CelebOrigins is a prospective website that would be a concise, interesting, informative, and at times comical stumble upon for any Internet user. It will showcase clips, images, and information about celebrities first big break and answer many people's question, how did that person get famous? Maybe it's Ashton Kutcher's first movie or commercial, or maybe it's Jack Johnson's first coffee shop performance. Regardless, everyday users will be intrigued to see how it all started for these celebrities and aspiring entertainers may even find the information useful. But above all, it introduces the common person to a side of show business they may have otherwise never known.
Throughout the blogging process, CelebOrigins has grown from a simple idea to a fully thought out web endeavor. It's common to think of a good idea and stop there. The blogging process forced me to consider every technical aspect involved in the creation of this specific website. Writing specifically on social media caused me to realize how vital social media would be to the success of the website. In terms of websites, it is the best for of advertisement. This all lead to the addition of a subscribing process to the site.
Blogging on user protection and malware forced me to consider how the site is used. I realized that the best way to keep users safe is to keep personal information out, and require no downloads. The site began shaping into the clean, safe, and user friendly site that I envision now. Any user should be able to stumble on this site and begin browsing. Every blog helped push the idea forward, competitive analysis cleared up what to emphasize, PhotoShop rose the issue of fake material, and collectively the blogs have created a comprehensive, technical, web idea.
The question is how could it actually happen? First we would have to develop an architecture for the information of the website and then we would sketch a mock up of the site. After viewing the mock up we could begin to code the layout for the different pages of the site. Simultaneously, a research group will be digging up the videos and information of celebrities. It would start small but would grow as more information is gained. We would begin with dummy content but would replace this information once research spills in. We will need to build a database for the back end of the site including all the information of each celebrity. The information gained would go in it's appropriate record and attribute and be linked with the certain webpage to be yielded.
The starting up of the website would be a process but it is entirely doable. This is partially why I chose a topic of this sort because I know that I could have the resources to start it. The building of the site itself would only take 2-3 people but the gathering of information could take 10 or more. Who knows, perhaps we will be seeing this website live sometime before I graduate...
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
CelebOrigins Against Malware
There are hundreds of actors, actresses, and musicians that almost everyone has heard of. But how many of those celebrities could you actually name the first place they showed their face in show business? CelebOrigins is meant to showcase that first commercial, audition tape, film, story, or music video, that this celebrity debuted in. We have made it our goal to dig deep and search for these rare findings and share them with the world.
Malware and the Celebrity Websites World
Malware is ubiquitous in the world of celebrity websites, largely because there is so much "crud" that comes along with the paparazzi. Users will always notice that when on websites of tabloids or other paparazzi sites, there are ads and dangerous pop ups all over. The problem is that when sites pose obvious threats, it hurts the credibility and viewership of the site. CelebOrigins vows to keep our website clean of malware and all malicious software.
Firstly, CelebOrigins will require no downloadable content, simply the Internet (though updated and enabled JavaScript will be recommended). This format of user interaction keeps our site clean and free of external viruses allowing our users to feel safe as they roam around the site. With no downloadable programs or content needed, viruses will have nothing to attach themselves to and replicate. In terms of pop ups and ads, our site will stay as clear as possible. Pop ups are another way that malicious content can find itself to users' computers, so to keep to keep clear of popups is to keep clear of malware.
Though our website will do what it can to ensure that malware is not picked up when visiting our site, the safest way to ensure your computer's safety is to install some sort of antivirus program. With over a million malicious software threats out there, it is difficult to ensure any computer's full safety but all the more reason to have antivirus software. All computers in the CelebOrigins labs will be up to date with full antivirus programs (i.e. Norton). If a computer in our lab of web developers is suspected to have a virus or other malicious content, it will be immediately removed until experts come in to remove the threat.
Malware and the Celebrity Websites World
Malware is ubiquitous in the world of celebrity websites, largely because there is so much "crud" that comes along with the paparazzi. Users will always notice that when on websites of tabloids or other paparazzi sites, there are ads and dangerous pop ups all over. The problem is that when sites pose obvious threats, it hurts the credibility and viewership of the site. CelebOrigins vows to keep our website clean of malware and all malicious software.
Firstly, CelebOrigins will require no downloadable content, simply the Internet (though updated and enabled JavaScript will be recommended). This format of user interaction keeps our site clean and free of external viruses allowing our users to feel safe as they roam around the site. With no downloadable programs or content needed, viruses will have nothing to attach themselves to and replicate. In terms of pop ups and ads, our site will stay as clear as possible. Pop ups are another way that malicious content can find itself to users' computers, so to keep to keep clear of popups is to keep clear of malware.
Though our website will do what it can to ensure that malware is not picked up when visiting our site, the safest way to ensure your computer's safety is to install some sort of antivirus program. With over a million malicious software threats out there, it is difficult to ensure any computer's full safety but all the more reason to have antivirus software. All computers in the CelebOrigins labs will be up to date with full antivirus programs (i.e. Norton). If a computer in our lab of web developers is suspected to have a virus or other malicious content, it will be immediately removed until experts come in to remove the threat.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Operating Systems
There are hundreds of actors, actresses, and musicians that almost everyone has heard of. But how many of those celebrities could you actually name the first place they showed their face in show business? CelebOrigins is meant to showcase that first commercial, audition tape, film, story, or music video, that this celebrity debuted in. We have made it our goal to dig deep and search for these rare findings and share them with the world.
Every computer runs on some sort of operating system, whether is it Windows, Mac OS, Unix, or Linux, there must be some sort of OS behind the execution of a computer and its tasks. Because of this, in order to view or create any website, an operating system is required. Certain operating systems lend themselves better to certain tasks, but in my experience with websites, I stand fairly neutral.
CelebOrigins will likely be written on a machine running Mac OS X and perhaps certain objectives will be run through Unix. The advantages I see to using Unix is the ability to quickly install different programming languages and to easily manage and create databases. Though each task can also be achieved through exclusive usage of Mac OS X. It should also be noted that some of these operating systems can be used simultaneously on the same machine.
The most important thing about whatever operating system our site chooses to use, is that we must keep our system up to date. If we fail to update and patch our system, we could be attempting to run and write programs amidst terrible bugs in the OS. Also, even if all seems to be going well in the building process of the website, if our OS is not updated, the functionality of certain aspects of the site may fail once the patch is added. CelebOrigins policy will be update early and update often.
Every computer runs on some sort of operating system, whether is it Windows, Mac OS, Unix, or Linux, there must be some sort of OS behind the execution of a computer and its tasks. Because of this, in order to view or create any website, an operating system is required. Certain operating systems lend themselves better to certain tasks, but in my experience with websites, I stand fairly neutral.
CelebOrigins will likely be written on a machine running Mac OS X and perhaps certain objectives will be run through Unix. The advantages I see to using Unix is the ability to quickly install different programming languages and to easily manage and create databases. Though each task can also be achieved through exclusive usage of Mac OS X. It should also be noted that some of these operating systems can be used simultaneously on the same machine.
The most important thing about whatever operating system our site chooses to use, is that we must keep our system up to date. If we fail to update and patch our system, we could be attempting to run and write programs amidst terrible bugs in the OS. Also, even if all seems to be going well in the building process of the website, if our OS is not updated, the functionality of certain aspects of the site may fail once the patch is added. CelebOrigins policy will be update early and update often.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Google Blog Review
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/hanging-out-for-jewish-arab-dialogue-in.html
Doron Avni writes for the official Google Blog where Google employees post about various topics in the Google industry. Avni is a Policy Manager at Google Israel and has worked with Google since 2010. He studied European law at University of Oxford in 1996 and received his MPA at Harvard University in 2006. Before working at Google, he worked for The Second Authority for Television and Radio.
In this post, Avni writes about a new Google project that will promote peace and coexistence between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews. Google has partnered with Peres Center for Peace and during the next six months, they will be conducting a series of Google Hangouts among Israeli Arab and Israeli Jewish university students. Students will be put into circles (a Google+ term for group of friends on their social network) with students in their same area of study, and with an equal number of Arabs and Jews. The students will meet via Google hangouts and be presented with projects that they must undertake together. They will eventually meet face to face to present their projects and discuss their experience. Avni hopes the project "will help foster coexistence and understanding between Israeli Jews and Arabs and, in the future, build bridges between other communities."
In terms of Avni's blogging style, I very much enjoyed reading his post because it was concise but dense. He is able to input a lot of powerful information into one post and still allow it to be a quick and easy read. The Google Blog does a very good job overall at keeping their blog straight to the point. There is also a perfect amount of sophistication and facts to establish credibility, while keeping the posts readable to the average person. I will be sure to add this blog to my bookmarks as a quick way to get updates on Google's innovations, or more specifically Avni's projects himself.
Doron Avni writes for the official Google Blog where Google employees post about various topics in the Google industry. Avni is a Policy Manager at Google Israel and has worked with Google since 2010. He studied European law at University of Oxford in 1996 and received his MPA at Harvard University in 2006. Before working at Google, he worked for The Second Authority for Television and Radio.
In this post, Avni writes about a new Google project that will promote peace and coexistence between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews. Google has partnered with Peres Center for Peace and during the next six months, they will be conducting a series of Google Hangouts among Israeli Arab and Israeli Jewish university students. Students will be put into circles (a Google+ term for group of friends on their social network) with students in their same area of study, and with an equal number of Arabs and Jews. The students will meet via Google hangouts and be presented with projects that they must undertake together. They will eventually meet face to face to present their projects and discuss their experience. Avni hopes the project "will help foster coexistence and understanding between Israeli Jews and Arabs and, in the future, build bridges between other communities."
In terms of Avni's blogging style, I very much enjoyed reading his post because it was concise but dense. He is able to input a lot of powerful information into one post and still allow it to be a quick and easy read. The Google Blog does a very good job overall at keeping their blog straight to the point. There is also a perfect amount of sophistication and facts to establish credibility, while keeping the posts readable to the average person. I will be sure to add this blog to my bookmarks as a quick way to get updates on Google's innovations, or more specifically Avni's projects himself.
Friday, October 5, 2012
The Danger of PhotoShop
There are hundreds of actors, actresses, and musicians that almost everyone has heard of. But how many of those celebrities could you actually name the first place they showed their face in show business? CelebOrigins is meant to showcase that first commercial, audition tape, film, story, or music video, that this celebrity debuted in. We have made it our goal to dig deep and search for these rare findings and share them with the world.
Why is PhotoShop a danger for us?
PhotoShop is a fantastic program. It allows you to do almost ANYTHING to a photo. The danger lies within this fact. PhotoShop has the dangerous power to deceive users of false authenticity. Skillful PhotoShop users could edit a picture of a celebrity into almost any situation and fool 80% of viewers. For example, a skilled PhotoShop user could potentially release a picture of Shia LeBouf as a child standing with Morgan Freeman. Though this is amazingly impressive that certain people can edit photos to look incredibly real, it can pose a threat to websites like CelebOrigins which strive to present authentic but rare material of celebrities as children.
Our website will provide a 100% guarantee that all of our material is authentic. We will never post a picture that we feel is suspected of being PhotoShopped, and we will have a team of people dedicated to authenticating our rare celebrity photos. Though unfortunately, the mere fact that PhotoShopped images are so prevalent, there will almost always be those who speak out against the authenticity of our photos. It is becoming a bigger and bigger problem on the web because it is becoming far more difficult to believe everything you see on the web. There is an old saying that goes, "believe 25% of what you hear, 50% of what you read, and 75% of what you see." Thanks to PhotoShop, that 25% of examples of eye trickery may expand (at least when it comes to the web).
However, there are elements of the website in which PhotoShop could come in handy, such as for headers, footers, logos, or other artistic aspects. CelebOrigins has nothing against the use of PhotoShop for artistic purposes. There is no denying the greatness of PhotoShop as a program, but its power can easily be abused. Users of CelebOrigins must fully respect and believe our guarantee of authenticity: without authenticity, the site cannot not prevail.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Competitive Analysis
There are hundreds of actors, actresses, and musicians that almost everyone has heard of. But how many of those celebrities could you actually name the first place they showed their face in show business? CelebOrigins is meant to showcase that first commercial, audition tape, film, story, or music video, that this celebrity debuted in. We have made it our goal to dig deep and search for these rare findings and share them with the world.
Celebrities Tan is a great website which showcases profiles on thousands of celebrities from all different fields. Along with the fact that Celebrities Tan almost exclusively has pictures (no videos, auditions, or commercials), the major difference between this website and my website is in the amount of information written and provided to users. CelebOrigins is meant to be an easily browsable website, requiring little demand from the user. Celebrities Tan writes extensive articles on the childhood, personal life, and bring up of each celebrity: CelebOrigins cuts directly to celebrities' big breaks. If someone is curious as to what a celebrity was like as a child or teenager, I would direct them to Celebrities Tan. But, if someone is curious as to where a celebrity started their career and how, CelebOrigins will provide that information in a user friendly and efficient way. In fact, if CelebOrigins becomes a very popular site, a partnership between our site and Celebrities Tan may be beneficial to both sites. CelebOrigins may invoke curiosity about a celebrity's childhood, but in order to keep our site clean and efficient, that information would have to be found elsewhere.
Model Mayhem is similar to CelebOrigins in the sense that both websites may attract aspiring actors, models, or musicians, but they differ greatly in their content. Model Mayhem contains a database of up and coming actors, models, etc. and allows site users to browse or even contact these people. Each up and comer has a short profile and portfolio which explains what they do and how they started their career. CelebOrigins differs greatly because it is not meant for up and comers to be displayed on this website: it is meant for current and past celebrities to be displayed. The way CelebOrigins helps up and comers is by showing them how certain celebrities got started, allowing these up and comers to perhaps follow in those same steps. Though they are very different, if Model Mayhem produced all of its members in its database into full fledged celebrities, then the two sites would become more closely related.
There are sites that help aspiring celebrities and there are sites that have short biographies on celebrities, but there are none quite like CelebOrigins. CelebOrigins will give people access to clips that they could previously only imagine. Most people have never seen a celebrity's first debut and CelebOrigins will make sure this information is accessible. Not only will it be accessible, but it will be uncluttered, efficient, easy to stumble upon, and easy to share.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
CelebOrigins Protects Its Users
There are hundreds of actors, actresses, and musicians that almost everyone has heard of. But how many of those celebrities could you actually name the first place they showed their face in show business? CelebOrigins is meant to showcase that first commercial, audition tape, film, story, or music video, that this celebrity debuted in. We have made it our goal to dig deep and search for these rare findings and share them with the world.
How safe is the site?
Thousands of sites out there today ask for information from users that 1. users never quite feel comfortable releasing and 2. the site frankly does not need. People always find themselves filling out their address, phone number, and even credit card number while asking themselves, "Why do they need to know my phone number?" The truth is, the safest websites do not require this type of information when it is not needed. CelebOrigins will be dedicated to keeping users protected, and making using the site as easy and seamless as possible.
CelebOrigins will have a user creation/sign in option but it will by no means be necessary. The site is meant for the common web surfer looking for an interesting link to share with friends. No personal information required. And those that wish to sign up as a user will simply enter a username and an email. The user process will be used simply for people to subscribe to the website and receive email notifications. Our site will NEVER require any sort of payment or personal information.
Also because the site does not require any additional software to run, it requires minimal RAM from users' personal computers. The site will be easily accessible to any user with internet connection, regardless of their machine's processor speed, hard drive size, or graphics card. As long as a user has the basic hardware for a pc, tablet, or personal device, they will be able to be an active and safe user of CelebOrigins.
How safe is the site?
Thousands of sites out there today ask for information from users that 1. users never quite feel comfortable releasing and 2. the site frankly does not need. People always find themselves filling out their address, phone number, and even credit card number while asking themselves, "Why do they need to know my phone number?" The truth is, the safest websites do not require this type of information when it is not needed. CelebOrigins will be dedicated to keeping users protected, and making using the site as easy and seamless as possible.
CelebOrigins will have a user creation/sign in option but it will by no means be necessary. The site is meant for the common web surfer looking for an interesting link to share with friends. No personal information required. And those that wish to sign up as a user will simply enter a username and an email. The user process will be used simply for people to subscribe to the website and receive email notifications. Our site will NEVER require any sort of payment or personal information.
Also because the site does not require any additional software to run, it requires minimal RAM from users' personal computers. The site will be easily accessible to any user with internet connection, regardless of their machine's processor speed, hard drive size, or graphics card. As long as a user has the basic hardware for a pc, tablet, or personal device, they will be able to be an active and safe user of CelebOrigins.
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