Dear Mom and dad,

I can not believe it, another week of camp has gone by – so fast. This week has been hectic for me. Like every other week. But it has been a lot of fun, nonetheless. I had to do a safari of my daily activities. I had to take a photograph of various things alter them in ways that where I explored different design concepts. It was awesome to say the least.

I also learned about Creative Commons. It is a copyright group that permits individuals to redistribute projects and ideas legally without getting “permission” from the actual source.

That is pretty much all I did this week. I hope you are doing well. Talk to you soon.

Your favorite child,
Abir

In the past few months an internet trend of “what people think I do” has become viral. Of course I had to jump on the bandwagon and make my own meme, how could I not? I based this on my life. How different people perceive me. I have always been the type to keep a part of myself hidden from the world. I just feel safe not exposing myself completely. I find this interesting. What my friends think of me, is different than what my parents think of me, and what strangers (feminist) think of me, what outsiders (society) thinks of me and of course what I think of myself (which can be far from reality).

To create this meme, I utilized a website called “http://uthinkido.com/.”  I also used photoshop to alter some images, and adjust the image’s size to fit the websites upload requirement. The website however, did all the work for me. I inserted the “what … think I do” and uploaded the photos.

For this Design Assignment, I chose to make a creative commons image. I have falling in love with Creative Commons. I made the image below using powerpoint, which is a tool I have been using for a very long time. Surprisingly powerpoint has many interesting features that can be very resourceful. This image is actually of myself, it was taken by a friend who is a professional photography who allowed me to alter the photo in a specific way. On powerpoint, I used “Word Art.”

This particular picture was captured and used in a local magazine describing the role of Muslim women in society. The photograph, in my opinion, is pretty awesome. Even most photographers watermark their photographs to restrict others from using their images without permission. However, Creative Commons allows for the removal of those restrictions and gives people the freedom to express themselves while sharing their art globally. Maybe one day I will submit my work to creative commons to share with others.

What is the Creative Commons?

The first thing I do when I encounter something unfamiliar, I refer to google for answers, information and definition (and most of you can attest to this). Mr. google is well rounded and always (well not ALWAYS) but almost always knows the answer. Despite the long introduction, Creative Commons according to google is:

• A non profit organization that works to expand the amount of creativity,
• Also, allows the frame of work to be accessible to the public for free and legal distribution, use and alteration.

Google search engine also directed me to a website that is based on Creative Commons: www.creativecommons.org

Websites such as Flickr, Google, CNN, Wikipedia, etc have a saying that is “All Rights Reserved” is now “Some Rights Reserved.” This website included some of the “BIG” names on the Internet that use Creative Commons.

The vision that creative commons has in their mindset is to reach the full potential of the Internet. In other words have people be able to fully participate in a global movement of sharing creativity across the planet.