The Indiana Daily Student newspaper printed a short piece previewing Ron Paul’s upcoming visit to Bloomington, Indiana. The great thing the editors coordinated was a little sidebox answering two questions “Who is Ron Paul?” and “Why should I care?”

This is what I want to do for my capstone, only better.

Background/Problem
I want to help people get a better understanding of why they should care. I want to give context to what is in the news. I want to answer the questions “so what?” I want to bridge the gap, the disconnect, between what is being reported and published to what is going on in our daily lives. We have more personal, intimate, publicly, legal, free data than ever before about about individuals. We now have social data. I want to use this informatin to bridge that gap.

Primary User Group
Moderate to heavy social media consumers and producers with a general interest in world events and news. These people likely don’t consume as much news as they would like to.

Client
New York Times Digital, LLC (and possibly Facebook Connect)

What is the anticipated final outcome
I will design an interface and experience that helps news and social media consumers answer the question “so what?” when consuming the news. My goal is to design something that fits into their daily lifestyle and does not require them to visit a new website or install a new program.

Readings

• We Live in Public (2009)
  • http://www.netflix.com/Movie/We_Live_in_Public/70112751
• When Social Media Became News (February 2005)
  • http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/james_surowiecki_on_the_turning_point_for_social_media.html
• The Hidden Influence of Social Networks (May 2010)
  • http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/nicholas_christakis_the_hidden_influence_of_social_networks.htm
• How Social Media Can Make History, Clay Shirky (August 2010)
  • http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html
• The Tribes We Lead, Seth Godin (February 2009)
  • http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html
• The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World, David Kirkpatrick (Reed Business Information, 2010)
  • http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connecting/dp/1439102112/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280109901&sr=1-3
  • Simplicity Sells, David Pogue (April 2009)
    • http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/david_pogue_says_simplicity_sells.html
  • The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan (Reed Business Information, 1997)
    • http://www.amazon.com/Medium-Massage-Marshall-McLuhan/dp/1584230703/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280110095&sr=1-1
  • Select Papers from danah boyd’s collections
    • http://www.danah.org/papers/
  • The Ubiquitous and Increasingly Significant Status Message (Interactions Magazine, May 2010)
    • http://interactions.acm.org/content/?p=1357
  • Social Network Sites and Society: Current Trends and Future Possibilities (Interactions Magazine, April 2010)
    • http://interactions.acm.org/content/?p=1200
  • From Bowling Alone to Tweeting Together: Technology- Mediated Social Participation
    • http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1699775.1699790