UNIT IV
Conclusion
A
widely dispersed audience depends on weblogs for filtered and disseminated
information as it plays an important role positioned outside the mainstream of
mass media.
Professional
bloggers are experts in evaluating the nature of information sources; it is not
reasonable to assume that all readers can do the same. Readers depend on the
bloggers to provide them with their knowledge share. Weblogs point to, comment
on, and spread information according to their own idiosyncratic perspective.
Readers accept all information provided to them via blogs – all information –
including articles from a source that is a little wacky or has a strong agenda
etc, but not an unethical nature of source.
relevant sources.
Readers may cease to trust a blog where disguised or unclear source of an
article is discovered. Making the sources clear or providing the readers all
the facts is important because it enables the reader to avoid evaluating the
facts differently. So, weblog’s ethical standards are designed in way that
delineates the responsibilities of weblog professionals and provide a clear
code of conduct to ensure the integrity of the news.
Blogs And Associated Responsibilities
It
is unrealistic to expect every weblogger to present an even-handed picture of
the world. It is also unrealistic to expect them to be forthcoming about their
sources, biases, and behavior. Any weblogger who expects to be accorded the
privileges and protections of a professional journalist will need to have
associated responsibilities. It is an individual's professionalism and
meticulous observance of recognized ethical standards that determines his or
her status in the eyes of society and the law.
Following
standards should always be kept in mind:
-Only
fact that is believed to be true should be published
-When
you reference, link to the sources if material exists online
-If
any incorrect information is published, correct it publicly
-Each
entry should be written in a way that could not be changed. Only additions
should be made possible, but no rewriting or deletion
-All
interest conflict should be disclosed
-Always
note questionable and biased sources
Weblogging gives you freedom of
expression. At the same time, it has associated responsibilities. It is an
individual's professionalism and meticulous observance to recognize these
standards.
Though
Weblogs started out as merely logs of interesting Web sites, they have evolved
into an exchange of communication and information. Professionals, today, are
channeling the impulse in such a way that it can actually make some small
specific difference in the world.
Professional
bloggers are acutely aware of the potential for abuse that their system
inherits. They have realized that rights have associated responsibilities; in
the end it is an individual's professionalism and meticulous observance of
recognized ethical standards that determines status in the eyes of society and
the law.
to
the blog, where people may probably contribute a buck or two. An example of
such site is blogathon.org. The list of charities is just as diverse as the
bloggers themselves, from the National Film Preservation Foundation to Heifer
International, which donates farm animals to hunger-stricken regions. More than
a dozen bloggers are backing cancer support group Gilda’s Club and several
participants have already raised $6,000 toward a new ambulance for Magen David
Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the American Red Cross. Another example is
Darwinmag.com, which recently had an article on how the Royal Dutch/Shell Group
of Companies' Weblog of "open discussion" provided an example to
"companies that want to take their customers seriously as world citizens
and not just as potential revenue sources." The article points to The
Shell Report, whose tagline is "protecting the environment and managing
resources."
Weblog
provide many advantages to its readers. It can provide additional information
to what corporate media can provide - it can expose the fallacy of an argument
or perhaps reveal an inaccurate detail.
Weblogs have been
all the rage in online media, but 2003 will be the real breakout year for
blogs, as more journalists use them, and more celebrities use them. The weblog
network's potential influence is one of the main reasons that mainstream news
organizations have begun investigating the phenomenon. Mass media seeks, above
all, to gain a wide audience. Advertising revenues, the lifeblood of any
professional publication or broadcast, depend on the size of that publication's
audience. Content, from a business standpoint, is also a concern. Weblogs fits
in all these requirements. There is every indication that weblogs will gain
even greater influence as their numbers grow and awareness of the form becomes
more widespread. Someday, news organizations may be willing to point to weblogs
or weblog entries as serious sources, but only if weblogs have, as a whole,
demonstrated integrity in their information gathering and dissemination, and
consistency in their online conduct.
The Essentials Of Blog Etiquettes
Comment
sections on blogs are perhaps the most potential medium for misunderstanding.
With free expression and the option of anonymity it is unrealistic to expect a
weblogger to present an even- handed picture of the world, but it is very
reasonable to expect them to cooperate with their sources, biases, and
behavior. This section of the unit will assess certain rules or guideline
necessary to check web ethics of a blog.
The
first principle deals with how to make an assertion. Make an assertion in good
faith; state facts only if you are sure about it with the following note – ‘to
the best of my knowledge’. Never post an article if there are reasons to
believe that something is far from factual basis, but there will be times when
you will find yourself speculating. Whenever you do that, admit it in your
article and always note your reservations.
variations
sometimes make all the difference in the delivery of a sentence. It is
advisable to be respectful, and give others the benefit of the doubt.
When you link to referenced
material, you actually allow the readers to judge the accuracy and
insightfulness of your statements. This will enable you to preserve
transparency and integrity.
Everyone
argues differently. Some people do it forcefully and others are more interested
in dialoguing. People are rarely persuaded by heavy replies than the humble
ones. Humble replies are easily challenged.
If you find that you have
linked to a story that was untrue, make a note of it and link to a more
accurate report. Ideally, these corrections appear in the most current version
of your weblog and as an added note to the original entry.
There is absolutely
no need and no good excuse for speaking condescendingly to those with whom you
disagree. This rule also applies to those who see fit to broadcast their
discord with another individual in public. The comments section of a heavily
trafficked weblog is not the correct place to defame the person you hate.
Write
each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete,
any entry. If you invest each entry with intent, you will ensure your personal
and professional integrity. Example: a weblogger complains about inaccuracies
in an online article; the writer corrects those inaccuracies and notes them;
the weblogger's entry is now meaningless? Is it? Deleting the entry will remove
evidence to the whole incident - but it did. Ideally, bloggers should note
beneath the original entry that the writer has made the corrections and the
article is now, to the weblogger's knowledge, accurate.
A
serious article may be linked to a highly biased source. It is the blogger’s
responsibility to clearly note the nature of the site on which it was found.
Well-written articles can be found on sites that are maintained by highly
biased organizations. Readers need to know whether an article on a particular
sensible topic comes from a site that strongly favors/opposes that topic.
Last but not the least, when
commenting on someone else's site, always remember that you are a guest there.
Be polite, and double-check your words so that nothing you say could be
misconstrued.
Blogs and Journalism
Unquestionable,
a blog is a medium that gives maximum exposure to one’s creativity. Just by
hitting the 'post' button and any personal writing becomes published writing.
Weblogging is driving a
powerful new form of amateur journalism. Today, millions of Net users — young
people especially — have taken up the role of columnist, reporter, analyst and
publisher while fashioning their own personal broadcasting networks.
For
the inexperienced, a blog consists of a running commentary with pointers to
other sites. Some, like Librarian.net, Jim Romenesko's Media News or Steve
Outing's E-Media Tidbits, cover entire industries by providing quick bursts of
news with links to full stories.
Journalism and
blogging together is becoming popular day by day, more than any other form of
blogging. Following reasons are considered to extensively contribute to its
increasing popularity:
Creative Freedom
Part
of a blog's allure is its unmediated quality. For a journalist, there's no
luxury like the luxury of publishing unedited essay. The freedom in being able
to present yourself precisely as you want to is of enormous joy. It does not
matter how sloppily, irrationally or erratically the content is written. The
idea is to publish what you think in the way you think.
Instantaneity
To
a few writers, even writing for a weekly magazine may seem like taking ages to
print. With a Weblog, you hit the send key and it is out.
Interactivity
It
is a kick to receive feedback from people who have taken interest to read and
criticize your work. These are the people you have never heard of; who stumble
on your Weblog and become a part of your thinking process.
Lack Of Marketing Constraints
When
blogging it is not necessarily to tailor a work piece for a certain readership
or demographic. People interested in a perspective finds its author – the
blogger, instead of the blogger finding a publication that reflects people’s
interests.
Most of the time, the Weblogs
tend to be less about actual reporting and more about analysis and punditry and
opinionated commentary. The 9/11 terrorist attacks fuelled the public's
appetite for information, analysis and news, if only to make sense of the
tragedy. Bloggers rose to prominence by feeding this desire.
community to Web surfers.
Tuning in to some of the newsgroups devoted to the terror attacks; one may
sometimes feel to be in the middle of a verbal war zone with so much noise
passing for informed discussion.
Weblogs
run from single person operation to large teams and communities, to business
organizations spread throughout the world. They offer a great way for readers
to find constantly updated news and information. It also allows authors to
connect to thousands of readers in a personal way and add the honest, unedited
voice of thousands to increasingly commercializing Web.
The
plethora of tools that helps managing the weblog capitalizes on the ease of
publishing posts to even greater extent.
These
are probably the reasons why they have been widely adopted and maintained - for
several years in some cases.
UNIT V
The Case Studies
Case
Study 1 Of Existing Blog – Weblog As A Marketing Tool
Businesspeople
have discovered Web logs to be an online and interactive marketing tool. A good
example is SherpaBlog, just launched by MarketingSherpa publisher Anne Holland.
MarketingSherpa's
Anne Holland has been amazed at the reaction to her blog. She receives around
20 emails in a day in response to her blog.
Anne Holland
regards her blog as a marketing tool, because she feels it lets readers feel
like they can reach out to the writer of a blog. The blog enables her to touch
the readers in a way that none of formal e-newsletters can. She writes in an
off-the-cuff, casual style, and a typo or two doesn’t actually matters.
Many
of Anne's blog readers are her newsletter subscribers. And while she is careful
not to promote her newsletters or other information products, she is finding
that those who respond to her blogging are 10 times more likely to buy from
her. This is because people who feel a personal connection to a company are
more likely to become a customer.
Case Study 2 Of Existing Blog - The Power of Weblog
Matt
Haughey is the founder of community weblog MetaFilter. One day he got a
telemarketer call while he was sitting at home. The cold callers were Critical
IP, who had gotten his home phone number from the central database of domain
name owners. He posted his outrage on his own weblog:
The
gang at Critical IP feel the whois database is a virtual goldmine worth
cold-calling and bothering you at home (when I asked them if they got my number
from the whois database, they admitted that yes, that was how they obtained
it). ...
Matt
then asked other bloggers to spread the word that Critical IP was coldcalling
people while they were eating supper:
If
you feel like sharing this message with anyone else, just copy this HTML and
post on your site: Critical IP sucks.
The
result: over the next few days, it was noticed that dozens of blogs had linked
to Matt's post, all with the same message: "Critical IP sucks".
Even today, you may find over two-dozen weblogs linking to Matt's post.
The
thought here was that the collective linking of the weblog community can achieve
a sort of mob justice, with Google searchers finding the message "Critical
IP sucks" whenever they searched for Critical IP.
As
collective votes of the weblog community determine what sites you see on
Google, Matt's personal site soon became the #1 search result for google
searches of "Critical IP".
Its
worth noting how frighteningly powerful weblogs are. There's even a name in the
weblog community for this phenomenon: Google Bombing. Whether it's done
accidentally or more purposefully, the very existence of this phenomenon points
to the power of Weblogs to impact the Google search experience.
Case
Study 1 Of Existing Blog – Weblog As A Educational Tool
The Nuffield Foundation started
a weblog looking for ideas to support students taking their chemistry courses
and raise the participation level of online students. Creating a
www.chemistry-react.org was their first experiment with blogs.
Often
blogs are used as a topical focal point for online communities, proving to be a
success where discussion boards or forums have failed. Because the content is
news oriented, it means there is always a reason to return to the site. Because
the content is time oriented, it is very easy to catch up with what has
happened since your last visit.
A
blog was good fit for the students taking the chemistry courses too. Taking a
course is something that happens over time. As a student, one week you are
looking at polymers, the next at acids. All the students around the world will
pretty much be experiencing the same challenges at the same time. The blog
could support this process.
Though
the blog content created became popular with the students, blog owners realized
that the commenting feature wasn’t used as much as we all expected.
The
story would have ended there, except for the fact that a Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQ) section was added to the blog and it was massively successful.
Students ask intelligent questions and that in turn became useful content which
brought the students back for more. Interestingly, the blog has evolved into a
news delivering part of a FAQ site.
Nuffield
hit upon a format that is popular, productive and participative. They are now
developing tools to help the blog team be more effective at answering questions
and improving the usability of the FAQ’s themselves, by letting the system
"learn" about chemistry questions and answers.
Case Study 4 Of Existing Blog – Starting A Weblog
The
Washington State Drowning Prevention Network website was lately launched. The
majority site is built using XHTML for structure and CSS for presentation, with
a table-free layout. Most of the pages validate XHTML 1.0 Transitional and the
site is a great success, as the owner chose to use practical Web standards. The
following case study shows how was he able to achieve all the goals laid out
for the site with limited time and limited resources.
The
Problem
The
Drowning Prevention site has been around since around 1998 and it's not been touched,
with the exception of yearly content updates, since then. The owner of the site
did these updates before and found them particularly time consuming for a
number of reasons. The site had originally be built with FrontPage and as the
years past had gone through several different iterations, whenever he would
update it something would break or he would have to rebuild an entire page just
to add a few links.
done
quickly because of the time sensitive nature of the content.
The
Goals
As
with every good project, we started with clear goals. Our main goals for this
site were to:
-Update
the content of the site
-Update
the look and feel
-Make
the site more consistent
-Make
the site more accessible
-Make
the site easier to use
The
owner had some of his own goals for the site:
-Make
the site easier to update
-Future
proof the site
The
Solution
Because we needed a
new look and feel it was realized that they need to build the site from the
ground up. There was just way to much presentational code mixed in with their
content. The designer started by creating a simple layout on paper, then later
in Photoshop and going over that with the stakeholders. Given the simplicity of
the site, this was easily done. Then a template was built. The designer began
to migrate content from the old site and mix that in with the new stuff coming
from the stakeholders.
This content migration was a
bit of a bear. All of the presentational elements from the code which was time
consuming were stripped out. There were a few pages in the site that had so
much going on. These were left untouched.
The designer tried to clean up the site's exiting content as
much as possible. All of the links were reorganized and retitled and did a
simple, clear Information Architecture on the site was created.
After
a week or so the basic site was all built out and all of the content was
migrated and updated. It was then sent to the stakeholder for review.
A
Small Wrench in the Work
Blog
Tools to the Rescue
These major changes
and layout tweaks were done in under an hour because the site was built using
one of the blog softwares (name has not been revealed deliberately). This made
the work really easy. The actual content changes were a snap because the code
was so stripped down and clean and all the layout changes were done within the
CSS file. Without that the layout changes alone would have easily taken half a
day even using sketchy "find and replace" methods.
The
stakeholders were pleased to see the work and the site launched on time.
A
Few More Benefits
In addition to the
benefits talked about above, by choosing to build the site with Blog Tools and
Softwares one is able to:
-Eliminate
browser issues with both current and legacy browsers
-Insure
forward compatibility with future browsers
-Help
in analyzing how to future proof the links
-Achieve
instant compatibility with most non-web devices
-Decrease
the total file size from 33MB to 14MB
-Drop
average page weight from 11KB to around 6KB
-Increase
accessibility and usability of the site -- by default
-Radically
reduce the learning curve/ training time for distributed authorship
UNIT VI
Blog Reviews
InstaPundit.Com
The Corner
The Corner is
affiliated with the National Review. The blog mostly consists of news of the
day, linked from sources ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Wired magazine
to other people's blogs etc. Topics most likely to be found on the blog cannot
be firmly categorized; it can be a commentary on politics and current events,
patriotic implications of the steel tariff, the final episode of the X-Files
etc. Discussions about race and religion get heated up.
Slashdot
Slashdot
showcases the latest developments in technology. Topics of discussions can be
the latest hardware and software and conferences, books, sci-fi movie effects
and other similar topics. Interactivity is high: readers discuss everything
from how to build a computer from scratch to online film piracy. Journals
section lets readers create their own blog-within-a-blog.
Obscure Store and Reading Room
This
site dishes strangest realities. The blog contains the most unthinkable news –
about finding a fried chicken head in the McNuggets or about the one about the
man who beat up his son for making out with the dog. The blog also links to
straight news, gossip and an interesting collection of other blogs.
Eatonweb Portal
A
site is linked to more than 4,700 international blogs that are searchable by 52
categories. The vast search field includes searching by country of origin,
language, keyword etc. It can get you to an authors' critique of a naive
Business Week article on VC funding. It's all there: the good, the bad and the
just plain weird.
This
blog features a daily dose of baseball-related news from Web sites, newspapers
and industry journals summarized and linked from the main page. It also has
plenty of outside links to analyses, columnists and some of the blogger's
favorite team sites. The blog is linked to more than 100 baseball-related
sites, including other blogs like Futility Infielder and Transaction Oracle.
Nuzee.com
This blog is linked to news sources
from all around the world. The site is organized into top stories, business and
sports, investment news, science and health news and entertainment news etc.
The blog allows reader to search the headlines by keyword.
Sullywatch
Sullywatch is full
of argument and ideas. The blog has posts are long and involved and are well
argued and intelligent.
Tokyo Tidbits
‘Tokyo
Tidbits’ is a mobile picture blog. A girl called Mie takes picture from her
phone and maintains the blog. She then types the entries before e -mailing them
to the Movabletype based blog. The blog has lots of nice pictures from around
Tokyo.
Peripatetic
Peripatetic is a personal blog
by a long-time professional technologist. His writing on the music industry
especially about their futile attempts to stop people sharing files is worth
reading.
Daring Fireball
WIFI Networking News
WIFI
Networking news is a technology blog. It is highly specialized as complete a
resource for news on the technology. For example: you can read the blog to find
out the latest trend in the world of wireless networking.
Tomalak's Realm
Tomalak's
Realm is a daily source of links to strategic Web design stories. Every day
there are links to interesting articles with short quotes from the story on the
site. These stories provide context and is a helpful resource. Topics mostly
covered are: e-commerce, usability, intellectual property, online journalism,
consumer electronics/technology, futurism, governance and other related
subjects...
Blogrolling
BlogRolling
is a one-stop linklist you can use for your blog. The blog helps you to manage
your need for constantly evolving linklist with ease.
Afterhours
"Afterhours
in the Juniverse" provides plenty of well written entries in the archived
section of the site dated back to April 1, 2002. The blog owner - June - always
has something written that is thought out and stimulating to the mind. The
majority of the entries made provide links to external sites to provide more
information so that the reader can fully grasp the subject that is being
touched on. The design for this site is clean, simple and nice to look at. The
site is also easy to navigate and is self-explanatory.
The Daily Post
The Gerbilarium
The Gerbilarium is
a personal weblog written by someone with a sense of humour. The site design is
simple. The side bar is a simple list of links to other areas of the weblog and
different websites. The site also include short stories, opinions on different
subjects, reviews of mostly hip-hop related stuff and some well written spoof
news stories. All of the content has a humorous bent to it and mainly relates
to personal things.
The Mad Dater
The
blog dedicated to tales of dating experiences, one night stands, and all about
relationships. TMD is a woman and her men thrashing blog is definitely
entertaining., The writer knows what and how to give what readers want – style
is like reading a tabloid. The design is clean and nice.
Urban Scrawl
The
website is called Demonblog. Marcus is the weblog author. White and black are
the two colors used in the design scheme. Humor is added using a random quote
listed between each weblog entry, from Robin Williams to Denis Leary’s perils
of wisdom etc. The posts are entertaining. Marcus portrays himself as being
quite worldly and intelligent that makes reading his thoughts real. The site
has several links to flash games.
Chewy Goodness
The
author of the blog is Steve. The postings on the site confirm that the author
has a great sense of humor. He describes everyday observances with a witty and
sharp voice that is never too harsh or acerbic. The author doesn't shy away
from all of life's particular eccentricities and quirks. The design is simple
and is easily navigable.
The
website has posts that are calm and spiritually connected. At the same time the
posts are not preachy, but are simple notes. The design complements the writing
style: simple, clean, and peaceful.
Johnny America
The site is a group
blog. All the authors are skilled writers with each one of them having a distinct
voice. The website has something for everyone - reviews of everything from bars
to books to movies to restaurants and wonderfully written fiction. Each entry
stands on its own. The design is as simple as can be and it perfectly fits the
tone of the site. The website has a few amusing extras such as emails having to
do with an "Am I Hot Or Not?" experiment, and an odd little Questions
and Answers page.
Adversity
Adversity is a
strong and opinionated blog. It has direct, precise and informative opinions.
The blogging style is refreshing and is easily acceptable as the author has
some writing ability. The blog is centered on the day -to-day proceedings of
the author. The sitre design is good. Navigation has been wisely done. There
are extra site features like articles etc.
brainrazor
The tone of the writing style
is pompous as it uses big words. The style is occasionally flowery. Once
adjusted to the writing style, readers get used to the posts and may find the
entries are often funny and insightful. The website has random links and images
on the page that helps making reader participation quite cosy.
Sites You Can Refer To For General Help...
Free-Conversant
LUSENET
A free
threaded-discussion hosting service used by several weblogs for their
discussion forums.
Blogger
Online
weblog creation tool that requires you to have a server somewhere that can
accept updates via ftp.
BOP
BOP
Stands for "Blog Oriented Publishing", an open source database-backed
system written in perl. Still in early alpha and looking for contributors.
pMachine
PHP/MySQL
system with many features beyond weblog maintenance, including mailing lists
and dynamic content management.
WikiWeblogPM
A
"page of links on research about things relevant to software that would
combine the best features of existing wiki, weblog and PIM software."
Blog Rolling Competitions
Comparative
review of Slash, Squishdot, and Thatware.
Weblog
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