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!