on and I believe Project Happy successfully embodies them, and successfully attempts to explore them.

At the very last minute I linked the Project Happy 2009 Twitter account to Facebook, despite that account being largely static and I also generated my own content which I filmed whilst at the zoo one day. These two ideas could have been productive and important for Project Happy 2009 had I considered them earlier. It will be interesting for me to monitor the reaction to them beyond this project in order to increase my understanding of the internet.

One thing is for sure, my understanding of Web 2.0 has certainly increased. I have learnt the value of social networking sites in the process of encouraging sound knowledge communites, fandom, user-generated content and democratic access to information and the creation of information. These aspects have revolutionised the way we communicate and how we seek, create and source information for our own personal or public use. I have also discovered that participatory culture is not as easy to achieve as it is made out to be. Just because content is posted on the internet, does not necessarily mean it will be interacted with by users. A profile needs to possess aspects that distinguish it from other profiles and must contain interesting ideas, purposes and content in order to appeal to users. This is possibly where Project Happy 2009 did not perform as well, however, it did gain some level of participation within the network. In a way, Project Happy 2009 found a niche within the Facebook community and in order to reach a wider user base, a different focus for the project may have been required.

When analysing the entire process I can now understand the complexty of the internet and the way it has altered our world of communication and access to information.

Project Happy 2009: may your idea continue beyond the end of 2009 and far into the future!

STAY HAPPY EVERYONE! 

So this is the final week of Project Happy 2009 before it is submitted for marking and I am full of mixed emotions as to how well I have created an online presence.

On one hand I have shared content and created a site that is suitable for the purpose of my project. Through tagging, sharing content and encouraging interaction through personal conversation, some people have responded through the sharing and creation of their own content which is encouraging as it means they understand what Project Happy 2009 is all about.

On the other hand, my followes/fans has remained at a relatively constant level which is not impressive, but certainly not disappointing.

In this final week I want to increase the level of personal interaction with my fans and possibly even post my own content which I have created, despite stating I would stay clear of this earlier in the project. I believe my own content could be beneficial as it has not been viewed before, adds another dimension of personal to the site and could encourage the users to participate through comments and posting content of their own.

Spread the happiness guys!

An update on how my identity online is taking shape!

One of my friends explained to me that Facebook has now adopted the tagging element in status updates that Twitter is famous for and this could be very important for my project!

Tagging, as we explored in DIGC101, has the potential to increase awareness and traffic to a site as people who are friends with a person who is tagged will often view the content in which their friend was tagged. Tagging = greater views = greater interactiong with the site!

Tagging also functions on a personal level, allowing a person to contact another directly, making them feel more involved with the site and/or person. This is exactly what I think Project Happy 2009 will benefit from as it will allow me to connect with the fans personally without involving my private identity and it will encourage interaction. This embodies the key idea of Project Happy 2009 that could have been missing from the start. As I have said numerous times, happiness comes from making others around you feel some level of happiness and I was focusing more on producing content rather than seeking content. By tagging people I am encouraging interaction and allowing them to convey their thoughts, ideas and content which, in turn, could lead to a greater sense of fulfillment out of the site and possibly even greater happiness.

It’s time to put this idea into practice!

I have started to work on my Google site that will link all the areas of Project Happy 2009 together, and for a technologically-challenged person like myself it is a very difficult venture!

I have decided to add a more personal element to the Google Site as I believe this is essential for people to understand what makes me happy and why they should be happy too. I am continuing to keep myself removed from the Facebook site to the same extent as the beginning of the project so the Google site acts as the only source of content where images of me and personal information is contained.

I have also decided to introduce a new page on my Google Site, entitled “Just For You”. This page will contain some links to content that I believe will bring a smile to people’s faces, which is the first step to achieving a happy state of mind (the main concept of my project!!) I believe this connection with firmly founded sites such as YouTube will increase the level of authority in my project as YouTube is viewed as a strong and reliable place and it will encourage people to participate in my initiative to make the world a happier place through the simplest measures.

I have also consulted some friends who are avid ‘Facebookians’ about methods which I can apply to my site to make it more personal, in hopes that this will remove the static and industrialised image it is slowly beginning to adopt. I am in a bit of rut and I am unsure where to go from here in order to create the best online presence for my cause…

I have noticed that my site, to a large extent has become static and somewhat instiutionalised in the sense it sounds slightly removed from personal communication which I wanted to create!! HELP!!!

I am currently having two main problems with the progression of Project Happy 2009:

1. My lack of familiarity with fan sites such as this one means I am somewhat walking blind in an area I have never been associated with before. IT IS SO CONFUSING! I am attempting to create a site where people can share and engage in with content that conjures up feelings of happiness, however it seems my attempts are only resulting in minimal content-sharing and I am unable to see the amount of people actually viewing my site and the content so I cannot be certain about how many people are actually receiving my message about happiness. I’m not sure how to combat this problem. Should I change the type of content I am using? Should I risk involving my private identity with Project Happy 2009 to a greater extent? Am I not focusing on enough written content so people do not fully understand the purpose of Project Happy 2009? These are all ideas I will need to contemplate in order to (hopefully) counteract the lack of participation within the network of my site.

2. I am concerned that I am creating the wrong ‘voice’ for my project. Is it too happy or come across too young and ‘dumbed-down’? I am contemplating introducing more written content that allows my ideas to be represented more clearly to the audience and this will hopefully rasie awareness of the site and the users’ desire to participate in the site.

I am also aware that my site is not failing to create an online presence as a community is beginning to develop (despite how small it may be now) and some users are producing and sharing content of their own with the site including pictures and their own written thoughts. This is encouraging as this shows that some aspects of the site are working well to encourage people to share content that contributes to happiness! =)

I must continue to study the blogs and sites of other fan sites and bloggers such as danah boyd to gain ideas on what I can do to increase traffic to my site and user participation.

Geez this is more difficult than I thought.

This is something I came across in my search of YouTube. I believe it embodies a very important aspect of happiness; we are able to reach a happy state of mind when those around us who are of particular importance in our lives are happy themselves.

This is also a video that has been shared numerous times and is currently sitting on a grand total of views of 3, 918, 260. It could have the potential to attract views for my project due to its popularity.

This week I have focused on deciding what content is appropriate for my project and how I want to present it.

I have decided that I will focus on content sharing instead of creating my own content for two main reasons: 

1. Creating my own content has the potential to reveal aspects of my own personal identity opposed to the identity I am creating for Project Happy 2009. This would have two effects; firstly it could detract from the identity I am creating for Project Happy 2009 as people may take more interest in learning about me rather than the initiative and secondly my creative abilities are limited and could be misconstrued in the many-to-many context of the internet. 

2. I can benefit from already established content that comes from a popular site, such as YouTube, and is already popular in it’s own right. This embodies the concept of viral video, as I can capitalise on videos which will attract many views and potentially spread the message of my project that happiness is merely a smile away (DIGC101 Lecture Week 6)

I will be presenting to my audience images and videos that have already been created by others in hopes that these popular videos and images bring a smile to people’s faces and encourage user participation through the exchange of this content between other fans (and maybe even non-fans) who may not have seen the content at the present time.

Now to go searching for my content! Wish me luck!

After the DIGC101 lecture in Week 5 and my exploration of the various social networking sites I have elected to employ in my project, I am beginning to reconsider which SNS will be most suitable for my web project.

In the lecture the idea of a ‘collective identity’ was discussed and this appears to be the identity that I am attempting to create online. My web project relies on people becoming ‘fans’ and ‘followers’ of my sites in order for my message about happiness to be successfully received and adopted, and so I need to generate content and a site which allows for the ‘circulation, exchange and transaction’ of my idea of happiness (DIGC101 Lecture Week 5).

After reading Nicole Ellision and Charles Steinfeld’s work entitled ‘The benefits of Facebook ‘Friends’: Social Capita and College Students’ Use of Online Social Networks’ I understood that Facebook was the site that provides the greatest benefit to my initiative as it has a high rate of user participation and provides me with the option of connecting my own personal profile to the profile of Project Happy 2009, thereby increasing my potential audience.

Facebook is also beneficial for my project as it is a space where content is freely created and shared and links to other sites can be divulged in a very public manner. This idea that I can make my project ‘public’ is essential to the development of Project Happy 2009 as my ideas need to be in a public sphere in order for the greatest amount of reception of the ideas to occur. Facebook has a ‘suggestions’ area which can show users what their friends have ‘become fans’ of which could encourage people to explore Project Happy and become fans of the project themselves.

I, therefore, have decided to discontinue my use of MySpace and limit my use of Twitter as Facebook has improved on both of these Social Networking Sites. Facebook gives me the interpersonal communication and content sharing of MySpace and the instant updates and verbal communication that Twitter offers it’s users.

FACEBOOK HERE I COME!

Today, Project Happy has taken a step forward in its production process!

I’ve begun searching for followers on Twitter and increased the number of Tweets I am sending (however this number and the creativity of them will need to continue increasing). Hopefully by increasing my followers I will manage to increase people’s awareness of the Project and use the account to direct people to my blog and the official Facebook site.

I have also created a MySpace and Facebook account today, as social networking sites are particularly famous for the level of participation in groups similar to mine. So far my MySpace account is bare and I am therefore not directing people to the account yet (it is my aim to design a profile in great detail over the next week and then work on increasing the traffic flow to the profile). I have decided that the MySpace account will mostly be used to direct people to the Facebook profile, therefore establishing the Facebook profile has taken priority.

The profile on Facebook is connected to my personal account as this allows me to connect with people instantly and gain a small following before expanding beyond my own network of people. So far I have gained 10 fans of the Project Happy initiative, however I am hoping this will increase as I continue to post on walls and update my status. Surprisingly I have already found that people are already interacting with the profile, as one fan uploaded their own happiness photo to the profile.

I am aiming to continue to develop the designs of the profiles and continue to search for ways to increase my following over the next week. For now, I wish you a HAPPY day, from Project Happy!

Happiness through technology: yes it is possible! How reassuring for my project! =)

But on a serious note, this represents to me the importance of user-generated content on the internet and the values it can present to the global knowledge community. Something as simple as an image can represent a complex concept to many internet-users in dynamic context of the internet, in particular social networking sites (DIGC101 week 2 lecture)

I hope Project Happy 2009 can achieve what this image achieves so simply!