BLOGGING COMMUNITIES

All bloggers are part of an online community which is a group of people who interact with each other via the Internet. (Tuomi, 2001)

Types of Communities

Various types of blogging communities exist such as special interest blogging communities which are a gathering of a group of bloggers who all share and write about a common interest. An example of special interest blogging communities is Spill.com which is a website for bloggers who are interested in movies. A Malaysian example would be the Lowyat.net Forum, a local online community for technology enthusiasts and traders. Another type of blogging communities are the blog advertising communities like Nuffnang and Advertlets.

Steps to Build a Blogging Community

 Source: ProBlogger

1. Network with others in your industry
Begin by getting yourself acquainted with bloggers that have similar interests as you (Schwartz, 2007)

2. Comments
The most natural place to start to build ‘community’ is by interacting with bloggers in the comments section. (Rowse, 2009)

3. Reader Centered Posts
Show readers that you value them by regularly publishing posts that are for them. Some methods are like: posting questions for reader discussion or highlighting a reader and his/her blog. (Rowse, 2009)

4. Provide ways to ‘join’ or be a ‘member’
Provide ways for readers to subscribe to your blog and update regularly with interesting posts to keep them interested. (Rowse, 2009)

5. Be the community
Involve yourself in discussions and activities happening within your blogging community (Rowse, 2009)

BloggerUnited

 Source: Jejaktrend

Bloggerunited is a social blog aggregator which helps promote visibility for bloggers and their websites by forming a social network for bloggers. The newest posts published on your blog will be promoted in Bloggerunited according to the genre and subject matter of your blog. The more readerships your posts get, the longer Bloggerunited will promote you on their site.

 Source: BloggerUnited

The website forms a symbiotic relationship between it’s blogger members to help promote each other to reach higher readerships.

References

1. Rowse, D 2009, "8 Tips for Building Community on Your Blog," online, retrieved 18 November 2009, from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/02/28/8-tips-for-building-community-on-your-blog/
2. Schwartz, B 2007, "Building Your Blog Community," online, retrieved 18 November 2009, from http://searchengineland.com/building-your-blog-community-10556
3. Tuomi, I 2001, "Internet, Innovation and Open Source: Actors in the Network," First Monday, Vol. 6, No. 1, retrieved 18 November 2009, from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/824

CLASSIFICATION OF BLOGS

Everyone has a different reason for blogging. This fact is what contributes to so many different types of blogs. Blogs can be classified by:

1. Types of media

• Photoblogs- Blogs that focus more on publishing photos rather than text (Levine, 2004)

Example: stanleyliew.blogspot.com

• Vlogs- A form of blogging presented through video (New England Film, 2006)

Example: nuttymadam3575

• Linklogs- Blogs that features one hyperlink of anything the blogger found interesting per entry (RECAP, 2009)
  
  
  
  
  
   Example: Jennifer's Link Log
  
  
  

• Sketchlogs- Blogs which contents are primarily artwork or drawings by the blogger

Example: Kristen's Sketch-Blog

2. Subject matter

• Political blogs

 Example: Lim Kit Siang

• Entertainment blogs

Example: Am I Right?

• Gossip blogs

Example: Perez Hilton

I feel that the best method of classifying blogs is by the subject matter approach. The distinguishing characteristic of subject matter blogs is that they focus on a specific genre and topic. This makes it easier for search engines to list them because it is clear what the blogs are about. It also makes it easier for bloggers to earn money because they can narrow down the advertisements to products and services directly related to the genre of their blog. (Hewitt, 2007)

References

1. Hewitt, J.C. 2007, "Blogging as a Publishing Business: Subject Matter Blogs," online, retrieved 18 November 2009, from http://www.poewar.com/blogging-as-a-publishing-business-subject-matter-blogs/
2. Levine, A 2004, "What is this PhotoBlogging Stuff?" online, retrieved 18 November 2009, from http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/show/tcc04/photoblog/
3. Librari*s & ‘Blogs 2004, "Types of Blogs," online, retrieved 18 November 2009, from http://www.slais.ubc.ca/COURSES/libr500/03-04-wt2/www/J_Thomson/types.htm
4. New England Film 2006, "Media Revolution: Podcasting (Part 2)" online, retrieved 18 November 2009, from http://newenglandfilm.com/news/archives/2006/02/podcasting.htm
5. RECAP 2009, "Linklogs and Social Bookmarking," online, retrieved 18 November 2009, from http://recap.ltd.uk/Web2/bookmarking.php

THIS IS BLOGGING!

Source: miyagi.sg

History of Blogging
In 1997, John Barger gave the name ‘weblogs’ or ‘blog’ for short, to describe a new form of website that is usually operated by one person and maintained with regular entries of whatever topic the owner of the weblog wishes to write about.  (Blood, 2000)

The Blogging Phenomenon
Now, barely 12 years later, blogs have evolved from an electronic personal diary to an influential form of new media and freedom of expression to a money making industry. Since 2007, Technorati has reported that there are at least 112 million blogs existing in the World Wide Web (Sifry, 2007) with 900, 000 new blogs being created everyday! (Kiwanuka, 2009)

The influence of blogs has also become a force to be reckoned with. Bloggers and blogs have begun to alter the balance of power in the media and have created ripples effects through society. For example, in the 2008 Malaysian General Elections, the success of Pakatan Rakyat, the political opposition, in capturing 82 of the 222 seats was linked to bloggers which helped ran a significant portion of its campaign in through blogs in cyberspace. (Yeoh, 2008) Anyone who is still unfamiliar with the power of blogs has been living in a cave since roughly 2002.

Source: heart internet

Why We Blog
There are countless reasons why people would get into blogging. Some feel that blogging is the best way to express their feelings and opinions. Some do it as a hobby. Some are in it for the money blogs earn from online advertisers. In my opinion, one of the main benefits of blogging to society is that blogging creates a space for everyone to have freedom of expression.

References

1. Blood, R 2000, “Weblogs: a history and perspective. Rebecca's pocket,” online, retrieved 18 November 2009, from http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
2. Kiwanuka, B 2009, “900,000 New Blogs Created Everyday Means Yours Is Irrelevant Unless...,” online, retrieved 18 November 2009, from http://www.articlealley.com/article_878118_64.html
3. Sifry, D 2007, “The State of the Live Web," April 2007,” online, retrieved 18 November 2009, from http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html
4. Yeoh, O 2008, ‘What role did New Media play in GE 2008?’ The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur

H1N1 VLOG

My IPD Vlog assignment on H1N1. Five steps to avoid being infected with H1N1 in your college campus. Don't believe Step 6. Though there really was some medical idiot saying that gay sex gets you infected. It's just something I put in for laughs.

Special thanks to Jason Lim, Patrick Loh, Loshana K Shagar, Shalini Ravindran, Tang Hui Shi, Shani Xiyad, Yong Li May & Teoh Wei Chin.

Music used:
The Flight of the Bumblebee- The Swingle Singers
A Fifth of Beethoven- The Swingle Singers
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- The Swingle Singers

DOCUMENT DESIGN

Our education in the secondary level has always lead us to believe that a good document or presentation is one that contains massive amounts of hard facts with no bad mistakes–that is, no errors of grammar, punctuation, or spelling, when all this is merely half of the work. So what is a good document then?

As Anderson points out, a good document helps readers to read through the document efficiently while emphasizing on the most important contents of the document to the readers. Anderson also suggests that a good document is one that encourages readers to feel good about a communication. (Anderson, 1987)

In this post, I will be discussing the factors that contribute to a good document design while analyzing the slides of my previous presentation to determine whether the document design was good or not.

Firstly, one of the most crucial element in any document design is the heading.  A heading captures the essence of the topic of a document. (Svenonius, 2000) Headings are important to direct readers to specific information. Headers neatly divides main points from one another to help readers see when one topic finishes and another begins. (Reep, 2006)

In this slide, the readers won’t have any problem finding the heading because it is separated in it’s own textbox and has a larger font than the other text. The short heading immediately gives the audience knowledge of what the topic of the slide is and instantly directs them below to find out more.
Proportion of page elements also contribute to a good document.  Reep states that using the same proportions for text and visual aid would cause the article to appear bland to the reader thus interfere with their ability to understand the document. Each relevant text should be at the size that is helpful to the reader. (Reep, 2006)

Take for instance this slide. The document does seem monotonous because both the title text and the sub texts are of the same font and colour. Though the text size is different, using the same font bored the readers. (Schriver, 1997) The colour of the text and the colour of the background is closely similar and is very displeasing to the eye because it is hard to read the text.
Perhaps what could be done to improve it is to use a darker background and break the points into two separate slides so that it doesn’t appear crammed.

Visual aid also contribute to a good document design. Providing visuals like background pictures will increase the readers interest in the article because the document is eye catching and pleasant to look at. (Microsoft Office Online, 2007)

This slide contains a lot of bright colours that catches the readers attention and at the same time, presents the text clearly. The bold black colour of the text together with the white background of the textbox makes a good contrast with the colourful backdrop. This ensures that the readers are still able to concentrate on the important contents.
REFERENCES

1. Anderson, P 1987, “Technical writing : A reader-centered approach,” 2nd edn, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich , Orlando, Florida.
2. Microsoft Office Online, 2007, “Tips for creating and delivering an effective presentation,” online, retrieved 7th September 2009, from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA102078641033.aspx
3. Reep, D C, 2006, “Techincal writing,” 6th edn, Pearson/Longman, New York.
4. Schriver, K A, 1997, Chapter 6: Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York
5. Svenonius, E, 2000, “The Intellectual  Foundation of Information Organization, 1st edn, The MIT Press, Campbridge, Massachusetts.

PURPOSE

Hello. Welcome to my blog. Nice right? Anyway.. this weblog is going to be discussing the issues related to media publication and design and how it will effect the dissemination  of information  and it’s meaning to an audience. These issues will be discussed using Malaysian designs and The targeted audience for this blog are communication and design students.

Sincerely,
Nicholas Cheng Zhu Hann
0902K64347