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Choosing a
Topic
With The Glocalization Site,
you'll create a Web site that allows a global audience to experience some
aspect of Duluth, Lake Superior, the Northshore or some similar locale.
Because this global audience is possible only through the Internet, assume
that they will never physically visit your locale. The only relationship
your audience will ever have with your place is the online experience
that you create, and the things you find to show and tell them. Luckily,
you can "narrowcast" to a very particular audience with specific
tastes and interests.
What is Glocalizing?
To "glocalize" a
locale means to present it to a global, networked audience for reasons
that make sense in the world of the network, rather than the physical
world. The value that the audience gets from your site, therefore, should
come not in some potential physical experience (typically, visiting your
local place) but in the virtual experience of seeing something
that they haven't seen, or learning something that connects to their interests.
You are essentially translating some local experience for a "monad"
audience, which Michael Heim says "knows through the interface"
rather than from physical sensation (Trend 79). This glocal, networked
audience is defined not by their origin or location in a geographic state
or nation, but through their connection to the globalized "tribes,"
subcultures or scapes
that exist via the mass media, international marketing or the Internet.
Looking at
Examples
The following are examples
of local topics presented to a global audience, not necessarily
models of good Web design. Some of them are crudely done.
Still, ask yourself who would
find the experience of the site fulfilling or memorable. How do each of
these sites potentially speak to some sense of identity or interest that
exists beyond physical or geographical existence?
- Members of groups are bound
by their histories or origin-stories, and the places where these histories
unfolded often take on a sacred status, even for those visiting them
only virtually. You probably need to know about Mormon Church history
to follow or care about this Tour
of the Carthage (IL) Jail, but for the "Saints" it's a
compelling experience to see where it actually happened.
-
Seinfeld's Real New York makes local spots in New York City visitable
to the many fans of the sitcom. Mary
Tyler Moore Show tour of Minneapolis does something similar for
the Twin Cities and fans of the 70s-era show, still seen on TV Land
and Nick at Nite. See any similarities with the appeal of the Mormon
site? What does that suggest about the role of network television shows
in contemporary [networked] life?
- The New York City nightclub
CBGB promotes its (arguable)
reputation as the birthplace of punk. Certain kinds of music are good
examples of how technology and networks can make the local global without
requiring physical travel.
- Tabasco
uses the exotic locale and history of its original home on Avery Island
to market its hot sauce. Think about how this marketing establishes
a close relationship of some tiny locale to the global market, undermining
the mediation of the nation-state.
- The LBJ
and Lincoln home
sites offer history or Americana buffs a chance to experience the landscapes
and cultures that shaped these presidents.
- Numerous sites offer virtual
tours meant to provide educational value, such as the Cedar
River Watershed Virtual Tour in Seattle, WA, or the Plimoth
Plantation Tour in Plymouth, MA.
What's makes
The Glocatization Site Project Interesting
Never before in history could
regular individuals like you and me address a global audience, or even
a very narrowly defined audience dispursed across the globe. Now, anyone
with an Internet connection and some basic technology can do just that.
The challenge now become not reaching an audience, but defining them and
understanding how to address them. We'll take on these challenges by attempting
the following:
- creating a site that creates
an online experience of a local place, group, event, phenomenon, "scene,"
product, etc.
- defining and addressing
a global "tribe," subculture or scape
who will value that online experience for itself, not as a mere advertisement
of a physical experience to come
- producing an effective,
mutlipage Web site with navigation
- designing pages of that
consider Nielsen's recommendations for content-, page- and site-usability.
- combining words and images
well
- taking maximum advantage
of your access to develop original materials for your site, including
your own text, photographs, and research
- giving your content a sense
of texture and voice that speak to your audience
Some Student
Examples
Turning in
the Project
You'll turn in the project by
- Posting the Web site to
the folder "www/5230/glocal"
- Post a message to the Webx
discussion "Glocalization URLs" with your name and the complete
URL (including "http://...") of your site: for example: Craig
Stroupe, http://www.d.umn.edu/~cstroupe/5230/glocal
- Place a link on your Personal
Course Home Page to the Glocalization Project
- Turning in an "annotated"
printout of the entire Glocalization site.
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