Time Is Irrelevant

As I sit here, eagerly awaiting Halloween to make its annual appearance, I am transfixed to my television at 11 pm watching Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow". A number of thoughts struck me as I watched this. The first is how old the story is, written in 1820 entitled "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by William …

American Hustle

As I write this, I am watching a run up to the Clinton V Trump debate. Now, I know I don't really want to get political on this blog but I feel as we here in Ireland are inexorably linked to the United States, we have to sit up and take notice once in a …

Thoughts on Convergence Culture

Throughout our course of study, we have happened across a phenomena labelled "Convergence Culture". This term refers to how many different forms of media can collaborate to form a culture around a person, event or movement.This can be characterized mainly by the rise of digital media but also utilizes older forms of media such as …

Looking beyond words

From an early age I have been fascinated with the depth and complexity of the Batman story. This intrigue has continued and grown stronger thanks to Christopher Nolans’ The Dark Knight Trilogy.  The way Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan have told this story has redefined the super hero genre and has made …

Navigating OpenStreetMap

Spatial data is a very new term in regards to computing, we can use this data in map form or otherwise to get a better understanding of the world around us. Open Street Map I found to be a good tool in regards to spatial data. The main advantage OSM has over say, Google Maps, …

Nodegoat: Visualising Data For All

I recently happened upon Nodegoat after a lecture on Museum and Heritage data, the need for visualising data related to past events and artefacts is an important one. In the past we have had to compile, sort and evaluate different media to get a picture of historical events, which can be quite tedious and hard …

Recording our Civilisation

With the advent of the smartphone and to increased connectivity it brings us, it was only a matter of time that we started using this medium to comment and record events in real-time. Concerts, press conferences even everyday, mundane events are now open to be recorded either by video, sound and text. With the numbers …

Critical Response to the Evolution of Storytelling

"Storytelling is evolving as fast as technology is, from papyrus, to books, blogs and twessays. What does the future hold? #DHUCCtwessay" For this critical response, I will be looking at how our class has observed how storytelling has evolved and what the future holds. To start, Jadwiga raised a very relevant and interesting point in …

Super mutants and educational gaming!

Video games, we love them as a source for entertainment but what happens when we use or apply them for educational purposes? Traditionally, video games were viewed by our parents as something to “keep the kids quiet”. Those same values are held today by many parents, however, there has been a shift toward a different …

How Web 2.0 usability has permeated our social conscious

In the last 15 years, there has been a huge shift towards better usability on the web. This mainly is a result of Web 2.0, and the rise of the social network.  In the past, graphical user interfaces were never really necessary in computing, as the tasks done by early computers were mainly administrative in …