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Faces of Drink Driving is a powerful poignant website dedicated to spreading it's message through the humanising of it's subjects in the form of anecdotal pages that feature a narrative designed to make one reflect and learn.

The website in questions feature both showcases for innovative story telling and forums for discussion in the form of social media sharing. 

Home page of FODD, Sourced from Faces of Drink Driving

The website is easily navigated and analysed, information is presented in large text with succinct and eloquent writing that drives the message home. Easily the most powerful aspect is the visual data that accompanies the text. I often feel humans find it difficult to engage in foreign or unknown concepts without seeing them first hand, this website here illustrates to us clearly the dangers and tragedy of drink-driving. 

The website uses videos, images, music and text that come together with some incredible website design, Faces of Drink Driving is a high-quality exercise in digital story telling, individual stories of victims, relatives and those involved in documented travesties are clearly laid out and vividly brought to life by animating transitions between these aforementioned mediums. 

An small excerpt from one of the powerful digital stories, the composition of media to create an engaging digital story is what won the website a Webby Award

Sourced: From http://www.facesofdrunkdriving.com/sean

The relationship with the audience is cause and effect, the idea being that the consumer identifies and understands the message here and takes action by both sharing the content via Twitter, Facebook, Email or Google Plus in order to share the message with others.

In addition to this, one would hope the consumer takes onboard the message of the site in their individual actions.

It only makes sense, a sort of natural progression, that amongst all the innovations that the internet piles unto itself, "learning" and personalisation come to the web in order for us to better obtain the content we want or may develop an interest in.

Of the sites visited above, I'd said I've visited maybe 10 or so, yet heard of or recognise more. 

Of those 10m I use the following regularly: Youtube, Facebok, Gmail, Wikipedia and Digg.

Youtube is great for desired video content, during it's initial stages short of a decade ago, it was good for interesting self published content, but there was little else on it. Now, you can almost find anything! Recently a friend and I were in my house downtown in Bathurst- left only with a iPhone and an Apple TV connected to a plasma- we were easily able to watch the entirety of Jackie Brown for free and in good quality! Incredible considering how little tech we had and the time of night it was.

Facebook off course has ingratiated itself as THE necessary social tool, especially amongst our generation. Whilst the use of the phone has not diminished (but rather gotten stronger as our phones have become more versatile), Facebook allows us to both sate our social needs, contact whomever we wish and organise our social activities without additional cost. 

Gmail I use predominately as my professional and organisational email, the idea being my potential employers, university emails and linkedin profile are fed here. It also deals with fines, notifications and communique with companies I deal with, I don't tend use my gmail account to sign up to web services-that honour is reserved for my Microsoft LIVE email. 

Wikipedia is among my favourite sources of information-whilst it still draws ire for being freely editable by anyone, thus it's authenticity is called into question, there is no doubt that the site is well maintained and thorough on nearly everything you could search for-more obscure topics tend to lack information or referencing, but the same could be said of any information source regarding those topics. Absolutely essential for obtaining basic information on a topic before researching further, just make sure to check references!

My use of Digg is not as you'd expect. I do not have a Digg account, nor do I have a habit of using Digg for it's intended purpose. Digg is the site I use when I need answers or opinions on something that a formal search may not yield. It is oft Digg appears under a google query with the answer I need, though sometimes I will go there myself for answers.

I think the most important part of both Web 2.0 and 3.0 is the more personable and social nature of the way the internet now functions. The advent of social and dynamic information makes for a more compelling experience, whereas during the late 90's and very early 00's the internet was not as compelling for me, there's no question I would spend hours upon it, viewing anything from message boards to flash based games and entertainment.

But now it's a powerful tool, it's entirely possible to organise one's social obligations and desires via Facebook and similar services, knowledge is easily acquired and built upon.  Responses now come quick and fast and conversation that occurs a speed close to our normal interaction allows us to socialise efficiently and enjoyably without being in each others presence.

But most of all I enjoy the new tailoring, Web 3.0 and the Semantic Web have made the internet a little more autonomous but in a completely alluring fashion. I'm sure many of you can relate to surfing Youtube strictly off related or recommended videos, perhaps subscribing to a user and going through their videos? Facebook also us to browse and add friends easily through recommendations, without taking us away from what we're presently viewing. It's this kind of intelligent yet ancillary behaviour allows us to gather interesting content for individualised for us easily and without divergence. This has the two fold effect of providing us with desired content and increasing our rate of information consumption considerably.

I will oft find myself choosing to sit on youtube watching engaging content rather than downloading a Television show or playing a video game, browsing through documentary maker VICE's collection and watching anything from Cannibal Liberian Warlords to Islamic Transsexuals in Indonesia.

Representation of modern Youtube with Semantic Web features

Sourced from Youtube.com, copyright Youtube

Greetings fellow COM112 students of session 2, 2013. After extricating myself from an extended miasma in Sydney (of which I care not to discuss), I find myself finally able to breath and as a result blog (aren't those the steps of continued existence for many nowadays? Breath/Blog/Breath/Blog (eat/drink?).

Awful syntax aside, my name is York Robilliard and I'm in my third (but not final) year of a commercial radio degree.  

I consume/use the following analogue media:

Clocks

Newspapers

Books/Comics/Graphic Novels

Posters/Promotional Printed Materials

Radio, predominately FM

I consume/use the following Digital media:

Digital Television

Computers (including mobile phones and associated information sources, (the internet et al., software, digital physical media)

Digital Radio

Although I feel this list is not comprehensive, it most likely does not need to be, but I digress.

The most interesting part of the topic at hand, for me at least, involves the evolution of Radio as we increasingly "better" ourselves through the technology we develop- specifically, Australian Radio. 

Despite the worldwide presumption that radio as a medium would dissolve with the advent of post-millennial computing and concept of always being connected, Australian radio has flourished, seeing steady increase across all parameters including listenership, profit etc.

This is primarily a result (at least in Australia) of more than a few factors:

The autonomous nature of listening means that people can drive with minimal distraction or interference (whilst our devices still require interaction, even voice commands still need a button press to initiate!), the radio industry has wholeheartedly embraced new mediums and media-invigorating itself through the use of digital media and aligning itself with the "always-connected principal) and finally the use of on-air talent across these mediums (think Hamish+Andy or Kyle Sandilands permeable media presence). 

I find this "mutation" fascinating, but it's certainly not something I knew prior to the second year of Commercial Radio. A lack of interest and dedication on my part during first year would certainly contribute to this.

One has only to look upon the Nova brand website to see evidence of this mutation:

Source: http://www.novafm.com.au/station/nova969