Seventh Group Assignment

One more week and we are here again with our next blog post. It can’t be a truth that it is our seventh post. Days go so fast which means that almost every exchange student is unfortunately in the middle of his/her study in Vaasa.

I have never thought that our group will transform into a human. Yes, human! Of course, it didn’t happen in a real life but in Second Life as this week assignment is to make there an account. As I am a leader this week I made an account for our group. I have chosen randomly how our avatar looks and I gave her a name FrozenGroup. I wanted to give her a day of birth the day when our group began but I was thinking about that we will have some limitation because of age so our FrozenGroup is older than 18 years. After these beginning steps our avatar appeared at some island. At first I was confused if this small island is all where I can be but later I found out that it is possible to teleport to another land.

Also if you are bored by the place where you live you can change destination by choosing another one. Lands are divided into several groups like clubs, beaches, sci-fi and adults. There you can find buildings, houses, churches and you can visit them. Also you can buy some stuff or a new hairstyle, etc. If you are lucky you will find some stuff for free. 

Free gift

Second Life has a lot of inhabitants who were created by users like me. Avatars can look like human, animal, mineral etc. When you are registering there are a few predefined avatars in categories like People, Vampires and Classic. It is possible to change appearance of your avatar if you aren't satisfied by them. Players can express themselves by changing their avatar. Your avatar can walk, run or just fly around the land. Player is able to interact with objects, he can touch them, sit somewhere. The game has a functionality which shows users where are others so when you want to chat or talk to somebody you will find him/her easily.  

Flying avatar FrozenGroup

It seems to be a community where everybody lives his/her second life. Players can pretend that they are somebody else as nobody knows them. For other players this is the place where they can show what is inside them. We can say that for them Second Life is a real life as they show a real part of them. This community doesn't have only its own lands but also it has its own currency- Linden dollar. It is possible to buy some Linden dollars so after that you can buy some stuff or maybe earn some million of dollars.

We can sum it up that Second Life is a digital game where people create their own world.

-See you in Second Life next week.

-D.P

Sixth Group Assignment

Hello again from sunny (but freezing!) Vaasa! I guess the "freezing" part is my own fault, hence this sunny spring weather made me already get my mid-season jacket from the basement. And yes, I noticed it was way too early for that but what can a girl do. I guess that's what those long, dark winters do to us when we see the sun more than a minute per day.

...But yes, we had an assignment for this week as well so back to business. This week our task was to come up with a company and to create its communication plan in the network society. And our theme being lifestyle, this task gave us yet again a very wide point of view. I wanted to use a theme that we haven't had anything to do with yet. At first I was thinking about movies, since those are a big passion  of mine. But then we decided come up with a company that has something to do with music, which is great because that is another big passion of mine. Music combined with our lifestyle theme gave us an idea for a company that organizes city festivals and events.

This video above (actually shot and edited by a very good friend of mine) gave me an idea. Personally after moving to Vaasa I got really annoyed with comments like these "Gee you're really moving to Vaasa? Theres like nothing there. I mean that place gotta be dead during the summer if students are the whole point of the city??" Our little frozen group company is organizing a festival, or more like a city festivity. And despite our name it's going to be everything but frozen.

Our main target is to reach to the twenty-something group who are in Vaasa for the summer. And we want to connect and give a chance to the young talents of this area. First we put out teasers of the event, for example short video clips shared on our Facebook-page and Instagram. It could be a "teaser week" We'd upload a teaser per day to keep everyone on their toes. Or if we're lacking on material, a few days in a row.

Considering our main audience consists of these so-called digital natives, using social media is a must. I really like the idea how Flow Festival announced performers to the upcoming festival this summer. They uploaded pictures to Instagram like a puzzle. Each picture was a part of a bigger picture. It didn't make sense when you were scrolling the main page but when you opened their profile you literally could see the bigger picture. It was effecting as hell (pardon my French) but it sure did keep me on my toes, hitting the "refresh" button like a maniac.

Screenshot from Instagram @FlowFestival

We would post information to out Twitter page but we also would have our own Snapchat. More and more companies (or businesses) have discovered the great power of Snapchat. Using the "Moments" program, the client could also sort of be a part of the event planning. Also a way to tease them. I like the fact that in social media you can keep your target in excitement as you probably can see.

We would also let the audience's voice be heard. They could for example be responsible of the food services at the event. We would contact different companies that could have a stand for food or drinks. We'd make a vote. A certain amount of days to vote for your favorite firms and then the winners would have their food stands present at the event. A clever way to get your target even more interested in the product, which in our case is the upcoming event.

Also it is important for us to have good co-operation with different companies. This way we can also get visibility through their channels. And vice versa.  

The Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City 2012. My personal album.

So we're selling (and offering) good time, good music and an experience. "This is the time you look for the stories and experiences that you tell to your grandchildren when you're old."

See ya all next summer then ;--) I'm out.

- H.H

Fifth Group Assignment

After one weeks downtime, we're back again with our fifth group assignment. This week was all about trustworthy and untrustworthy websites. What makes one website more reliable, than the other?

Our assignment was to choose two websites, one that we think is trustworthy and another that is untrustworthy. After choosing we have been analyizing these two sites and come up with five arguments for and against the websites.

We chose as the trustworthy site Minna Parikka's website.  http://minnaparikka.com/fi/

 

Our 5 arguments why Minna Parikka's website is trustworthy:

1.  The website looks professional. The layout is clear and the site looks updated.
2. It's easy to find information from the site, like terms and conditions when ordering.
3. The quality of the pictures is good and the layout on them is clear and neat.
4. The text on the website is grammatically correct and it is easy to read.
5. The links on the website work. You are able to go and see Minna Parikkas facebook page and other socialmedia pages.

As the untrustworthy site we chose to analyze Funky shoes "shoes with a past life". http://www.stephenswork.com/funkyshoes/index.html

 Our 5 arguments why Funky shoes website is untrustworthy:

1. For starters the page looks like a joke (which it probably is). The idea of the page, selling shoes with a past life, is ridiculous.
2. The page looks very unprofessional, the colors, the layout, everything.
3. The page has lots of praising text that try to convince the awesomness of the shoes. It takes it over the top.
4. There are no proper information on what you order and how everything works.
5. There is nothing that you could trust in this website. There are no security measurements on the page.

 

Till next time

                                                              - P.S