courtsnewcommtechblog

Assessment Item 2

2008-05-28T11:50:00.001+10:00

New Communication Technology Essay

Blogging for Business

The not- so- new internet trend of 'Blogging', (stemming from blog- a shortened version of Web log) has evolved from a little known, oddly named practice used predominantly as personal website diary's to a widespread somewhat flakey fad of sharing celebrity gossip and gushing about handbags, stilettos and whatever fashion trend is currently 'the new black', today in 2008 blogging has transformed into a rapidly spreading worldwide tool for business marketing and customer relations, this more serious use of the blogging technology look like the future of blogs and consumer interaction with the world wide web, as many businesses are catching onto the trend.

According to Robert Scoble and Shel Israel's Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, "Weblogs, arrived on the scene in the late 1990's... By 2003, software tools made it possible for someone to create a blog with only basic Web skills. Since that time, the number of blogs has doubled about every five months, reaching 200 million in 2006." (Scoble & Israel, 2006) In 2003 the word blog was added to the Oxford English Dictionary defined as a "frequently updated website consisting of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, etc, typically run by a single person and usually with hyperlinks to other sites, an online journal or diary". With the creation of blog creation and hosting sites such as blogger and wordpress around 2003
the practice has become much more accessible and therefore popular among internet users. There is even an annual award process for the premier blogs out there, with 20o8 hosting the eighth annual Weblog awards, known as 'The Bloggies' (The 2008 bloggies).

Since blogging began it has progressed from basic dated journal entries to a complex 'blogosphere' consisting of hundreds of thousands of individual blogs about everything from weather, comedy, news and gossip to the London Underground and personal diaries about teenage love affairs. But more recently the use of blogs has extended into the business sector with both large companies and small firms experiencing with the trend in attempts to cash in on the fad and grow or improve their businesses.

In the forward of the 2006 book 'Blogging for Business- Everything you need to know and why you should care' by Shel Holts and Ted Demopoulos they state that "Blogs are not a fad. Consider the statistics. As of late October 2005, blog search engine Technorati was tracking over 20 million blogs. In his quarterly "state of the blogosphere" post, Technorati founder and CEO Dave Sirfry noted that 70000 blogs were created every day." (Holts & Demopoulous, 2006) Most blogs are not regularly maintained so a solid number of blogs operating today remains unknown.

The use of blogs for business purposes has taken off over recent years and become a dominant feature of the blogging community, www.trendpedia.com allows users to search and compare different blog topics and see illustrations, statistics and lists of blog posts in that area on a particular day. Another blog tracking site http://www.nielsenbuzzmetrics.com discusses the importance of blogs and consumer generated material in our new business market they say, "The Internet, far more than any other medium, has given consumers a voice, a publishing platform and a forum where their collective voices can be heard, shared and researched...consumers place far more trust in their fellow consumers than they do in traditional marketers and advertisers."

In the article 'Would You, Could You, Should You Blog?' Eva M. Lang
discusses why blogs have the upper hand in internet visibility compared to conventional websites. An example of this comparison is given from a New Orleans law firm,

"(who's) traditional Web site (www.gamde.com) is attractive and informative—and only 31 other sites link to it, according to Google. However, when ... (they) started the Ernie the Attorney blog (http://ernieattorney.typepad.com), it quickly became one of the most linked-to legal resources on the Web—7,920 other sites link to it." (Lang, 2005)

The article states that the key reasons are blogrolls and blog culture, the common practices of linking blogs together, the fact that blogs appear first in search engines, and also that they are generally more interesting and fun to read.

When Microsoft launched MSN spaces, a blog site,
it received less than impressive reviews from users complaining of censorship and the inability to express their opinions, at the time Robert Scobel was a lower end employee of the company but used his blog to field complaints and communicate to the users, in David Kirkpatrick's article "Why there's no escaping blogs" he describes the events,

"As the anti-Microsoft crowd cried censorship, the nearly 4,000 blogs linking to Scoble were able to see his running commentary on how Microsoft was reacting. "I get comments on my blog saying, 'I didn't like Microsoft before, but at least they're listening to us,'" says Scoble. "The blog is the best relationship generator you've ever seen." His famous boss agrees. "It's all about openness," says chairman Bill Gates of Microsoft's public blogs like Scobleizer. "People see them as a reflection of an open, communicative culture that isn't afraid to be self-critical." (Kirkpatrick, 2005)

Another company who has benefitted from the use of blogs to combat potential problems is Macromedia, they set up employee blogs as a way of communicating with customers and providing information and technology support. When they released a slow version of their software in 2003 fast customer responses of their is content allowed the business to help speed up the problem solving process, Macromedia's senior vice president Tom Hale said "It was a great early-warning system and helped us frame the situation it accrued a huge benefit to us." (Kirkpatrick, 2005)

A London based research company Sense Worldwide they use blogs as a network for their creative and innovative staff and as a method for reaching new people, "Sense's Jeremy Brown says the idea is 'not about looking cool, it's about what's useful'. Other more straightforward business research companies, such as the US-based Jupiter Research, are using weblogs in a more conventional way to promote company ideas and show off their knowledge." (McClellon, 2003)

It's not only the large companies who can use bogs to create a connection with their customer base, small players have had some of the most interesting blog experiences. In 2002 entrepreneur Shayne McQuade, invented a backpack with built in solar panels, after spending $15000 getting his company set up and outsourcing the key business functions he turned to the blogosphere to market his product, after it was mentioned on the Treehugger blog for green design the product was seen by Gizmodo's editor and orders went through the roof. "Ironically, McQuade--who had helped research Net Gain, a seminal book on how the Internet would change business--was unprepared. "Overnight what was supposed to be laying a little groundwork became my launch," he says. "This is the ultimate word-of-mouth marketing channel." (McClellon, 2003)

So what does the future hold for blogging? As with most fads and trends, particularly on the internet, who knows? But judging by the progress that has been made in the business blogging field over the last five years, it appears to be cementing itself firmly in the marketing plan of many technology savvy and creatively driven businesses and organisations. The blogs ability to instantaneously and cost effectively communicate with customers and employees alike is a very convenient practice for businesses, and is enhanced by the opportunity to gain feedback, suggestions and complaints and constantly improve their business practices and consequently reputation and success. And what's more? ... It eliminates the need for endless newsletters, memos, feedback forms, and general office information, saving the trees (and business funds)!! So as more and more business people experiment and learn about the appropriate practices (there are endless websites with advice for how to blog successfully for business) business blogging is expanding exponentially with increasing success and is set to change the way businesses market and communicate into the next decade.

-Courtney Dawson

Bibliography

Baker, S., & Green, H. (2005, May 2). Blogs will change your business. Business Week .

CGM overview. (n.d.). Retrieved May 25, 2008, from Nielsen BuzzMetrics: http://www.nielsenbuzzmetrics.com/

Holts, S., & Demopoulous, T. (2006). Blogging for business- everything you need to know and why you shoul care.

Ives, B., & Watlington, A. (n.d.). Business Blogs: A Practical Guide.

Kirkpatrick, D. (2005, Janurary 10). Why theres no escaping the blog. Fortune Magazine.

Lang, E. M. (2005). Would you, could you, should you blog? Journal of Accountancy
, 6 (199), 36-42.

McClellon, J. (2003, Feburary 12). Blogging for dollars. theage.com.au.

Scoble, R., & Israel, S. (2006). Naked conversations:how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers. New York: Wiley.

The 2008 bloggies. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2008, from The weblog awards.: http://2008.bloggies.com/

Trendpedia blog search. (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2008, from http://www.trendpedia.com.au

What's percolating in blogs now. (n.d.). Retrieved May 26, 2008, from Technorati: http://technorati.com/

Movie Making Task

2008-05-25T11:59:00.000+10:00

HIM Concert Pic Slideshow

This weeks blogging task gave us the oppurtunity to make a movie using windows software, i made a movie from still photographs from two HIM concerts i've been to and added music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNjWJRfkWos#

2008-05-12T09:47:00.001+10:00

New Communication Technology Essay

Blogging has become a not-so-new internet fad, but what does blogging's future hold? What are the new directions blogs are taking in 2008. (Online business: A new direction for blogging?)

Blogging for dollars

By Jim McClellan
February 12 2003
Livewire

theage.com.au

-"Weblogs are one of the few things online still capable of generating media buzz and bucks. The libertarian blogger Glenn Reynolds turned himself into a marketable political pundit via his hugely popular blog (instapundit.com) and now appears on the news cable channel MSNBC. United States-based right-wing British blogger Andrew Sullivan (andrewsullivan.com) recently netted about $US79,000 ($133,000) in donations from his readers during a "pledge week" in which he appealed for funds to keep his site running." <MORE EXAMPLES>

Living With Cyberspace- technology and society in the 21^st century

By John Armitage and Joanne Roberts

2002

(HM851.L58)

Chapter 10 pg 135

Towards the cybereconomy, making a business out of cyberspace

Culture in the communication age

Edited by James Lull

2001

(HM61.C86)

Chapter 11

Computers, the internet and virtual cultures- Steve Jones and Stephanie Kucker

Blogging for Business- Everything you need to know and why you should care

Shel Holts and Ted Demopoulos

2006

(TK5105.888.4.H65)

Forward

Dan Janal

Http://www.prleads.com

Introduction

-"Blogs are not a fad. Consider the statistics. As of late October 2005, blog search engine Technorati was tracking over 20 million blog. In his quarterly "state of the blogosphere" post, Technorati founder and CEO Dave Sirfry noted that 70000 blogs were created every day."(pg xii)

Business Week

Blogs Will Change Your Business

Stephen Baker and Heather Green

May 2 2005

Online version with 2008 annotations http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2008/db20080219_908252.htm

-the who's who of blogging http://2008.bloggies.com/

-new blog search/comparison tool http://www.trendpedia.com/

-article about that at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/track_blog_trends_with_trendpedia.php

-the long tail http://www.thelongtail.com

tutorial activity responses

2008-04-28T13:25:00.003+10:00

Microsoft word exercise...

Was pretty straight forward, I've never used mail merge before, but other than that I knew how to do everything. No issues/ problems, can see how it's useful. (as if we didn't know!)

Excell exercise...

All good untill the macros bit...cans see how this would be really handy, only issue would be remembereing what formulas do what.

What is different about the kinds of socialising that happens in these spaces? Does the 3D aspect make much difference?

I used the active worlds one, i think some of the main differences is that with msn you only talk to your contacts who you can clearly see/know who they are, with the 3d spaces anyone can talk to you who is logged on, so its a wider (more confusing) range of people to socialise with. also there are alot of things to distract you from actual conversations, it is more of a game than a chat like msn. From the short time i was on it, in which i crashed and got stuck in a creek, in i didnt really see too much socialising other than chat about the actual game, like this person needs to click here to do this and did you know you can do this, so it was actually quite different to msn, which was probably due to the fact that they could do all this other stuff apart from chatting.

Week 6 Blogging Task

2008-04-14T13:55:00.003+10:00

Your Task today is to find two wikipedia articles/entries about unrelated topics that you know something about. That might be a movie, a sport, a type of car, a particular musical artist, a Television show, a particular hobby or past time... Something that YOU are an expert on.

Article 1- My Fav Band- HIM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIM_%28Finnish_band%29

Article 2- My Home Town- Bundarra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundarra

Now go to the article and read through it. Consider the following things about the article and write a post on your blog for each of the articles/entries:

* Is this an accurate article?

This article is actually pretty good, it has a lot of the basic facts and dates which are supported by other websites and stuff that i have read.

Yeah, its pretty much accurate in what it says, just a little outdated.

* Does it cover all the basic facts that you'd need to understand this topic?

Yep. And it has some more detailed facts as well about their albums and recordings.

Basically, if you want to know a brief history, but it doesnt include a lot of possible information.

* Does this article follow the wikipedia guidelines for useful articles?

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_guidelines this article is pretty ok. The only small things that the guidelines mention are about not using statements that date quickly, the article does use "recently" instead of a date, but it is quite up-to-date so it's not really a problem. Also the lack of citation of sources could be an issue.

Yeah it does.

* Is this article fair and balanced, or is it biased towards a particular side or argument?

There isn't really an opinion portrayed, its more a statement of facts about the band, so it doesnt come across as biassed.

Same as the other one, its just facts not opinion so it is unbiassed.

*Finally - What changes would you make to this article to improve it and make it useful for the wider wikipedia community?

This article is quite comprehensive, maybe include some more details about the individual members of the band, or pictures. Or link to these.

Include more up to date details, particualarly about the school (goes to 12) and the shops and thing in the town as there are some more now. Include pictures and more information about what there is to do etc.

Who said the blogs were too easy?! ... Walter Benjamin Questions...

2008-04-07T13:21:00.005+10:00

OK so here goes..........Walter Benjamin, JEEZ!!!!

How do the ideas from Walter Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" apply to contemporary digital media?

Benjamin’s main theory (as far as I can gather) is that an artworks significance is all in the “aura”, that is the fact that the artist actually painted, sculpted, built the work in person there was a physicality and close relationship between the two which makes the work individual and special, the artwork in a sense contains these ‘memories’, all this history and context creates the works ‘aura’, and makes the viewing experience special.

“One might subsume the eliminated element in the term “aura” and go on to say: that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art. This is a symptomatic process whose significance points beyond the realm of art. One might generalize by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence. And in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, it reactivates the object reproduced. These two processes lead to a tremendous shattering of tradition which is the obverse of the contemporary crisis and renewal of mankind. Both processes are intimately connected with the contemporary mass movements.”- Walter Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" Section 2

The act of mechanically reproducing an artwork distances the artist from the work, killing the ‘aura’ and uniqueness of that work.

Therefore, contemporary digital media would be devoid of an ‘aura’ and the merit of traditional art (painting, sculpture etc), according to Benjamin. Of course, the piece was written in 1936, so he probably didn’t really have much idea about contemporary digital media, so it’s not really fair to apply his thoughts to these new works. The may possess an entirely different ‘aura’ that is, the evidence of time consuming and skilful computer generated art, which contemporary audiences can appreciate on a different level to Benjamin’s preferred traditional art.

There was a time when "Art" was made by artists who were skilled professionals. Now that anyone with a computer can create things digitally (music, images, videos, etc), what does that mean for "art"?

It means that there are way more artistic forms and styles, new medias and skills to be mastered in order to become a proficient artist. While “anyone with a computer” can create things it doesn’t mean they are all going to become respected artists, just as not every skilled painter makes it. So, it doesn’t really change ‘art’ in the sense of making it easier, it just makes it a more broad word encompassing more varied works. (Which is inevitable, anyhow, in a
Post Modern society where the convention is to challenge traditional conventions.)

Is a photoshopped image "authentic"?

Well, that all depends doesn’t it, on what images are used and how.
But my simple answer is yes, it is an authentic photoshopped work. I’m sure Walter Benjamin would not agree, but photoshopped images require work and technique like any other art form. However the uniqueness of these images is increasingly challenged as thousands of digital artists are constrained by the same software, the same tools, colour pallets and techniques generally speaking, can have ‘that Photoshop look’. We all know that magazine pics are photoshopped to perfection and people who work with the software can deconstruct elaborate designs with their own knowledge of the techniques. So, the images lose their ‘wow’ factor, they are no longer separated from the audience by the super- duper skill and technique they embody, in a sense this detracts from their authenticity as artworks.

Do digital "things" have an "aura" (in Benjamin's terms)?

No. Because they can be mass produced and reprinted to within an inch of their lives. Therefore losing their connection with the artist, their uniqueness, and their ‘aura’.

Walter Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." click here!!

aNsWeRs.....

2008-03-31T14:18:00.004+10:00

1. Who was the creator of the infamous "lovebug" computer virus?

Onel de Guzman (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/02/07/love_bug_author_says_bug/)

2. Who invented the paper clip?

Johan Vaaler (http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/287063)

3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?

The virus gets its name from a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it was first recognized. (http://ebola.emedtv.com/ebola-virus/from-what-place-did-the-ebola-virus-get-its-name.html)

4. What country had the largest recorded earthquake?

1960 Chile Earthquake ( http://www.extremescience.com/GreatestEarthquake.htm)or 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake (http://www.answers.com/topic/2004-indian-ocean-earthquake?cat=technology)

5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?

1024 KB = 1 MB- times 1024 = 1GB -times 1024 = 1 terabyte, which is equal to 109951162776KB (http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071022065226AAI8zxw)

6. Who is the creator of email?

Ray Tomlinson (http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/email.htm)

7. What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?

A computer virus spread through email, used to collect email adresses and send large amounts of spam. Researchers have said that up 50 million computers could be infected.

"The Storm worm botnet is considered to be one of the largest of all botnet populations. And this Storm-related botnet is perhaps the largest conveyor belt of spam, thought to be responsible for everything from pump and dump stock scams, to distribution of new malware via the ever constant greeting card scams. Storm also often uses fear tactics; one example is the private investigator scam email that tricked recipients into opening an alleged recording of themselves, a cleverly disguised new variant of Storm.The so-called Storm worm is actually not a worm, but rather a family of Trojans that typically have the following components:A backdoor component that allows surreptitious access to infected systems;A spam relay component that turns infected machines into spam-bots;A peer networking component that allows the Storm Trojans to communicate with other infected computers on the Storm botnet;An email harvester to steal email addresses found on infected computers;A downloader/dropper component to update itself or download additional malware; and,A rootkit is often included to hide the presence of the Storm Trojans."(Mary's Antivirus Software Blog, about .com)(http://antivirus.about.com/b/2008/01/07/what-is-the-storm-worm.htm)

"MessageLabs see about 2 million different computers in the botnet sending out spam on any given day, and he adds that he estimates the botnet generally is operating at about 10% of capacity. "We've seen spikes where the owner is experimenting with something and those spikes are usually five to 10 times what we normally see," he said, noting he suspects the botnet could be as large as 50 million computers."(Sharon Gaudin-Storm Worm Botnet More Powerful Than Top Supercomputers )(http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201804528)

8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of australia directly, what is the most efficient way?

The Hon Kevin Rudd MPPrime MinisterPO Box 6022House of RepresentativesParliament HouseCanberra ACT 2600Tel: (02) 6277 7700Fax: (02) 6273 4100 Or you could always comment his myspace- http://www.myspace.com/officiallaborspace.

(http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/member.asp?id=83T)

9. Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School of Arts) a member of?

The Black Assassins

(http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm)

10. What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?

I have no idea. Apparently the new form of web use, to do with creativity and friend spaces ect...more interactive i suppose???

http://www.oreilly.de/artikel/web20.html interesting site about it......

Thoughts on questions...

2008-03-17T14:08:00.000+10:00

OK so...now that im finally done adding people....here are my thoughts on this weeks task...

Before i answer them let me say...I've just moved up here and have like no money so i dont have the net at home....so my new comm tech usage is significantly less than it used to be....i barely use the net for anything but research at the moment.

Do you have friends whom you only know from the internet and have never met in person?

I have had, when i used to use msn to talk to new 'friends' who were members of the same online communities as me and stuff, met friends through friends online...But no longer in contact...because i kinda stopped being bothered with all that (...lazy)

Is this different to people that you know in person? Describe the difference. ...Um...you dont know them and they dont know you so it limits the conversation and sometimes brings new subjects up...you talk about your shared interests with that person like music and stuff...not everyday subjects that you talk about with your real friends

How long have you been using these communication technologies? Been using home internet, msn, ect since bout 2002 but used internet at school since like forever...

What influenced you to start using these particular technologies? Talking to friends, a friend moved overseas so i had to get msn and email to talk to him, and it rapidly grew from there, boredom also contributed...wasted a lot of time on the net

Is privacy an issue for you when using new technologies? (How do you deal with issues around privacy?) Not really an issue...only share what i dont mind sharing, dont give out personal details to sites you dont know ect.

Intro...

2008-03-10T13:57:00.000+10:00

Hello...

I'm Courtney, I've just started my first year in a Bachelor of Arts at Griffith, hoping (at the moment) to major in contemporary arts and cultural industries, and then who knows. I'm thinking about maybe working in magazines, that sort of thing(i really don't have a clue)- but New Communication Technology seems like a fairly interesting/valuable course to be taking and is a pre-req for some courses i want to do later, so here I am. Hopefully, it will be helpful and may even inspire a more stable career direction...

So far all is going well.

That's it for me for this week.