The Blogging Revolution = Freedom??

Blogging as many people know it is really a part of most of peoples live nowadays. almost everyone or anyone who has access to the internet would know the meaning of a blog and what is a blogger.

Different authors of blogs have different ideas and different postings about anything they have in mind at that time. However people believe that blogs are actually a place where they can have freedom to say and do anything that they want.

In the article about “The Blogging Revolution” book, it is talking about a radio interview between the radio DJ and the author of the book about how blogging has seen people gain more freedom in expression and speech.

Other than that, the article is also talking about how blogging has changed for six countries, Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt and China.

Below is a video about Iran and freedom of expression.

(source: youtube.com)

I would base my opinion solely on the country of Iran. Iran is totalitarian country, where in the beginning years of the introduction of the internet, its information was open to all. However, when the government realised that it could be a threat to their system, they decided to block the free circulation of data and filter the internet (Jadi 2009).

Blogging and the internet in Iran have helped many of its people to express many of their thoughts and give an insight on the happenings in their country, good or bad.

In my opinion, blogging is really just a place for expression of the person. When someone is being oppressed, the possibility that they will want to rebel against the oppression. There are pros and cons regarding these sort of actions however, because there are no indefinite rules about the internet, there is really nothing much anybody can do about how people want to express themselves.

But in a country like Iran, the government would want to restrict its internet users because they want to limit the freedom of speech in the country to hide their hidden secrets to other countries (Etling 2009).

References:

Jadi 2009, ‘Q/A of Blog Entry’, 30th October 2009, Inside Iran, online, retrieved 18th November 2009, from http://jadi.net/.

Etling, B 2009, Iran Moves to Enforce Cyber Laws, online, retrieved 18th November 2009, from http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/idblog/2009/07/21/iran-moving-to-enforce-new-cyber-law/.

Media/Publishing Issues

International version of Kindle out for Christmas

This article from the Times, is talking about how Kindle, a device that allows readers to download e-books into it to read. So instead of having to buy the physical book, the users can opt to buy the e-book from Amazon.com for a cheaper price.

The article also talks about how Amazon wants to lower the price of the Kindle in time for Christmas to up its sales, and because people nowadays prefer electronic goods more than normal goods.

It also talks about the history of Amazon.com and its power over online book selling.

(source: amazon.com)

An image of the kindle.

(source: tidbits.com)

However, there are some design issues for the kindle in the sense that it has limited organizing abilities because it does not allow its uses to organize the e-books into folders for easier reading (ireaderreview 2009).

Other than that, its limitations include web browser limitations because users cannot fully use the kindle as a web browser but can only use Amazon’s e-book store to purchase books, in other words, unless the user uses Kindle to purchase e-books, it is redundant to other functions (Sorrel 2009).

Finally, according to Nielson (1997), reading from computer screens tire eyes faster and causes a 25% slow down rate compared to reading from print.

Although the function of the Kindle can be very tempting to some users who are electronic savvy, however the Kindle would appeal to book readers, it would be redundant and useless for those who do not fancy reading or prefer doing other things like listening to music, watching movies and so on.

In my opinion however, the Kindle would be a very tempting option for people on the go without much time to really sit down and have a good read, but as for people in Malaysia, a study has confirmed that Malaysian in 1996 read two books a year and the same survey conducted in 2005, shows the same statistics (Read and Weep! 2009). So in other words, the Kindle device can never ever succeed in a country like Malaysia because Malaysian just doesn’t  read!

 

(source: rcentre.utm.my)

References:

ireadreview 2009, Lack of Folders in Kindle, ireadreview, New York, online, retrieved 18th November 2009, from http://ireaderreview.com/2009/02/17/lack-of-folders-in-kindle-2/.

Nielson, J. 1997, Why Web users Scan Instead of Read, Useit, online, retrieved 18th November 2009, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/whyscanning.html.

Read and Weep! 2009, online, retrieved 18th November 2009, from http://www.malaysiantoday.com.my/node/788.

Sorrel, C 2009, Crippleware Alert International Kindle Gets No Web Access Outside U.S., online, retrieved 18th November 2009, from http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/international-kindle-crippled-at-launch-no-web-access-outside-us/.

Media Publishing= Facebook?

To define the new type of media, is to talk about the new age digital, computerized information that we can get online. New media often has characteristics that enable people to manipulate, compressed interactive and so on (Wikipedia 2009).

However, the explosive growth in blogging has created a tense debate on whether the death of journalism is near. But according to Naughton (2007), there will be no death in journalism but these old ‘organisms’ have to accommodate the new ‘organisms’. In this case journalism and blogging should work together as one.

For this post, I will use Facebook as the example of the new media publishing.

(source: facebook.com)

Facebook is the new phenomenon taking the world by storm, because it is versatile where people are able to open business through Facebook, have fan sites, and many more. It is not merely a social networking website in the sense that, users can even find work through Facebook (Vishnu, 2009).

Facebook has also opened up many possibilities in the way people communicate with each other on a day to day basis, because what we normally do in Facebook we cannot entirely enact it in real life (Shannon, 2009). Below is a video describing why the actions on Facebook can never happen in real life.

(source: youtube.com)

It has also given many people freedom of expression and speech with their functions that allow you to do whatever you want.

References:

Naughton, J. 2007, Blogging and the Emerging Media Ecosystem, online, retrieved 18th November 2009, from http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html.

Shannon 2009, How Facebook has Changed Day-to-Day Communications, online, retrieved 18th November 2009, from http://www.aimgroup.com/index.php/article/how-facebook-has-changed-day-to-day-communications/.

Wikipedia 2009, New Media, online, retrieved 18th November 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media.

Online Vs. Print

Writing for print and writing for the web is two totally different things. Most of the time it should depend on the audience, layout, colour and many more (About.com 2009).

For printed materials, the content ‘controls’ the reader because the style of reading is linear where text goes up and down, left to right. While for the web, the users read the content faster and can even modify the content, while the style of reading is non-linear because they can read any direction to skim through the text faster (Redshaw 2003).

(source: realfoundation.org.my)

The above is a sample of print, where the words are in linear models, and audiences do not normally skim through the text.

 (source: smashpop.net)

The above would be a sample of a design  for a blog, where the information is more interactive and easier to read, this is because normal readers of the web would not read texts that are too long from the screen, so, in order to get their attention, incorporating pictures with descriptions can help get the readers’ attention and keep it.  

On top of that, having good writing skills and carefully organising the information of the blog can also boost the blog’s appeal because if it makes sense, people will read it! (Nielson 1997).

References:

About.com 2009, Design for Print Vs. the Web, online, retrieved 17th November 2009, from http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/printvsweb/a/print_vs_web.htm.

Nielson, J. 1997, Concise, Scannable, and Objective: How to Write for the Web, online, retrieved 17th November 2009, from http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html.

Redshaw, K. 2003, Web Writing Vs. Print Writing, online, retrieved 17th November 2009. from http://www.kerryr.net/webwriting/guide_web-vs-print.htm.

Blogging Communities

 

The blogosphere, is known as a collective community of all the blogs, these blogs are although some not clearly, are interconnected and socially networked through blogrolls, comments, linkbacks (also known as refbacks, trackbacks or pingbacks) and backlinks (Wikipedia.org 2009).

To simplify the meaning of a blogging community, it can be divided into three categories: The Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community where authors mingle with the commenters, commenters mingle with the other commenters to get to know each other and so on, The Central Connecting Topic Community where there are many other blog links with the same topics and The Boundaried Community like Myspace, Yahoo 360degrees and so on (White 2006).

Blogger Centric Community:

(source: kennysia.com)

Central Connecting Topic Community:

(source: happy-mummy.blogspot.com) 

The Boundaried Community:

 (source: myspace.com) 

Many people do not realise that just by leaving comments on blogs or giving their opinions and ideas, they are already part of that particular blogging community.

To create a blogging community, the author must first get in touch with other blogs, leave comments on them, reply the comments on their own blogs, make your blog entertaining, update it often, and most importantly, market your blog to increase readership (Nikkis 2009)

As for me, one of the blogging community I am more familiar with is the Boudaried Community because it is easier to find people with the same interests and personality as me. For a website like Myspace.com, everyone with the same interest would be in the same community and therefore it is easier to have discussions and share ideas and so on.

References:

Nikkis 2009, How to Build a Blogging Community, online, retrieved 17th November 2009, from http://www.ehow.com/how_2152382_build-blogging-community.html.

White, N. 2006, Blogs and Community-Launching a New Paradigm for Online Community?, online, retrieved 17th November 2009, from http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community.

Wikipedia 2009, Blog, online, retrieved 17th November 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog#Community_and_cataloging.

Blogging Classifications

According to Bruns & Jacobs (2005), since the birth of the blogging phenomenon, there have been no other media form stronger than the pull of blogging. Blogs  may vary from what the author decides to talk about in the blog, which can be from leisure to business to anything that the author decides to talk about.

According to Technorati.com (2009), there are many blog classifications ranging from Entertainment blogs, to political, sports, technology and so on.

While on top of that, each classification will also have their own sub-categories. For example, a sports blog can be divided into different type of sports like Baseball, Tennis, Football and so on (Technorati.com 2009).

According to Simmons (2008), taxonomy of  blogs are different type of blogs that currently exist, there are in all, nine types:

 

 Pamphleteering blogs

 

 

Digest blogs

Advocacy blogs

Popular Mechanics blogs( the how-to blogs)

Exhibition blogs (‘vanity publishing’)

Gatewatcher blogs (more to media watches)

Diary blogs

Advertisement blogs

News blogs

However, I feel that there are still many more different types of blogs out there, because the blogosphere is growing day by day and people are coming up with many  more different topics to blog about.

Although everyone knows that information from Wikipedia is not necessarily 100% accurate, information on blogs too are questionable because it can be regarded as a amateur source if information are not cite correctly.

 

References:

Bruns, A. & Jacobs, J. 2005, Uses of Blogs: Chapter One, online, retrieved 17h November 2009, from http://snurb.info/files/01%20Introduction%20-%20Axel%20Bruns%20&%20Joanne%20Jacobs%20.pdf.

Simmons, M. 2008, A Taxonomy of  Blogs, online, retrieved 17th November 2009, from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript.

Technorati 2009, Blog Directory, online, retrieved 17th November 2009, from http://technorati.com/blogs/directory.

The Blogging Phenomenon (1)

Blogs, as the current Phenomenon

According to Branum (2001), the term ‘weblog’ describes a personal website which offers frequently updated postings which are generally chronologically organized. What makes a weblog such a phenomenon is that it represents an online intersection of people and time. (Branum 2001).

However, to most of the younger generation, having a weblog would most probably be an outlet for them to express themselves and their feelings, and at the same time, make it into a profit making blog.

Example of personal blogging that is profit making from Malaysia:

(source:kennysia.com)

The benefits of blogging however, is that it is easy to set up and does not cost a lot, it can put a human face on the project of the author’s choice of the blog, we have a choice to allow the public to comment on blog posts to get the community involved, and it is also an excellent way to create a community and keep them up to date, and test new ideas (Nine Benefits of Blogging 2009).

 

(source: kennysia.com)

While the benefits to the community is that when there is a community, they will be able to come back time and again, leave insightful comments, inspire the author to write more , share ideas, share your ideas with others as well as recommend you to their community (Kristi 2009). This will help your blog grow in size.

References:

Branum, JM 2001, The Blogging Phenomenon: An Overview and Theoretical Consideration, online, retrieved 16th November 2009, from http://www.ajy.net/jmb/blogphenomenon.htm.

Nine Benefits of Blogging 2009 online, retrieved 16th November 2009, from http://corporate.bangthetable.com/upload/filename/69/Tips_Sheet_-_Benefits_of_Blogging.pdf.

Kristi 2009, Benefits of Blogging- Building a Community, online, retrieved 16th November 2009, from http://kikolani.com/benefits-blogging-building-community.html.