Innovative Interactivity (II)

Rocky Mtn News closes … is this the beginning to an end?

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ February 27, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

The Rocky Mountain News is closing shop after today, and I think it’s safe to say that we are all affected. I knew the newspaper industry was troubled from working at one and hearing the daily chatter, but to hear a paper stop publishing doesn’t settle well with me. I watched their video, read the tweets, and now I sit here and wonder, “What next?”

Example files and tips for deeplinking with Flash SWF Address

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ February 25, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

Back in October I wrote a tutorial on how to utilizing deep links in Flash files. This post has consistently been the most viewed page on the site and I have been receiving several emails asking for help fixing bugs. Although I am happy to help individual cases, I decided it might be best to provide my files as well as publish other II reader’s trials, tribulations and success stories to help everyone out there who is also working with SWF Address.

Nacho Corbella’s videos garner awards every time

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ February 23, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

While preparing a spreadsheet of awards for my multimedia database that I am creating for a class, one name keeps appearing time and time again: Nacho Corbella. In the past four NPPA monthly competitions, Corbella won six video awards for his work. As a UNC masters student, Corbella is well on his way to making a name for himself with his beautiful documentary style. If you haven’t taken the time to view his work yet, I would recommend doing so because he is one to watch for video inspiration.

AP political interactive displays great data visualization and video help feature

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ February 22, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

Former colleague Seth Gitner pointed me to a complex data interactive by the AP tracking presidential fundraising numbers. Yes, we are all probably sick of looking at 2008 election graphics. But, I encourage you to spend some time with this project because it is a great inspirational example for data visualization. It also features an innovative video help feature, by displaying an AP reporter (using a chromakey affect) at the bottom corner of your screen.

A look at the SND30 infographic winners

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ February 19, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

SND30 awards were announced yesterday, rewarding work done in 2008. I was particularly interested in seeing the Infographic winners, but unfortunately they did not provide links nor were they easy to find after intense search efforts. I was successful in finding 9 of the 41 winners, which I have listed along with the brains behind the work. These graphics are all innovative examples with beautiful designs. Congrats to all, and let me know if you can find the links to any of the other winners!

Data guru Edward Tufte coming to a city near you

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ February 18, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

I just found out that Edward Tufte is coming to Durham, NC, next month and I am already looking for a way to make it to his one-day course. According to his Website, Tufte will be hosting these mini conferences throughout the next three months in North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Washington and Oregon. If you don’t think being taught by Tufte himself is enough to make you pay the $380 registration fee, his four books (valued at over $200) are also included! Now that’s a deal.

Great reads straight from the Information Science classroom

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ February 17, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

I feel like all I have been doing lately is reading for class, but the good thing is that I can pass along the “worthy” literature on to you! I’ll start doing this on a regular basis by providing you all with inspiration reads that I come across in my classes. We all know that reading and browsing other multimedia work are two necessities to staying on top of the industry, so I encourage you all to forgo a TV show this week to read one of these great articles.

Innovative Interactivity now on Twitter

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ February 16, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

I am happy to announce II’s new presence on Twitter. Looks like “Innovative Interactivity” was too long, so you will find me at “innovativeinter.” I promise to only tweet about anything multimedia related, or concepts that I am learning from my Information Science classes. I was initially hesitant about Twitter because of the overly personal tweets, so I can assure you that I will only be posting material similar to my blog posts.

“Innocence” and “Mankind is no Island” two powerful examples of advocacy journalism

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ February 15, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

I received an email from multimedia producer Benjamin Chesterton over the weekend pointing me to his latest project, “Innocence – Sri Lanka’s former child soldier.” I really appreciate how straightforward and honest the presentation is, letting the words carry the emotion more than the music. Like “Innocence,” “Mankind is no Island” is also beautiful in its simplicity, sincerity and creativity. I can’t imagine the time that went into finding all of the typography work to construct this piece, but the message is priceless.

FlarToolkit introduces augmented reality using Flash

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ February 11, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

My former classmate Jason Tucker passed along a fascinating concept that he discovered using FlarToolkit. In layman’s terms, he described it to me as a tool that “uses your webcam, tracks a shape and then uses that with PaperVision and Flash Player 10 to create an augmented reality.” He continued by saying that “you could potentially use it to track a person’s eyes and use their webcam to control a panoramic image as they rotate their head.” That got my attention!

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Archive for February, 2009