Assignments

Assignment #1

Write a 2-page concept piece about the general area of your project (medicine, retail, education, social movements, non-profits, politics, etc.). How has this area of human activity changed in general over the past decade, and how has the Internet shaped the outcome. How will things change in the next 10 years?

Dance in Tomorrow's Time

Dance has always been an important part of human culture. From ceremonies and rituals to celebrations and entertainment, dance has been a significant reflection of popular culture and common beliefs during many major parts of history, but it has also had a profound effect on our different cultures at other times. Regardless of the specific dance or style, people have always engaged in dancing as it has continually evolved over the course of history.

Dance has always changed and progressed as humanity lives on. Like most art forms, dance is strongly influenced by the events of the time period and of the customs of the society at the time. An integral part of life even before the advent of civilizations, dance has expanded vastly and split into more and more specialized styles and variations as the different forms have spread over the globe and acquired their various distinctions. In the past, dance used to be prominently spread through the movement of cultures, the holding of large scale dance competitions and exhibitions where different varieties were on display, or by the movement of established teachers who imparted distinct styles. This propagation of information was generally slow and it usually took a while for a dance to establish itself in an area.

In the past century or so, television and movies have helped accelerate the process by which new and different dances are spread. The showing of popular dancers on TV and hit movies such as Saturday Night Fever and Footloose helped broadcast certain styles of dancing to the excited public. However, the variety of dance spread to people was still largely limited. It was not until the popularization of the Internet that this limitation would finally be overcome.

The establishment of the Internet and websites such as YouTube has revolutionized the process by which dance is circulated in the past decade. From private YouTube dance videos to projects like Google’s Waltz Lab along with the rise of reality television shows such as Dancing With the Stars and America’s Best Dance Crew, dance has prominently featured in the public’s eye and access to it has never been easier. Interested users can now find videos of performances from their favorite performers or from everyday people with just a few clicks of a button. The progress of technology has changed the world of dance in countless ways.

From personal dance videos of individuals to live recordings of popular performances, YouTube has provided an outlet for the dance community to interact like never before. The diversity and popularity of dance may have best been showcased in one of YouTube’s original hit videos, Judson Laipply’s The Evolution of Dance. Initially a two minute routine with twelve songs performed for the first time in spring of 2001, The Evolution of Dance was an instant hit with Judson’s audiences. Laipply developed his act into a six minute routine featuring more than thirty songs and uploaded his video to YouTube in April of 2006. The video now has almost 200 million views and Laipply has released an Evolution of Dance 2.

Although Laipply’s video may be the first and most popular video on dance, YouTube is utilized everyday by dancers and dance groups. Professionals upload videos of their performances for the public to see and many aspiring dancers watch these videos and sometimes even try to replicate them. Users can even upload videos of their own for others to see and to provide feedback on. Through YouTube and the Internet, the global community has access to dance all around the world.

A prime example of the usage of the Internet to foster user involvement, the Google Waltz Lab is a relatively new project that focuses on innovation in waltz. Through a two-round process, participants are encouraged to not only learn new figures, but also participate in the creation of new variations. After a physical brainstorming session, users are supposed to upload their videos to an online forum where they can inspire one another and learn through observation. Through this creative process, new moves and styles are encouraged and spread throughout the Waltz Lab users.

In the words of Richard Powers: “In just over a month, participants in the class at Google, as well as dancers from around the globe in satellite classes, have been submitting videos of themselves experimenting with variations on classical waltz steps. The online forum allows them to provide feedback for one another.”

With the advancement of technology not likely to soon slow down, dance will become even more accessible and formerly-regional styles will develop global followings and interpretations in the coming years. Users will continue to view videos of dancers from around the world and will hopefully be inspired to upload their own videos. Innovations in technology could lead to advances such as holographic dance lessons that one could have in their own home. Users may someday be able to attend live dance concerts and performances from their computers. Only time will tell.

Assignment #2

Write a two-page description of your project. This description could be in prose or in outline form. Talk about your motivation, your target audience(s), and the structure of the site itself (e.g., the main sections). What's the main point you are trying to get across?

The Evolution of Dance – An Exploration of Various Dance Groups at Stanford

The motivation for my project is a need to learn more about the different dance groups at Stanford. I’ve looked around at some of the different Stanford websites as well as the groups’ own personalized websites, and most of them seemed lacking in content. As a freshman at Stanford, I came with an idea that I wanted to try out some dance groups, but I had no idea where to find information about where to start. I would’ve liked to visit a website that gave me information about the different groups around Stanford and each of their unique characteristics.

Through my site, I hope to be able to provide an overall background on dance and dance groups and then take a more in-depth look at each of the dance groups at Stanford. I wish to research more about the history of each type of dance that the group specializes in and how the group has adapted the dance to their style here at Stanford. I will provide information about joining the different dance groups and dates of major performances. Possibly, I could interview members from different groups and get their viewpoints on why they joined the dance group they are a member of and what they have gained from being a part of the group.

My target audience should be the same kind of people that I was when entering Stanford. I want my website to appeal to any person interested in learning more about the different dance groups and possibly looking for a team to join. Even people that just want to learn more about dancing at Stanford and are interested in attending different dance performances should be able to take away a more knowledgeable outlook from my website.

The structure of the website should be pretty straightforward. I will have a title page with some words about dancing and inspiration and an introduction video on the various aspects of dancing. I will have a few general pages about dancing overall and the department and student groups here at Stanford. I will then list the different groups in a toolbar along the top or side of the page, with smaller sections about the history of the group, what kind of dance they do now, a list of major performances, and maybe a list of members. I’d like to include a master calendar of major events at Stanford that the dance groups could edit from year to year and that an outside student could consult to see what performances are occurring around campus and when.

Assignment #5

Prepare a 2-3 page plan for your project that shows, like a Business Plan would, a certain degree of thinking through the possibilities and potential problems as regards the market (users), features, competition, costs, and operation of the project.

Executive Summary

The Evolution of Dance is an Internet website focused on helping people explore dance and discover different possibilities of learning to dance using different opportunities on the Internet. By introducing users to general information as well as linking them to a variety of more specific resources, The Evolution of Dance will be able to help satisfy the curiosity of hopeful dancers and increase the number of knowledgeable dance material contributors.

There are a vast number of teenagers, some of who are frequent computer users out on the Internet, just itching to learn more about dancing and possibly wishing they could learn how to do it themselves. From movies to music videos, people these days are being exposed to dance from various sources and this website will help them learn more about how the Internet has changed dance as well as help those who wish to dance along on their journey to becoming performers. They will benefit greatly from having a main source of information and links from which they can delve in more in depth from there. Users will hopefully explore through different parts of the website before visiting the other websites. After that, they should bring back what they learned and also contribute other sources that they find from there.

Target Audience

The target audience of this website will be all Internet users, as it is never too late to learn about dancing and there are those of all ages who the site will be useful to. However, the website will more specifically target the younger population, around teenage age to late twenties. I believe that this population range has the most people interested in dancing sphere as well as the most up-to-date technology literate users. To reach this audience effectively, the website will mainly explore other websites and media avenues that are primarily viewed by the target audience.

Competition

As just one of the many websites about dance on the Internet, The Evolution of Dance will have to integrate other sites about dance so it can achieve more than just a stand-alone site. By partnering up with social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube and dance-instructive sites, The Evolution of Dance will be able to reach a wide population and make its information more actionable for users.

Growth

With the cooperation of users, the site will grow as viewers contribute their own dance videos and relay information to other users about sites that helped them in their curiosity. Users will also be encouraged to leave feedback for others and develop a community that is fostering and collaborative.

Advantage

Being a college student who is an aspiring dancer, I feel I am able to closely relate to the audience I'm targeting. I understand the need of a large portion of the audience and will use my own personal experience to fashion the site the way I feel it will most appeal to users.

Future Potential

After the initial development of the website, I will from time to time add or change information when I feel it is necessary to the purpose of the project. The main bulk of development will be the contribution of users, who should encourage their peers and create a community that is fostering and self-sustaining.

Assignment #6

Examine some other websites in your space and "analyze the market." (What other sites might your target audience(s) go to instead?) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the related sites? Does your site complement what is out there? If you are competing, how is your site better? If yours is unique, why is it?

Analyzing the Market

Although I would consider the Evolution of Dance a pretty unique website in its focus and its content, there are still plenty of sites that offer similar information or learning tutorials as well. Each site about dancing has something unique to offer, different in what attracts an Internet user to the site and what purpose that site serves to the user. Websites that are in the same “market” or area of interest as my site can be categorized into very general groups: basic how-to-dance sites, informational and instructive sites, and social media sites.

Each category of websites has advantages and disadvantages in its usefulness to each viewer. The how-to sites I found when I searched up dance websites were very broad in their content and did not bring much depth to field of dancing. They were more geared toward the average person who cannot dance very well and only wishes to learn dancing in a party or club scene. While useful for many people that just want to learn how to not embarrass themselves, the sites do not serve much purpose to the audience I intended to reach with my site. The informative sites held more useful content to an aspiring dancer, but they also dealt more on the side of ballroom and social dance whereas I wanted to reach dancers of all kind. Both also marketed products like books and DVD’s and services such as professional lessons that help with learning dance. Social media sites such as YouTube offer perhaps the greatest range of usefulness within this grouping. YouTube is not restricted to a certain purpose, but allows user to post endless amounts of videos about learning to dance for just about every level of dancer out there. Being so vast, though, users can be easily overwhelmed and it is more difficult to start off with a site like YouTube when a new dancer does not know what to search for.

The Evolution of Dance will differ from all of these sites as it will combine many of the central elements, but not really focus on one goal. The purpose of the site is to provide initial material about learning to dance and display available options to go to. The website is not meant to be a stand-alone site, but will offer information about other sites that will be directed to. Instead of competing with each site in its market, the Evolution of Dance will partner up with them, allowing each site to fulfill its most effective role and bringing them all together for a user to access from one point.

http://www.wikihow.com/Dance

http://dance.about.com/od/getstarteddancing/ss/Learn_to_Dance.htm

http://www.learntodance.com/

http://www.learning2dance.com/site/

http://www.youtube.com/

Assignment #7

Write a critique of two students’ projects, per the sign-up sheet from last week. Each critique should be at least 200 words and should adhere to the guidelines on constructive criticism.

Constructive Criticisms

ClassyckDesigns by Uche Uba

I like the idea of your website, as a place to both sell clothes and provide information about the design industry and modeling. Looking at the website and reading your assignments, I can see that you still have a lot more to add. For what you do have, though, I’ll try and offer some things I think might be helpful.

For the home page, it’d be nice to have the picture possibly link to different parts of your website. It’d a little strange to have it link to a picture of it at the moment. Also, the only way to get to it is by clicking the name of your site. Maybe include a home button and provide a little information about your site on the home page for users to read over, too.

The media page could highlight a couple of designers. It’s a little broad to just have a lot different links. I also didn’t quite understand the point of the TV. Could you explain this?

Again with the industry page, maybe include some info about what the page is about and possibly highlight a couple?

I like the idea you wrote about for the models page in Assignment #2.

The clothes page again runs the problem of just listing sites. I don’t see the difference between the columns or if it’s just a listing system or a ranking one. I also like the idea you wrote about in the assignment.

I can tell your site is still in the early process of production. I like the ideas you had in your assignment and look forward to seeing them come together. The logo could be put next to the title of the page and maybe displayed prominently throughout the site?

Five Lines by Henry Thiemann

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I really liked the video. It was informative, attracted the attention of viewers, and to the point on its purpose.