In the effort to fulfill the requirements of DMS Seminar, this diary will include my studies, hypotheses, observations, successes, failures, and other comments related to the process and completion of the VillageFilm Project.
Since I have begun this diary in media res, I will attempt to sum up the concept and scope of the project, as well as a few observations I have already made in the process.
the Concept
This project is an experiment in collaborative filmmaking that attempts to make use of a wide variety of free, collaborative Internet tools. At any point throughout the filmmaking process (from pre- to post-production), anyone with a web browser should be able to make comments, suggestions, critiques, criticisms, or observations about any specific aspect that they so desire.
the Tools
In an effort to limit the scope of the virtually boundless Internet application possibilities, and also to ease the process of account sign-ups, nearly all the tools we will use for the project are provided by Google.
early Hypotheses
In the small amount of time I have spent on the project so far, there are a few hypotheses that I have already developed that will likely focus my observations in the near future.
-- Blogs are NOT a good tool for multi-threaded conversation or as a forum for voting. Logo possibilities and script ideas, so far, both started out on the public-access blog that I set up for that very purpose, but were quickly moved to a Web Album and Google Groups (respectively) for ease of viewing and commenting. This move worked well for the Logo designs, but the script ideas have yet to garner response.
-- Centralization of a large number of tools is key. Google does not provide a simple way to move between different services (such as Blogger, Web Albums, Gmail, Groups, etc.), so I created one of my own using a frameset. This has greatly improved my own personal productivity so far, and will hopefully improve others as well. It also allows me to add functionality that does not inherently exist accross so many platforms, even if they are all Google's (such as VillageFilm Chat, or project-wide announcement reminders).
-- Democracy is not a good way to make decisions, at least when the decisions relate to a film project. Part of the foundational problem with the democratic method in this specific application is the difficulty getting participants to vote. So, rather than depend on the few who actually will vote to "duke it out", I proposed a completely "non-democratic" decision-making method in a post on the public blog. I hope that this philosophy promotes input and lessens the power of the few hyper-active participants.
-- Deadlines may increase participation from key players. Logo design has been dragging on for a few weeks now, which has begun to distract from the ultimate goal of the project. Hopefully the new deadlines will give the structure participants need to make decisions and input more regularly.
