blog importance and what they have brought us

The beginning of Boxer's article made me realize how blogs are kicking some publishing companies butt. Now that I'm on my "blogging kick" I have turned to more blogging sites for information rather than my traditional newspaper or books. Not only for information but also for opinion about movies, politics, television, etc. Why rely on one source from the newspaper of a magazine when I get get hundreds from opening just one blog. I'm even going to blogging sites after my favorite shows (like Lost) to see what everyone else thinks is going to happen next. Forget waiting for People Magazine or Entertainment Weekly to come out; I have the voice of the people at my fingertips. Also, unlike books, magazines and newspapers, blogs offer links to hundreds of other sites with even more information on different subjects.

Boxer's articles continues on to discuss the language of the blogs. Not being a loyal blogger myself (until this class) I still was affected by the blog lingo. I found myself using abrivs(a.k.a. abbreviations a lot because of the lingo of my peers. OMG (oh my gosh!); bff (best friends forever); bf (boyfriend); idk (I don't know); ttyl( talk to you later); obvi (obvious). Yes, I am one of "those" that gave into the blog lingo craze. (It drives my mother crazy.) Is it any wonder that our youth's vocabulary has gone downhill? 

Review on Small Pieces

I admit that I was not really looking forward to learning about Web 2.0. Yes, it is an interesting concept but I was not quite sure it was worth the time. I believe I blew it off  because it is a concept that is completely knew to me, and although I love to learn, I hate to feel stupid, and when you are learning something for the first time, you are going to feel stupid first. But this book truly helped. It actually made sense. The analogies that were used had me saying every fifteen minutes, "I get it!"

He discusses four main points: space, time, self, and knowledge.

"Space: The geography of the Web is as ephemeral as human interest." The space of the web seems to be infinite. Just look at eBay and its endless about of pages filled with information regarding thousands of products.

"Time: Real-world time is a series of ticks to which schedules are tied." They way Weibnerger describes it, time spent on the Internet is not measured in units of moments but our interest in what we are working on. For example, he gives the example of shopping on eBay. While he was shopping, his son came home, so he stopped what he was doing on the Web to spend time with his son. Later that night he was able to get right back on the leave off where he started.

"Self: Unlike real-world selves, these selves are intermittent and most important, they are written." Weinberger discussed what has come to be known as "Internet Intoxication." He gave the example of Michael Campbell who in 1999 used AOL to talk to Erin Walton, a student from Columbine High School. During their chats he warned her not to go to school the next day because he didn't want "her blood on my hands." Campbell was arrested and was taken to court. Campbell tried claiming that he was just trying to take a new role and be like his favorite actor, John Malkovich.

Although Campbell is a unique and extreme situation, Internet users do use the Internet to try on new identities. Especially when we are chatting with other people online; we are able to sometimes speak our minds more freely.

Knowldge: The Web is full of knowledge! Weinberger discusses how much he learned about quilting from just browsing the quilts he was looking to buy on eBay.

The main concept of the book is that the Web isn't put together in one smooth line. It's made up of "small nuggets" that are loosely connected to other "small nuggets."

"... The Web gets its value not from the smoothness of its overall operation but from its abundance of small nuggests that point to more small nuggets."

Most importantly the Web does not just connect the different pages but it also connects us as humans. We are able to communicate and connect with other people half way around the world in seconds.

It discusses how the Web breaks traditional publishing by being more open. In the past, publication was about control. No one could add. No one could contribute. Because of this openness, the Web has been able to grow into the phenomenon that it is today. 

Facebook Song

social networks.... why have i ignored you?

Today's class really made me start contemplating on the power of social networking. I've noticed that as the weeks have gone by, the class has become more comfortable with one another have therefore began to use each other as social networks. Anne's activity today made me realize that I'm not taking full advantage of my social networks within the classroom. There have been many times when I have looked at fellow classmates' blogs and saw something cool that they did to their page, like put up a picture of something. I'll think to myself, "That's really cool. I wish I knew how to do that." But instead of using my social networks to my advantage, I go on about my day letting the opportunity pass me b. Although putting up a picture or two on my blog really isn't that big of deal, it's the fact that I'm not using the tools of these social networks. 

the "never-too-much" guy

One quote in Shaviro's article is when he states on page 12 "... information remains a scarce resources because even too much is never enough." I think this quote sums up why it is important to read up on networking. There is so much information on the Internet, without the proper tools and guides one can easily get lost.

I also feel that this quote could probably sum up Shaviro's personality in a nut shell. Shaviro seems like he would be the type of dude that would have the mentality that "there is never such a thing as too much." He's probably that guy walking around with so much cologne on that you gag when he walks by. Or the guy that gives way too much information on his awkward sexual encounters from the weekend before. Yes, Shaviro is definitely your typical "you-can-never-have-enough" guy. 

my likes and dislikes

I have to admit that I did not enjoy reading Shaviro's book "Connected." Perhaps it's because I was finishing the last couple chapters in Weinberger's "Small Pieces Loosely Joined," which is an easy read. So switching over to Shaviro was a struggle. After discussing Shaviro's book in class though, I understand what he was going for. I applaud his creativity in trying to make his book resemble that of Web 2.o. but as a reader it was kind of frustrating.

Also, I have to admit to my new love for Google Reader. I cannot believe I have been using the Internet for all these years and have never known about so many of these different sites and tools! I am sadly a very disorganized person (even though I try real hard not to be) so using tools like Google Reader of Del.icio.us to help keep my sites organized truly makes my heart smile. Although Google Reader may not be as visually appealing as the actual blog sites, they sure beat having to jump from blog to blog to read everyone's entries. 

bookmarking benefits

Continuing on with my previous blog on boomarking, I realized that what makes bookmarking so great is the social environment. Honestly, the reason I enjoy it so much is because I get to see what other sites people have found. Before I would use my bookmarking tool on my computer for important sites. That's why I was hesitant to set up a del.icio.us. account. But after class on Thursday, I found myself spending an hour just glancing through other peoples websites that they had bookmarked. One can tell a lot about a person by the websites they bookmark. For example, mine are mainly newspaper websites or sites regarding politics. Although, I do have facebook and both my student and hotmail sites bookmarked which demonstrates I also am a social person.

I even suggest to one of my groups in another class that we use this to help with the process of our group project. Because of del.icio.us, we can share different sites that we found for our final project. This way we can make sure that everyone is doing his/her own part and so that we all stay on the same page. 

Old vs. New technology

The piece we read from McLuhan's "The Medium is the massage" really made me start to ponder the power of words. In the second paragraph he discusses the process of a small child learning how to read. It makes one really think about how the process of the alphabet and the connection of words came about. We don't even think twice about it now a days. 

He also goes on to discuss how the invention of the printing press created a process of detachment while electric technology created involvement. With a book, one goes and reads it by his or herself. With electric technology, like blogging, it connects individuals together. I never had thought about these two inventions in this way. Maybe I was just impacted too heavily by my dad telling me that new technology has created people to become more distant because they communicate through email rather than face to face. Although my dad has somewhat of a point, McLuhan is also right in stating that electric technology has also brought people together

Social Bookmarking in Plain English

wow.... bookmarking has a purpose!

I am not a very organized person. And as skeptical as I was about bookmarking, it really is pretty neat! I'm finally getting why so many people are using bookmarks!

presentation and bookmarking

I thought Juanita had an amazing presentation. Using candy with a crowd will always grab everyone's attention. Most importantly, she not only made it fun, she also made us think. She showed us with the presentation of the Mike's Ikes in the jar how information given to us plays a deciding factor on our own thoughts. After she told us that the shape of the jar would have an effect on how many pieces of candy were in the jar, many people changed their answers. I also thought it was interesting in her other demonstration with the candy kisses in the bags. We all relied on the answer of the person before us to make a decision.

I also received a great amount of knowledge on bookmarking from the article, "Social Bookmarking, Folksonomies, and Web 2.0 Tools." Since I have a Mac computer, I have a bookmarking option under my toolbar. Most of my websites under bookmarks are websites to newspapers or to my email and facebook accounts. But I have never used tags with them. It does make me wonder if these tools are just making us lazier. Are we so lazy that we can't type in an address into the tooolbar? I know that the purpose of bookmarking is so that we do not have to search all over the web to find a certain site but I think that bookmarking does reflect how lazy society has become and how we expect everything we do to go qucikly. 

101 East (Blogging)

needing to step up my blog game

I find it funny how that now that I am a senior, many of my classes are requiring the students to use the class blog or to create their own accounts. I was telling my friends about this class and my others that require me to blog. I find the whole thing unusual but my friends seemed really use to the concept. I was also really surprised about how many of them actual blog. I had no idea! Most of them have private accounts that they use to vent. This encouraged me to begin exploring other blogs and to take a closer look at the blogs we looked at in class. It's amazing how much color, font, pictures, and other visual capabilities play such an important role in web 2.0. It's the number one way to catch the audience's attention and keep it. I'm not sure why but anytime something has pictures it always has my attention. (Maybe it's the inner child in me.) One of the reasons I liked some of the blogs we visited in class was because they displayed these ideas. I was very fond of designspongeoline.com's background. The soft colors were pleasing to the eye and it had that homemade type to it. It looks like I'm just going to have to step up my game and join in on this blog craze.