Reflections

As to do this assignment which is to publish a blog and discuss about the blogging and media stuff, i have acquired a lot of information that regards to blogging. Besides, I also get to know more about the issues that i have never noticed before. By the time I publish these posts, I have to know how to design it and where to put the pictures and so on. It is a great opportunities to me to pratice my skill.


I prefer to use simple form to deliver my message. As you can see in my blog, I have no more pictures or other decorations. As a blogger, I think we should write ethically to avoid defamation and copyright infringements. And also sensitive to cultures so that we will not impinge to others cultures as this blog is accessible world wide, people all around the world with different cultures can access.


I'm so glad to have this blog to discuss these issues.

Rise of the mobile video blog

Video blogging is a form of blogging for which the medium is video. Entries are made regularly and often combine video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata. But, it is still emphasize on the video rather than text or pictures.

The tools to create video blogs are becoming more common, less expensive, and better known to students. Cell phones equipped with cameras, digital cameras that can record short video sequences, or inexpensive video cameras equipped with microphones make it easy to acquire the raw material of a videoblog.

Video blogging offers a richer Web experience than text blogging as it can combines movies, sound, still images, and text, increasing the information to share with visitors. Many video bloggers believe that video allows more natural expression than writting.

Video blogs represent a new, relatively untested instructional technology tool. Faculty and students are beginning to include videoblogs in collaborative class and research activities, and some academic disciplines see videoblogs as a natural fit for their needs.

Video blogging is an extension of the self-publishing phenomenon exemplified by blogging. Video blogging has the potential to expand communication options and individual expression with personal video posts. Video blogging may also gain significance because of the media literacy of today’s students. Their facility with complex media has already influenced many classroom projectsand informal activities, such as digital stories and reporting.

Because video blogs are new, it is unclear what impact storing, cataloging, and retrieving them will have on ISPs,accessed simultaneously by thousands of users, could overwhelm servers.

Video blogs can also be used for personal expression and reflection.As a result, video blogs are being incorporated into e-portfolios and presentations. The use of video blogs for digital storytelling may also be one way to encourage strong student participation in e-portfolio projects.

Here is an example of a video blog that I have found in blogspot.

Source : http://ldvb.blogspot.com/2008/10/flying-planes-example.html

This post is including a video and texts to show what the author want to discuss about. It is believe that combine the video and texts is more effective to convey the messages of the users.

Reference Lists:

1. Educause, 2005, 7 things you should know about VideoBlogging, www.educase.edu/eli/
   
2. Simmons, D 2008, Rise of the mobile video blog, BBC Click Online, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7392594.stm


3. Wikipedia, N.D., Video blogging, viewed on 16 June 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/

Obama uses iPhone to win support

"Making a difference takes only moments using the Call a Friend feature. Want to do more? Find your local Obama for America HQ or look up local campaign events."


The Obama campaign is using the power of the iPhone to win the support and become the next president of the United States. Toward that endeavor the Obama website is featuring an official Obama 08′ application for the iPhone or iPod Touch. The application can be downloaded through the App Store on iTunes.


The free application includes a lot of features which allows supporters to help “get the vote out”. The features include the ability to call your friends prioritized by key battleground states. If you are support Obama, the application will also get you quick access to the plan Barack Obama and Joe Biden have when it comes to addressing the issues facing America.


The application will also feature access to news, local events and media in regards to the Obama campaign. The Obama campaign has even put a little competitive spirit into the application. Users will be able to see how their call totals compare to other leading callers.


You’ve got to hand it to the folks running the Obama campaign. This is a handy little way to motivate and organize volunteers to get the word out about Obama. Geeks who are on the fence about the presidential race may find themselves leaning toward Obama now because clearly the man knows how to utilize technology to reach his goals.


According to Wendland, Obama’s camp has created a free application that’s designed to help rally support for the senator’s cause. “While there are various election countdowns, political blog posts and applications that track the latest survey data, the Obama ‘08 application that became available for a free download this week was programmed by Obama volunteers and feeds news reports, videos, campaign talking points and photos to the device,” Wendland writes today in his column. “There’s even a Local Events feature that uses the iPhone’s built-in GPS capabilities to return a list of campaign appearances and rallies in the user’s area. The Call Friends feature is geared for those in swing states and helps them do volunteer get-out-the-vote calls aimed at increasing support for Obama.”


We all hear, time and time again, how mobile is the next big thing. Wouldn’t it be nice if that big thing were happening arounf the world? I think it would. And I think it has the potential to happen.



Reference Lists:

1. Dinan, M 2008, Obama Creates iPhone Application to Stir Campaign Support, viewed on 16 June 2009, http://election-2008.tmcnet.com/
   
2. Osborne, B 2008, Obama campaign uses iPhone app to organize, viewed on 16 June 2009, http://www.geek.com/
   
3. Shiels, M 2008, Obama uses iPhone to win support, BBC News, Silicon Valley, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7649753.stm
   
4. Image resource : http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/iphone

Music subscription by handphone

In a bid to put an end to music piracy, the worlds biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia launched a new range of phones that shall offer consumers the chance to download and keep any song ever recorded for free.



This deal required consumers buy a £129.99 pay-as-you-go mobile phone, which will give the owner the right to download any song released by virtually every record label onto either the handset or a computer.


The mobile is made by Nokia and partnered by music brands such as Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music.


Users are able to download any song they want for the first 12 months, and keep all them for ever, vice-president of Nokia, Jo Harlow said.



Music industry executives believe that they can make more money from allowing people to download as many songs as they want because Nokia will make a one-off cash payment to the record giants for every phone it sells.



One person only can store the songs on one computer, and it is believed that most people will download songs via their home Internet connection.


Human beings can not be separated from music. Therefore, this deal attracted many consumers. Especially for those music-lovers, it'll be the perfect way to keep up on the latest releases.


Yet many will rightly be put off by the service's reliance on restrictive digital rights management encryption technology which prevents them making the most of downloaded content. That means you'll only be able to play the music from your registered nokia mobile or your registered windows pc, you can't transfer it to a MP3 player or burn it onto a CD.


Nokia believes it has potentially changed the future of music buying and consumption forever.


For years the music industry has been making great strides and taking extreme measures to prevent pirates from illegally copying and downloading music. Now, music industry executives are stating that websites and mobile service which offer listeners access to an unlimited number songs at no cost will begin to increase in number in the near future.


ISPs are starting to introduce more programs, which allow users unlimited music downloads. It is services such as these that the music industry feels will help to save it and stop some of the pirating.


The music industry is beginning to realize that they must adopt the "If you can’t beat them, join them" mentality when it comes to dealing with music pirates.



Reference Lists:

1. Busby, B 2009, "Comes With Music" via Nokia and Unlimited Music Downloads, viewed on 15 June 2009, http://www.180cds.com/
   
2. Khan, M, A 2008, Is Nokia monkeying with music's future?, viewed on 16 June 2009, http://www.mobilemarketer.com/
   
3. Sabbagh, D 2008, Nokia offers unlimited music for one-off fee, The Times http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24440421-15306,00.html
   
4. Thaindian News, 2008, New Nokia phones to offer unlimited music for one-off fee of PS130, viewed on 16 June 2009, http://www.thaindian.com/


5. Image resource : http://image.google.com/

The Blogging Revolution

Through the use of blogs, the Internet has enhanced ordinary citizens access to news and opinion, decentralizing the flow of information and challenging the role of mass media as sole arbiters of news. Besides, blogging is growing as a tool for promoting not only online engagement of citizens and public servants, but also offline engagement.


In the book "The Blogging Revolution", author Antony Loewenstein conducts a searching examination of the ways the internet is threatening the rule of some of the planet's most repressive governments, including in countries such as Iran, Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt. Loewenstein discovers the ways that Western multinationals are assisting the restriction of information in these countries, how bloggers are leading the charge for change of the web.


Through contacts made in the blogosphere, Loewenstein visits each of the six countries named above in turn, speaking to local bloggers and experts, in an attempt to reveal a richer, more detailed picture of living under one party rule.


However, Loewenstein catalogues the liberating features of the internet, such as the free access of information and perspectives not available from traditional media or the government. He notes, for example, the astounding statistic from the Committee to Protect Journalists that 40 per cent of journalists jailed around the world are web-based reporters.


Dissident bloggers in countries like Iran and China also have to contend with increasing internet censorship by the government, blocking websites dealing with undesirable content and excluding certain key words from search engines like Google. Yet it’s the complacency Loewenstein discovered that seems particularly frightening. Loewenstein says most of the people he spoke to were unbothered by the censorship, or unaware of just how many sites were being blocked. Whilst in the meantime the practise of censorship is speading.


According to Isaac Mao, the way the world will communicate and get its news can be found deep in the interconnected and viral blogosphere. While the entire world will change as blogging connects and informs people in new ways, the impact will particularly vivid in China before long. That’s because rather than attempting to reform or change existing media institutions, still largely state-controlled, bloggers simply go around the old media and find their audience a different way, he said. “collective intelligence on the click of creation,” Mao said.


Blogging is being used increasingly to speak out against oppression in authoritarian regimes and speak up amidst mainstream media.




Reference Lists:

1. Funnell, A 2007, The Blogging Revolution, Melbourne University Press, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2351985.htm
   
2. Wyld, D, C 2007, Blogging Revolution - Government in the Age of Web 2.0.

Classification of blogs & Methods to build blogging communities

Blogs are frequently updated webpages with posts typically in reverse-chronological order. Blogging is the latest form of online communication to gain widespread popularity and it is rapidly becoming mainstream.


In this post, I'll be discussing the classification of blogs and the methods to build blogging communities. And also discuss types of blogging communities.


There are many different types of blogs:

• Personal - This is the blogs by individuals about personal topics like politics, music, family, parenting, travel, health, holidays, religion, books, photography, and so on.


• Business - Professionals such as lawyers and stock brokers share their expertise, and directly and personally engage with their customers.


• Schools - It's a great way for teachers and students to collaborate on classroom projects.
  
• Politics - Members of parliament, political parties, government agencies, political groups and activists connect with their various constituencies.
  
• Sports - Teams, athletes, and fans using blogs to express and share their passion for various sports.

Methods to build blogging communities to attrack more and more visitors:

• Write to get more comments. Turning a visitor into a commenter is a key way of building a relationship with someone.
  
• Reply comments. People who comment are more interested in building meaningful relationships.
  
• Visit commenters' sites. Most people leave a link when they comment. Click to visit their blog and see what’s there. You never know what you’ll find.
  
• Track the most popular content. Give visitors more of what they’re looking for and new and old readers alike will become more engaged.


• Make content accessible and readable. A blog is nothing without content; it needs to stand out and shine through. Make headlines prominent, and keep content easier to read.

LiveJournal is a famous blogging community. LiveJournal has a well-like features of a self-contained community and some social networking features. Same as most weblogs, people can comment on each other's journal entries, each comment can be replied individually. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community.

Reference Lists:

1. Wikipedia, N.D, LiveJournal, viewed on 15 June 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/
   
2. WordPress.com, N.D., Types of Blogs, viewed on 15 June 2009, http://en.wordpress.com/
   
3. Yoskovitz, B 2007, 8 Steps to Growing Your Blog Community One Person At a Time, viewed on 15 June 2009, http://www.instigatorblog.com/

New forms of media publishing

The World Wide Web has created new forms of media publishing. Nowadays, newspapers have online versions; television shows also have websites as do films. The digital age has brought all kinds of new possibilities for ways that people can communicate their opinions, experiences, and ideas to people around the world through blogs, online forums and internet publications. (Amiry, 2005)

Blogging is one of the kinds of media publishing. It is self-publishing in the digital media that you can say anything, you also don’t have to worry very much about who’s reading it or how many people are reading it. Now blogs are wonderfully, anarchic and democratic, but they are also dangerously inaccurate at times.

Today, younger people seem like quite unfazed by self publishing, also by small audiences. And there also seems to be no over-obsession with polish.

In online media where you’re skimming, you’re looking for something that grabs you, you want to be engaged by it straightaway. (Amiry, 2005)


Reference Lists:

1. Amiry, S 2005, New Media Publishing, viewed on 14 June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/

Blogs Phenomenon

Nowadays, there are many blogs created everyday. Blogs have introduced a myraid of new voices to the channels of information exchange online. People who "Blog" are called Bloggers, and there are hundreds, thousands of Blogs on the Net today.

The blogosphere is an extensive conversation that's playing a rising role in creating trends, reporting news and opinion, and generating buzz. (Nelson, 2006) There are some 9 million blogs out there, with 40,000 new ones popping up each day. Many blogs include links, or underlined words that, when clicked, carry readers to other Web pages. (Pinto, 2005)

Besides, blogs are beginning to demand big readerships and some even gain revenue by selling their own advertising space. Rhodes University New Media studies head, Vincent Maher (2006), says blogs are a communication revolution allowing people to converse across national and cultural boundaries and become part of a new global public sphere that wasn’t available to readers otherwise. “Blogging is a lot of fun and many people have started doing it. It’s practically part of the social fabric of the web now. The excitement is largely due to the way it gives ordinary people cheap and easy-to-use communication tools for potentially mass audiences without the supervision of an editor,” says Maher.

However, blogging brought a lot of benifits to community. Blogs created many important and new opportunities for publishers. Publishers may view blogs as just another source of competiton for readers. Bloggers can act as a fliter for the information online, making it interesting and unique new voices in the blogosphere. (Nelson, 2006) Blogs are low-cost channel for book publicity and advertising. Book publishers are taking advantage of these opportunities and even launching their own blogs to connect and communicate with audiences. (Nelson, 2006)

In conclusion, blogging could be an efficient and effective alternative for information and knowledge transfer, resulting in a more productive workforcein libraries.





Reference Lists:

1. Dvorak, J, C 2002, The Blog Phenomenon, viewed on 12 June 2009, http://www.pcmag.com/
   
2. Nelson, M 2006, The blog phenomenon and the book publishing industry, Springer New York.
   
3. Pinto, J 2005, Blog phenomenon all around, viewed on 14 June 2009, http://www.isa.org/

Document Design

This posting will discuss about what is a good document and talk about the good writing for presentation.

Documents are used by people in several countries and continents for communicating and collaborating. A design document is a way for you to communicate with others what your design decisions are and why your decisions are good decisions. The major factor that determines if your design document is good is whether or not it clearly explains your intentions. Document design is including elements that are relevant to different contexts and coding the document to allow elements to display or not, as appropriate. (Lynch & Horton, N.D.) Diagrams are a nice tool for visualizing your design, but it cannot convey the motivation behind your design decisions. That's why it is so important to let diagrams supplement your design document, not be your design document. (Hackett, 2007)

In my group presentation earlier, our slides are just list out the point and didn't do a diagram to elaborate and also overlook our document design. Therefore, I think our presentation is seem to be so boring. Yet after starting to do this weblog, I just realised the design is so important. I will do more research and practice to improve myself in this aspect.

Credibility is important for Web users nowadays. It can be increased by high-quality graphics, good writing, and use of outbound hypertext links. (Nielsen, J 1997) So that, a good writing will permit your readers to concentrate on your ideas, and may help you to give the impression that you know what you are talking about. Good scientific and technical writing should written for a direct and specified purpose that remain unchanged and conveyed without information loss, regardless of its audience. (Rothman, S 2005) Scientific writing should focus equally on both the empirical evidence and the rational or logic behind the meaning attached to the results. (Rothman, S2005)

reference lists:

1. Hackett, S 2007, How to Write an Effective Design Document, viewed 6 April 2009, <http://blog.slickedit.com/?p=43>
   
2. Lynch & Horton, N.D., Document Design, viewed 6 April 2009, <http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/7-page-design/2-document-design.html>
   
3. Nielsen, J 1997, How Users Read on the Web, viewed 5 April 2009, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html>
   
4. Rothman, S 2005, What Makes Good Scientific and Technical Writing?, viewed 5 April 2009, <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9447/error?cat=4>

purpose

The purpose that I open this weblog is to discuss about the issue related to publication and design. Very welcome to those who are interested with this aspect and shares same interest and concern about these issues. I would like to make this weblog more interesting:)