Web 101Communication and Collaboration Online
Topic 2.1 Blogging
Instructions
This week you will read (and watch) through the content on this page whilst completing the two readings that appear.
Following this, you will be engaging in discussions on the suggested topics through the blackboard discussion group and locating blogs of interest to you. (Curtin 2010)
Following this, you will be engaging in discussions on the suggested topics through the blackboard discussion group and locating blogs of interest to you. (Curtin 2010)
Definition of a blog (Curtin 2010)
Introducing Blogging
Definition(s)
What is a blog?
On the surface this question appears a little simple. Linguistically, the term blog is a shortened form of weblog:
- Blog (noun): Shortened form of weblog.
- Blog (verb): The act of authoring a blog.
- Blogger (noun): One who blogs.
My Reflection:
It was interesting to read that a blog is verb and a noun, a name and a doing word.
The course information reflects back to week two of the Web 101, using Justin Allyn Hall’s static web site which is considered one of the first blog pages and Justin as one of the first bloggers. His site utilises the web page loading system of html writing, which in today’s terms is long and difficult if you don’t have the skill. Then (Curtin 2010) the change in programming occurred. The age of the new blog and with it ease of access and publication.
Below, are examples used in the Curtin course information of 2.0 web authoring tools that enable a blogger to open a new blog within minutes as the pages are dynamically preloaded html (rich).
The course information goes on further to talk about the second way of publishing a blog, which is to utilise dedicated publishing software.
The majority of blogs are public, in stating that I need to justify the term. They are accessible to anyone and have feedback capabilities (comments) enabling any discerning reader to write back to the author. RSS feed, (really simple syndication) – you don’t have to be on the web page to know that new things have been posted, the information is sent to you (simply). Quite possibly a blog roll, links to other blog that the author has found interesting and would like others to look at also. Permalink pages, a permanent link to a specific page that is no longer on the front page (this could be every page that has been written by the author).
Type of blogs
This section was mainly for definition of different blogging terms. I will quote Curtin University course descriptions here.
- Personal Blogs - The original form of blog which often acts as an online diary. Often personal blogs focus on a specific subject that is of interest to the author.
- Microblogs - Blogs that contain a very short posts (Twitter can be considered a form of micro-blogging)
- Corporate Blogs - Many corporations and private companies now utilise blogs as a way of keeping consumers up to date with developments in the company. (E.g. The Facebook Blog, Google Blog, Direct2Dell)
- Photoblogs - Blogs that are principally dedicated to publishing photographs. (No! Really?)
- Podcasts - Podcasts can be considered a form of blog even if the distribution method can differ. Podcasts are audio files that can be downloaded and listened to either on your personal computer or MP3 player of choice.
History of Blogging
My Review
Rebecca’s pocket is a web blog authored by Rebecca Blood. In the beginning of this particular article Rebecca considers the short history of blogging from 1998 through to when her own blog was written in 2000. She discusses in her opening paragraph that in the beginning there were only “a handful of sites of the type that are now identified as weblogs”. (Blood. 2000) The number quickly became hundreds with other bloggers such as Jesse James Garrett, Infosite author, compiling pages of other sites.
Her insightful writing concerning the rapid growth of blogging, news blogging, anything and alternative blogging over a short period of time is interesting to read. She discusses the ease of access (from the original static laborious to build web sites originally used as blogs) with which the new web 2.0 tools have enabled anyone to activate a blog site within minutes.
Rebecca’s blog is a journey of self-discovery and in the midst of writing her blog she found out that she had interests (archaeology, science, issues of injustice, her own point of view) that she was previously unaware of, “these were side effects that she had not expected” (Blood 2000). She also makes an interesting observation that it is important to keep in mind that the blog is one person’s view but one that is shared with a public audience.
The significance of Blogging
James Surowiecki describes the Asian Tsunami 2005 and the paradox of collective intelligence in a blogosphere context. “the turning point for social media” (Curtin 2010)
http://www.ted.com/ James Surowiecki describes the Asian Tsunami 2005
For no other reason, just to tell the story and as such collectively citizen journalism.
The Blogosphere
A collective noun for blogs connected through comments, permalinks and blog rolls that all have a similar theme. (Curtin 2010) Curtin notes use Technorati as an example.
I viewed the 100 most popular tags at Technorati: http://technorati.com/tag , then the next link that focuses on what Technorati considers their most interesting blogs: http://technorati.com/?source=posts&sort=buzz&page=1
There are a plethora of sites that can be accessed for information that we consider newsworthy blogging.
Blogpulse
Blogscope
Blog Search
Reading Review
Rettberg, J. (2008), Blogs, Communities and Networks in Blogging. Polity Press;Cambridge. Available via e-reserve.
Chapter 3 pages 57-83
Blogs communities and networks
Interesting points as I read through the chapter:
· Blogs are a social genre
· A small audience or one is sufficient for a blog roll.
· Software built to support a network of social interactions is called social software.
· Blogs (some) are decentralised.
· Some sites e.g. LiveJournal (social networking sites) are centralised in such a way that blogs are linked.
· Many blogs have blogrolls that provide a list of other blogs the blogger frequents.
· Technorati.com is a comprehensive blog search engine and lists the most linked to blogs.
· Other services visualise the networks between blogs and other websites by drawing a map of connection. EXOSKELETON
· Sites such as Facebook, YouTube, MySpace are gathered on a single site and provide bloggers with immediate access, these sites can be said to provide an INTRASKELETON.
· Mark Granovetter’s theory of weak ties (1973) consists of how ideas are spread around communities, that weak ties have a greater chance of getting greater information to that group.(People who are bridges between two groups. Considers the experiment by Stanly Milgram (1967) and associates “what a small world”, 6 degrees of connection between any two people in the world.
· Social networks usually develop for reasons other than pure information gathering.
· Blogs may exit primarily as networks for sharing ideas, trend and information.
· The internet was designed as a distributed network, where each computer is connected to a number of adjacent computers rather than a single central hub.(Paul Baran 1964) Reason being that a network was thought to be more likely to remain functional in case of an attack.
· Relationship between mass media and readers can be compared to centralized network, where one central hub connects to many. Sites that have become central hubs in the network of blogs – Technorati, Digg or Blogger (as they are indexes of blogs and not blogs themselves.
· Individual blogs are not equal nodes in a network.
· Many blogs only have a handful of other blogs linked to them, despite each of these blogs only having a few readers all of them put together have more readers than the NY Times.
· BoingBoing.net has been consistently one of the most linked to blogs online for the past several years. (it is funny, go have a look).
· A new social system has started. Not everyone gets to be heard (Clay Shirky, 2003)
· Google sees links as a kind of peer endorsement.
· Old blog posts don’t disappear, they simply are archived, whee as World of Warcraft doesn’t store online conversations and are only accessible if it’s read on the Guild’s web forum.
· Conversation can move fast in blogs, one advantage of citizen media is speed.
· Blogs are archives, specific accountings of the passage of time that can be explored, returned to and dug up (Dean 2006).
· Bloggers read other blogs.
· Today many blogs support a feature called Trackback.
· Blogs are an open network of web sites that CAN function as a social network.
· Facebook was originally only available to college students in the United States then in 2006 it was opened up for everyone.
· With Facebook you are only able to be a member of one regional network at any one time.
· Facebook privacy is optional.
· Facebook keeps all your history and is available to any of the friend network, accessible by clicking the link “see all, your stories”.
· Facebook, the homepage is not the profile page it is instead the news feed page, in 2006 when the news feed was introduced users were upset and staged organised protests against it. Facebook has kept the feed despite this and users can opt out of sharing their feeds.
· Limiting access to other Facebook networks limits the amount of news that is spread and is thus invisible outside the network.
· Blog communities are not immediately visible to casual observers.
· LinkedIn is a popular social network site for business people.
· Web sites such as Flickr or LiveJournal use social networks as a way of organising other activity where you are shown your friends or family’s photos or blog posts.
· Social networking sites are popular as they appeal to people’s instinct for collecting.
· Orkut was one of the first social networking sites, developed by Google, but rapidly abandoned after its launch in 2004.
· Within months of the launch of Orkut, Brazilian users outnumbered American users two to one. It then became popular in Iran before being banned by the Iranian government. (dating and matchmaking were at odds with Muslim culture)
· Once enough of your friends have joined a social network site, social pressure makes it very difficult not to participate.
· 2005, 85% of all college students in the U.S were members of Facebook. (According to Chris Huges, a Facebook employee in an interview with blog TechCrunch.7th Sept 2005).
· Some students fear that not participating in Facebook could create loss of socialisation and also possible ostracism within their peer group.
· In Norway Facebook and other online social networking tools help students to maintain social connections with peers whilst off campus. (2005)
· 2007 Georgetown Visitation, a girls school in America brought in law enforcement officers to tell the students that “by having a Facebook profile could possibly jeopardise their future husbands’ political careers” (Rich 2007)
· Despite schools attempt to block Facebook, censorship is very difficult to sustain and can be circumvented by fairly minimal knowledge.
· Cory Doctorow’s short story SCROOGLED depicts one possible future scenario where the massive amounts of data stored about individuals by Google provides a means for an oppressive government to control its people.
Immigration officers have Googled people on their arrival and used the information against them. (Elastrash 2007)
· There is a performance aspect to social networking sites that is also present in blogs.
· danah boyd (author of a popular blog, Apophenia) is one of the most prominent researchers of social networking sites. She identifies four characteristics of online social spaces. 1. Persistence. 2. Searchability 3. Replicability 4. Invisible audiences.
· The danger of online social networks is their visibility.
· Bloggers have been fired for what they have written.
· LiveJournal can be set as visible to many or just a few choice friends.
· In 20 years time we don’t know what the future will bring in respect to on line social groups or blogging.
· Plazes.com tracks where users are.
· Google and other search engines also track your online activities, when you visit a website, your browser tell the computer your IP number, and from that the approximate location of the user.
· The European Union has complained that tracking is an infringement and a conflict with privacy legislation and data protection laws. Google as now anonymized IP information after 18 months.
Activity 1
Curtin University Web 101 course information.2010
Having read the Rebecca Blood and Jill Walker readings for this week, you are encouraged to discuss the following issues on the discussion boards:
1. The early days of blogging were extremely optimistic about the potential of blogs to give everyone who wanted one a voice and a venue to publish. Now that blogging is over a decade old, to what extent have these early predictions come true?
2. Rettberg talks about blogs facilitating ‘distributed conversations’ and even ‘distributed communities’; what do you understand these terms to mean?
Activity 2
Introduction to blogs and RSS feeds
I have utilised Google Reader for my RSS feed and I have connected the service to my blog http://loulounilly.blogspot.com/ at the top right hand corner you are able to see a heading ‘loulounilly's shared items’, in the box that is below are items that I have looked at over the internet and am now RSS feeding to my site. Items are also accessible via http://www.google.com/reader/shared/11564764287704972760
Reference
Rettberg, J., (2008), Blogs, Communities and Networks in Blogging. Polity Press; Cambridge. Available via e-reserve.
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-09-17-n72.html Story by Cory Doctorow
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