Proposing Our "HOME" Page

1. Project Title: Digital Sweet Home
2. Description: The goal of our project is to promote awareness of how new digital media can unify families in profound and meaningful ways. We propose to do this by creating and establishing a blog called “Digital Sweet Home” where families can gain insight into the usage of digital media.The blog will provide instructions on how to use various social medias, video chats, and other digital media available. Articles featuring success stories of families who have utilized the web to create stronger familial bonds will be posted on the blog, as well as information about keeping families safe from hacktivists, malware, and other threatening online presences.
3. Project Members:
1. Audrey Blake
2. Jake Cannon
3. Allie Crafton
4. Rebecca Graham
5. Cami Wilson
4. Social Proof
1. Evidence of Informal Social Proof
1. Rebecca’s family responded with enthusiasm when she presented the premise of the project to them. They contributed some helpful initial input about their concerns and experiences with digital technology in their individual families. They also gave examples of how technology has had a positive effect on their families. Rebecca recorded her family’s responses to provide references for the objectives and goals of the project.
2. Cami posted on Facebook to close friends and family asking why they blog. Many mentioned that they blog to keep in touch with family.
3. Cami emailed a few of her closest friends and asked them to respond to her blog posts on the family and blogging. A few of them responded with interest for their future families.
4. Jake discussed this with his family. They thought it was a good idea and were willing to share their experiences. (See Jake’s blog post)
2. Evidence of Outside Social Proof
1. Allie recently tweeted: “Collaborating with digital media enthusiasts to create a blog highlighting the ways new media unites families in unparalleled ways. Advice?” She has received attention from other social media enthusiasts who are focused on fostering love and on connecting people through social media.
2. Audrey Blake reached out to professional blogger Mary Kay Hoal to seek advice and support on the project, informing her of our project’s goal of educating families on the uses and benefits of new media today.
3. Allie sent a Facebook message to a potential interviewee, Kylie Fly Turley one of the renowned “Traveling Triplets,” asking for social proof of the project and for potential help in creating some of the content.  Kylie’s feedback was enthusiastic as she was eager to join with her sisters in helping to launch our blog.
3. Annotated List of Potential Outside Sources for Further Social Proof
1. Dr. Burton, a Brigham Young University English professor, digital media enthusiast, and family man. Dr. Burton can provide insight on how to utilize and harness the digital world for the benefit of the family world.
2. Rebecca’s Brigham Young University professor and friend from the School of Family Life: Cortney Evans, who specializes in early childhood development
3. Joshua Perkey, Senior Editor at Ensign Magazine, Senior Editor at Liahona Magazine, and Intern Coordinator for LDS Digital. Joshua Perkey can inform us of the need for a Church Magazine article on the subject of our project.
4. Shanelle Matthews at The Strong Families Initiative. Shanelle can provide us with possible contact information of new moms who have experienced positive help from using digital media who commented on her blog.
5. OK.com Your Family’s Media Guide. Members of OK.com is an example of a new media website that “enables parents to make educated decisions by giving them a set of tools to connect with a trusted online community that shares their standards and criteria."
6. The Sister Four. Selina, Sophia, Olivia, And Elise can provide us with positive examples of how their family stays united and connected via the Internet.
7. Six Sisters’ Stuff. These sisters can provide us with positive examples of how their family stays united and connected via the Internet.
8. The Internet Safety Project, where we can both read and contribute articles. Additionally, Audrey works for the professor in charge of the project.
9. BYU Magazine: The Benefits of Mommy Blogging
10. Anna Empey and capstone thesis on the positive effects of Mommy Blogging
5. Literature Review
1. Links to Blog Posts Exploring our Topic
1. Why Do YOU Mommy Blog? – Cami Wilson’s Digital Dialogue blog
2. Upwardly Evolving – Cami Wilson’s Digital Dialogue blog
3. Family Time and Internet Time – Audrey Blake’s Girl of the Twenty-First Century blog
4. Internet Safety Project – Audrey Blake’s Girl of the Twenty-First Century blog
5. Goodreads Review on Girl Wide Web 2.0 – Audrey Blake’s Girl of the Twenty-First Century blog
6. Failure to Connect – Allie Crafton’s RERO blog
7. “Family Togetherness” – Jake Cannon’s I Ran Into a Rattle Snake blog
8. What do Families Want? – Rebecca Graham’s The Garden of My Mind blog
9. Digital Sweet Home – Rebecca Graham’s The Garden of My Mind blog
10. THIS is When I Adore Technology – Rebecca Graham’s The Garden of My Mind blog
2. Books/Articles that Establish the Relevance and Importance of Our Topic
1. Girl Wide Web 2.0 by Sharon R. Mazarella
2. The Parent App: Understanding Families in the Digital Age by Lynn Schofield Clark. Clark “provides what families have been sorely lacking: smart, sensitive, and effective strategies for coping with the dilemmas of digital and mobile media in modern life.”
3. Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future--and Locked Us In by Brian X. Chen
4. FAILURE TO CONNECT: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds -- and What We Can Do About It by Jane M. Healy
5. A Heartbreaking Tale of Staggering Genius by David Eggers
6. The effect of Internet use on adolescents’ lifestyles: A national survey (Wang, Ligang; Luo, Jing; Luo, Jing; Gao, Wenbin; Kong, Jie Computers in Human Behavior, 2012, Vol.28(6), pp.2007-2013, November 2012)
7. Internet-based parent management training: A randomized controlled study (Enebrink, Pia; Högström, Jens; Forster, Martin; Ghaderi, Ata Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2012, Vol.50(4), pp.240-249, April 2012)
8. Safe Infant Sleep Recommendations on the Internet: Let's Google It (Chung, Matthew; Oden, Rosalind P.; Joyner, Brandi L.; Sims, Alexandra; Moon, Rachel Y. The Journal of Pediatrics, 2012)
6. Literary Component: Fiction Literary Works Providing Insight on Our Topic
1. Remains of the Day
2. V for Vendetta (Understanding hacktivism)
3. Slaughterhouse-Five: The author presents himself and other characters in both fictional and true-to-life ways; the implications of having multiple identities online. Internet safety.
7. Format & Audience
1. Audience: Families in the United States, starting with the families that we are directly connected to. We hope the audience will expand as our blog grows and improves and as others share our blog with their friends and family members!
2. Format: Blog featuring articles written by us, including research, links to resources, and interviews
3. Possibly a printed brochure to attract people to the blog
4. Article submissions to the Internet Safety Project wiki, Stance for the Family, and Church magazines
8. Success Criteria: we will also measure our success based on:
1. Do we discuss, address, and aim to help with the concerns expressed in responses to our survey?
2. Whether the blog gains an audience and/or positive feedback from outside the class
3. What we learn and incorporate in our own families from the process of working on this project
4. The publication of an article
9. Prototype
1. Google Doc
2. Notebook Sketches (below)
3. Google Forms Survey, to be administered online after further revision
4. Blog layout here