end of the week reflections

1) I've managed to get another mate from Sydney to join the group. Hopefully he will upload photos as his work is keeping him very busy. But on the other hand, my 'friend' NJW, who joined POOL last week, has gotten some comments on one of her photos:



It's a great start for her and I'll be encouraging her to upload her works from time to time.

2) I uploaded a photo this week:


didn't garner much comments as i would have liked.

however, my previous photo of the Noh Masks has turned out to be something of a hit. It got featured on the POOL FB page (http://www.facebook.com/ABCpool) and as well on the mytribe blog (http://blogs.radionational.net.au/360/mytribe/?p=53).

It got another comment: 'Isn't part of being accepted in a tribe that you don't have to don a 'mask'? Or, another way to think of it could be a mask is not a hding place, but an outward expression of who you are? Very provocative - I like it :D'

The user posed a question to me in her comment and I was glad that my photo had once again invoked some emotional response.

I replied: 'we all don masks in what we do in our everyday lives.. what kind of mask? its up to everyone's imagination and interpretation..'

and then another user posed this question: 'this is an interesting discussion. Let me take both your ideas and turn them around by 180 degrees - and ask another question:

If we do NOT reveal all of ourselves to whatever tribe we are joining at the moment, is this a type of mask? In other words, can a mask be that of omission rather than that of 'putting on something extra' to hide something else?

Don't we join different tribes at different times - do you reveal the same part of your face to your family as you do to your study-partners or work-colleagues? Do you actually put on a different mask, or do you just choose to OMIT parts of your persona?

jesswalker, are we ALWAYS accepted?'

My photo and short subtle text of it had achieved its objective. The user had seen both sides of the photo and had reached the depth of what i was trying to portray. So kudos to him. I suppose I can give myself 5 stars out of 5 for getting such a response? Haha :p.. no matter, I hope more people on POOL are able to provide more of these photos.

3) After giving it much thought, I think it's kind of late to start a photography group on POOL. Perharps the website is still in the beta stage and the population of photographers on POOL has not reached the optimal number to allow a creation of such a group..

..yet.

For those reading this blog, I'm hoping the admins and producers explore the idea of creating photography discussion groups in the future. Of course it will not reach the dazzling heights of Flickr and other photography websites, but it's still a start. Rome wasn't built in a day. And I know for sure that photographers are not afraid to show their works on a global scale. I'm proud of my own works and I will continue to upload my photos every week.

well, the only thing now to look forward to is the big screening on Fed Square on 28 May. Would be lovely if my mask photo were to appear - after all, who doesn't like their photos being published?

what I plan to do this week:

1) Tried asking another photographer peer to sign up for POOL, by so far, he hasn't signed on yet. No matter, must keep trying. If I can get at least 2 more people onto POOL, that would be great.

2) Upload more photos as usual. I've been drawing comments - which is a good thing. As they say, people keep learning. I'm looking at my photos and always struggle which one to upload. I have the objective of uploading intriguing, emotional and subtle-message-hidden photos. And I'm always trying to make sure the next photo is better than the last.. quite the uphill task. Nevertheless, keep trying!

3) I'm pondering on whether to start a photography group within the mytribe group in POOL. I don't know if this is true, but ever since I uploaded my first photo (http://www.pool.org.au/image/julianlow/the_only_remaining), it seemed to spark (and inspire?) others to upload their photos and share their story. Either my separate FB group or the promotion of the online feature has worked effectively... but no matter, I am seriously pondering this as there are the pros and cons. Will ask kyla about this

4) Keep in touch with my other assignment - content producer stuff. It's week 8 and not much time left till the end of the semester. We've got good news on the front and hoping to start and end (hopefully) next week.

5) Repeat to dos 1 and 2.

analysis part 2

A few days ago, I posted up some sort of tribal mask photo from one of my travels.



I've been proven wrong partially it seems.

While users do get captivated by emotional invoking photos, it doesn't necessarily have to be in black and white. With the correct usage and contrasting of colours, it will be more than enough to draw in one's attention.

I did have comments as well:

1) What a particularly beautiful photo - the use of color is amazing :-)

2) this is a gorgeous image and a very thought provoking entry ... thank you

I had 2 other comments which were almost somewhat similar:

"I like the way you involve the viewer by asking a question. You do it in a subtle way in your other posts, too. I don't think I'm ready to answer your question, and perhaps it is rhetorical - you don't want an answer - or maybe you want to start an interactive discussion group - this is also part of your question. Thank you for waking up my mind."

"Hey, I really like this photo, but I just want to make sure what community are you interested?"

From these 2 comments, I'm giving it some thought on MAYBE starting a group within POOL? A photography group with relations to the theme of 'my tribe'? For that to happen though, I'll have to garner more 'support' from fellow peers and make sure that they have the commitment to publicise the group.

I've so far managed to successfully ask one of my peers to join:

http://www.pool.org.au/users/njw

She's all the way from Toronto, Canada and was fortunate to meet her last year on my travels. She's already uploaded 7 photos and some of them have gotten comments. A good and encouraging start!!

some analysis

Hmm alright.. So I've gone ahead and posted 4 of my photos so far on POOL. Quite pleased that 3 of my photos have received comments. Let's have a close look:



My first photo uploaded and it received this comment:

'Thanks for sharing and welcome to Pool! This is an amazing story and another example of how the outcome isn't always what you expect, but sometimes is far better than you ever imagined. Great image and looking forward to more work from you'

A welcome message, but nonetheless very encouraging. I was indeed eager to post up more of my works.



My 2nd photo and one of my favourites in my photo collections. And so far, it has gotten the most attention.

1) 'Such a sad photo and such a sad story...no animal deserves to live it's life behind bars because of mans inhumanity and selfishness.

Were they trying to rehome this beautiful one do you know? I do so pray they were.'

2) 'You convey a lot with few words. It's an evocative piece and a haunting photo; the viewer inevitably brings so much of themself to the story.'

3) 'So sad ~
Being a homo sapiens is extremely embarrassing.'

1st comment: The meaning of my photo got through and it prompted interaction between me and the anonymous user.

2nd comment: The user allowed the phto to speak to him/her and embraced its full meaning. An excellent comment!

3rd comment: A casual comment that's commonly seen. In a word, it was not solid enough. I was very 'embarrassed' after drawing 2 good critiques.




My 3rd photo uploaded and another one of my favourite landscape works.

'Hey julianlow - I like the image - but can you explain how you see it is relevant to the theme, 'my tribe' ?'

Another chance for interaction with a user on POOL. Perharps he/she could have looked at the photo abit more and grasp its meaning. This time however , I opted to give an explanation.

'perharps i wasn't clear enough..

Pilots are only allowed to land on this beautiful runway.. if you want to experience such a feeling, you'll have to join the tribe of pilots - only those with the specified qualifications will join the ranks.'

the third comment and I certainly did not expect it to be this way:

'Oh, what a shame that the reality is not as romantic as my imagination! Kyla, I rather liked it better in my head before you asked the question and Julian explained the answer!!!! Sometimes things are better not explained (well, I think so anyway - maybe I am in a tribe of one).

I was imagining romantic trysts!!!!!!!! And I thought Julian was referring to the tribe of all those who are lucky enough to have been with a special person (or a secret person) in an isolated and romantic setting.

Maybe the pilots take a 'friend' - a 'very good friend' - so maybe we are all correct!'

She had a different meaning compared to mine! But that by no means is bad, it shows that indeed, a photo tells a thousand words. In this instance, it was best that the photo was left to viewers' imaginations.



My 4th photo uploaded but hadn't garnered any comments...yet. Hopefully there will be soon as I particularly enjoyed the emotion brought forth by my subject in the photo.


What I've noticed is that people tend to look more at emotion-invoking photos and leave comments. It's pretty obvious from my 2nd photo - the bear trapped in the cage. The look on its eyes is very much haunting and conveyed alot of emotion. Also, I'm pretty sure that the black and white colour scheme had a lasting effect. Yes it may not be all colourful, but photos in black and white tend to convey more meaning. Perharps i should a black and white photography group on POOL? A project of some sorts? Hmmm.. interesting.

For now I should do one more colour photo upload and see what kind of comments i can get:




Tribal masks!... or so you think ;)

FB week reflections

So to reflect on last week's task of managing the mytribe FB page:

1) I set up a separate photography FB group and publicized it on mytribe FB page. From there, I put up a description of the group and encouraged to share their photos/works of art on POOL. To set an example, I myself logged on to POOL and posted up some of my works.

On duties of being the Facebook Admin (and being the first in the tutorial group to test waters), I went into POOL and publicized some works that had been uploaded. I reckoned that the promotion of POOL shouldn't start with a BANG! or people will be wondering what is all the fuss about this POOL thingy.. rather, a slow start would create awareness. The future pairings would then have a chance to make POOL 'the next big thing'.

Still, I was secretly hoping that there would be a BOOM in numbers.

The initial response was encouraging, with 30 members joining within the very first day. However as the week dragged on, the members multiplied twice and it stood at 60.

Looking at the stats, the average number of people that joined after the first day was 5-6.

I had one member that PM'ed (private msg to inbox) and asked me: 'Hey Julian, what's the function of this group? And how is POOL different from other community websites like flickr and youtube?'

I answered but couldnt really make a strong argument about POOL. I told him to think of a 'new hybrid of flickr and youtube with the chance of getting your works being featured by ABC'.

The member went 'oh. That's in Australia right? But I'm all the way back here in Singapore...'

Reflecting this, it is really abit of a problem. Besides appealing locally (which probably will not be that huge of a problem), what are the strategies that I'm gonna look into and employ to reach out globally? Competitions with the incentive of prize money? Hmmm...

2) The number of people and who the people were that joined the mytribe FB page.. was, in a word, quite demoralizing? Only 13-15 people joined within the week... that was even lesser than the amount of people that joined my photography group. And as to what our tut group voiced, most of the people that joined were all RMIT students.

Another issue to think about: how to get people to 'commit' and post links/images/audio/video on the FB page at least twice a week. How do we retain their interest in the FB page and ultimately POOL. The POOL site is also full of RMIT students, making it seemingly like another school project.

One can post as many links and dive into other groups and publicise about mytribe and POOL, but at the end of the day, will people still join?

I guess the main issue here is finding a strategy to RETAIN and STIMULATE their commitment and interest respectively. I hope the rest of the tut group manage to come up with something, as do I will contribute throughout the semester.


Ok I somehow think that the 'chance of getting your work being featured by ABC' is not strong enough. Could future pairings explore into the possibility of a competition with prize money involved? People are motivated by monetary gains... cos i would be too. If resources were available, I would put 1000 dollars as first prize, 500 as second and 300 as third. Combine this and your work being publicized.. suddenly it looks enticing.

In a nutshell, though the results weren't as positive as I would like it to be, the most important thing I can take away is having a strategy timeline to reach objectives. If given another chance to be admin of the facebook page for the week, I would do it. But this time, with some tricks up my sleeve.

action started

so i had hit a stumble block last week about the web designers abit, but i guess all's been settled with Kyla. She told me to go ahead with approaching the group of photographers that i'm closely knitted with. Also, it was on good hindsight that I volunteered to do the first week of managing the FB page. I could monitor right from the start on the number of people joining.

So I created a new my tribe photography group (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/group.php?gid=108853622479085&ref=ts). Its the first step to gathering photographers from all over and posting their works on POOL. The work wont end in the first week, I'll be contributing throughout the semester.

Hmm.. so far of all the 'friends' I've invited, 30 have responded and have joined the group. I will say at this point that my initial reaction was 'WHAT?! So little?' but hey, 30 is better than a single digit number. Of cos I'll be hoping that more will join, but that wont happen unless I am actively posting links and stimulating interest.

I guess the realistic things that I'm hoping for this assignment is to gather at least 50 members and expand my network. The more the merrier, but I'm aware of the vast photography sites out there that are already established. With POOL still in infancy stages, it will be hard to attract the masses to join. Still, youtube and flickr started somewhere and I'm confident that POOL has the potential to rise to their levels.

Here's wishing myself and the rest of the team the very best in achieving their own goals of this assignment!!