Journal 9 – Jordan Jawdat

STRATEGY 1: CROWDSOURCE THE JOB

PROJECT: GoFundMe

GoFundMe is currently the most trusted online fundraising site out there. What’s really nice about GoFundMe that I’ve seen a decent amount of in the past couple of years is that it allows communities to come together to help out someone or a family in need. Recently, an alumnus of my fraternity passed away so we reached out to the family of the late member and made a GoFundMe so that the family wouldn’t have to pay for the funeral service. It’s nice because it is really easy to share and spread the word around to let people know what’s going on. We were able to raise around 15,000$ from people who knew him, and it allowed the family to completely pay for the funeral and have some money left over for whatever they needed in these hard times. I believe that GoFundMe in itself showcases how communities can come together to help out those in need.

STRATEGY 2: DIY

PROJECT: Arduino

The next project I chose was Arduino. Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs – light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message – and turn it into an output – activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. The starter kits for Arduino are packed with many gadgets and necessities for getting into circuitry. This platform aids students and hobbyists in circuitry and programming. I’ve been exposed to this program through other new media courses and one of the best things about this platform is that it provides the users with a community hub consisting of other users’ projects with instructions and explanations. This feature in itself is extremely helpful for people who are interested in these projects, but lack the knowledge or perhaps the confidence to tackle a certain project without aid.

STRATEGY 3: SHARE WHAT WAS INACCESSIBLE

PROJECT: Madden Modding

The Madden football games have been popular for quite a long time dating back to some of the very early renditions on some very dated gaming consoles. For the longest time, EA, the company responsible for making a majority of sports games in recent years, would release a new Madden game every year without really adding any new features other than some slightly improved graphics. Fans of the series started to notice and started going online and calling out EA for not adding any new refreshing gameplay to their games. EA could’ve taken the problem by themselves and attempted to add features to the games to try to meet the player’s demands. They got the ball rolling at first, by announcing that they were releasing the new Madden games on a new platform, the computer. After that, they announced that they would allow the community to make and release mods that other users could download to alter and improve the gameplay. This was a huge decision by EA that the community of computer gamers had been asking for, for years. This decision was easily a huge success for both the fan base and the company itself, and it allowed for the creation of a many-to-many situation via peer-to-peer file sharing.