I heart New Zealand

...And finally i just wanted to share some of my very wet, very green, very beautiful family trip to New Zealand in late september...

Here is a map of our driving trip


View Larger Map

We hired a great, cheap, bit rough but still good car from Ace Rentals, $200AUD for 9 days!!

We started in Auckland - Rotorua - Napier - Wellington - Whakapapa Village (aka MORDOR) then back to Auckland. We usually drove for 4+ hours at a time.

Things I noticed:

-How it would have been a lot handier to have a car with a bigger engine that could drive up mountains faster that 15km per hour!

-How great their coffee was (!!), and how they ALWAYS put in 2 shots of coffee as the norm.

-That having soy milk in your coffee was not frowned upon, but embraced in small towns.

-That everything was SO CHEAP (i like this one a lot).

-How green everything was - it was rather overwhelming, my eyes were struggling to recognise every different shade of it.

-Instead of a million red light cameras they have a million police cars waiting by the side of the freeway.

-A freeway is not a freeway, its a motorway.

-That not everyone wore black and that people actually smile...

-That it rains...A LOT, no really A LOT!

A few pretty photos to snoop at:


Lake Rotorua - Misty morning


Rotorua Museum - An old bath house


Napier -Art Deco town


Wellington houses


Whakapapa Village


Snow on a volcano


And Auckland

I did really like New Zealand, and would love to see the south island next time!!

*All photos are authors own

Blueprint failure

I recently read about the Blueprint Music Festival which has been declared a complete and utter failure with the founders now being hounded for thousands of unpaid dollars. I thought this was a really good example of when things turn bad in arts organisations and could hear all the recent lectures in my head.

So, the website seems promising and professional, the founders on the ball enough, good bands, good idea. "Trying to start a new trend in Australian music festivals!" I say fair enough, yes i am sick of the overpriced, over crowded, toilet overflowing festivals too.

Here is an article on loudnlocal promising an amazing experience.

And here is their MySpace page, again full of promises...

The Blueprint Festival was developed by two young brothers, Tristan, 23, and Aaron, 20 Gray of Mitcham. And after reading several articles about what went wrong and why, I do honestly feel for these guys. I think they genuinely wanted to do something different, fun and amazing.

However , as one of the brothers stated:

'I've got nothing, I've got no job, I've got nowhere to live. My life is ruined,'' To those he has left owing money, he said: ''I'm sorry … I never thought it would turn out like this.''

(From The Age article)

I feel really bad for these guys!!!

Some further reading includes:

-The Age "An unintended blueprint for a festival fiasco"

-The Courier "Blueprint Music Festival organisers fail to pay Ballarat bands"

and written a couple of days later,

- The Courier "Blueprint Music Festival organisers pay some bands"

From my understanding the brothers are now in hiding as they owe many people a lot of money and have no assets and no money to pay people back.

So i wonder what went so badly wrong??

They must have been really unprepared for this sort of thing, or naive, or...stupid? thats mean but something did go terribly wrong, something that all the sponsors, bands and patrons did not see coming.

I put it down to an unclear Vision and Mission statement and not enough Gant Charts (hehe for all you Masters in Arts Management students...)

Assignment 3 - Part One: Website Feature Portfolio

The website I have chosen to develop articles for is Frankie Magazine Online. As the website suggests, Frankie is "aimed at women (and men) looking for a magazine that’s as smart, funny, sarcastic, friendly, cute, rude, arty, curious and caring as they are”.

However because of this website not containing full-length articles, the website I will be writing for is Frankie, if Frankie was solely an online publication rather than a print one. The statement above sums up the audience completely.

All articles are written in a blog style.

Article 1: This article would be in the ‘All Sorts’ section and would be the start of a series of entries on the same topic.

BATH-RUMINATIONS

*Photo courtesy of jennifersprintables.com

Ever wondered what lurks behind the bathroom doors in some of Melbourne’s most popular dining and entertainment venues? Come and learn a new way of rating, not by food or customer service but by the ply of the toilet paper.

Is it just me, or do we rate the places we are eating or drinking at by the state of the bathroom? I’ve been constantly disappointed by bad design, uncleanliness not compensated by creativity and downright ugliness. Restaurant and bar owners listen up: your bathroom is as important as your food, drinks, lighting and mood!
I am not talking exclusively about the supply of toilet paper, locks on the doors and a clean seat (if there is a seat at all), yes, yes all toilets must have these, but more importantly, does the bathroom as a whole compliment the atmosphere of the place, or hinder it? Is it an interesting and creative space with flowers or pot-puree? Environmental tendencies? Does it provoke conversation?

I have been rating Melbourne's bathrooms, and the criteria is strict and the standards high. Read on for one of the best spots to place your bum, and one to avoid at all costs.

Boire, 92 Smith Street, Collingwood:

*Photo courtesy of Boire
Boire is a new French restaurant that boasts old-fashioned French food and wine, with the choice of only 2 mains and two desserts. I think it is lovely and easy. The bathroom in this restaurant was charming, clean and spacious and had all the accessories needed, paper towels, hooks on the door.

The aspect that makes this bathroom stand out to me was the chalkboard walls, from floor to ceiling. There is chalk provided and you are encouraged to graffiti the walls in any way you like. A new spin on the old ‘graffiti the bathroom’ wall trick. When I walked in there were poems and pretty pictures from people who have dined there, reviews of the food and praise for the cook. This is obviously a lot nicer to read than the usual bathroom wall rubbish.

The East Brunswick Club, 280 Lygon Street, East Brunswick:

The East is well known for its great gigs and cheap meal nights, but word is also spreading about their terrible bathrooms. The worst so far! However one thing is for sure this bathroom has consistency, EVERY time I have braved entering this facility I am faced with either vomit in the bin or someone doing the same in the toilet, and of course usually in the one where the old sliding door barely closes exposing your bum to the waiting patrons outside.

The smell is constantly putrid to the point where, yes a few times I have gone into the men's because it smells better, a horrible indication of the standard of a bathroom when the men’s toilet (notoriously weird smelling) smells far better.

Okay, okay it’s a pub you say, get over it?! Well I can give
a little, but EVERYTIME? They need to have someone checking on it more regularly, with or without a flamethrower.

So maybe now you’ll look more carefully at the bathrooms you enter and think about what it offers you, and what it does for the associated venue. How much do they truly love their business and you as the paying customer? A bathroom experience can certainly either make or break a place.

Article 2: This article would be under the ‘Travel’ section.

ART DECO HAVEN IN THE HEART OF NZ

New Zealand is famous for all sorts of things, Lord of the Rings, sheep.... but it also has one of the world’s best-preserved selection of Art Deco buildings in the one place, Napier. Watch-out all you Art Deco lovers, this town is one of a kind.

Napier, New Zealand, 320 kms (by road) north-east of the capital, Wellington.

Standing on a top of a high hill looking towards the ocean with the entire town is a great way to get to know a place.

While visiting Napier in September this year a tsunami warning was issued, quite an unsettling experience but not lacking in excitement. The main road, Marine Parade on the foreshore was blocked off, and the townsfolk were told to head for high ground, just in case. Shops and schools were closed and there was an exodus to the few high points in the town. A bonus of this situation was one, it wasn’t raining and two there was an amazing view from on top of the hill.

There was no panic, just people, including me gazing at the water far below, although nothing was seemingly happening. There were no officials telling us what was going on, so an hour later people started to retreat from the hill and brave the traffic jam back down. The water hadn’t appeared to change and there was no freak wave apparent.

By the time we got back down the hill the roadblocks had been removed and police had vanished. So we presumed the threat was gone, thank God, as it would be a great shame for this beautiful town and the people within it to again be put under threat.


On the 3rd of February 1931 an earthquake devastated Napier, killing 157 and destroying the whole commercial part of the town. As a result the entire town was rebuilt in the 1930s, exclusively in the Art Deco style including stripped classical and Spanish mission. Walking through the town you are graced with a feeling of calm, nostalgia and that maybe you’ve managed to turn back time 70 plus years. Every single building in the centre of town is an art deco original. The town is just amazing, overwhelming, bright and beautiful. It is enough to make you want to buy a flapper dress, headpiece and go dancing in the street.

A key piece in the area is on the shore front, called the New Napier Arch, it beautifully frames the ocean beyond and provides an entertainment area with an old fashioned cone/shell shaped stage.

Oh, and seriously don’t forget your wallets as there are some amazing antique, vintage stores and op shops just waiting to be rummaged through, and the people in Napier really know their stuff.

If you are an art deco fan this is one town to not drive past, unique and out of the ordinary smack bang between Auckland and Wellington.

All I can say is amazing, amazing, amazing and the most amazing thing is that the sun shone the whole time we were there, lovely.

So for all you lovers of everything Art Deco and a sucker for the accompanying merchandise (found at The Art Deco Trust), a Napier visit is a must.
*All unlabeled photos are authors own

References:

Art Deco Trust, 2009 http://www.artdeconapier.com/ accessed 10 October 2009.

Boire, 2009 http://www.boire.com.au/home accessed 10 October 2009.

The East Brunswick Club, 2009 http://www.eastbrunswickclub.com/ accessed 10 October 2009.

Frankie Website, 2009 www.frankie.com.au accessed 8 October 2009.

Jennifer's Free Printable Doll House & Miniature Bathroom Tiles, 2009, http://www.jennifersprintables.com/bathroomsamples.html accessed 10 October 2009.

Napier City Council, 2009 http://www.napier.govt.nz/ accessed 10 October 2009.

This has got to be the worst thing I have ever ever seen!!

Oh my, I can't even believe I am going donate ANY time at all to this but its just so ridiculously bad.

I think the only thing this proves is that maybe, just maybe she doesn't have ANY talent at all, but hopefully you knew that already.

Hmmm any thoughts on this??... for I am lost for words.

I can't believe I got to this video from the front page of The Age (shaking my head as I write).

I couldn't get through to the end, I didn't want to vomit over my beloved Mac.

enjoy! (or not...)



(p.s this post is for last week ☺ )

I did some volunteer work at the Melbourne International Animation Festival earlier this year.

I worked with one of people who runs it, she was a great insight into the inner-workings of a great festival. She did inform me that it was pretty much solely run, developed etc by 2, yes 2 (!!) people. It made me very tired just thinking about how they did it all! The great thing about the volunteering was that I saw nearly the entire program for FREE.

I've noticed as well that some of them are on youtube, so I thought I would share some of my favourites with you.

So probably my favourite funny one is called Fantasie in Bubble Wrap by Arthur Metcalf, USA in 2007.

(***oh and there is swearing in this film***)



I think its generally cute and clever while being rather shocking and sad, oh so sad, but funny.

Another funny one that i really liked was Rex The Dog 'Bubblicious' by Geoffroy De Crecy, France, 2008



Again very clever and the bad 80s music makes it :) Its interesting to see how they develop that kind of animation too.

ok now on a more serious note the next animation stuck with me.

Hungu by Nicolas Brault, Canada, 2008.



Hungu was made out of sand! I really loved the sounds in this film, the great imagery and the pace of it. Such an emotive, moving film I thought.

This next one I had seen before the film festival but it was even better on the big screen. I'm sure some of you would have seen/heard about it. It's seriously amazing! Take some time to watch this if you haven't already...

MUTO Blu Italy, 2007



Click here for the Blu website.

I wonder how long that took!...

Stalkbook

I read an article titled "Robbed by Facebook's enemy in the camp", and okay, so this definitely scared me. I know thats what they want you to feel, but it did. You, well I forget how much private information is going on Facebook, in 'private' messages, on walls, photo albums etc etc.

I am probably one of the more aware ones, I do think hard about the photos going on Facebook. But I don't think a lot of people do. And people trust Facebook, the messages being sent and such. Think of all the private information of all those thousands and thousands of people from all around the world on there!! It's also weird/interesting how so many of the people on Facebook are not really 'friends' just randoms. It creeps me out the most when someone who you went to high school with and haven't seen since, comments on a picture of yours or a status. What are they doing snooping like that!? Oh and I love it how in the article Facebook wiped their hands clean of it.

By the way yes...I have thought a lot about deleting my Facebook account but it is weird how much on my life does rely on it now! much to my disgust.

I found another recent article also where it happened again "US woman loses $A4,840 in Facebook scam".

and I'm sure if I looked more I would find more.

Assignment 1

The Internet is increasingly the preferred medium for people to read about, interact with and respond to events happening around the world. As a result, there have been many independent and diverse online news websites appearing. This report will evaluate and discuss three of these:

• Crikey
• Huffington Post
• New Matilda

There are many aspects that make up a good website, and good web writing. One of the main things to think about is usability for the readers.
DuVergne Smith states, “…a good website builds on the universals of good writing– clarity, concision and content” (DuVergne Smith 2003: 1). In web writing the inverted pyramid is relevant where it is sometimes used to support the argument that readers only scan, meaning a journalistic piece should be brief, clear and enticing (Deuze 1999: 381).
As with any publication, online news sources must write for their audience. In the case of these websites, this can be found in their audience/advertising sections, some are more comprehensive than others.


CRIKEY

Crikey pride themselves on being “Australian for independent journalism” (About 2009: 1). They state their aim clearly, giving the reader an understanding of what they stand for. They discuss wishing to bring the inside word on what is really going on in Australia and around the world. It is important to note that crikey is not part of a media empire (About Crikey 2009: 1). Therefore they are an independent source of online information.

Audience

Crikey’s audience is made up of affluent, decision-making professionals (First Digital Media 2009: 1). This will have an obvious effect on the way the website is designed, style of writing and articles presented. Crikey's audience is made up mostly of highly educated, ABC/SBS watching older professionals and the website is tailored for this (First Digital Media 2009: 1).

Layout

Crikey follows general online news website conventions in their layout, making it user friendly. They have a large heading at the top, a content banner underneath, followed by a central picture and then the articles, main or newest near the top. As you scroll it filters into more specific areas.

As the content banner states Crikey’s main areas of information are:
• Politics
• Media
• Business
• Environment
• Life
• Blogs

Crikey clearly shows when an article is not written by Crikey and where it is from.. This is also demonstrated in their ‘about’ page as described. Crikey does not seem to use alt-tabs. It is a fairly long scroll from top to bottom of the homepage.

Key Article

The key article chosen is titled: “At Stars and Stripes independent, investigative journalism soldiers on” by Ruth Brown, a Crikey journalist.

From the homepage this article was presented with a heading and a kicker. The story page has a heading at the top and no kicker. This article definitely links externally and allows readers to go outside of the Crikey website. For example the article is talking about the newspaper, Stars and Stripes and it links to the homepage. This Linking proves the wider reading of the author and bolsters the author’s point of view. A hint of sarcasm can be found in this article with the use of such a sentence as “lovely pie chart”.
The story page has options to print, email and rate the article while also providing a related topic box. These topics are referred to in the article.



HUFFINGTON POST

Huffington Post is clearly very political and very American, made by Americans for Americans. It is world renowned for its left wing political views and selection of blogs.
Huffington Post was founded by Arianna Huffington who is known as a political activist, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti (Encyclopaedia Britannica Online 2009: 1).
Huffington Post was the hardest of the three to find information on, as the ‘About Us’ section is limiting. There is no information about them or what they stand for. Deuze (1999: 383) suggests that an extensive ‘about us’ section is a must as a valuable addition to any online endeavour (Deuze 1999: 383).

Audience

As the audience information suggests, Huffington Post reaches over “20 Million thought-leaders” (Advertising Information 2009: 1). They attract a large, affluent, educated audience and the websites features tailor to this, providing the many political based articles, celebrity bloggers and a lot of information.

Layout

Huffington Post’s homepage changes regularly with constant content updates. This makes it difficult to find an older article. The top of the homepage is taken up by a very large image linked to a focus article. There are 3 columns to the page, left - the blogs, middle - videos and articles, and the right - the most popular articles, information about the bloggers, applications and entertainment. There is a lot of information presented to the reader and a very long scroll. It is obviously targeted to a niche audience and provides the reader with many and varied reading options. Along with every article on the homepage there is an option to for a ‘quick read’.

At the bottom right there is a large section that is labeled ‘Links’, this shows their news sources, blogs, columnists and all thing Arianna. All the news sources link externally to the relevant sites. There are many images and videos throughout the homepage to attract attention, provide entertainment and information. Again, it follows basic online news principles of the heading and content banner. The most annoying thing about The Huffington Post’s layout is the constant Facebook link that nearly always sits over their logo and link back to the homepage.

Key Article

The key article chosen is titled: “Jaycee Lee Dugard Reappears After 18 Years; Sex Offender, Wife Arrested” by Juliet Williams and Samantha Young, Associated Press.

This article was presented on the homepage, on the right column, with a large picture, accompanied by a heading. When clicked on a small box appears in front of the page as a ‘quick read’, there is an option at the bottom to read the full article.
This particular article ‘piled on’, meaning it added a new update on the already existing article. This piling on breaks up the story and does not follow good online techniques. As Dube (2003: 3) states in breaking news stories, “in an effort to seems as current as possible, sites will often put the latest developments in a story at the top” and “ then they’ll pile the next development the top, and the next” (Dube: 2003: 3).

At the start of the article it clearly states that it is not written by Huffington Post but is from Associated Press. Underneath the large article heading is several options to share, on Twitter, Facebook, Digg and options to Email. Some of these do and some do not have alt-tabs associated with them.

This article also had no links, external or internal within the text for readers. There are three options presented at the bottom too read related articles ‘around the web’. These are from three other news sources; there are also options at the top of the page to ‘read more’. These are keywords that people can follow, all linking to previous articles from within Huffington Post. Some of these keywords seem very broad such as ‘kidnapping’.

The story page always has the main stories from the homepage largely presented with a scroll sideways option on the top of the page. The Huffington Post heading is at the top left with advertising to the right of it. As mentioned the Huffington Post logo is largely covered by the Facebook logo, this makes it generally less user friendly.



NEW MATILDA

New Matilda describes themselves as “an Australian website of news, analysis and satire” and are “fiercely independent” (About Us 2009: 1). This shows their willingness to link externally.
It was founded by former Whitlam staffer, John Menadue (Simons 2005: 1) and is owned by Complex Number Pty Ltd, which “has no formal association with any political party or major media organisation” (FAQ 2009: 1).

Audience

Like Crikey and Huffington Post, New Matilda’s audience are affluent. Most of their audience are working professionals from areas such as media, health and science (Advertise with us 2009: 1). Again this website tailors their layout and articles to their audience base. For example featuring long, wordy articles in which people can further read and discover by external linking.

Layout

In contrast to the other website homepages, New Matilda has a relativity short scroll. It seems quite uncluttered and clean. The heading, ‘NewMatilda’ is relatively small in comparison to the rest of the page, however not entirely unnoticeable.
Three main stories feature on in the homepage, followed vertically by a box of six recent stories. Generally the articles are quite wordy, so not very scannable. The preference for scannability may not apply in this circumstance as New Matilda tailors to an audience that may be willing to read articles of length.

The homepage consists of alt-tabs that are short and easy, kickers that are relevant and headings that are short.

Key Article

The key article chosen is titled: ‘There’s Big Trouble Down At The Mill’ by Dan Edwards.

This article is presented as one of the three articles at the top of the homepage and has a headline, kicker, how many people have commented and a small picture. This gives a great indication of exactly what the article is going to be about before clicking on it.

This particular article is over 1,000 words long so it is not short and not easily scannable or quickly read.

There are several external links provided in this article, for example: a past New Matilda Article, a Wall Street Journal article, a New York Times article as well as one from ABC news. These are all reputable websites. This shows wide reading and research as well as providing great usability for the reader as they can gather their own information and form their own opinions on the issue. They are obviously not scared to link outside of their own website therefore adding to their viability and usability. This article can be hard to read in a short amount of time, if this is needed.

Conclusion

It is hard to describe exactly what constitutes as ‘good online techniques’ as what one person might find user friendly the other may not. However the willingness to link externally, especially within a news based website is very important, as well as the usability of the website in general. All three websites are very aware of their key audience base and tailor both the layout and content of their websites for this purpose.

REFERENCES

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Brown, R. (28 August 2009). Crikey ‘At Stars and Stripes independent, investigative journalism soldiers’ http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/08/28/at-stars-and-stripes-independent-investigative-journalism-soldiers-on/ 28 August 2009 [date accessed].

Crikey. (2009). website, http://www.crikey.com.au/ 27 August 2009 [date accessed].

Crikey. (2009), ‘About’, website, http://www.crikey.com.au/about/ 27 August 2009 [date accessed].

Deuz, M. (1999). ‘Journalism and the web: An Analysis of Skills and Standards in an Online Environment, International Communication Gazette, 61 (5); 373-390, accessed 27 August 2009, from, http://gaz.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/61/5/373.

DeVergne Smith, N. (21 July 2003). ‘Thoughts in progress on writing for the web’ self published at AOL.

Dube, J. (1997). ‘Writing news online’, Poynter.org website, http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=41309

Edwards, D. (31 August 2009). New Matilda ‘There’s Big Trouble Down At The Mill’, http://newmatilda.com/2009/08/31/chinas-troubled-steel-industry 31 August 2009 [date accessed].

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Morkes, J & Nielsen, J. (1997). Useit.com `Concise, scannable and objective: how to write for the erb’ http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html.

New Matilda. (2009). Website, http://newmatilda.com/ 27 August 2009 [date accessed].

New Matilda. (2009). ‘About Us’ website, http://newmatilda.com/about/ 27 August 2009 [date accessed].

New Matilda. (2009). 'FAQ' website http://newmatilda.com/faq/ 27 August 2009 [date accessed].

New Matilda. (2009). ‘Advertise with us’ website http://newmatilda.com/advertise/ 27 August 2009 [date accessed].

Simons, M. (5 Feb 2005), The Age Online ‘Crikey sells out’, http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Crikey-sells-out/2005/02/04/1107476799617.html 29 August 2009 [date accessed].

Williams, J & Young, S. (28 August 2009). Huffington Post ‘Jaycee Lee Dugard Reappears After 18 Years; Sex Offender, Wife Arrested’ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/27/missing-girl-reappears-af_n_270503.html 27 August 2009 [date accessed].