Author Profile

  • Jorrit Schaap
  • Url: http://about.me/jorritschaap
  • Posts: 8
  • About the user: I am a freelance motion/web/graphic designer and web developer from Amsterdam, with a BA in Media & Culture. I wrote my BA thesis on the Cultural Meaning of Animals in Online Brand Identities, focusing on Mozilla Firefox and MailChimp. I am following the Master's programme in order to expand my knowledge of New Media theories, while at the same time I'm always on the look for new business opportunities. I play guitar in an indie rock band and occasionally perform as a veejay.

Author Archive

Cultural Bias in Data Visualization

Jorrit Schaap | 28 March 2012, 8:48 am | 3 comments | tags: , , , , ,

Data visualizations have to deal with the hard task of presenting data in such a way that the intention of the visualization becomes clear to the audience. Using literature dealing with the translation of data into design and the cultural meanings of colors, symbols, text and images, I explore the problem of cultural bias in developing data visualizations.

The Making of the MoMUvA app

Jorrit Schaap | 30 October 2011, 11:49 pm | 1 comment | tags: , , , , , , , , ,

We as master students New Media at the UvA rely on many different sources on the web for information regarding our course and objects of study. Our main idea for the MoMUvA app was to bring together these channels, but we had other ideas to improve communication between students as well. This is a report on how we created the MoMUvA app.

Interview with Sanne Stricker from Roamler

Jorrit Schaap | 29 October 2011, 3:55 pm | tags: , , , , , ,

Sanne Stricker (26) graduated cum laude from the Master of Business Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Her master thesis focused on the influence of negative tweets on consumer attitude towards brands and received a lot of media attention from the Dutch press. Sanne is currently working at Roamler, the company behind the successful iPhone app on crowdsourcing. Her advice? Go work at a startup!

App Review: Google Goggles

Jorrit Schaap | 10 October 2011, 10:43 pm | 6 comments | tags: , , , , ,

I have to admit that I do not own the app I’m about to review. In fact, I have never used it. But I want to discuss this app here because I feel that in the long run it may have a huge impact on the way we think about search, data and data sharing. Meet Google Goggles.

The Future of Social Networking Sites

Jorrit Schaap | 04 October 2011, 8:05 am | 3 comments | tags: , , , , , , ,

First of all, let me warn you that this week’s blog post is a bit more personal than my previous entries. Furthermore, I also fall victim to relating everything I write about social networking sites to Facebook, Twitter and Google+. This said, please join me on my journey through social networking land, towards a possibly clouded future.

Adding to Wikipedia: Not too much of a hassle

Jorrit Schaap | 28 September 2011, 4:16 pm | tags: , ,

Contrary to many stories I heard before attempting to make my first contributions to Wikipedia, the actual process was not that much of a hassle at all. I made three (albeit minor) contributions, namely editing two existing entries and adding one new entry. All of my contributions are still there, in their original unedited form. Did I get lucky?

Book Review: The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser

Jorrit Schaap | 17 September 2011, 11:08 am | 1 comment | tags: , , , , , , , ,

The Filter Bubbler refers to the personalization processes taking place on the Web, which shape what content you see and more important what content you don’t get to see. Big players like Google and Facebook feed you what they think you want, based on secret profiles of you to which you have no access. In short, you may end up in a bubble of fabricated interest, based on your personal profile of which you have no control and which you cannot correct. This book addresses these personalization processes and what their future implications might be, ranging from the doing of good to the pure evil.

Giving Away Free Digital Content: How Far Can You Go?

Jorrit Schaap | 14 September 2011, 9:00 am | tags: , , , , ,

Giving away free content is nothing new. It has been around as part of business strategies for centuries. However, many online businesses are using free digital content as a means of getting attention and building their reputation. How far can you go by giving away free digital content? What are the most used business models and can these models be changed in favour of a model in which all digital content is free?