Air-B-N-Me

     I had never heard of a netprov before this class, and I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm really glad it was part of the class. As confusing as the project seemed to be at first, it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable things I've done in a while. I had grand ideas for what I wanted to do for my character profile, but had to tone them back a bit when I realized they wouldn't fit in with the project requirements.

     Since it was a learning experience for all of us, there was a lot of uncertainty about how to begin creating a profile. We were reliant on the creators of the project to share with us what the ground rules were. This led to a lot of back and forth about what we thought was expected. Add to this the fact that I had to use a new technology (Periscope) on top of the written portion which employed a website I wasn't familiar with, there was some discomfort.

     Once I realized Periscope was not the route I wanted to take, it made things a little easier. Filming my swappertunities and posting them to youtube made things much better. I was then able to just post the link to the video the comments section of each swappertunity for lurfers to view at their leisure. By the way, Periscope is full of four types of people:

1. Churchgoers
2. Pot smokers
3. People who are bored
4. People looking for boobs

     I really wanted to do a redneck character for my profile, but I wasn't sure if that would be considered offensive. Then it hit me. My wife has a co-worker who is just awful at his job. He literally stumbles through life. He was perfect to parody. Thus, UnremarkableCarl was born. 

     Once I decided on using him, the swappertunities wrote themselves. All three (eating a lot of pizza, wearing only one outfit, and cleaning while his overbearing wife looks on) were ripped directly from his life. Jessica and Dave replied to a couple of them which led to some riffing between these fictional characters. I didn't respond to anyone's swappertunities because I'm such a lurker in real life. Looking back, I think I would have really enjoyed engaging more with the profiles. 

      The great thing that stood out to me was that most people used a tremendous humor when posting on the site. Had it been completely serious, I think it would have been too boring and it would have read like a classified section. Since some of these things were so outrageous, it made for an enjoyable read. Even though I didn't participate, I did look around at different profiles because I found it so entertaining.

     This was a fun activity to be a part of and I'm glad that I didn't give up on it. It allowed everyone's humor to shine through in an otherwise stressful point in the semester.