Difference between revisions of "Making Beyond Social"
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| + | "Author: André Castro" | ||
| + | |||
[HOw did I became excited about Beyond-social.org] | [HOw did I became excited about Beyond-social.org] | ||
| − | When Iris | + | When Iris Schutten and Roger Teeuwen approached WdKA's Publication Station to co-develop a web-magazine for the Social Practices program's, my first thought was that a web-magazine was something not very exiting. The image that formed in my head, was of those online ''magazines'' that try to resemble their physical counterparts in every detail possible, from the glossy look, to the turning of the pages' animations, accompained by the indissociable sound "shhhs". Beyond all those forced imitations, what tends to mark them the most is their fixity – from the imutability of the words, to the perfect and still arrangement of images, text and colorfull backgrounds. All seems to be still, permanent, untransformable. They seem to exist in contraction to the digital container that hosts them. <s>In the Web everything is fluid. Pages appear and dissapear, content appears, changes, moves, or is removed, visual elements shift position and dimension as a result of the dimension of the screen where they are rendered into texts and images. Nothing is still, so why should a web-magazine be?</s> |
| − | How ever when Roger and Iris began to describe their ideas for this publication, it was | + | How ever when Roger and Iris began to describe their ideas for this publication, it was clear that they had in mind something entirely different, at least as to how it would be developed. Its intend would be to serve as space for documenting, reflecting, and building upon the work being developed within the Social Design programs, not only within WdKA, but also in collaboration with other institutions, currently developing similar work. That got me excited! The vision of a collaborative online working space, where content is developed in a collaborative and shared manner, and ideas grow from intrepretation, edits, conflicts, disagreements, sound familiar and yet exciting, at least in these parts of the woods. It sounds much like the way content is developed inside [wikis-wikipedia article wikis], most proeminenly on Wikipedia. Not knowing yet, what was I myself into I said yes. It seemed like the perfect change to create an online publication, by having having fun experimenting with the possibility of the tools we would use and the methods we would adopt. Thankfully Iris and Roger were equality eager to begin working on the publication and didn't seem too worried about my bizarre ideas and incomprehensible terms. |
=Tools and Protocols= | =Tools and Protocols= | ||
| − | Before starting we had to agree on what were the tools that were going to help us develop the web-magazine, and | + | Before starting we had to agree on what were the tools that were going to help us develop the web-magazine, and started to sketch necessary to get things done. |
* wiki - working space | * wiki - working space | ||
| Line 13: | Line 15: | ||
* A series of protocol - would determine how content would be developed and published (team devised a system of cataegories that allowed content to move from a stage of being written to being published) but also the ways in which that content would be structured into the website. | * A series of protocol - would determine how content would be developed and published (team devised a system of cataegories that allowed content to move from a stage of being written to being published) but also the ways in which that content would be structured into the website. | ||
| − | As the blueprint for this publication became more clear, the team behind it became larger, with students, designers, and tutors starting to take part in it. All became actively involved in the development | + | As the blueprint for this publication became more clear, the team behind it became larger, with students, designers, and tutors starting to take part in it. All became actively involved in the development of the publication, and didn't shy away from proposing changes, finding problems, fine-tune small but meaningfull elements. |
* code repository | * code repository | ||
| Line 34: | Line 36: | ||
=Future= | =Future= | ||
| − | It is yet to be seen if this strategy is viable on the long term. | + | It is yet to be seen if this strategy is viable on the long term. Can new editions of Beyond Social emerge on this platform of multiple parts and outputs without the need of changes and fixes to the structures and protocols that sustain it? It is also unclear if it is inviting to people that come to the project for the first time and themselves are in another physical space, with a different set of ideas for how he or she would like to develop and research contents on social design. And it is even more questionable if the same infrastructure, the same set of tools and protocols can be useful outside the specific scope of this publication. |
| − | I, for certain do not the answers, but I begin to glimpse possibilities for opening up | + | I, for certain do not know the answers, but I begin to glimpse possibilities for opening them up to other uses and goals. One, very likely to happen in the near future, which will take place in the Graphic Design (ACTUAL NAME) department, will be the use of the front-end website as a learniing and tool; a case for further research and design of open, dynamic and complex online and offline magazine design. Students will use it as a sandbox where they can learn about essential Web technologies such as HTML markup lange and CSS style formating language, by creating alternative '''visual intrepretations/visual renderings''' for the content of Beyond Social. Our next issue might look completely deifferent! |
<s>Let's wait and see.</s> | <s>Let's wait and see.</s> | ||
Revision as of 14:03, 20 January 2015
"Author: André Castro"
[HOw did I became excited about Beyond-social.org]
When Iris Schutten and Roger Teeuwen approached WdKA's Publication Station to co-develop a web-magazine for the Social Practices program's, my first thought was that a web-magazine was something not very exiting. The image that formed in my head, was of those online magazines that try to resemble their physical counterparts in every detail possible, from the glossy look, to the turning of the pages' animations, accompained by the indissociable sound "shhhs". Beyond all those forced imitations, what tends to mark them the most is their fixity – from the imutability of the words, to the perfect and still arrangement of images, text and colorfull backgrounds. All seems to be still, permanent, untransformable. They seem to exist in contraction to the digital container that hosts them. In the Web everything is fluid. Pages appear and dissapear, content appears, changes, moves, or is removed, visual elements shift position and dimension as a result of the dimension of the screen where they are rendered into texts and images. Nothing is still, so why should a web-magazine be?
How ever when Roger and Iris began to describe their ideas for this publication, it was clear that they had in mind something entirely different, at least as to how it would be developed. Its intend would be to serve as space for documenting, reflecting, and building upon the work being developed within the Social Design programs, not only within WdKA, but also in collaboration with other institutions, currently developing similar work. That got me excited! The vision of a collaborative online working space, where content is developed in a collaborative and shared manner, and ideas grow from intrepretation, edits, conflicts, disagreements, sound familiar and yet exciting, at least in these parts of the woods. It sounds much like the way content is developed inside [wikis-wikipedia article wikis], most proeminenly on Wikipedia. Not knowing yet, what was I myself into I said yes. It seemed like the perfect change to create an online publication, by having having fun experimenting with the possibility of the tools we would use and the methods we would adopt. Thankfully Iris and Roger were equality eager to begin working on the publication and didn't seem too worried about my bizarre ideas and incomprehensible terms.
Tools and Protocols
Before starting we had to agree on what were the tools that were going to help us develop the web-magazine, and started to sketch necessary to get things done.
- wiki - working space
- Website - a more appealing and crafted outlet (front-end) for the content
- API - connection between wiki and Website that would import content from the former to the latter
- A series of protocol - would determine how content would be developed and published (team devised a system of cataegories that allowed content to move from a stage of being written to being published) but also the ways in which that content would be structured into the website.
As the blueprint for this publication became more clear, the team behind it became larger, with students, designers, and tutors starting to take part in it. All became actively involved in the development of the publication, and didn't shy away from proposing changes, finding problems, fine-tune small but meaningfull elements.
- code repository
- how does an article become published on Beyond Social:
An article from Beyond Social, such as this one, becomes published through a series of stages it undergoes on the wiki. ...
- image browsing story
How does an online publication becomes physical?
How would this magazine would become a physical entity, was a difficult questions. None of us knew exactly how. It was certain that he had to exist in paper, but how?
It's not straight forward/usual to translate online content to physical form.
- the discussion had about the physical publication:
- epub or pdf: "why do you want to have it in another digital format when you can read it online"
- ...
- template's proposal
Future
It is yet to be seen if this strategy is viable on the long term. Can new editions of Beyond Social emerge on this platform of multiple parts and outputs without the need of changes and fixes to the structures and protocols that sustain it? It is also unclear if it is inviting to people that come to the project for the first time and themselves are in another physical space, with a different set of ideas for how he or she would like to develop and research contents on social design. And it is even more questionable if the same infrastructure, the same set of tools and protocols can be useful outside the specific scope of this publication.
I, for certain do not know the answers, but I begin to glimpse possibilities for opening them up to other uses and goals. One, very likely to happen in the near future, which will take place in the Graphic Design (ACTUAL NAME) department, will be the use of the front-end website as a learniing and tool; a case for further research and design of open, dynamic and complex online and offline magazine design. Students will use it as a sandbox where they can learn about essential Web technologies such as HTML markup lange and CSS style formating language, by creating alternative visual intrepretations/visual renderings for the content of Beyond Social. Our next issue might look completely deifferent!
Let's wait and see.