Takeaways from Strategic Presentation

Throughout the semester, the course Strategic Presentation had much to offer me in many different aspects. However, if I had to break down what I learned the most in three different ways it would have to be in regard to learning about building a website, copyright laws/licensing, and the fundamentals of creating a podcast (exemplified in the final project for the course).

Before taking Strategic Presentation, I held very little knowledge as to how one should go about creating a website/blog for topics of interest. When I was in high school, I was required to create a free website for my photography class to stock a portfolio for photography I had taken. Other than that experience, I didn’t know where to start. My experience using WordPress quickly assured me how simple, easy, and effective it could be to create a website using their platform. Also with the help of Professor Hodges’s instructions, they helped to make the website creation process a much more smooth experience. In the future, I plan to continue to use this platform if I ever need to create my own website for a company one day.

When learning that we would need to filter certain information/imagery to comply with copyright law, I was completely lost as to how I would confine my project to such parameters. I had limited knowledge as to what was acceptable or what was considered copyright. Luckily, the unit about copyright/creative commons laws in class helped to supplement the information necessary for complying with the licensing. It was helpful to know that Google images has a built-in tool to filter for images that are approved for noncommercial reuse with modification. Having more knowledge around copyright/creative commons licenses, it will be absolutely helpful for creating credible presentations in the future.

Lastly, I found the creating of individual podcasts to be the most intriguing part of the class. Being a musician, I’m well rounded in knowledge on using recording programs. I have used Pro Tools mixing software, Ableton, and Apple’s Garageband. I have also produced music for SoundCloud so I also had previous knowledge of how to create a profile and upload mp3 files to the platform. However, our final project required us to use the free audio mixing software program Audacity which I had never used before. I found that it was a very straightforward program to use and would recommend it to others especially with all the editing tools and effects you can use on the platform. Overall, I found the podcast project to be a highly engaging and useful. I never knew how much could go into making a podcast but now I feel even more confident with making future ones with the knowledge I received from the class.

In conclusion, Strategic Presentation is a class I would highly recommend to anybody looking to learn about creating a brand for oneself and how to properly use modern tools and platforms to expand one’s influence. Knowing how to create a website, use different types of official copyright/creative commons licenses, and produce a podcast were skills I plan to apply to future projects of my own and for my career.

CBD and New Jersey Youtube Video!

Hello everyone, this is my first Youtube video that I created that covers all the essentials of everything you need to know regarding CBD. The video covers three main ideas: background and history of CBD, how CBD oil tinctures work, and where you can find CBD in New Jersey.

In order to find this video, one must simply search for the keywords CBD and New Jersey. As there are many CBD videos that exist on Youtube and the internet, it will narrow down the search options and make it more likely to come across the video from searching on Youtube. It can also be found by going to my website at njcbdcentral.fitness.blog. This video is worth watching because it helps to educate the audience on the background history of the plant, how and why CBD oil tinctures work, and where they can find CBD in New Jersey. It’s a short video and covers the most essential points behind CBD and where to find it in New Jersey.

Youtube, like the rest of the internet, generates videos for users to watch based off of their personal interests and generates algorithms to suggest further content for the user to see. According to Wolf (2016), “Web 2.0 platforms also shape individuals’experiences through the cultural expectations they create for certaincomportment and presentation, mandating particular forms ofparticipation and interactivity (Jarrett, 2008) and creating broaderimperatives for self­promotion and branding (Marwick, 2013).” By having the algorithm network, it helps users to find videos they’d be interested in and shape their view of entertainment and the information that comes from it. Furthermore, in regards to shaping identity, it creates an experience that makes content viewable and understandable to the standards they would prefer to see. According to Wolf (2016), “The practice of watching videos was a way for participants to configurewho they are, who they might be, and who they want to be. By imaginingthemselves doing the work, participants illustrate the objectified self, the“me” that Mead (1934) describes.” Even if the users don’t necessarily participate in the actions/concepts viewed in the video, it still helps to shape their understanding that is proven to be much more effective than if it were in printed format. Thus, by creating short explainer videos on a concept, it can be understood in deeper ways that mimic that of hands-on experiences and help to shape that user’s identity and stance of the concept in the video.

My Website: njcbdcentral.fitness.blog

Canna Campus Website: https://canna-campus.business.site

EarthE CBD Website: https://earthecbd.com

Photo Credits:

Cannabidiol, Cannabidiol Tincture, CBD Plant, Joint, No Substances, Addiction, Farm Bill Website and Information (with picture), Farming Hemp, Question Marks, Researchers in Lab, Hands Together, Pill Bottles, Doctor, Hand and Heart, Hemp Producer Card, Old Hemp Farming, Versatility, Ford Hemp Car, USA Map, How Does It Work, Thumbs, Benefits, Pain, Pain Relief, No Smoking, Epilepsy, Cancer, Anxiety, Diabetes, Acne, Alzheimer’s, Star, Oil Tincture, Smell, Steering Wheel, Orally, Food/Drink, Bicycle, Mason Jar Salads, Argan Oil Bottle Sizes, New Jersey Map, Bruce Springsteen, Exxon, Seaside Heights Boardwalk, Dispensary, Oil Tincture/Hemp Leaf, Canna Campus Photo and Website, EarthE CBD Photo and Website, Atlantic City, Subscribe, Share, Like Thumb

The Beauty of CBD

“cbd-oil-hemp-cannabis-medical” by mohamed_hassan
“houseplant” by Sean E

The header contains images of the CBD plant itself (by mohamed_hassan) and a vial of a CBD oil tincture (by Sean E). These images were chosen because the relationship between the by-product of the plant and the plant itself doesn’t always show an obvious relation between the two. There is still much misinformation that exists out on the web that doesn’t clarify the difference between the Cannabis plant and the CBD plant because of one condition: They look the same! There will be those who would see the distinct star-shaped leaf and become disheartened because of the bad connotation that lies behind Marijuana and its legal status. However, CBD is completely legal to use in all 50 states in the U.S. By providing an image of a CBD Oil tincture, it provides an idea of the many different forms CBD comes in ranging from the plant itself, oils, edibles, and much more. 

The images were created using a photo editing service called Pixlr which felt very familiar to the Photoshop software I had used in Photography class in my high school. The editing itself was simplistic for the image I had envisioned required three things: cropping, rotating, and increasing transparency. I took the background image of the CBD plant and increased its original size and widened its margins in order to fit the dimensions of my webpage. I then took the second image of the oil tincture, decreased its size, and rotated it to fit towards the side of the CBD plant.

The sourcing of the images differs between the two for the CBD plant was taken from a website called Flickr and the oil tincture was sourced from Pixabay through google images. In order to use them for the website, it was essential to filter for non-commerical use. After using the filter both images provided the licensing information (Pixabay’s licensing and the other through creative commons).

Final Product

In the article Articles for Computational Culture by Lev Manovich, he points out that the use of layering has changed the way artists can view and create images. Manovich states, “Layers change how a designer or an illustrator things about images. Instead of working on a single design, with each change immediately (and in the case of physical media such as paint or ink, irreversibly) affecting this image, she now works with a collection of separate elements. She can play with these elements, deleting, creating, importing and modifying them, until she is satisfied with the final composition – or a set of possible compositions that can be defined using Layer Groups.” With this addition to editing software platforms like Photoshop and others, it was the most essential for the creation of my header and couldn’t have been as seamless looking without the tool. The ability to rotate and change the transparency between my two images was so much simpler than trying to combine both images on the same layer.

Because of the Pixels: On the History, Form, and Influence of MS Paint by Patrick Davidson, he describes how images created through MS Paint are made up of jagged looking pixelation on a single layer bitmap with mouse functionality unique to the MS paint platform. Davidson states, “The visual dimensions of resolution and bit-depth and the physical experience of using a mouse are therefore the hallmarks of ‘an authentic computer aesthetics’; they produce the visible traces of techniques and devices unique to digital computers.” This process was somewhat different from the process I used to create the header image because the header on my website didn’t require me to physically draw anything to create the image. It was similar because the multi-purposes that the mouse had in Pixlr was helpful with cropping, moving, rotating, and resizing the image.

References

“cbd-oil-hemp-cannabis-medical” by mohamed_hassan

License: Pixabay License

Free for commercial use

No attribution required

“houseplant” by Sean E

License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The Future Is Now!

Welcome to NJ CBD Central, the future of medicine for all those who reside in New Jersey. CBD is a growing industry and is on the rise all throughout the United States of America and the rest of the world. From being able to buy actual CBD flower products to being included in protein shakes at the gym, it’s clear that there are many ways one can use the product. One of the few issues with CBD is finding a supplier since the stores are fairly sparse throughout the state. The biggest issue with CBD is the lack of information and research surrounding the product and its benefits.

The goal of NJ CBD Central is to give users the information necessary to find suppliers for their medicine, the background information on the product itself, and the benefits one can gain by incorporating it into their diet. Many who have taken CBD claim that it has been a stabilizing product in regards specifically to mental and physical health. Those with cancer and other life-threatening diseases have also claimed that it has alleviated symptoms and reduced further growth of said diseases.

Despite the pushback from the FDA to regulate the use of the product, the limited research performed on the product proves that there are many more benefits than harm, especially in cases related to medical conditions. Much more research needs to be done in order to fully understand the scope of what CBD can provide for the pharmaceutical industry, specifically if the product can be made more available to the public as a more affordable medicine. This website isn’t run by scientists researching the product, but you can be assured that the information that is provided here comes from trusted sources and will be constantly updated to implement the most up-to-date science behind the subject.

I choose to share information and locations regarding CBD on my website because I want people who have a genuine interest in CBD but don’t have the proper information necessary to be able to research the topic or look where to find it through referencing this site. Of course, in order to have a solid and reliable website the information is going to be coming from certified sources and locations for where to find the product in its edible and smokeable forms.

Most certified sources are going to include safeguards in the form of copyrights in order to protect the creator/researcher’s information and allow others to safely reference the source for websites like mine. According to Creative Commons, “…CC gives you flexibility (for example, you can choose to allow only noncommercial uses) and protects the people who use your work, so they don’t have to worry about copyright infringement, as long as they abide by the conditions you have specified.” CC licensing benefits both producers and consumers so that research can be protected, reference, and built upon new information later. This becomes especially important to products like CBD which still needs more research to further prove its safety and benefits for all that use it.