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From a legal standpoint, the copyright issue doesn’t concern me whatsoever. Since the murals I will be using for my site are on public display, they are part of the public domain. This also means that I don’t need to be concerned about third parties downloading and taking my files. I would actually encourage this action, since one goal I have for my site is the increased dissemination of the artwork.
I am far more concerned with the quality of the photography than the licensing question. Yet I do worry that some artists will not wish their pieces to be displayed on the site for a variety of reasons. I have been unable to contact all of the artists who will appear on my site, thus I may receive some emails from artists demanding either payment for usage or eliminating the photo from my site. Since I will not have a legal obligation to take down the photo or pay him or her (public domain), I could conceivably take no action. This could be potentially fatal to my site. The artists using either word-of-mouth, other websites or another forum could create a very hostile environment when recruiting other artists. I have significantly less credibility to a Yogya artist compared to another artist. So I would rather take down the photo, with the hope of eventually convincing the disgruntled artist that he or she would benefit (both in exposure and visitation) by re-posting their work on my site. Since this site will accompany a colleague’s graduate research, this will be a non-profit site. We do not plan on posting advertisements or charging for membership accessing the site, in order to ease the artist’s minds of our potential for profiteering off their work.
I have been debating for the past week about what type of audience I would like to aim my site at. I have two competing goals for my site. I want it to be both a tourist guide and a continuously updated archive. So I need to appeal both to a foreign audience and Yogyakarta residents as well. More than likely I will also need to create the site in both English and Indonesian. I think at the moment my top priority is increasing the size of the archive over installing tourist friendly applications, because I only captured a small amount of the graffiti present in the city during my stay. Also local artists and residents will know much more than I will about the art itself and it’s history. I simply wish to create a site to begin the process. Initially I will not write any commentary on the pieces either. I know a couple of the artists, and would hope that they would like to write something about their pieces. But if not, this site will still be extremely useful to tourists wishing to find graf murals quickly.
In terms of technology, I am struggling how to approach the site. I have had some difficulty finding out how many users use dial-up v. broadband. I know from experience that dial-up, or at least dial-up speed is the norm in Yogyakarta (which is also a very technologically advanced city in Indonesia). But I think it is safe to say that the average user will use a speed at around 22KB/sec. Not very fast. So the map concept must at least initially be semi-primitive. Even loading a google map on the GMU network can be time-consuming, so I am a little worried about that portion of my site. Also googlemaps does not have a detailed street map of Yogyakarta, so I would be forced to create a map myself. Hopefully there are some easy to use & cheap map-making technologies around for this task. Regardless, I feel the map concept is best-suited for the content. Traditional art gallery sites try to create a mood as if the user was actually in the museum. I must do the same, keeping the street presence and ambiance in the site. Give the feeling that you are actually in the city looking at the pieces. This also makes me think that a google maps type set might not even be the best format. Instead a more interactive map (GIF images), slightly cartoonish version of Yogya. Although once again I run into the trouble of bandwidth and accessibility. I feel I say this at the end of every blog post, but I am very open to suggestions of ways to quell these issues.
There is the possibility that I should make two separate sites for English & Indonesian users. Especially since the majority of English-speaking users have high-speed, I could make the site I want, while settling for lesser applications on the Indonesian sites. Whenever Indonesia has increased it’s bandwidth, I could reform the site. Accessibility is much more important to me at the moment than design.
While I agree with the philosophy Larry Sanger and his associates endorse in creating this site, I’m not entirely sure of it’s value. I must preface this post by saying I am viewing Citizendium from an academic standpoint. the most pressing question I have is how will this aid my research? What exactly do the founders wish to accomplish with this site? In the site’s own words, Citizendium.org “is an open wiki project aimed at creating an enormous, free, and reliable encyclopedia.” The major hang-up I have with this site is the lack of editing of an article prior to publication (in the blog sense). Here drafts are allowed on the live site for viewing. Only later will a group of editors or other authors challenge and change misinformation in each article. Citizendium relies on the expert for quality control by refraining from lazy or false scholarship. So, despite this sites “more reliable” claim, there is still a chance the average visitor could be misinformed by one of the articles and not realize it.
But what’s different in Academia? Scholars publish semi-complete findings all the time, in hopes of being the first person recognized for a particular theory or finding. Why can’t Citizendium, which does use a panel of experts to check for quality control, be used as a reference in a scholarly article? Once again, I think the above-mentioned editorial process is the reason. The founders of Citizendium wish to avoid what they describe as the “bureaucratic” atmosphere of academia. Avoidance of the many egos and procedures that influence publication was an explicit goal of the site. What scholars should be focused on is ubiquitously spreading knowledge for the advancement of human intellect (we can be so pompous sometimes). But no matter how this goal is phrased, Sanger does have a point that at times the politics of publishing can stymie it’s dissemination.
As a person who will write & publish articles in journals, the question remains why I should use Citizendium over Wikipedia? I believe the potential sources used in the Citizendium articles will probably aid my research more than the sources used in Wikipedia. Since at the moment neither source will be accepted by any journal editor, these sites are relegated to reference points status. The material in Cit & Wiki articles may not be entirely factual, but many, if not most, come from published sources. Yet I also believe that Citizendium will have more quality sources (I mean sources that have been reviewed, rather than other platforms such as websites) compared to Wiki. But as a researcher I would probably check both sites anyways in case one article has additional sources that the other lacks or vice-versa. So while I respect what Larry Sanger is trying to accomplish, unless his source are recognized by the majority of academic journal editors, his vision of the site will not be fully realized.
I am currently debating between two types of sites for my final project. One idea, which I brought up in class, involves a comparative history between the graffiti movements in Washington DC and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The site would archive both collections, while simultaneously creating or using a tool or software that highlights points of interest on each graffiti piece to the reader. The tool will probably utilize stylized icons that links to a pop up window containing commentary on such topics as the style, history, influence and techniques used on that piece. As a default this function will be turned off so each piece may be appreciated for it’s aesthetic qualities. The On/Off switch for the icon feature will either be on the right or left side of each picture. Eventually I hope artists form both DC & Indonesia will use my site as a forum to discuss ideas & trends.
However, last Monday in class as we were discussing our ideas, someone suggested doing a virtual map of all the museums in Washington DC for her project. I thought this platform would work really well for the content I will be using. Utilizing some sort of map or webpage software (maybe even something like Dreamweaver), I would place dots or icons on a map of DC or Yogya at the location of each mural in my archive. When a user clicks on the icon, a separate window will open with a large image of the piece and some commentary about it. One drawback to this site would be the dynamic nature of graffiti art itself. Someone who does not agree with graffiti painting will know all the locations in the Washington DC that has been tagged (slang term for a wall that has a mural on it). Yogyakarta is a different story however. There is not a specific law against graffiti, quite the contrary many local business owners hire graf artists to put something up as a way of attracting attention to there store. So many murals are more like artistic landmarks similar to many stone statues that decorate DC. While living in Indonesia I heard many Indonesians, Ex-Pats & tourists express a desire to view graf art. Hypothetically a European wishing to see a couple murals they viewed on my site could, similar to the yellow pages, easily visit the actual murals without fear of becoming lost in a foreign country.
Granted this map may not be used as often as I am trying to convince myself it will be, but I think the map format would be a nice user interface for my content. While discussing podcasts last week, we agreed that music was a way to prepare the listener for the material they were about to hear, making them more receptive to what came next. For my website I will not use a standard MapQuest format. Accompanied by semi-muted music in the background (that may be turned off by the user if they so desire), the user needs to feel like they are actually in the city looking at these murals. I wonder if there is some nice looking, but simple VR software I could use for this project. I would like to eventually make the project similar to a video game format, where the user could explore the city manually, while I simply over lay my pictures on certain walls, but I doubt I would have the time or money to take on such an idea at the moment. Rather, I may ask a friend to create a custom map of Yoyga which I will use as my template for the site. Any links that anyone could refer me to as aid for this site would be greatly appreciated.
