Archive for January, 2008
This is us!
a teaser for today’s class…
Brief: Mark-Up your tutorial + …
First we’re going to practice some html. Towards what will become your online tutorial:
- Open a word processor (like Open Office, Text Edit or Word) and write down the text for your tutorial. Try to break it to titles, subtitles, lists, links, different elements or whatever you might think is relevant.
- Collect images, videos, audio, whatever media you would like to involve in this tutorial. Try to think how to take a similar approach like the one you took in your analog tutorial, but this time, make a webpage out of it.
- Install Firebug in your computer.
- Use your preferred text editor (like Emacs, Dreameweaver or Coda) to edit your html page. When in doubt use Firebug to check and steal code from other pages.
- When you’re done (or through the process of your work) try to validate your code through the W3C validator. Try to understand the feedback it gives to fix your errors, and strive to keep your html valid.
- when the html page is done (only html, no styling what so ever!!!) upload it to our blog and provide the link in your post. Your pages will be ugly, but will be pure data, which would look much better the week after.
- Post at least two HTML tutorial references that you found useful (not just any ones you’ve found), post it to our del.icio.us tag ‘osdp’ (which stands for Open Source Design Parsons) so we can start to share some resources.
Second, we’re each going to learn something new:
- Go through the tutorial you were given by your classmate, try to go through it while taking notes on your process, your experience, your challenge, your difficulties.
- Turn these notes with pictures (when it fits) to a post reporting on your experience. This would be valuable feedback for us to work with in the rest of the assignment.
- Try to not break anything…
- Enjoy.
See you next week.
open source goodies
Some links to accompany my presentation.
Open source software:
Firefox browser
Some non software related links:
Open source DIY clothing patterns
Open source pretty much anything you can think of
Brief: Great, Wide, OPEN
From this week (#2) we are starting a series of presentations under the title “Great Wide Open” in which you guys will be presenting to class a specific topic involving open source, it can be an interesting project, a discussion around OS issues, a technology you wish were open but isn’t, and why should it be… issues of open culture, copyright laws or how does all this tie back to design? Each such presentation will take 15 mins + 5 mins for Q&A. These presentations will be obviously accompanied by a post on our blog, which will include the key ideas, some links and the opportunity to all of us to continue the discussion after class in the comments column.
In the coming week, please send me the topics for your presentations, so I might help you with your research and give you some tips. The order of presentations is:
Feb 1st – Cian Brown
Feb 8th – X
Feb 15th – CP waite
Feb 22nd – Kellie
Feb 29th – Cyrus Chan
March 14th – Lan
March 28th – Marcela Gamez
April 4th – Ryan Hines
April 11th – Sheila
April 18th – Susanna Chang
Network – the movie
This movie predicted the coming of reality TV as well as the way we perceive the internet before it was even used by anyone!
Getting images in your comments
Gravatar – Globally Recognized Avatars – is a way to get your image in the comments and be able to tie a face to the name. If you want to get one, just go to Gravatar.com and sign up with the same email you’re using in this blog. The image you upload there will appear in our blog. as simple as that. Enjoy.
The Code Breakers
Download the high quality file from here. Or view it through Google Video, here:
Part One:
Part Two:
Tutorial: Teach Us Something
Every one of you knows how to do something that none of us know. It might be a certain technique of book binding, a trick to find good apartments in NY, a secret pumpkin soup recipe that your grandma taught you or a way to melt your boy/girl-friend’s heart and make him/her less angry at you. Well it’s time for you to share all that valuable information.For next week you will prepare a tutorial – a set of assignment to teach us how to do that certain thing that you are so good at.Let’s make some rules:
- Running through the tutorial cannot take more than two hours.
- The tutorial should be inclusive and cannot require equipment that is beyond the grasp of any of the students in class (when in doubt consult me).
- The tutorial cannot be dependent on the presence of the tutorial’s creator or of any other individual more informed than the person following the tutorial.
- The tutorial cannot be digital! Yes, the first assignment in the open source design class will not be using digital media but will focus on the idea and practice of sharing information and documentation of process. (the subject itself can be digital though, i.e. “Build your own robot in two hours” is legit).
Let’s break some rules:
- The tutorial doesn’t have to look like any tutorial we’ve ever seen.
- The tutorial doesn’t have to include text or words or images or anything.
- The tutorial should teach us something, and achieve it’s goals by any means necessary.
You should expect to actually carry out these tutorials in the following week, so let’s make it be a fun assignment.(Don’t worry, there will be tons of technology next week) enjoy.
*For next class please also bring the final Encode/Decode/Hack assignment so we can share the last results.
First Class Assignment
In this assignment we will try to model the process of computing and later think what would happen if we open the system.
Hi Class!
Welcome to Open Source Design
To start I would ask you to register to the blog . After you register, I’ll be able to add you as authors in the blog. You can always sign in with your username and password from the link at the bottom of the page. and as you will soon see, this is where all the action is going to take place…
on 
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