Rich Media Websites

All of the sites reviewed below are new to me except for the popular video sites, which almost everyone is familiar with. This was a great opportunity for me to discover new resources and develop ideas for using rich media in the future as I continue to develop my technology skills.

Interactive Advertising Bureau –
It is important to have standards when creating a website. The more a site designer considers their audience the more likely viewers are to return to that site for information or products. It seems that the Interactive Advertising Bureau put a lot of research into creating guidelines for effective website advertisements, noting that “rich media is especially good at moving purchase intent.” The bureau studied customer satisfaction in regards to pop-up ads, which are so persistent and found that “more than 90% of consumers find pop-ups annoying and objectionable” and “more than 50% of users cited a ‘very negative affect’ to brands using pop-ups.” This is easily understood and it seems that of the millions of sites online that many companies would follow these guidelines to improve the users’ experience and yet the list of companies who are compliant is surprisingly short. While it is an impossible task to regulate the web, I would have thought that more companies would at least try to follow some kind of standard. The Interactive Advertising Bureau even designed a sort of seal of approval for companies who are compliant with their guidelines. “The IAB suggests that compliant member sites post the Compliance Seal in their online media kit as well as in their print versions. Media buyers will be educated as to the benefits of Rich Media Guidelines and be encouraged to look for the Seal.” Many of the sites listed as compliant that I looked at did not have the seal.

Learning Technologies Center –
While the examples on this site are few it does bring to mind ways that these technologies might be used in a library. The 3D modeling and animation would be useful to create virtual library tours or resource tutorials. These technologies could also be used to create opportunities for virtual interaction with other libraries or for users who want to participate in activities that otherwise they may not be able to.

Pima Community College –
I enjoyed looking at the different ways PCC used flash technology to make their site more interactive. Not only was it more visually appealing, but it also allowed the user more participation in the information than just reading. The map and directions page was also interesting. I liked how links were highlighted as I moved the cursor around the map because it helped highlight active links which when selected provided a menu specific to the location and directions.

UA Virtual Reality Annex –
This is a great example of what can be done with rich media. Interactive panoramic views like this would be great for school librarians to use to compliment curriculum in history or areas of current events. This would also work for libraries for people to see where items are located so they will be familiar with the physical space when they visit. It encourages interest in community sites to visit and appreciate, and allows viewers to visit these amazing places from their computer. It would be great to add interactive links with more information about specific items or parts. If a library created a panoramic tour of the library it could include links which might provide information on new titles in that particular section of the library or more information about what a user might find. It could also provide information about the various formats the information is available in such as audiobooks, ebooks, serials, videos, or websites.

SonicFoundry’s Media Site –
I am very impressed with the media on this site. I like how the presentations are provided with video and slides side by side. It also offers the option of enlarging the video so the viewer can just watch the presenter or just watch the slide show with audio. Skipping from one slide to the next or previous slide also moves the audio/video to the same part of the presentation so a viewer can skip or review parts without adjusting the other media attached to that presentation. I watched a presentation entitled Enhancing the Learning Environment with Rich Media: Best Practices. The part specific to rich media would be helpful for librarians who are developing technology programs. It provides great information on what one might need to begin and what to do with everything when completing a project. It was brief but offered very helpful tips. While I did not have the chance to look at many, when I searched for presentations using library as my search term, I got over 1,200 hit results. I also reviewed a presentation of Santa reading The Night Before Christmas, which would be a great link to have for kids, especially those learning to read since with the slides they could read along with Santa. Other stories and characters could be used in a similar way to develop some great media for children’s librarians.

Popular Video Sites –
MSN Video seems to provide news-related video rather than user created video. This would be useful to keep up on the latest new regarding any given topic for users who want to know more, or for libraries to keep up with what other libraries are doing in the news or information regarding political actions that may affect libraries. Google Video seems to have few original videos, most of the videos that came up on their search were from YouTube. YouTube seems to be the site that most library-created videos are found as well as user-produced videos.

Other Video Sites –
SciVee has great information on the sciences but also offers great RSS feeds for items that would be appreciated by any user, such as the 10 Simple Rules videos on making oral presentations or getting grants. FORA.tv provides a wealth of current event presentations that would be beneficial for library users though I thought that the site was not well organized. It was hard to navigate the busy homepage. TeacherTube and the TED website both offered rich media that addressed more than just the science and math emphasis which was helpful since that is my background and I was able to find more useful information in those sites.

I took a lot of creative writing classes during my undergraduate studies. I think that by using rich media applications both learning about and creating new works could have been enhanced by using technology more in the classroom. A good example of how media could be used to engage students in learning about new authors is one that I found on the TeacherTube website. If one does a search for Billy Collins there is a series of videos that present his poetry in amazing ways. Most are done by the same person(s) but there is one that seems student produced. Allowing students to create their own interpretation of a poem would have been a great project for the classes I took. Also I think that concrete poetry would have been another type of assignment that could have used the 3D applications available at UA.