9 | Twitter and My Research Hunting Session

Actually I had Twitter account from years ago, but I have not been interested in using it until a week ago for Digital Literacies class. During my first hours of exploring the Twitter site, I tried multiple times to create a list for the first time, which I found confusing because I have never created one before. Once I compiled my final lists--‘Eco Interest’, ‘Designers and Icons’, ‘Fashion Mag’ , and ‘My Misc--I began following their relevant users.

I found the structure of the Twitter feed interesting, and its content was simple, brief, and direct. This allows me to identify helpful information on the feed faster. Additionally, some posts provide external links, which I can use to expand my hunt for more information. It is quite useful as a research tool.

The list ‘Eco Interest’ is related to my topic of interest for my research project. The pages I followed are filtered to compile information about creativity and sustainability in fashion and fashion-related industries. At this time I have 20 people and pages on my list.

Below is pages and people I followed on ‘Eco Interest’ list

✭Edit Csanak DLA @editaQray

✭Sass Brown @EcoFashionTalk

✭SustainAbility @SustAbility

✭Livia Firth @liviafirth

✭Sustainable Business @GuardianSustBiz

✭Eco Fashion Week @EcoFashionWeek

✭Ecouterre @Ecouterre

✭Eco Design Fair @EcoDesignFair

✭Sustainable Brands @SustainBrands

✭CSF @sustfash

✭Alex and Ani @alexandani

✭Made @MadeUK

✭AliceWilby @AliceWilby

✭Fairtrade Label SA @FairtradeSA

✭Sustainable Angle @Sustainable_Ang

✭i-D @i_D

✭W magazine @wmag

✭1.618 Paris @1618Paris

✭NOT JUST A LABEL @NOTJUSTALABEL

✭Luxury Society @LuxurySociety

credit : Twitter

Reflecting on Roxane Gay’s ‘When Twitter Does What Journalism Can’t’ and Rhiengold’s ’Twitter Literacy’, I recently realized that proper ‘feeding and tuning’ can significantly benefit my research about ethical fashion jewelry businesses in many aspects. One is receiving the most recently updated news and happenings in this industry. For instance, I was introduced to Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week due to its hashtag appearing on one of the pages that I followed. Secondly, various points of view from multiple channels on my feed helps in broadening my research perspective about ways to make fashion products and businesses more sustainable. The other benefit I experienced from using Twitter is being able to see and compile interesting info-graphics and videos from the feed. They are excellent auxiliary visual materials for my research, which I have difficulty finding when utilizing keywords that have been tailored to my research in search engines.

Citation
"When Twitter does what journalism can't - Salon.com." 2013. 20 Apr. 2015 <http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/when_twitter_does_what_journalism_cant/>

"Twitter Literacy (I refuse to make up a Twittery name for it ..." 2011. 20 Apr. 2015 <http://blog.sfgate.com/rheingold/2009/05/11/twitter-literacy-i-refuse-to-make-up-a-twittery-name-for-it/>

8 | Digital Curation

In general, curation is the selection of information that is most relevant to a specific topic. The information can come from a wide variety of sources, such as texts, pictures, videos, voice recordings, etc. The selected media can be used as contexts to guide the target audience with understanding the topic.

Digital curation is ubiquitous in our modern world. It is used in so many industries from government, to technology and science, to art and design, to music and film. The digital curators are persons with excellent observational and analytical skills, which allow them to identify the most relevant data from credible online sources and utilize them to add value to their curated content.

Reflecting on Rheingold’s book, “Net Smart,” and his interviewing session with Robert Scoble, a blogger and technical evangelist, the point I found most interesting about online curation was how he explains his filtering process (aka Rheingold’s ‘crap detection’). For example, when faced with the overwhelming amount of information on his Twitter feed, he pinpointed which Chinese Twitter users to observe and confirm his prediction about earthquake.  The other point I also like is his philosophy about selecting topics in order to increase digital interaction in social media.For example, he identified the advantage of discussing the president’s pet as opposed to a complex political situation. The first one seems to be a niche topic which is less likely to be covered by the powerful news firms whose status in the digital sphere is difficult to challenge. When he chose the niche topic, he was able to gain more followers and catalyze online discussion.

One industry in which digital curation has become highly advantageous is education. Digitally exploring educational content is part of the online learning experience which also help users gain skills in information filtering. This may lead them to be better equipped to become curators. So far in my design studying, I mainly use Pinterest as an online curation tool. It is very useful in collecting and analyzing information for design and visual projects. In my research for Digital Literacies final project, I use Pinterest to collect photos supporting my topic by re-pinning content-related images within the site.

After reading Paul Mihailidis’ article, “Exploring Curation as a Core Competency in Digital and Media Literacy Education”, I became more aware of online curating tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Emaze, Prezi, Storiful, Amplify, Scoop, and Storify. These websites are free to use and allow one to access content around the world. Some are particularly useful tools for digital curation since they compile online information from a wide variety of sources into one site. 

Moving from the topic of digital curation to fashion fair use practice discussed in Johanna Blakely’s Ted Talk, “Lessons from Fashion’s Free Culture.” I think one of the benefits of the fashion copying culture is that it provides a driving force for designers to create differences in fashion products. I admire that some designers are motivated from this situation to challenge their creativity and make advancements in their design process so that their products are more difficult to copy, such as Stuart Weitzman’s titanium Bowden-wedge heel.

Citations

Rheingold, Howard. Net Smart: How to Thrive Online. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2012. Print.

"Exploring Curation as a Core Competency in Digital and ..." 2013. 12 Apr. 2015 <http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/case-studies/91950726/exploring-curation-as-core-competency-digital-media-literacy-education>

"Robert Scoble On Online Curation - YouTube." 2011. 12 Apr. 2015 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMn-cJHzF8A>

"Johanna Blakley: Lessons from fashion's free culture | Talk ..." 2014. 12 Apr. 2015 <http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture/trans

7| "Ethical Costume Jewelry Business Model" research project overview

I am interested in industrial design of fashion accessories, such as jewelry, bags, and shoes. I also find a challenge of mass produced fashion products combined with sustainability very interesting because it requires both the aesthetics of the object as well as protecting nature. My experience as a recycled material product design volunteer in Thailand really motivates me  to explore the sustainable direction that best suits the fashion jewelry business that I would like to end up with in the future. Therefore, I have chosen ‘Modern Ethical Fashion Jewelry Business’ as my final project topic for digital literacy class.

Apart from the international controversies of dirty gold and blood diamonds in the fine jewelry industry, critical problems in the environment and humanity are also found in the costume jewelry industry. The problems vary from potentially harmful toxic metal found in costume jewelry pieces manufactured in China, to many costume jewelry businesses and manufacturers shutting down in Rhode Island, as well as low pay wages in manufacturing countries, such as China, Mexico, Thailand, and Taiwan. 

http://www.peopleandtheplanet.com

So far, the ethical movement in the jewelry business has been growing. It helps not only to positively market the designed product, improve the quality of artisans’ communities, promote traditions, and minimize waste from manufacturing, but also encourages entrepreneurs to be better-rounded about sustainability concerns in their total process —including design, production, and collaboration aspects. The topic I have chosen resonates with my dream about establishing my own business selling costume and fine-fashion jewelry that collaborates with hill tribe communities in Thailand, known for their stunningly beautiful embroidery and tribal jewelry. My business goal will primarily be sustaining ethnic Thai artisans’ quality of life while maintaining my passion in jewelry design and development.

     

http://www.bareo-isyss.com

      

Vogue Thailand February 2013

My research consisted of 4 parts —history overview of the ethical movement in the costume jewelry industry, comparing typical jewelry business models to those who employ sustainable practices, analyzing case studies, and my adaptation for my own conceptual business. My online information hunting session  for  research began with finding a definition in Google of sustainability in fashion and the jewelry business. On academia.edu, I found the scholarly research related to the ethical fashion movement in history. Next for the case study portion, I used both FIT library database and google to randomly click on the links and select the potential examples by throwing specific keywords inside the parentheses symbol (“ ”), in order to filter only necessary content. I also searched some keywords, such as design activism, business and brands.

ECO-FRIENDLY CONCEPTS AND ETHICAL MOVEMENTS IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY by Edit Csanak (2004)Academia © 2015

Alex and Ani Jewelry

 

http://window874.com