Kiley Dorton
 
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One of the most life-changing decisions I've ever made was to audition for the all-male collegiate a cappella group The UGA Accidentals.  In 2004, my freshman year of college, I tried out for the group and entered into a brotherhood of singers without which I would not be the man I am today.  I owe so much to this group and the best friends I've made while I have been a part of it.

That being said, we recently competed in a competition called the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella.  Never before have the Accidentals made it past semifinals, but this year we made history.  In two short weeks, we will be traveling to compete among the top 9 collegiate a cappella groups in the ENTIRE WORLD in the international finals in New York City!

We don't get much money from the school, and we don't have much to spend.  Frankly, we can't get there without your help.  Please watch the video, and head to our Kickstarter project to pledge your support.  Anything helps; without you we can't possibly make it to New York!

I created and edited the video below, and created the Kickstarter project associated with it.  Please let me know what you think and pledge your support!

 
 
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The XO Laptop
Two years ago, Emuel Aldridge, a professor in the University of Georgia New Media Institute, showed me a video of the brand new XO Laptops from the OneLaptopPerChild campaign.  These $100 laptops were unlike anything I had seen before, obviously made for children to use in the most rural of settings.  I was hooked.   I feel very strongly that furthering the digital education of children in rural communities and developing nations will drastically reduce the digital divide.  I knew I had to get my hands on a few of these XO laptops, one way or the other. 

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Me at the EcoLodge
The wheels were turning; and as soon as I heard about UGA's EcoLodge facility in the mountains of Costa Rica, I knew I had found the perfect location for XO laptops to make a difference.  I just had to find the money to buy them.

I had been the President of the all-male a cappella group the UGA Accidentals for about 2 years at the time, so I thought to myself, "Why not use something you love to help fund this project?"

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So, I founded a brand new co-ed a cappella group at UGA:  Singing4Change.  Singing4Change was a relaxed, charity-focused a cappella group with one purpose:  to raise enough money to get 13 XO laptops into the hands of Costa Rican children.

We sang songs that were meaningful to us, and promoted messages of hope and faith.  Some of my favorite memories include practicing at sunset in the top of the Summit clubhouse, watching people find joy in the music I arranged, and generally having fun singing for a good cause.  Though we did have a lot of fun singing and practicing, we never ended up making any money for the cause.  I knew I had to look for another way to raise funds.

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It was then that I contacted NN, Inc., one of the top three ball-bearing companies in the world.  I approached NN with a presentation describing the XO Laptop, the OneLaptopPerChild campaign, and the need for digital education in developing nations.  The wonderful people at NN loved it.  They decided to help by participating in what's called the "Give one, Get one" program.  This program allowed us to essentially purchase 26 XO Laptops, 13 of which were sent to various locations in the world while the other 13 came to my doorstep.

So I got the laptops!  13 brand new, very cool XO laptops.  I was chomping at the bit to get them down to Costa Rica, but I still had to figure out how to get there and back.

I decided to pay for a wild trip that involved me taking the 13 laptops in a hiking backpack (thanks to Zack Goulet for letting me borrow the pack) from Athens, GA to Washington, DC, to New York City (where I saw Diggnation!), back to DC, down to Florida, and finally all the way to San Jose, Costa Rica!  After Costa Rica, I continued to LA and San Francisco...but that's another story! (see a few of the pics in the slideshow below, if you're interested)

When I finally made it down to Costa Rica, I ran into an immediate complication:  the agent at the airport had absolutely no intention of allowing me to bring 13 laptops into the country.  Apparently, he thought I had bought them cheap in the US and intended to sell them at high prices in Costa Rica.  My severely broken Spanish didn't help the matter, but a smile can go a long way to fight language barriers.  It only took about an hour of utter communication failures and Spanish/English dictionaries, and I was out of the airport an onto the streets of San Jose!  But, then what?
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Stephanie and I
Luckily, one of my very close friends had recently graduated from UGA and moved down to Costa Rica to teach English.  Stephanie, an incredibly intelligent woman with a beautiful singing voice and an even more beautiful passion for living life to the fullest, patiently awaited my escape from the airport and escorted me to her house on a dirt road a couple miles away.

The next morning Stephanie made a few calls and was able to figure out how in the world I was going to get from San Jose to Heredia (Monteverde).  Turns out Monteverde is the closest little town to the incredibly tiny village of San Luis, which is home to the UGA Costa Rica EcoLodge as well as two wonderfully humble elementary schools:  San Luis Alta, and San Luis Bajo.  One school up the mountain, one school at the bottom of the mountain.  Simple enough.

But to get from San Jose to Monteverde, I had to take one of the scariest bus rides of my life.  When I say that the bus was wider than the windy, dirt road it was supposed to traverse, I mean it.  We were literally on a death ride that only stopped for stubborn cows and once for dinner.  Meanwhile, I had absolutely no idea what anyone around me or the bus driver was saying.  I was listening for one word and one word only:  "Monteverde."
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The EcoLodge
I finally made it to Monteverde around 12:30 am, and caught what might have been a taxi, or could easily have been a random driver of a van, and hitched a ride down the tiny gravel shadow of a path that led to the UGA EcoLodge.  The van couldn't make it the whole way up to the EcoLodge, so he stopped, I thanked him for the ride, hoisted my 13-laptop pack onto my back and hiked up the road into the black night.  Surrounded by dark, whistling trees and ushered up the hill by the wind, I walked up to the EcoLodge a weary, weary traveler.  I recorded this short video as soon as I got into my cabina at the EcoLodge:

The next morning I awoke to a day I will never forget: the day I realized a dream and delivered the 13 XO Laptops to 45 bright, beautiful, eager elementary school children in San Luis, Costa Rica.

I traveled with a local 'tica' down the mountain to San Luis Bajo, the lower of the two elementary schools.  As soon as I pulled up to the school tears began to well up in my eyes.  The school was perfect.  There were no televisions or even clocks.  And yet the it was buzzing with excitement, literally covered with vibrantly colored drawings and paintings, and completely infiltrated by about 20 5-10 year old children.
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The kids at San Luis Bajo
As soon as I pulled out the laptops I was leaving with these children, I could see sparks flying in their eyes.  They were eager to play, eager to learn, desperate to do what we take for granted every day!  They nervously, timidly approached the laptops I set out and, one by one, began to tap and touch.  Within minutes, they had forgotten all about their nervous approach and were laughing and playing loudly.  The children were video chatting here and there, but seemed to enjoy text chatting even more.  They were snickering and when I asked one girl what she was laughing at, she showed me a word they had typed on the screen.  It meant butt.  I was in heaven.

Here is a (very) quick video I shot while they were playing with the laptops:

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Luiza
As much as I wanted to stay, I had to move on to San Luis Alta (the other elementary school up the mountain).  Before I left, I felt a soft tug on my shorts.  It was a beautiful little girl in a white dress.  She pulled me down to her level, and I thought she was going to say something to me.  Instead, she kissed me on the cheek and quickly ran off to her friends.

As I was leaving, I heard her small voice shout, "Gracias!"

I couldn't hold back the tears.

But alas, I had to move on.  Laptops to deliver, children to see!  So my tica friend took me up the mountain to San Luis Alta.  Here the school had a few rooms instead of one, and--if possible--the children were even more animated than at San Luis Bajo.

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The kids at San Luis Alta
They jumped on the computers with ease, and within half an hour they were doing things on the XO laptops that even I didn't know how to do.  The teacher asked me in Spanish how long I would let them use the laptops before I had to take them back.  When I used my broken Spanish to explain that I was leaving them with her and the kids, she threw her arms around me.  She was so happy!  My tica friend translated as the teacher excitedly rattled off idea after idea for "computer time."  I can't explain how incredible it felt to hear her excitement about the digital education her students would now be able to receive.

And as quickly as it came, it was over.  By about 2pm, I was back at the EcoLodge and in my cabina.  In the rush of excitement, I had been able to ignore my fatigue.  But after delivering the laptops to both schools and finally wearing an empty pack, the true toll of travel hit me so hard even a pound of Costa Rican coffee couldn't have kept me awake.  I slept for hours.

Later that day I hiked up to the tallest waterfall in Costa Rica, and I couldn't resist jumping off.  Here's a video:
Completely coincidentally, my cousin Meredith was in Costa Rica at the time, helping at an orphanage.  Though our phones weren't working and we had no real means of communication, she had faith that Monteverde was small enough that the two of us would run into each other if she just took a bus from her town and walked around Monteverde.
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Hairo & I on the way to Monteverde
I knew she would be in Monteverde, but I had no real idea when or where.  So I hitched a ride into town with an incredibly interesting Columbian man I met at the EcoLodge named Hairo.  We split a 'cab' and went to his favorite restaurant in Monteverde.  We discussed everything under the sun, from life to soccer to women.  I realized that I was so focused on getting the laptops to the kids that I had forgotten to sit back, relax, and take in the beautiful culture of Costa Rica.  After all, it's not every day you get to share a few beers and a couple hours of good conversation with a man who grew up in an entirely different world than yourself.

I sat with Hairo for a few hours, and then decided to walk around Monteverde until I (hopefully) ran into Meredith.  Wouldn't you know it, she had been sitting at the restaurant next door with her friend the whole time!  So I took them back to the EcoLodge with me and we went to the San Luis community celebration of Costa Rica's Independence Day that night.  We danced to the salsa music, and hitched a ride back up the mountain late that night.  I love my family.

The next day we decided to fork out a few Colones to zipline through the canopy.  I've never seen such breathtaking mountains, rainforest, and wildlife.  I put together a video of my time I spent with Meredith in Costa Rica, check it out:

The next day I threw a much lighter pack onto my back and bid the San Luis EcoLodge farewell.  I hopped on a bus from Monteverde to Jaco, a beautiful beach in the south of Costa Rica.  There I met Stephanie with a few of her Costa Rican students, and we ate amazing food and played soccer on the beach all day.  I talked with her friend Jeffrey for a long time and he promised that next time I come to Costa Rica, he and I are renting two motorcycles and riding from coast to coast.  I look forward to that day!
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The next day we bussed back to San Jose and I hopped on a flight back to the states.  Watching Costa Rica disappear into the distance, I thought back to the indescribable trip I had just finished.  My mind wandered to arguing to get the laptops into the country, to nearly crashing on a crowded bus to Monteverde, to watching the children explore the laptops with excited, tiny fingers, to jumping off the highest waterfall, to talking with Hairo about his life, to salsa dancing with my cousin Meredith celebrating Costa Rican independence, to ziplining through the rainforest, to relaxing on the Pacific shoreline of Jaco...

There are few times in life when you simply know you will never forget the experience you just had.

As I drifted to sleep on the plane, one sweet word echoed through my head; it still reminds me of the purpose of the trip, and the lasting difference we were able to accomplish in Costa Rica.

A soft kiss on my cheek, and a quick shout as I walked out the door.

"Gracias!"

Costa Rica, until we meet again, pura vida!
 
 
A few years ago I was named a Mobile Media Scholar and had the chance to work with four incredibly talented NMI students on a special assignment from Dr. Shamp himself:  ALPS.  The Assisted Living Picture Service is a device that allows residents in an Assisted Living Facility to view and show off photos of their friends and family with just the wireless swipe of a card or bracelet.  I never got a chance to post pictures or video of the actual device, but I recently took some footage with Matti Griffin, check it out.
 
 
Zack Goulet shared this link with me, check out the image below.  It may surprise you...
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Heard a great video by Kevin Rose at his website, http://kevinrose.com/, and thought I'd share it to my audience (albeit infinitely smaller!).  Please comment and let me know what you think, and if you'd like to hear more of these types of videos!
 
 
Grad school is a lot like beef jerkey--it's tough, it has a kick that'll make you sweat, and too much will kill you.  And yet, people still eat beef jerkey.  Heck, I love beef jerkey.  And I love grad school.

Dr. Sweetser, my professor in research methodology, has assigned me quite possibly the most difficult project I've ever had to undertake for a class.  Not only that, but she has attached a time limit that is next to impossible considering the fact that I have three other classes with similar projects and impossible deadlines.

And I couldn't be more excited.

I am working with four other grad students.  We are researching credibility and social media; specifically, we are asking the following questions:
  • RQ1:  When a link is shared via social media, does someone who is familiar with social media find the linked video encouraging HIV/AIDS testing more credible if it is endorsed by a peer rather than an unknown, official entity such as the CDC?
  • RQ2:  When a link is shared via social media, does someone who is not familiar with social media find a video encouraging HIV/AIDS testing more credible if it is endorsed by an official entity, such as the CDC, rather than a peer?
  • RQ3:  Is there a correlation between the credibility of an endorsed message and the likelihood of someone familiar or unfamiliar with social media to get tested for HIV/AIDS after watching the video?
To answer these questions, we have constructed a survey (technically, an 'instrument') that uses proven scales to test credibility, index one's social media familiarity, and measure one's intended behavior change.

This survey will be administered to a sample of students and adults over the age of 18 over the next few months.  We will then compile the data, analyze it, and then complete our research by writing an article.

Our article, the main deliverable of the research project, will hopefully be published in a respected journal, such as JCMC (Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication).  After we submit our article, you can bet I'll have a beverage and a big, spicy beef jerkey to celebrate!

Here is a diagram I made to model our research:
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Model for our research
 
 

This year will be my first as a graduate assistant in the UGA New Media Institute.  I am incredibly excited about the opportunities I am about to encounter.  Here is an example of a project I'll be working on this spring, the Global AIDS Personal Public Service Announcement Project!

 
 

I never thought of myself as a science kid. Throughout high school, my strengths were decidedly in English and History and I tended to avoid science, math, and psychology courses like the plague. Maybe I was uncomfortable balancing equations, maybe I just had a fear of actually understanding myself. Nevertheless, English was my calling and I planned on pursuing that in college. But I did play a lot of computer games, mostly simulations and strategy. Though I did not think much of it at the time, these games involved a great deal of psychology and artificial intelligence. The concepts and principles of the field of Cognitive Science began to slowly creep into my mind and academic interests. I bought a subscription to Scientific American, I wrote essays and poems with subjects of mental states and philosophical questions, and I began to see the brain as an organ functioning with rules and observable patterns. With a heavy background in writing, I became a Cognitive Science major and had hopes of better understanding the brain and potentially the mind to which it is so closely connected.

In the Cognitive Science program, a student must choose three main areas of study from the following disciplines: Anthropology, Psychology, Computer Science, Philosophy, and Linguistics. My passion in writing and debate pushed me to focus on Philosophical Foundations as my first discipline of choice; my interest in the workings of the human brain led me to Psychological Foundations as my second; and finally, my experience with various languages brought me to choose Language and Culture as my third area of study. The three disciplines began to influence every facet of my life. I found my studies of philosophy caused me to question my religion, opened my mind to new perspectives and world-views, and valued my efforts and activities in both humbling and inspiring ways. From the basic, thought-provoking questions raised in Philosophy 1000 to the mind-boggling conundrums I tackled in Philosophy of Mind, the classes relentlessly forced me to rethink and reevaluate my positions—just as good philosophy courses should. My experiences in my Psychology and Neuroscience courses were similarly rewarding: I learned not only how the brain functions, but why it tends to react, change, and grow in the manner science has observed. I was able to engage in hands-on interaction with various methods of neuroimaging, and participated in psychological experiments that were both surprising and educational. In my Language and Culture coursework, I learned how languages originate, grow, change, and die. The range of study was great: from the tiny pieces of morphology and phonology that make up all languages to the grand, sweeping evolution of language and grammar over decades. These three areas of study melded perfectly together to become a well-rounded higher education, and collectively have bestowed upon me a much more accurate understanding of the brain, the mind, and everything in between.

Though many Cognitive Science majors are likely to migrate into the exciting, burgeoning world of Artificial Intelligence, I have chosen to apply my skills elsewhere: in the dynamic arena of New Media. New media is a world with a landscape that changes almost daily—literally at an exponential rate. Inside its expanding sphere one must question the status quo with relentless vigor, much like my philosophy courses forced me to question myself. The components and building blocks of new media change as quickly as the applications themselves, with new code libraries and even languages forming every year. These languages change in recognizable, observable, predictable ways and are in fact very similar to human language. As coding languages advance, I find myself applying lessons learned from my language and culture coursework in new, exciting ways. Syntax and style in code can be beautiful, just as beautiful as poetry. I never could have seen the true beauty in perfectly styled code without a background in linguistics. And finally, perhaps most importantly, my studies of the human brain, how it functions, why it reacts in certain ways, and how our mental state is affected by various stimuli has greatly changed the way I format applications, websites, and other user interface-heavy devices. Creating applications that function in ways that mimic the human brain makes them simpler, more intuitive, and just feel right. I can find the frustrating aspects of an application and name exactly why it is frustrating, based on psychology and neuroscience courses I have taken. The application of psychology to new media is, unfortunately, far too rare. A new breed of applications and devices are headed towards our desks, laptops, and pockets; the Cognitive Science major imparted upon me the perfect blend of linguistics, philosophy, and psychology to help me ensure that the new media in our immediate future is robust, intuitive, and useful.

 
 

Zack and I are at it again.  New Media Update is the official video podcast for the New Media Institute at the University of Georgia.  Zack and I noticed that a ton of great things are happening inside walls of the New Media Institute at the University of Georgia. Students are creating professional quality work, hosting events that influence and benefit real people in the real world, and learning how to use new media to make a difference. In fact, so much is going on in the NMI that some of the most important projects don’t get the recognition they truly deserve. New Media Update is a project dedicated to reaching out to the world and sharing everything that’s going on inside the walls of the NMI. Outreach via video podcast, created with professionalism by students in the very heart of the NMI, will both increase the visibility of the projects in the NMI and help people get involved who might not have previously heard about it. We are doing great things; let’s tell the world about it!

So we created a proposal, presented it to Dr. Shamp, and he liked the idea!  After hours and hours of hard work getting everything ready and filming, the first episode is up and running!  Check it out at http://newmediaupdate.net/ or watch Episode 1 below!

And please leave comments if you have suggestions for the show!

 
 

I spend a lot of time every day thinking about what will be ‘the next big thing.’  Often my friends and I will throw out ideas over beers about what might just be the next iPod, the next digital camera, the next notebook computer, the next must-have game-changing device.  I always start by identifying a problem, then search for solutions.

Right now, a problem is creeping up in the mobile media world:  screen size.  How can we cram high quality content onto tiny little mobile screens?  We can’t really repurpose content from TV or the movies, it just doesn’t work.  Not only are the shots framed much, much too far away to see clearly on a little itty-bitty screen, but the format of the shows are all wrong.  People aren’t likely to sit through a 30 minute show on their mobile device.  If they watch a movie on their iPhone, it’s likely to be only during a flight or a long car trip.  How do we make content that works for  a small screen during the day-to-day, 5-10 minute segments during which people use their mobile devices for entertainment?

A few weeks ago I completed a project with the New Media Institute at UGA that addressed the mobile content creation connundrum directly.  The University of Georgia recently purchased bandwidth from a local TV station, WNEG.  Part of that bandwidth will go to simulcasting the current UGA station, but a small portion of it has been sectioned off for mobile television broadcasting.  The New Media Institute took hold of this opportunity and spent the last 6 months producing content to be aired on the mobile tv airwaves.  The capstone class in the NMI was able to produce 6 or 7 one-episode shows, but since I already took the capstone I chose to work through an Independent Study.  My two favorite NMI friends and I created a group called the MobileDawgs, and we produced two three-episode shows made specifically for the mobile tv platform.

We wanted to use the interactive components of mobile phones to show off how mobile tv can be used to work with consumers.  In direct contrast to traditional television, the mobile tv station at UGA has a special channel that is dedicated to transmitting data two ways.  With our station, advertisers can get specific metrics related to who is watching their ads, for how long, and more–with traditional tv, producers and advertisers dump their content out into the airwaves and just sit back with their fingers crossed.  The best consumer data they can receive involves market research studies and extrapolation–with mobile tv the data is not only generally statistically superior, but every number is connected to a real person who made a real decision (to watch or to flip the channel).  I can just see the ad people jumping up and down now…

So how did our shows utilize the interactive features of cell phones?  Well, there ended up being a slight disconnect between what we dreamed up and what we were actually able to make happen.  But what’s new, eh?  One of our shows is called CitySmart, and each of the three episodes focuses on a different category of restaurant in Athens.  We filmed all of the episodes using only a Nokia N95, a decision that caused some headaches but also helped in a few ways–but I’ll save my take on filming with mobile devices for a future post.  Table for Two highlights three excellent date locations,  Exotic Eats showcases three of our favorite foreign food restaurants, and Insomnisnack points viewers to great late-night hotspots.  Every episode prompts viewers to press one of their softkeys on their phone at any time during the show to receive a text with directions to the restaurants.  The viewer simply hits a key and within seconds they get a text with a live URL that links to a Google Map with every restaurant in the episode already pinned.  The phone numbers, reviews, and directions from their current location are only a few clicks away.

Try doing that with a TV and a remote control.

When we showed off our projects to executives from various mobile media companies (incredibly intelligent crowd, from Nokia to AT&T to ad agencies like Moxie Interactive), we were overjoyed to see the excitement in their faces.  We had a guy come up to our station who worked with mobile tv in Helsinki, and he threw out some excellent ideas like attaching a way to make reservations for the currently highlighted restaurant within the show’s framework–a concept that sounds incredibly useful and wouldn’t be all that hard to accomplish.  In short, the people who will be heading this new mobile media initiative in the near future loved our stuff.  It was a huge relief and a major win for the NMI!

So what’s next?  Well the NMI is working on creating even more content for this mobile tv station and beyond.  We have produced a detailed guide that explains “How to Produce Content for Mobile Television” that even includes a proposed framework for how the station would run its programming.  Will mobile tv be the next big thing?  Who knows, but if it is the New Media Institute and the MobileDawgs will be right there at the front of the pack, cell phones in hand!