Blogging about BLOGS.

Moblog;
I think that the idea of a moblog is really interesting, but the interface of the website is TERRIBLE. It is so cluttered, to complex and not very user friendly. Also, every users profile is different and I couldn’t tell whether the photo was taken by a cellphone camera or a real camera. The few I visited seemed to be posting pictures from a real camera, rather than a cellphone. Would this not be more of a photoblog? Hmm.. Anyways, the moblog idea is really cool. Twitterpics might be more useful because it has a simpler interface. Also, the short content limits make it idea for cellphone users.
http://moblog.net/signs/
I found a cool group that consisted of members who post “Signs - daft signs, cool signs, any signs.” It was much easier to view than a specific user. The group system and tagging of moblogs allows for easy searching of specific pictures. It is also interesting to see in what ways different users collaborate.
Overall, moblogging seems pointless to me seeing as how cellphones are incorporates into any type of blogging nowadays. A specific one for cellphones does not seem interesting or unique now that you can text to your facebook, flickr, twitter, etc.

Photoblog;
I went to flickr.com to investigate photoblogs. I think that these are super super cool. If “a picture is worth a thousand words” then this type of blogging is useful to communicate with a large amount of people. Instead of being restricted to words, photos allow a more free vehicle of expression whether it is for a specific message or personal use. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cloughridge/3314098859/
I found this flickr member and thought it was really cool to see that other users could tag areas of the picture and add a comment specifically to that area. It makes the composition so much more interesting!

VideoBlog;
First I found this: http://2007.weblogawards.org/polls/best-video-blog-1.php
A contest for the best video blogs ever.
Second, I found THIS amazing v.blog: http://itsjerrytime.com/ with a videoblog called “Speed Dating” that features Kristen Schaal who is MEL from Flight of the Conchords so I figured I needed to use this as an example. It is not a traditional videoblog, as it incorporates animation editing to form a video blog “production” in a way. I think it still counts as a video blog because the issue of truth is confronted. Videoblogs (like lonelygirl) are often confronted by issues of authenticity, and in this blog it doesn’t try to present itself as “real” character. It creates a fictional character Jerry to present the authors real thoughts, in turn avoiding the chance of presenting fake material. There is also a written blog to explain his own experiences and why he made the video the way he did. I think that is shows how videoblogs are changing and people are using them for many different things, not just as a personal encounter with your computers webcam. 

Audioblog;

I found this website on how to create your own audioblog. Very useful. 

http://www.soul-sides.com/2004/07/so-you-want-to-start-audioblog.html

hipcast.com offers services to create your own audioblog and “media for the masses”.
http://www.gabcast.com/ lets you record your phone conversations and conference calls.
The only real web example I could find was this http://www.kalamu.com/bol/ but a lot of the links were expired. It basically posts songs and then blogs about them so you can listen and read at the same time, very cool. Audioblogging seems to be something you incorporate into your written blog. A podcast usually accompanies something else like a tv show, celebrity, artist, radio show, etc. To simply be an audioblogger doesn’t seem very popular.. podcasts are very popular but don’t interact with other podcasts so they aren’t really like blogs. They simply can be part of a blog or advertised by one.
PS: My favourite podcast is Stuart McLeans’s Vinyl Cafe form CBC!! Check it out.
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/index.html?arts#vinylcafe

My Discovery of Social Bookmarking

On my Safari I make use of the handy toolbar for favourites to link the sites I visit on a daily basis, that way they are only one easy click away. I also have a favourites menu in the bookmarks section that I use for various websites I want to keep track of. My list got so big that I tried to sort it into sub-files, but I found that I couldn’t keep up with sorting the sites as I saved them. It was like trying to keep all my clothes folded in my room, impossible. After class, I signed up for Delicious to save my bookmarks. Social bookmarking sites help organize the sites right as you save them. This is good for me, because instead of going back and organizing, I am prompted to tag and comment right at the moment. The only problem is that to find the sites I save I have to go to a website and search which seems like more work than just looking in your browser. But Delicious still benefits me because I would rather have one extra step than an unorganized folder of random websites.
On Delicious I tagged five sites that are course related. 

1. 50 Ways to Use Social Media; Listed By Objective
TONNES of information sorted by categories on how to use social media for marketing. Could be extremely helpful for final project. 

2. Don't Believe These 10 Social Media Myths

Myths of social media. Interesting view of what people think and really relative to the course! 

3. How Social Media Changed Campaigning

In depth look at social media during the elections. Talks about “sneezers” on twitter as re-tweeters. Nice. Kind of boring though.

4. Does Social Media Make Us Better People? 

We are more exposed, therefore is our behaviour improving? hmmmm I like this one.

5. BBC NEWS | Technology | Music site Last.fm bought by CBS

CBS buys last.fm.. big money!

For the third part of blog-work assigned I searched “Canadian” in the three social bookmarking sites.

I found that Diigo seems like it is used more by adults or intellectuals. All the links that came up were about investing, news, economic news, and taxes. Probably since it is about annotation and side notes, it makes it a popular site for thinkers, students, and business people.

Digg seemed very much popular culture phenomenon. It contained many results that were currently popular news item, controversial, and humorous content. There was also a lot about Canadian/US relations but most of it was comedy and seemed to downplay Canadians. Not sure why, maybe more Americans use Digg than Canadians. 

Delicious is what I signed up for because it seemed most user friendly but I enjoy scanning Digg more because the tagged items are generally more interesting. Delicious works great for personal use because of the tag system. On Delicious I found that there were a lot more positive sites about Canadians (compared to Digg). Most of the tagged sites were a kind of self help for Canadians or a news story. 

Google gave me a broader search result, and with mostly important sites listed first like the Canada wikipedia page, Molson’s site, Canadian Tire, and a few charity sites. It was interesting being these are popular Canadian themes you could say.

Overall, its important to know how content is delivered to a site. Google depends on links, whereas social bookmarking sites rely on people. It would be interesting to see a demographic analysis of the users of each SB site. What nationalities use it most, age groups, gender, etc. Further, to relate the demographics to the popular content would be an interesting research project. 

This makes my week complete.

I'm on a Boat- ft T-Pain

For more go to lonelyisland.com : ) 

#coffeesexual? ..What?!

I have found that twirl keeps me updated on tweets so I can't forget about them. If someone tweets I can answer right away which enhances the conversation aspect of twitter. I agree with the Clever Sheep blog that its important to "be a friend" because then it encourages other people to respond to your own tweets. If nobody connected by tweeting and re-tweeting there wouldn't be much of a point to twitter. Everyone would be too self absorbed. Tweeting to someone even if its about something small and insignificant shows that you care and are interested in fostering a twitter community. I would like to re-tweet but find that I don't spend enough time looking for other people to follow. Its mainly just the 2P26 class on my list and my mom and sister. I like to tweet questions and interesting links because I find you get more responses. I also "tweet the small stuff" sometimes just because its a way for people to get to know you and recognize unknown similarities.

I'll say a bit more about hashtags.. and how its a cool way to see what people are saying about a certain subject. This is really useful for people looking for a variety of opinions or feedback on a show(like LOST from my last post), product, or blog. The lists of words that have been tagged are insanely long. There are over 50 different tags for COFFEE alone that are listed in English. I don't know if coffee is different in other languages, I would assume so. I don't find myself using hashtags. I should probably experiment with them for this class so I get a good mark. I think instead of using a hashtag mid-sentence, I will tag a key word at the end or at the beginning. I read someones blog about how its #annoying to read a #tweet that's #filled with #hashtags. This is sometimes true.

Hashtags & Wikis

#HASHTAGS

I think this is a really really awesome way to cruise through twitter posts. I looked up LOST on hashtags and the word is at its peak tagging point every time a new episode airs. COOL! Also, I would like to point out that if you scroll down you can NEVER reach the end of the page because of how many hashtags there are. It just keep re-loading and adding them to the bottom.People generally post what is interesting about the show or what they are severely confused about. This is a common tweet because the show is generally confusing and you never quite know what is going on.

 

I found a Lost wiki while scrolling through the tweets: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Its pretty awesome, but I think the people that contribute to it must have no lives whatsoever. 

Check it out!

WIKIS

I am severely wiki-challenged. I find that a lot of wiki's are hard to navigate through and have varying arrangements and linking styles. This makes it hard to view certain wikis but is not true for all of them. Wikipedia is easy enough to search through as well as the lost one I found. Pertaining to our class work, I think that a wiki is not the best way to communicate because it is so unstructured. I think a blog that is organized chronologically is much easier. Even with Facebook, there is a specific section for videos, comments, discussion, and pictures which directly shows you where to put a certain type of information that you want to share. 

I did find a link to a yoga blog that absolutely amazed me. These were like hardcore yoga practitioners who bragged about doing yoga on gravel. Pregnant women flying around the world to do yoga. All connected thanks to this amazing wiki! There was just so much information and comments and link available. The only thing that still bothered me was that it is again so unstructured. Possibly this is because I am not familiar with the concept of a wiki. It does seem like a perfect idea for people to gather in a community style and share valuable information. The fact that wikis are self governing is also a benefit because unlike a blog or Facebook, you can control absolutely anything about the web page. Nobody tells you a video has to go in a certain area which is great for some, but not so great for others (like myself). 

For businesses the idea of a wiki come with both bad and good sides. Self-governing means that people on the bottom of the food chain are more likely to have serious ideas actually heard. It acts as a third party advocate that makes sure everyone’s information is given a place. At the same time this means that others can edit or use the wiki for not so noble purposes. Misinformation is a large problem that many companies have had when using wiki technology. The link from the class blog uses the example of the LA Times’ blog that was shutdown due to Internet vandalism. 

I found an article that said:

“Wikis are structurally capable of handling conversation, but it is not their forte; instead, wikis excel at collaboration. They are intended to maintain a series of unique documents as their content evolves and to provide an organic means of organizing that information.”

http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=167600331

Clearly, if used properly people have seriously benefited from the use of wikis for business. For file sharing they become perfect for rough work and updates, without having to deal with a mass of emails or personal messages.