Fin.

In creating a professional website, self-promotion becomes much easier. Instead of carrying around a physical portfolio, or sending files via email, a portfolio, biography, and contact information are able to present themselves under the umbrella of one URL. This URL is easy to be written down and handed out on a personal level. The website is also able to be linked to on social media, as well as searchable on the World Wide Web at large.

A clean, professional website presents a positive image to prospective customers. In this style of website, the portfolio work is able to speak for itself without having any distractions from the site around it. The site itself is no nonsense, clean, and concise, which is viewed as competent and efficient. Without directly saying so, the website is able to put forth these qualities in self-promotion.

By also having social media remain true to the brand, linking to the website on these places can only enhance the image. Self-promoting on social media creates opportunity for further user interaction.

The social media projects tie in to the website because they come together to create a cohesive personal brand. Twitter offers quick insight into the user in the form of micro blogging and allows for interaction with other users. Blogger offers long form reads into the mind of the user. LinkedIn provides professional connections and insight. The Website provides background information and a comprehensive guide to the user’s work and brand at a glance.

Tying in social media to the website is necessary to create a network that connects as many aspects as possible to the user’s brand. By linking everything together, the website becomes a part of a larger, more far-reaching online presence. If one aspect of social media is stumbled upon, everything connecting provides access to the full brand. Instead of just accessing 140 character tweets, or just accessing long blog posts, the tweets and posts can be accessed simultaneously. Social media provides the personality of the user’s brand where the clean cut website doesn’t showcase it.

Creating a website presented several challenges, with the biggest one being that HTML code and CSS is an entirely different language. While the Buffalo State Communications program excels in teaching writing in the English language, the website building project offered a first experience in the language of computer science.

Dreamweaver is an Adobe software product, which means that certain shortcuts and the overall logic of the program was not entirely unfamiliar. The software also offered a constantly updated visual to allow the user to “check themselves before they wrecked themselves” in terms of writing code.

HTML code is not entirely unfamiliar to an avid Internet user. The web forums of old and modern day Reddit both use HTML formatting in their regular user posts. To translate that into a full website offered a challenge, but was not entirely scary and unfamiliar. CSS, on the other hand, was totally new to the designer. It was intimidating but heavy guidance allowed for a well-understood introduction. 

I just signed up to do jokes.

Twitter has gone beyond socializing and entered the realm of news and marketing heavy handed. Instead of tweeting at friends and spewing existential thoughts for the world to ponder, Twitter has become a hub for marketing.

With Twitter, users are limited to using a maximum of 140 characters in each tweet. This allows for Twitter to fit into the modern life seamlessly, as it is constantly updating and easy to scan. Businesses, individuals, and organizations can utilize Twitter as a marketing tool extremely effectively, by slipping into the daily life of the user in a very customer friendly way, right on their Twitter timeline.

Twitter’s strength in marketing is that it is interactive, and it allows users to directly develop a connection to the company. With using Twitter for marketing, it becomes relatively easy to share relevant links, photos, and videos, amongst other things, directly with the user. Twitter becomes an easy way to share specials, discounts, news, and other information, along with fun and interesting tweets that showcase personality. Twitter also allows companies to build an even larger network, by connecting with celebrities, other companies, and simply every day regular people. To use Twitter as a marketing tool also helps a company stay up to date. The company may monitor their brand via Twitter, with a quick search turning up results of what anyone with a public account has said in regards to the brand. Twitter also allows users, those doing the marketing and those being marketed to alike, to keep up with the latest trends and language. These trends and language may transcend Twitter and enter other factions of a company's marketing strategies.

Twitter is used for marketing everything from clothing to charities to sports. Within the Buffalo community, the Bills and the Sabres are at opposite ends of the spectrum in using Twitter for marketing. The Buffalo Bills’ Twitter account is widely regarded as one of the best in the National Football League, even winning awards from the league. Content is mostly focused around the team’s on field activities, as well as the Bills’ promoting a positive image in the community. Tweets include frequent news updates, updates about events and store discounts, retweets from current and former Bills’ players, and excellent photo and video content developed by the Bills’ also award winning digital media team. The account also live tweets games in a relevant manner, answers fans’ questions and provides a limited amount of commentary and participation in current “memes.” The Sabres are at the opposite end of the Twitter marketing spectrum, mostly to the fault of their Social Media manager. While the Bills’ combines award winning digital content with an engaging personality, the Sabres also have award winning digital content, but it is combined with a personality that has a less-than-vanilla flavor. Where the Bills’ fit seamlessly into the user’s timeline, the Sabres stand out like a sore thumb, often coming off as ‘trying too hard.’ The Sabres post links to great content, but usually as a stand alone headline with no further engagement. Live tweeting the games is often far behind blogs and plain old fans, offering no insight. Postgame quotes are bland, with the interesting quotes often going on the Social Media manager’s personal twitter. Slang and memes are frequently misused, as is popular hockey jargon, like the phrase “natural hattrick.” The account has also been hilariously misused to engage with other teams in the league. The Sabres account publicly tweeted at the Minnesota Wild account for a video of a goal, when the Sabres video team could have taken care of everything in house. While the Bills offer an inclusive environment for all fans, the Sabres’ account pushes away the self proclaimed “Sabres Twitter” community and the blog community that often contains some of the highest paying fans. Happy people spend money on the things that make them happy. Where the Bills’ have successfully drawn in fans time and time again, even with the popularity of football finally reaching its plateau and abysmal records, including the longest current playoff drought in professional sports, the Sabres’ Twitter is doing nothing to engage with fans that are willing to spend what little they have on sports.

With marketing, Twitter is also a very powerful political, journalistic, and organizational tool. However, the world is slowly learning how to use this tool correctly.

The Middle East’s Arab Spring utilized Twitter in organizing their revolution. Twitter and social media was used so much that the oppressive Egyptian regime that was the target of the protests actually shut off the internet completely. Prior to the shut off, pictures and videos during the start of the Egyptian protests were shared immediately and globally, which mobilized more Egyptian citizens to join and also caused the global community to sympathize with the protesters. Twitter and social media was used by the Egyptians in conjunction with traditional and more organic methods of organizing protest. Chatter was rampant. People were able to share ideas and organize events right from their smart phones and computers, which made for very effective protesting.

The Boston Marathon bombings showed the dark side of using Twitter for journalism. While the news that there was a bombing at the Boston Marathon broke incredibly fast, so did rumors. Like an internet high school, the rumors grew and nobody could discern truth from fact. Anything posted on Twitter, even from reputable sources, needs to be suspect and under heavy scrutiny. The immediacy of Twitter is great for breaking news, but further than that, its strength becomes a weakness. Rumors spread and correcting the information once it gets out there is difficult to say the least. The Boston Marathon bombings were eye opening in this sense.

Recently, the Paris attacks allowed for both breaking news to reach the world in a timely fashion, and a global response of solidarity from Twitter users. It also shows that words don’t belong to their creators. The #Paris_Burns hashtag was created to be pro-ISIS, however, anti-ISIS users, many Muslim, reappropriated the hashtag to condemn the attacks. The anti-ISIS sentiment coming from the Paris attacks grew organically, and did not necessarily fit the narrative political leaders had created. This is a potential tool for political leaders, to gain support by piggybacking off of the sentiments that grew organically and gained traction.

In the past 12 months, Twitter has been as a communication tool several times over.

In sports, the NHL faced the John Scott All-Star movement. Career fourth liner, sub par hockey player, above average family man, John Scott played for the Phoenix Coyotes and was voted in to the NHL All Star game as his Division’s captain. The movement was originally denounced by Scott, but once he won, it became embraced by all, except for the NHL itself. The NHL evidently did not want their All Star product tainted by some guy who got lucky to even play one NHL game  with his engineering degree and large fists. The league pulled a gross back end deal that was publicly framed as a run of the mill trade. Twitter immediately saw past the facade and created a backlash that allowed the NHL to do nothing but allow John Scott to captain his division. The All-Star game then saw John Scott captain his team to a win, a million dollars, and a heart warming story about a regular guy, which is now being turned into a movie written by Mitch Albom.

American politics is being heavily influenced by social media as well. Twitter has had a huge hand in the ongoing Presidential campaign process. It can be argued that some of Bernie Sanders traction has been gained because of Twitter and its use by the millennial generation to mobilize the younger voters. Twitter has also helped the general public fight back against media bias. In earlier debates, prior to this most recent one, Hillary Clinton was declared the winner. However, according to many Twitter polls and the overall sentiment online, Bernie Sanders actually came out on top. Despite its flaws, Twitter also makes it easy to find links to sources to back up certain information that comes from candidates, or to discredit information that comes from candidates. Donald Trump’s twitter is particularly interesting, because it puts his radical thoughts directly into writing.

Also in the realm of sports, but far more interesting to the bigger picture of streaming television, the NFL signed a deal this April to live stream all of the upcoming Thursday Night Football games on Twitter. This can be chalked up as a success to the future of streaming, which is often held up in outdated network contracts. If streaming plays out successfully on Twitter, however, remains to be seen. For now, there is excitement in the fact that the NFL is embracing the future of free to low cost television broadcasting via streaming, and is taking a leap to be an innovator in the field. Sports is one of the biggest reasons people refrain from cutting the cord and solely relying on streaming.

The accounts followed on the class twitter account were the Official FIFA account, Barack Obama’s account, and the official US Senate History account. These accounts were diverse and not necessarily what would normally be paid attention to by a personal account. The Official FIFA account is interesting due to the upcoming Euros, 2018 World Cup Qualifying heating up, and the Rio Olympics, not to mention the political turmoil and persecution that FIFA is currently facing. Barack Obama’s account is currently interesting because of the issues faced by a heavily right wing congress refusing to hold a hearing for his Supreme Court nomination. The link provided by Obama on Twitter to his “guest post” on the official Supreme Court blog provided phenomenal insight to his ideologies and politics. US Senate History goes back in time each day and provides information into something that happened relevant to the Senate on that day. It provides a way to learn more about the politics and happenings in the United States’ brief history.

Using Twitter has differentiated from blogging because it is interactive and quick. Blogging is dominated by long form writing and individual thoughts. Blogging is very solitary and sheltered. Twitter happens short and fast, and provides a global landscape of ideas all within itself. Twitter separates itself from other social media because the interaction feels much more optional and authentic. The chronological timeline allows for all the shouting to be heard at an equal level, as opposed to Facebook telling (sometimes accurately) what the user wants to see most. Interacting with a Tweet does not carry the same pressure as Facebook. If Facebook is a place where everyone is trying to appear their best, Twitter is their inner thoughts where everyone (for the most part) is just along for the ride. Twitter vs Instagram is much more public. Instagram feels sheltered even when it is public. Its interface is simple and interactions aren’t the focus so much as the actual pictures are. With Twitter, everything is just out there.

The Magical Experience of Making a Wiki

The wiki experience was simple in theory and a bit more difficult in practice.
The wikiHow article, "How to Perform a Dance Lift," was easy to write. By thinking through an informative lens, the art of dancing was translated into an instructional list. The most difficult part was refraining from using excessive technical jargon that would render the article useless for the average person. 



However, the nature of wikiHow, being a website full of instruction, made it easy to find related wikiHows and link them together. For example, when explaining how to start the lift in step one, there was a bullet to explain the foot positioning of each dancer involved. Foot positioning is a whole can of worms in itself. This seemed problematic at first, but was resolved by linking. The bullet about foot positioning for the lift was then linked to an entirely different wikiHow article explaining the basic positions used in dance. By having this link, the article on lifts did not even have to consider going in depth about positioning, the positioning article itself went in depth, and the link connected them. 

The wikis of Web 2.0 create a literal interconnected web of information. One thing connects to something else, which connects to something else, and so on and so forth. In creating a wiki, these connections are really brought to light, because anyone has access to these links and information. The above example about positioning is specific to the "How To Do A Dance Lift" article, however, upon looking at other wikiHows, strong articles open up links to help the user get a more through understanding of the content. 

Photographs were especially useful in creating a the "How To Perform A Dance Lift" page. By photographing the activity, it helped break the dance lift down into steps. Every time there was a change, it needed to be noted. Because a lift itself is a collaborative activity, the participating dancers in the photograph gave input on what they felt were necessary steps as well. The dancers said "I do this, then this, then this," and by each being individual human beings, they each had a different way of explaining the lift. Sometimes, the dancers even helped clarify each other's descriptions. This was sort of a "real life wiki" situation, where the dancers built upon the information each other had in order to come up with the best possible description. The dancers in these photographs are all either 18 or offered their parents expressed written permission to use them in photographs. 

Taking photographs is also particularly helpful to anyone reading the article for understanding. Dance is a visual art. The easiest way for it to be taught is visually as opposed to linguistically. A description can be so colorful, but may not be understood until it is seen. For example, 'the side lifters should position one hand at the armpit of the dancer being lifted, with their thumbs turned in towards them and flex the hands backwards, as if to create a shelf for the dancer's arm to rest on," is a lengthy and thorough description. This description could also be very confusing without seeing it, and that is why photographs are important and useful. They transform the article from okay or confusing into thorough and full of information.


While looking back and revisiting the "How To Do A Dance Lift" article, the subject material may also do well as an instructional video, or with accompanying videos. Again, dance is visual in nature. The lift is all about aesthetic appeal. An entire instructional video edited together negates the usefulness of this article as a wiki, open for anyone's input. However, small video clips used to accompany each individual step would lend themselves to being available to help with the descriptions in a wiki format. The video clips could be visuals of the steps, while the explanations in the steps themselves were open to the wiki community and strive towards having the best possible language used. 


Because the knowledge contained within "How To Do A Dance Lift" was personal, there were no other actual resources on that specific topic. Searching the topic brought up other personal accounts via web forums or basic lifts for various types of partner dancing. This is the sort of information passed down from teacher to student, but since dance is a sort of nontraditional education, instructional materials aren't widely available on line. The use of such personal knowledge presented a unique challenge in that there was nothing to go back to or reference when creating the wikiHow article. 

The coding itself of the wikiHow page was a bit of an adventure. The coding was basic HTML, however, it contained nuances that needed to be learned, such as how to create steps and separate the article into the sections allowed. Copying off of another article presented some small challenges, like not being able to figure out the meaning of a couple of small bits of code. Thankfully, wikiHow being an instructional website contained instructions that explained how to code a wikiHow article. There were also challenges like there are with all code, such as the smallest space or a wrong period throwing off the code entirely. Code needs to be specific and clean, even in an article about dancing. 

Organizational communication theory discusses how information is nearly useless unless it is shared and applied. WikiHow and other wiki sites do just that. They provide ways to share information over the web and provide says to apply it. WikiHow specifically has many articles with easy real life application. Dance lifts are not traditionally educated and this provides a way for dancers all over to learn directly from an article. The same goes for recipes and any one who eats, or anyone who has a piece of rope and needs to know how to make a knot. People all have differences, and these differences can either create barriers or work together collaboratively for the best possible solution. This includes how things are explained step by step in an instructional article. The wikiHow experience was one that offered a practical trial in applying communication.

The Wild Wild Web

You Have Died of Dysentery

Subjective

Web 1.0 felt like a library at the fingertips of a curious young mind. Read-Only websites fed hungry brains with what seemed like limitless information. Playing Oregon Trail in the school computer lab went from being an entire lesson to simply a starting point. Dysentery was written about like a textbook entry, complete with pictures. The journals of Lewis and Clark were published in their entirety thanks to public domain. In fact, the public domain truly became public and accessible thanks to Web 1.0.

Eventually, the Web forums began popping up. Sports fans were able to find their niches. Some enjoyed talking strategy in a Web forum, others enjoyed the aesthetics of sports and found websites and message boards, like the ones found on Chris Creamer’sSports Logos.Net. There were also blogs like UniWatch that allowed users to comment and submit photos to their operators. Particularly interesting was the forums behind Harry Potter, which allowed a massive and rabid fan base to connect across the globe and discuss their mutual interests.

These forums were incredibly clunky compared to the modern Web. It took time to type a post and a mouse click to submit- the “enter” key didn’t work as an alternative. This meant the posts were built in with time to think and pushed out knee jerk responses that are so familiar today. Today, Reddit and its comments have stayed true to its roots and most resembles what an original Web forum once was, albeit accessibility and user-friendliness has improved, for better or worse.

With the forums aiding the transition, the evolution into Web 2.0 seemed entirely natural. Interaction with others became more streamlined and refined. For example, with Twitter, each interest of the young mind is able to connect with users of a similar interest, as with any other social media on Web 2.0. The hype hit the users without much repercussion. Users were excited and ready to take in the interaction that everything prior felt like it was leading up to.

Businesses were hit hard with the hype, and to some, Web 2.0 surpassed their expectations. Some businesses changed everything from marketing to customer service in order to succeed. There are businesses that have resisted evolution, notably newspapers. These businesses are now dying a slow and painful death thanks to their resistance.

Web 3.0 is a more intelligent version of what came before. When searching for dysentery, or talking about getting dysentery, the context will come into play. No longer will be the days of searching about dysentery pages explaining its effect inthe game of Oregon Trail. No longer will someone with actual dysentery interrupt a conversation about dying of dysentery in a game. The Web will know the meanings.

Sharing is Caring, or Just What the Future Holds

Journalistic

The Web has evolved at a rapid pace, being categorically defined as Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. The Internet is a system created by the United States government. The World Wide Web is how that Internet is used.

The inception of the web as it is known began with Web 1.0. Web 1.0 is comprised of read-only web pages.Information was available in the form of text and pictures. Hyperlinks were available to different pages.

Web 1.0 began evolving with search engines like Google and Yahoo, when the capacity to search was implemented. The limits of a single web address and its hyperlinks no longer existed.

The evolution to Web 2.0 came when the focus shifted from content to users. Web 2.0 was defined as participatory, amateur and user friendly.

RSS feeds became popular ways for users to get news specifically tailored to them. Users could participate in web forums. The Web became open for everyone and anyone to have a conversation about anything. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter became prevalent and reinvented conversations. Wikis where anyone can add information became popular. One can now spend hours reading endless information on Wikipedia, which, while limited by the constraints of being a wiki, has established itself as a phenomenal entry-level learning tool.

Web 3.0 is the next step in the World Wide Web’s evolution. It is an intelligent Web. Through open source techniques and free data, services will be intelligent. They will understand context and meaning. Web 3.0 has also been called the semantic web. Because it is still in development, the definition varies, but it is commonly noted as being able to share data and reuse it across applications and sites.

What this means, in the simplest of terms, is that when a user is looking for information about something such as NCIS, the web itself will know if the user desires the TVshow, or the actual Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Everything will be tailored to the tendencies of the user. 

The evolution of the web is all about what’s next for the user. The Web is basically the Wild Wild West. It is new. It is whatever the user wants it to be. 

How to Perform a Simple 3 (or 4) Person Lift in Dance

This three person lift in dance may be done with all girls, even if they are relatively the same size. It gets the dancer high enough in the air where they are noticeably being lifted with relative ease and have a decent range of motion in their legs. One girl needs to get lifted and two other girls will be doing the lifting and providing a base.

THINGS YOU'LL NEED

-One girl to be lifted- this girl must have optimal core strength. Any seasoned dance student should possess the necessary core strength.

-Two girls to do the lifting- these girls must contain some upper arm strength to provide a base, as well as core strength.

-Optional- An extra person may be added to the lifting team to stabilize and help the person being lifted into the air.

STEPS

Step One- Get into position.

• The lifted dancer should be in between the two lifting her, all facing the same direction. If an extra lifter is added, this person should be directly behind the lifted dancer.
• The lifted dancer must stand with their feet in parallel first position.
• The two lifters must stand with their feet shoulder width apart, slightly offset.
• If there is the optional lifter, they should be standing in second position parallel.

Step Two- Ready the arms.

• The lifted dancer should have their arms out in a strong second position, ensuring the palms are down. This creates the opposition necessary to keep upright
• The two side lifters must use their hands to create a shelf under the arms of the lifted dancer. 
• They should flex their hands back as far as possible. One hand should be at the armpit, and one hand should be near, but not on, the elbow.
• If the optional lifter is there, their hands should be firmly gripping the lifted dancers waist.

Step Three- The Act of Lifting.

• The lift should come from the knees. All participants should have set counts in their head for plié (bend) and the lift.
• The lifted dancer must actively jump into the air as she is lifted, as her own momentum will help her get into the air. She must then hold her body tight and in the proper position. Do not forget about the positioning of the feet. Unless specified otherwise, hold the feet in tendu.
• The side lifters must get underneath the arms and push up using the shelf they have created with their hands.
• The optional back lifter may plié and straighten her arms with the rest of the lifters.

Step Four- In the lift.

• The lift may last as long or as short as desired. It is a very stable lift, meaning the person may be walked from one place to another, spun around, or held to perform whatever is desired.
• Counts must be agreed upon so everyone is in sync with what they are supposed to be doing, be it walking or holding still.
• The lifted dancer must hold her arms and body incredibly tight, and hold the head in the desired position, again making sure everything extending to the feet and hands are appropriately held.
• The lifters should hold their arms locked straight, as it helps make the most of their strength and makes the lift easier.

Step Five- Getting down.

• Finishing the lift must end in sync. One side cannot go down before the other. 
• The lifted dancer must be ready to be put down.
• As always, agree upon counts to ensure everyone is on the same page.

TIPS-

• For the lifted dancer, pressing the shoulder blades down and back is helpful. Think of making a “V” in the middle of your shoulders.
• For the lifted dancer, holding the core is incredibly important, not only in the front abdominals, but also from the back. Squeezing the buttocks is helpful for stability.
• For the lifters, do not squeeze with your fingers. Instead, hold them tight and strong and provide contact to stabilize the dancer in the air. Squeezing with fingers may cause bruising and it is also painful for the person being lifted.
• Watch faces! Very often participants in a lift drop character and become so focused on their physical demands it detracts from the performance, which then ruins the point of the choreography.
• Things that the lifted dancer may do in the air involve, but are not limited to, splits, double attitudes, alternating double attitudes, holding in a “T” position and looking up to the heaven.
• This lift may also be done with men.

WARNING

• Improper lifting, especially when using the back, may cause injury. 
• Dropping the person being lifted may cause injury.
• Dancing, and its lifts, are athletic, and comes with an inherent risk of injury throughout.

Wiki How step 1

Three topics not currently on wikiHow include how to tie a locking hitch, how to make a mimosa float, and how to perform a “T” or “Jesus” dance lift using two or three people. These are three things that may clearly be written in the “how to/step by step” formula that wikiHow uses. Many interests don’t lend themselves to wikiHow posts, like “how to choreograph,” or they are already on wikiHow, like “how to take a penalty kick in soccer.”

The locking hitch is used on a schooner style sailboat to keep the boom of the foresail in place while docked.  It is also useful in other scenarios, like when setting up a tailgate and the line of a tent needs to be taught. It’s a simple knot that would be easy to photograph or illustrate. The knot can also be made “slippery” so it is easy to untie. There are three specific movements involved in tying the knot as well as preparing and finishing with a slippery knot, which allows the whole thing to become undone with one specific pull.

The “mimosa float” is a creation developed while watching Golden Girls reruns on Hallmark. An Instagram post about sherbet was the original inspiration.  There are two versions. The orange mimosa is 3/5 champagne, 1/5 sprite, 1/5 orange juice, with orange sherbet, and finally garnished with an orange. The raspberry mimosa is 3/5 champagne, 1/5 sprite, 1/5 pineapple juice with raspberry sherbet and garnished with raspberries. It is imperative that the juices used are very chilled, otherwise the temperature difference between the sherbet and champagne will be unsatisfying. Without the chilled juices, the champagne will also taste uncomfortably bitter in comparison to the sherbet. The mimosa also should sit and then be lightly stirred in order for maximum enjoyment to be reached.

The “Jesus” lift is something that is easy to place choreography when appropriate. The lift takes three or four girls total, and size is not as big of a factor as it may be in other lifts that can be done. When a class is entirely young women, strength and size varies greatly, and this particular lift compensates for that. The flyer stands in a T position, holding their arms out locked and strong. The lifters hold them one arm near the shoulder, one arm near the elbow. Sometimes, two is enough. Other times, especially for the inexperienced, a third person may be added for stability at the person’s hips.

The most successful wikiHow article may be the mimosa float recipe, but the most interesting article would be about the lift. Thinking realistically, obtaining photographs for the mimosas would be much easier than with the lift to meet the deadlines, and also obtain a waiver from the people at my disposal. The locking hitch is incredibly simple, but very useful. It is specific and useful to boating and camping. The locking hitch is a combination of two knots and is useful very specifically when the line need not have any slack. With a piece of rope, it would be easy to photograph the steps involved in the locking hitch, however, the accompanying article may not be long enough to meet the project requirements.