change

Hey, I was so much thinking about my wiki, that I went back and figured out how to make it public, so now, if you click on my link down there, you can see it.

Project Finale

For my project, I of course had to make some edits. I added a couple of new pages, resized the pictures, edited some of the text, edited the links on the side bar, and resized some of the text to make it the same. I really think this project was beneficial to me. It was something I had no experience with and wouldn't have done if not for this class. No offense to the blogger people in the class, but I think making a wiki is more challenging and creative than a blog, which is something we all have experience with already. I think I could have easily done a blog on my topic and done fine, but I'm glad I picked the wiki because it is different and taught me about a valuable topic that can only grow in importance in the future. I think if I had to do it over again, I would use a different site than PBWiki just to experience what is different, though PBWiki was very good to me. I have to admit there were times where I wanted to pull my hair out over this and times when I doubted my ability to do a good job. But now I think that this is good and I am proud of it and what I learned from it and tired from all the time spent on it.

This class was very beneficial to me because I had never heard of Web 2.0 before coming in. I found out just how much I already used it but knew nothing about what I was using. I used to use Xanga for a short time in high school, so I knew about blogging a bit but the wiki was new. I didn't even realize I was able to edit Wikipedia before I took this course. I was really looking forward to learning how web 2.0 is going to change in the future, but now I realize we must wait and see for ourselves. I think my favorite part of the class was reading other people's blogs because it is always fun to know what other people are thinking.

Here is my link to my wiki

more for today

I must write another blog entry so I can get 4 for the week, so I'm doing 2 on the same day for the first time. Maybe I should discuss why I am making a wiki on how to get in good shape. I have a physical wellness class I am taking and it is really interesting and I think that there are alot of different ideas about getting and staying in shape, so I thought people would want to learn about it. I am writing about different types of effective exercises, ways to recover, and foods you should eat. This PB wiki thing is kind of making me mad right now, because I made a new page earlier, but forgot to save it, so now the thing is gone and I just realized it. Oh well, I guess I can just take more time to go back and find what I was writing about and do it again....

work work work

Today I have spent about the last 2 hours preparing my Pbwiki for presentation and completion. I plan on working on it still more today for a good amount of time. I have written some new entries and started linking some of the pages together as well. I probably will go play clean up now and try to make some of the different parts of this look cleaner (better). I do like doing this stuff, especially the entries because I am learning more about physical fitness as I go along as well. It seems that there is a ton of interesting info about exercise and fitness and all of it is stuff you read and say "wow, i should start doing that" and yet at the same time think "man this would be hard to commit to". I think it is good exercise just working on our projects alone. Yeah that was a pretty lame joke.

great day

Today I didn’t work a lot on my PBwiki, but I should be playing around with the pages and entries that I am doing. I guess I’ll be spending most of my time doing the wiki now, so I really don’t know what to write for this blog. I guess I could write about how much it sucks to stay up all night working on essays, and then having to go to class the next day and not sleep at all that day. It puts you in a really bad mood and makes you not care about anything at all and gets you irritated when you realize that you have more stuff you have to work on, but part of you really doesn’t care and the other part says just do it. I’m not sure if what I am writing is even making sense because I can’t even remember what the last sentence I typed was. It makes me wonder if we should practice free writing when we are tired and irritated. I guess it could be interesting to read because your entries come off sounding like you are angry. Maybe someone should try it.

April 30 entry

I think everyone here is in agreement that classes just know how to pack on the work at the end of the semester. It is good that in this class we have had good time to work on these wiki’s we are making. Unlike some classes, which decide to add more to the work load and the last second, it’s pretty ridiculous but it happens to everyone every year so whatever. I think that I will be spending a lot of time on my wiki, making it my main focus to finish after tonight because I have a big paper due tomorrow that I have been focusing mainly on the last couple days. I wonder if I will prefer the traditional work of writing essays for English classes or doing a Web 2.0 project? It seems like both involve a lot of writing and research, but I think Web 2.0 requires more research because it isn’t opinion oriented like many essays we are assigned.

The new media

I read an interesting article earlier about Web 2.0. This author is talking about how sites like Myspace and Facebook are becoming everything to everyone. He talks about how he expected people to grow bored with just adding friends and looking at pictures after a while, and so these sites had to adapt and add other stuff like applications and advertisements to keep it interesting and to attract more people. The author seems to think this Web 2.0 spells doom for traditional powerhouse media organizations who have to sit back and watch regular people be able to do everything they want and look at pretty much whatever they want on these social network sites. I guess this guy has a good point about the media companies. It is so easy to get access to different media on Facebook and Myspace, so these companies are probably going to have to adapt and create their own versions of 2.0. The link to the article is herehttp://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/04/web_20_expo_rev.html

4/24

Today I worked on creating more pages and adding entries. I made a link from one page to another by adding a link in the information. I think today was the best day I have had in class so far working on the project. I am glad that we got to look at some PBwikis that my classmates are doing and getting to see what theirs look like. I think I am encouraged to see how good they are and think that I can also make one that is good. Like I said, today was a good day of working. I am doing mine on how to exercise and I am finding lots of information about it, which is to be expected since it is a hot topic. I am very interested in what I’ve been reading and sometimes read too much and have looked at too much stuff about my topic rather than doing the wiki. I guess it is good I enjoy what I picked, but I guess probably everyone picked something they are interested in. I think I like working on this wiki and have an interest in making it look good.

practing free writing

Boyce does make a lot of sense for his claims that free writing is good for you and your writing. I just got done writing a long, tedious paper for another class, and realized that since it had to be 7 pages and I only had 6 and a half, I needed to add on another pointless paragraph that was unnecessary and wouldn’t improve the paper at all, in fact in would probably due the opposite. I had no clue what else I could possibly say about this subject, so being stuck I decided to open up a new document and just free write whatever the heck I could think of. I stuck to free writing about my paper subject and just wrote a bunch of stuff I thought was funny and other stuff that relates to the paper that I was feeling. Then it hit me that I could revise my conclusion paragraph and include some of my thoughts I developed while free writing that I was thinking. I was actually thinking more about my subject and analyzing it more openly when I was free writing to myself than when I was trying to do it for the paper. So I used some of these ideas and I think it makes the paper better. I think free writing opens your mind and reduces stress which is exactly what you need to write essays sometimes.

4/22

I dont know that it matters neccessarily if you write when you're happy compared to being sad. I think both bring out qualites that make for good writing. It isn't always fun to read about happy stuff, and its not always fun to read sad. But if you think about it, alot of what people think is great writing whether it be poetry, music or art is based around sadness. So I think that writing during a specific feeling isn't better than the other.
I think that we should be graded on our projects over fluency, and by that I mean how well the stuff is connected. I think that this class might be somewhat worried about it because students always worry about final stuff, but I think once we are through people (myself included) will think that it was easier than we made it out to be. I think we are all still thinking of Web 2.0 as some incredible thing and forgetting that we already use Web 2.0 years before this class and it doesn't have to be fantastically complicated.

4/18

I think it is good to see what the other people in this class are doing for their projects. It helps give us ideas and helps us see that everyone else has questions and concerns and it seems like everyone is kind of moving at the same pace which is good to know. I think that Boyce’s idea of writing everyday is a good way to free your mind and to gather your thoughts. People used to do this in diarys or journals, but now I guess people can do the same thing on a blog like this one. I remember when people were using Xanga and most of the time were writing personal stuff about how they were feeling, usually meant to get a reaction out of someone particular or get everyone to feel good or bad for you. I always thought that was lame, so there is no way I would keep a public blog about my feelings or intimate thoughts. I saw a great example of communication distortion on South Park, where this girl was all obsessed with her “internet boyfriend” and he was obsessed with her although they never met in real life. One day they accidentally ran into each other and it was all awkward for them both, and instead of talking they said they would email each other later on. This just shows how some people use stuff like Web 2.0 as a communication crutch because they don’t know how to communicate as a person. Putting all your feelings in something inanimate isn’t going to necessarily translate into something good in the real world.

class april 17

My project thing is going to be about exercise, and I am really interested in this subject so I am happy to do the research and find out more about it. This has proved to be useful even to me because I have found out new information about all sorts of stuff from stretching to doing sit ups that I didn’t know before and that I need to know because I have been doing some of the things they say not to do because it isn’t good for certain muscles or joints. I am somewhat mad I didn’t read this stuff before because they say the traditional exercises that a lot of people think are normal and good are really detrimental to you and ineffective. I am going to put the proper ways to stretch and do common exercises on my wiki so that other people can read this stuff that they probably aren’t aware of either. Many of these sites have good information and I am happy to be doing the research.

tigerboard

Tonight I added an entry to a page on my PBwiki. This is the first time I did anything like that and it feels good to have done it. I feel like this is good and I can get stuff done. I realized that I actually have been checking a popular Web 2.0 site quite frequently, and it relates to Mizzou. I like to read http://www.tigerboard.com/, a wiki style site that some MU alum made some years ago and became popular with tiger sports fans. The site is a forum where people can go and post stuff about MU sports. There are thousands of users and this site is so popular on the sports scene that it is often referenced and used as a source by sportscasters in Kansas City. People can rant, post pictures, talk smack or praise anyone and anything about MU. Its pretty amusing to read, and many of the people claim they are “insiders” who must keep their identities secret for the sake of their positions within MU. Ha, I don’t know about that but I do know some MU players and sometimes coaches check to see what is being said about them because I have heard them mention it in interviews before.

4/15 entry

I am wondering about the requirements for the project in terms of length, pictures, words or something like that. It is kind of like writing a paper but putting all of the different parts on a web page and making it more creative. For the PBwiki that I am doing, I wondering if I can just make some pages and edit them with stuff I want and that would be ok? Of course I would link the pages by adding links to the pages. This sounds more confusing than it probably actually is. I would like to see some amateur wiki examples that are what ours should be close to looking like. Unfortunately, either I’m not allowed or can’t figure out how to look at other wiki’s that have been created on PBwiki. This would be helpful since it is similar to what I’m doing, but they don’t let you look unless you have an invite key (at least that’s what it looks like). I am going to spend some good time on PBwiki over the next couple days and really try to hammer this thing out.

Saved by the blog

Yesterday I posted on here one of my assignments for my biology class. I was in one of the computer labs using a Mac, and the stupid thing wouldn’t save my work, so I couldn’t post the assignment on blackboard and couldn’t save it to email it to myself. I thought to myself “there is nothing I can do”. I was just going to have to delete this assignment I spent the last hour working on and go home to my own computer and do it all over again so I can save it and load it up. I was felt defeated and angry thinking everything had gone to waist. Then I started thinking and remembered my wonderful Web 2.0 blog, and thought “hey I can post it on there, and then copy and paste it when I get back so I don’t have to do it all over again!” I was saved by my blog. I couldn’t be happier with Web 2.0 right now and have figured out yet another great use for it. Web 2.0 truly is great and really makes working on a computer a lot easier, especially when you start thinking of unconventional ways to use it to your advantage.

first project info entry

Today I found some good information. Overtraining is a little known about problem that can occur in people who think they are doing good for their body by working out constantly. Many people think that working out 7 days a week working the same muscles over and over again will help them be in better shape, when in fact they are doing more harm than good. The only way muscles can get stronger is by receiving adequate rest. Therefore, one must not workout the same muscles every day. Common symptoms of overtraining are fatigue, loss of appetite, irregular sleeping patterns, and twitchy muscles. It also can cause depression, irritability, and other mood swings. Ways to stop overtraining are too simply stop training for a period of time, depending on the amount of time you have been doing it. Sometimes it takes multiple weeks of rest to get back to an ideal body state. During this time it is recommended that you come up with a different workout plan that will not cause overtraining. You can do alternate, lighter forms of exercise during this period if you feel like you need to do some kind of exercise. It is important to remember that your body needs to rest just as much as it needs to be worked out. Make sure you are not overtraining, because it will do you no good.

politics and 2.0

I have not worked on my project today, other than browse some websites for information about working out. Today is a busy day, but in my political comm class we talked about the effects of Web 2.0 in political advertising today. It was an interesting discussion about how Web 2.0 is a new medium that has become popular in the last 4 years. Our teacher talked about how independent bloggers, such as Drudgereport, have a lot of influence because a lot of people read them and even the big news organizations pick up stories from these bloggers. (Side note: I am now noticing my Microsoft Word 2003 underlines “blog” and “bloggers” for spell check every time I type it. Shows how much things have changed in a short amount of time). The teacher told us that we couldn’t trust these sources always because everyone can do it an so on. Interestingly, generally most of the class agreed that Web 2.0 is good for politics because it allows more points of view to get out there and allows for more information with different angles. I also agree that more information is good and it is good to have freedom of speech come through in this medium.

class April 8

So as we are here in class, I am looking over my recently created Pbwiki. Actually, it is more accurate of me to say I am looking over what is to become my Pbwiki. I am staring at the front page which proudly proclaims “yes, this is a real wiki!” That’s good to know. Then it challenges me to create pages and fill it up. So I decided to test it by creating two test pages. So now I have three pages including the front page, but none of them are linked. I am frustrated because this isn’t looking like Wikipedia, which is what I think of when I think about a wiki. I am trying to figure out through the help buttons how to connect all of this but I don’t see it right now. So I just actually found how to link the pages thanks to another wiki user who answered the question in the help pages. The next challenge for me will be to start adding my information and creating the pages that are real. I think I will feel better once that occurs.

starting up

So I finally started up my wiki using Pbwiki.com. I chose to name my wiki “gettinginshape”. So I started playing around and looking at stuff on it and am a little overwhelmed at first. It is starting to hit me that this is all on me to create my very own page that has to be accurate, informative, and look professional. I want to see what other people in this class are going to be doing so I can compare my ideas with theirs. I am also thinking that this is going to be fun as well, since I do get to create this thing. Pbwiki wants people to pay for upgrades and stuff, but there is no way I’m paying for anything. I wonder what the biggest difference between there free version and all of there pay for versions is? After playing around with the pages I see that it is easy to edit and easy to make a new page. I think my challenges will be learning how to make links and stuff.

april 3

Today during our class time I have continued to play around with Wikipedia, looking at different stuff on there and looking at how it all is connected. I looked at some of the wiki’s that our classmates posted of examples they like to get an idea of what mine should look like. I looked at the Seinfeld Wiki, and immediately felt a sense of discouragement because of the amount of info they have and the in depth knowledge of these Seinfeld fans. Then I realized that this is several thousand people working on this wiki and mine will only be me. I also looked at the textbook wiki site, the top ten site, and the music site. I was telling someone about this class today and everything its about and they said that they thought it sounded really useful. He said that his computer major does a lot of stuff with Web 2.0 and that he has thought it would be the next big thing for several years. He also went on to claim a bunch of stuff about how he knew everything about it and how he was an expert blah, blah , blah. I don’t know if I believe everything this guy says, so I will have to quiz him and see if he has ever made a wiki. I doubt it.

Sonic 2.0

Today for my project I was looking around at some workout information, and I came across a lot of interesting websites and info. It is good to know there will be lots of stuff that I will be able to use for my wiki. I haven’t done much other than that for it, so I will tell you about a funny thing that I saw relating to our class. I saw a Sonic commercial where the husband and wife are in the car, and the man orders a Sonic drink and adds “2.0” to the end of it. The wife says “did you just say you wanted a (insert drink) 2.0?” The guy says “yeah, I don’t know what it means, but some guy at work always talks about 2.0 and he’s always getting raises and stuff so it must be good”. I just thought this was funny and interesting since it relates to our class. It shows how everyone is paying attention to web 2.0, even our advertisers are recognizing its importance.

browsing for a wiki site

Today during our class time I started looking around for a wiki site that I could use for hosting my project. The first site I came about is called wetpaint.com. It seems like it is convienent and easy to use. It claims to have over 800,000 wikis created on it, and the process to make one seems easy. Another site that came up was PBwiki.com. This one seems to also be easy to use, but it confuses me when it says wiki’s are free to set up but a premium plan costs $10 a month. I obviously am not going to pay for anything, so I don’t know about this site. Another good site was wikispaces.com, which is easy and convienient like the others. So I guess I will probably use one of these websites for my creation of a wiki. I guess I still have questions about it, like how much information does this project require? How much needs to be on these wikis? What are some good examples to look at?

update mar 20

Today I looked at a bunch of different sites about physical fitness. I used google to search key words, and I don't know if I found exactly what I want. I think I will use websites of popular magazines that I know to use for the project. I find they are the ones with the most in depth detail about specific exercises and what they do for you rather than these google search sites that are hardly ever updated. Some of them might be useful, but the magazine one's that are frequently updated are definitely the best. After the break I will need to sit and think about what I really want to do and get specific. I will start looking at stuff and putting it together. I will probably care more about this after the break. Below are the sites I looked at. I think they are helpful and will always be full of something good for me to use.

http://www.mensfitness.com/

http://www.bodybuilding.com/

march 2.0 madness

This is the month of March and that means it’s time to fill out NCAA tournament brackets. It seems like every website is having a bracket challenge, including Facebook, ESPN, CBS, and more. The Facebook contest is an example of mixed media, because a big company like CBS is combining with a social network to hold a bracket contest on their site. This is web 2.0 because of Facebook and because of the design of this contest. The official contest portion of Facebook reminds me of a wiki with its layout and content. There are many different links to click on that bring up a bunch of information such as brackets, teams, other people in the contest, your friends picks, message boards, and even pop up information about all 64 teams in the tourney. It is actually really cool and makes me happy that web 2.0 exists. Millions of Americans are going to be heavily using this web 2.0 spectrum over the next couple weeks and relying on it to show them just how bad their picks really are.

march 18 class

I am not sure what I am going to do for my project, but I think I might try to do something about exercise. Maybe I will do something that compares different types of exercises and rate their effectiveness. This would be a good topic because people are interested in exercise and there is a lot of information out there that I could use for sources. I don’t know what type of web 2.0 I would use to present this. I guess I will figure this out later. Maybe I could narrow it down to a specific type of exercise, like cardio or muscle building, or perhaps talk about ways to lose weight in certain areas of the body because people like to specifically target body parts and like to know the best ways they can burn fat in those areas. I think this is actually starting to sound like the idea I want to do the more I think about it. I will have to spend some time thinking about how I going to make it and what kind of information I want to use but I will do it.

video of web 2.0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6SefbFbixI


Here is a cool video about Web 2.0, specifically about the power this guy has gained through broadcasting using Web 2.0. He talks about how as a kid he bought a radio transmitter and started having his own little broadcasts, and now he can reach so many people because of web 2.0. It really shows how much technology has advanced and how much more connected people are. His first broadcasts were just to his neighbors and family because that was all he could reach. Now of course this guy has a podcast and he has a global audience. The funny part is that the guy says he can now reach twice as many people as when he used to do his radio broadcast. Well, that would only make 10, so maybe this guy misspoke. But regardless, it is an interesting video that shows just another example of the power of web 2.0.

more on mixing media

I don’t know what we’re supposed to write about today, so I’m going to rant about something. I am noticing how more and more “news” websites are becoming blogger friendly. Sites like CNN.com, ESPN, and more now encourage blogging to the point where Anderson Cooper talks about how he is blogging while he is also doing his show. Tonight I noticed that the KansasCityStar.com is becoming more like a Web 2.0 wiki than a news site. I was looking at the sports page on the website and I see a headline that read “Baylor Coached Peeved”. Now before, every time I click on something like this on this site it brings up a news story filled with quotes, facts, and a real actual journalist who wrote it. But no, not this time. What came up was one quote and a box that asks “what do you think?” Underneath there is a place for you to type your comments and for you to read other people’s thoughts. They even have this after every news article now, where the readers can leave comments for the journalist about the story and sometimes, they even blog back. This is a news site, NOT A BLOG. I don’t care about what KUhawk92 thinks about the Big 12 tournament, I want to know what is actually happening from the journalists who are supposed to be doing their job of gathering facts, not asking for everyone’s opinions. What’s next, are they going to let people start editing the stories too? I appreciate Web 2.0 and blogging, but if our news sites become nothing but blogs asking for everyone to write their opinions and have a big old blog conversation, I’m going to read the paper.

power to the machine

I have seen “The Machine is Us/ing us” before in one of my communications classes, and I think that it is both scary and amazing. It is scary to see how connected we are as humans to the all powerful internet, which can show us anything and everything and that nearly everyone uses. It’s scary to think that in the future we are bound to only become even more connected through advancement, and to not know what this might entail. I do think that these advancements we have seen over time do have good implications for society. We can now learn about stories that affect us faster, such as recent murder cases we have seen. I have seen pictures all over the different avenues of Web 2.0 of the guy from the UNC murder case. Facebook groups, Myspace, blogs and Wikipedia all have posted pictures and allowed forums for people to talk and see if anyone knows who the guy is. This example shows how connectivity is good; when people in Missouri can find out anything they want about a guy wanted for questioning in North Carolina, the internet is making it harder to hide. So, people do control the internet, but sometimes the internet is out to get you.

on media convergence

I am already somewhat familiar with the idea of media convergence because I used to want to do journalism and learned about this before. I think “Worship at the Altar…” points out good examples of what convergence is. With all of the different types of media and technology (specifically Web 2.0) available, media was destined to collide in a type of head on collision. With virtually anyone able to be a “journalist” anymore, different types of media are always playing off one another. For instance, the example of the movie being recorded and put on the internet was easily predictable with the invention of cell phone cameras. I knew this would happen, because I predicted this to my friends back when these were first coming out. Is this good or bad for society? Well, it is bad for the people involved in the production of the movie, because this loses them money. But then again, it does give them more access and exposure. But how much exposure is appropriate? With the Bert and Osama example, clearly this boy had the right to make a website and to innocently post Bert’s picture with Osama. Also, the middle eastern man had the right to print it and put it on his posters. Also, Sesame Street has the right to be angry about one of their characters being associated with terrorism. This is the problem that will have to be answered with media convergence since it is such a new concept. How much is too much? Should all media be allowed to cover whatever they want and use any type of media available to do so? I don’t even know what to think.

musewiki

http://www.musewiki.org/MuseWiki
The wiki I most admire is Musewiki, a site that prides itself on knowing every detail about Muse, an alternative rock band that I like. I came across this site a while ago, and was amazed they had their own wikipedia. At the time, I didn’t know about people making their own wiki’s so I thought these guys must be the most popular band in the world. This wiki’s purpose is to provide Muse fans intimate details about the band’s music, members, and regular lives. It has information that goes from about their latest album to what the drummer’s favorite cheese is. This wiki is obviously catering to Muse fans (there are many of them in Europe and throughout the rest of the world), who are caught up in the internet information craze and want to know everything about the music they like. It shows a lot of pictures of the band, and has a lot of little known or personal information about the band, as to show that this site is where you should come to find out whatever you want about Muse. There is information about the lead singers special “fetishes”, stories about their childhood upbringings, and information on where they get their instruments. I think that the only people that would ever visit this site are people that really like Muse. According to the site, the page has been accessed 687, 117 times, which means there is a decent obsessed Muse following. It seems to contain endless page after page and claims to have been edited by over 6,000 different people. I recommend checking this site out if you like Muse or want to admire the work of people that know way too much about them.

easy usage

Today during class we were asked to go and edit something on wikipedia we thought we knew a lot about. That was an interesting experience because I have never done that before and didn’t realize how easy it actually is for anyone to do that. I sure hope whoever edited the entry on cystic fibrosis knows what they’re talking about, because I just used the wikipedia entry to help me on my paper! But really, I actually read wikipedia a lot when I am bored around a computer, because it has basically everything you can think of or want to think of on it. I am amazed at how easy it is to edit, I didn’t even need to sign up or in or anything, just clicked edit and bang! Now I am actually worried about the credibility of the site. If anyone can edit whatever they want, how can we believe anything we read? Then again, I guess its kind of like trusting the news media (how can we be sure they are being honest?) So maybe wiki is ok after all, and will be looked to as a trusted source here shortly.

about wikinomics

The chapter we read from “Wikinomics” speaks directly to me because I worked at Best Buy and am familiar with their practices. I worked for Best Buy the past 2 summers in Kansas City, and can remember the use of blogs and Web 2.0 all the time. In fact, now that I think about it, I was relying on Web 2.0 everyday in the computer system we used to find the movies, music and games that people were wanting. The system had a bunch of different links to click on depending on what product you were looking for. Then once you typed it in it would bring up if we had it in stock and where it should be. Best Buy also used a blog to talk about the traditional company newsletter type of stuff, such as new products coming in, new policies, and even had a place for employee feedback or suggestions. I never really looked at the blog because I never really cared much about what they had to say, but some people did and I think they found it useful. I definitely agree that wiki is useful for companies and employees and will go along way in successful business practice.

examining wiki

Our discussion about wikipedia’s today made me think about something that occurred this weekend. My friend was going to look up some information about a TV show, and the first place he went to was wikipedia. After reading it, we both pretty much just accepted what the wikipedia said as fact. Then I remembered that anyone can edit these things, and there is a reason why we are told not to use wikipedia in our classes. So we looked directly at the TV show website and sure enough, wikipedia had some information about some of the characters wrong. I know our guest speaker said today that a study shows wikipedia to be more accurate than encyclopedia Brittanica, but still how can we trust anyone? That is what we are doing with wikipedia, we are trusting anyone and everyone. We have no way of knowing if what we are reading is true or if it is biased opinion or flat out lie. In fact, I heard that political candidates were trying to change things on their wikipedia that they didn’t like to make themselves look better. The idea of an information source that everyone can be a part of is a novel idea, but I think before we just all jump on board to the wiki craze that we take a step back and make sure that the flaws aren’t going to be too big. I know if there was a page up about me I would edit it if I didn’t like some of what it said.

mark cuban's blog

http://www.blogmaverick.com/

The blog I choose to analyze is the Blog Maverick by Mark Cuban. I have known about his blog because I like sports, but have never really read it. The colors are light blue and white, nothing particularly fancy or unique looking about it. In fact, if I stumbled across it without knowing, I wouldn’t have known it was a billionaire’s blog. When this blog was first started it’s purpose was so that a big time sports owner could connect personally with his fans, and so he could get his points out there about professional sports. It is making him seem like an accessible billionaire sports owner who really does care about the people that pay to see his teams. Judging by the comments he gets, it would seem mostly sports fans read his blog, but often times you can’t tell because the posts aren’t always about sports. There was his famous post that trashed Donald Trump, and other posts about a movie he funded. These are ways he makes his blog more popular by not just writing about sports all the time. Many people have probably checked it at least once when his name was in the news because they know that he will respond to it on the blog. I think this blog is one to be analyzed for its topics of invention: that is to say that people are judging this on the arguments he is making rather than any other reason. Sports fans want to feel like they have a voice in how their team is doing. Mark Cuban making this blog was genius on his part because he knows the fans will like him more and give him leeway if the team is struggling or don’t like a decision he makes as owner. Cuban understands new ideas and probably even has some money invested in 2.0 himself.

freedom of the blog

Today we talked about the book “Clear Blogging”, and how different types of people in society are now communicating through blogs. I think this is both good and bad. Celebrities like Mark Cuban, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and even Rosie O’ Donnell have blogs. I think they do this because they know that blogs are a great way to communicate with the public freely, and it allows them to respond to anything the tabloids or news may say about them. I think over time more celebrities will understand the power behind blogging, just like the other forms of mass media. However, I wonder about letting military personal have blogs, as we discussed today. I don’t think blogging is necessary for people that are doing classified things, even if they are done anonymously. In fact, just today we learned that Prince Harry is over fighting in Afghanistan. All of the media outlets had known this for 10 weeks, but kept it a secret for his safety. Turns out this news was broken not by the mainstream media, but by somebody’s blog! I don’t like that. I think blogs are giving too many people a voice, and allows for information that doesn’t need to be put out there. People may say that we have a right to know all information, but I don’t think so. I think things like this, and secret operations that are for the betterment of society shouldn’t be ruined by some guy with a blog.

gotta have feedback

The article “My blog: My outward brain” talks about the need we have for information and for feedback. At one point the author talks about how the more he blogs the more reward, (feedback) he receives, as people tell him or email about something he wrote. This reminds me of when high school, when Xanga was new and exciting. Everyone seemed to have one, and I remember I created one to see how much feedback I could get. The whole concept of posting your blog to Xanga was to get these things called “eprops”, which were nothing but comments from other Xanga users. There was no real reason to post if you weren’t getting eprops. So the blogs that didn’t get eprops were never really updated, while the people who got eprops a lot updated a lot. This tells me that people really want other people to read their blogs. Of course, this seems logical, because if you are posting stuff on the internet, you probably understand that people are going to read it. This always tells me that people felt a sense of social importance based on how many other people were willing to read their blogs. I’m not sure I ever learned anything knowledgeable from reading Xanga, but I learned about people’s emotions. I was almost embarrassed for other people at some of the personal stuff they would post to Xanga. I guess most people are so obsessed with feedback that they don’t care if they post something that they’ll regret later on.

blogs enhance literacy?

From what I read about “Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy”, the author makes some simple yet qualifying points. Her argument seems to be that blogging is good for learning and good for literacy. I think that a lot of her points that she brings up do make sense: blogs are easy to publish, allow people voices they wouldn’t have otherwise, and keep free speech alive. However, I wonder if perhaps blogging and other parts about Web 2.0, such as social sites and even things that connect us like text messaging, might be dumbing down the English language. In a lot of cases, especially with young people, we often type in slang, intentionally spell words wrong, use incorrect grammar and punctuation, all in the name of convenience and pop culture. I wouldn’t be surprised I there were a good number of young people out there who think the correct way to spell “you” is “u”. I think that the number one compliment you can give blogging is that it has made communication easier. No one feels the need to be correct in all of the things I mentioned, because they know people will understand whatever point they are making no matter how words are spelled or ideas expressed. So to simply say that blogging and Web 2.0 has done nothing but good things for learning would be incorrect in my opinion. I think this will only get worse, as communication progresses and blogs become even more rampant, we will see a decline in the understanding of correct grammar and proper language use.

map assignment

Here is my concept map. I chose to do it on the late night talk shows on regular TV. I think there are a lot of different choices, and there are many similiarites and few differences. I came to this conclusion after watching them and creating these ideas, and seeing how many of them share the same ideas. I don't think I will do my final project on this, but I think this is a good basic concept map idea.

I think concept maps are good to help you get started on papers/big assignments. For one of my other classes, we actually did a concept map activity earlier today. The teacher put up an idea, and we picked two people that fit that idea, and we started naming things about them that could connect. I think concept mapping is a good way to brainstorm and to show people how things go together. These ideas not only work for our web 2.0, but for all classes!

social network? hmm

Latour’s book “Reassembling the Social” (which I spoke about today), makes a lot of sense once you start understanding it. Latour argues that putting the label “social” on things is unnecessary and leads to boxing ideas in. I think that the world as a network, runs off of everything. From people to animals to technology, everything needs to be in function. It is unwise to be putting the label of social on things in an attempt to describe life as a certain way. Stuff happens, things change, it’s a natural part of the world. Describing phenomenon’s as a “social” science or some sort of social force is redundant. We are all a part of this social network, although Latour wouldn’t like us calling it a social network!
I think that the world is full of intermediates and mediators, which is something Latour might have a different opinion on. It takes mediators to push new forces through, and intermediates are the people who are pushing these through because the mediators are behind them. There are obviously powerful people and hierarchies in our world, so I think that it is natural that intermediates do exist. However, perhaps we are made mediators when we begin to push these forces because it takes everything to bring a force through. I’m sure Latour will keep discussing this with himself, and share it in his next book.

hidden power of social networks

Anne’s discussion on “Hidden Power of Social Networks” was another example of connectivity, which seems to be all we talk about. Part of her discussion was about breaking people up into groups and having us find what was similar about our blogs. It was an interesting way to look at breaking down social networks. I think that if we really wanted to, we could have found a way to group any random people in our class together and found some sort of blog similarity between us. I think her point about not being able to categorize everyone together, in terms of business employees was very valid. I think a lot of times whether it be in business, sports, or other uniform social walks of life, people are judged by standards that may not be the right way to look at everyone. For instance, in sports, just because a basketball player can score 20 points doesn’t necessarily mean he is a valuable player. He might play on a losing team and only be scoring garbage points. A winning team might have a player who scores less than that guy, but rebounds and defends and does what it takes to win. This makes him the more valuable player. The same with what she says about the business employees and how a peripheral and central employee aren’t exactly cut and dry who is better. I learned from this discussion that it is easy to make the mistake of putting people in certain categories that may or may not accurately represent who they are or what they are capable of. You must be able to interpret results accurately.

map theory

We have used concept maps as students as early as grade school. Well, at least I have and I'm sure you have as well. I remember teachers in elementary school having us make concept maps that would link all of the particular characters and themes in the different stories we read together. As a kid I remember liking these things and thinking that they were very helpful in linking information together. I know alot of kids thought they were annoying. I like the line in this reading that says "The learner must choose to learn meaningfully". If connecting a bunch of words together can help you recall parts of a novel, business plan, or whatever important information you need, then it is up to the learner to choose to learn. Concept maps provide clear, precise, direct information to the reader. I also agree that you must "possess prior knowledge". We only ever made concept maps after we were finished going over whatever it was we were making a map of. It doesnt make sense to link things together if you don't first have a general understanding of the idea.
The concept map works like the mind. One line in the reading is that the map is like our brain because of its complex connections of information. All parts of our brain must flow to process information to other parts of the body. The concept map shows you visually how the flow of information is connected and how parts of ideas are generally connected and not seperate intities.

strange but true

I saw a news story today about a family whose mother died a long time ago, a mysterious death that was believed to be an accidental overdose. The woman’s kids were young at that time, and knew little about her death. Now they are adults and remembered their father talking about a preacher she used to go and see. One night, one of the kids was watching a local news report and they were talking about that same preacher and how he was involved in a woman’s mysterious death a long time ago. So the kids went and checked it out and realized it was the same preacher and he was with their mom when she died. The only reason that story aired on TV was because the police released the wrong files of a man with the same name that was supposed to be on the news. So the kids went to meet with this guy to find out what he knew about their mom and they end up finding out that he is the father of 2 of them. Also, they find out that they used to attend the same church when he was the preacher there! If that doesn’t show an example of being connected and six degrees of separation, then I don’t know what does.

six degrees

The more I think about the “Six degrees” book we were informed about, the more I am amazed at the concepts. To think that we are all connected by technology and even through social life is a popular idea, yet one I never understood or believed. I had heard all about the six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing, although I wasn’t sure who he was, I thought the idea that you can connect every actor or actress to him was nutty. Even during our class discussion, when we were discussing if somehow everyone on the planet is connected and whether we could relate ourselves in someway to someone. I immediately thought to myself, “there is no way anyone in here could get to the President.” Thinking that surely this has to be the most powerful person in the land, and none of us could connect to him. Then Mrs. Strickland asked the question of if we could get something to him, and sure enough, one person spoke up and said they had the proper connections. I was floored that we could get something to the President in less than six steps!

I think the internet works in a similar way. With the right links, clicks, and what not we could be viewing anything and connecting to anyone almost. On facebook there is a group I found called six degrees of separation where they are trying to see if everyone on facebook can be linked somehow. I would say yes, we are all linked. By being a part of this group, we have all linked together for something. I think the internet is a giant web that is connecting all people, whether they use it or not. You don’t have to be computer literate to be a part of the web. Anyone can post anything about you whether you know it or not. I think one day, the internet can make it possible to link people in less than six steps.

connected

The quote that I liked most from the "Connected" readings was the one about power and how structures aren't just one thing but made up of many things. "Like every infrastructure, from highway systems to the internet, the power grid is not really a single entity, but several regional networks cobbled together under the rubric of greater connectivity for the good of all". This is saying that it takes alot of different ideas and workings to come together in order to create something great. This sort of reminds me of Power Rangers, when all of the individual robots would combined together to make the Megazord to beat one bad guy, rather than attack 5 on 1. I never understood why they didn't just go at him as individuals, seeing as they would outnumber him. However, I came to the realization that together they were more powerful as one bot than as 5. This is how the internet works. It takes a bunch of individual ideas, pages, scripts, and people to combine together to create this ultra influential being that outweights every other form of digital communication. We need power lines to talk to people on the phone, we need broadcast stations to watch TV shows, we need many different yet connected things in order to create these big powerful forces.

instant entertainment

Sifting through the different blogs during Aaron’s presentation in class today was exciting and a good learning tool. I was very interested in seeing all of the new blogs and if there was any way we are all connected. I came across some very interesting blogs; from one dedicated to the High School Musical kids to some that were in another language. I found this kind of difficult to see how a webpage filled with pictures of Zack Effron going to the store and combing his hair and how a page dedicated to a Venezuelan politician were connected. Then again, I guess the purpose of any web page is to inform about something. I guess we are all connected through our mediums of communication.
I find the part about being enveloped and not being able to concentrate on something one at a time very telling. I recently heard that every time you change the TV channels, your brain receives a jolt. This means that your mind is shifting from one idea to another so rapidly, that overtime your brain can become addicted to needing these shocks. This is one theory why we have so much ADD nowadays. I think the same is with the internet. Going from vastly different webpage to webpage is also probably creating shocks and satisfying our desires. I think we as a people probably are so used to instant entertainment options that we will always be stuck in this envelope of ideas.

fakes and reality

I believe strongly now that people create social identity’s that are false over the internet. A lot of times this is done to try to pretend you’re someone your not, but also I’ve come to realize that sometimes people do it as a means of humor. In relation to our class discussion about social identity, I watched some of my friends chatting online and pretending they were older men the other night. I never knew they had these secret chat identities. They pretend that they are women and chat with guys. It’s really funny because they have these really x-rated chats, just because these guys think they’re girls. However, this made me wonder of perhaps these guys that are chatting with them are only pretending to be guys. Maybe they are in on their own joke, and are playing around with my friends. Can we really trust any type of supposed identity if we aren’t talking to someone in person? Is it possible to display your true feelings and emotions over the internet or some other means of communication? This experience has made me really stop and wonder how many facebook profiles, myspace profiles, and whatnot really display peoples likes and dislikes. Maybe it is all just pretend.

the hyper linking

My first reaction after reading today’s reading was “they were working on the internet in 1993?’ I have no recollection of ever using or knowing what the internet was until 1998 or 99. But then I realize that yes, it makes sense they were creating this phenomenon back then, and the world did move forward even though I was too young to pay attention. The fact that a simple hyper link was so amazing to these guys is like car companies being amazed at putting air conditioning in cars. Links appear on every single internet page and are as much a part of the internet as email, or chatting. I remember in high school when I noticed a bunch of girls typing in their online diaries during class, and wondering what this was they were doing. When they told me about the site called Xanga, and informed me that it had been around for over a year and showed me all of the features, I was amazed. I had no idea there were such things as social networks. The thing that amazed me most were all of the different links there were, or “friends” that were on people’s pages that with one click would bring up another person’s Xanga page. I have never been up on the internet, so this was all pretty amazing to me. This idea of connectivity through linking was an instant phenomenon among people my age, with what felt like everyone using Xanga at one point. But quickly, college came and Facebook was the new thing, and everyone got off of Xanga. I think that with the creation of new technology, and the changing landscape of newer ways to stay connected, one day linking may be as outdated as house phones.

communication mediums

There is no doubt that without written word, we would be severely held back in terms of communication. In fact, you wouldn’t even be reading this right now if it wasn’t for the continuation of the medium of technology and the ways in which we write words. I think the reading brings up an interesting point when it says that it is more important the media man uses to communicate than what they are actually communicating. This says a lot about how we listen, and how our minds are convinced. This reminds me of the story about the first ever political advertising for President in 1952. Eisenhower, (who won) decided to use the new technology of TV to his advantage by running ads, while his opponent refused because he thought it would be disgraceful. Four years later the same candidate ran again and decided to run TV ads this time. I also think it is interesting how this article points out how we lived in “directionless dark of the mind”. Also, “the hand that filled the parchment page built the city”. I think this means he who communicates most effectively gets to make all the rules and influence all the people. It will be very interesting in the coming year to see how Web 2.0 influences the masses.

Does majority always rule?

“Two heads are smarter than one”. Isn’t this a common phrase that is accepted by many? The remarkable success of group intelligence is somewhat expected. If you put a bunch of people together, one person who knows the answer can act confidently and tell everyone else what it is or display through his actions his confidence and influence the others to follow him. Or, the majority of people may actually know the answer and be correct. The Who Wants to be Millionaire example doesn’t surprise me, because if you read multiple choice questions, generally the majority will be right. I used to watch this show, and every time they did the “ask the group” lifeline, I always immediately assumed the majority was right. I can’t recall an instance that I saw where the majority was wrong. However, the majority isn’t always right. Just today I saw a news poll that said over 50% of young people think Robin Hood was real; over 50% also think Florence Nightingale was imaginary, along with King Richard the Lionhearted. Of course Robin Hood is fake, and Nightingale and King Richard were real. I guess examples like these just prove that you can’t always trust the majority. Sometimes one head may be smarter than two.

design website

I find the website that we are to look at about graphic design to be pretty ugly looking at first look. The font and colors chosen make it look like something from the early 90's if websites had existed then. The whole website is dumb. The first thing you see is a bunch of advertisments for contests and other junk. You have to click on links on the side that really don't even advertise what this junk is that you should click on. When you do click on something, it just takes you to some random wierd pictures that the captions don't even describe what you are looking at. This looks like a website that was created by a bunch of drug users. I don't think this website is run by Americans. I would guess this is from Europe because it has that European strangeness to it and seems like the kind of thing young people over there would create. I don't understand the point of this site. Is it to inform about graphic design or to present a bunch of new age art design and tease the mind? The article section is somewhat informing. The authors write about ways to present designs and what is effective and what isn't. I think for a website that prides itself on graphic design, they sure are hypocrits. I chose to change the background colors and the text colors on my blog site, because it seems everyone has picked the same template and is using the same colors. It looks too plain being all white and grey, so I chose to change it to blue.

logos, pathos, ethos

I think the most effective form of rhetorical communication is probably pathos. Appealing to people’s emotions is generally the best way to get a response out of them. I think if you play off of people’s fears and worries, you will generally get more of a response out of them. I was watching the political debate tonight, and I was looking for examples of these three types of communication and which one would be used the most. I saw examples of the candidates using pathos appeals when talking about the economy. They tried to say that right now it is bad, but if you elect them they will fix it for you. This probably isn’t completely true, but nevertheless it makes us feel good.
I think the most popular form of appeal used was probably ethos. It seemed Mitt Romney and John Mccain wanted to question each others character a lot. They talked about who would be a better leader and why. Romney liked to talk about how he was an expert at business because of his background, and McCain wanted to be the expert in military because of his background. I think it was very interesting how they used the character charges more than any of the other types of communication. It seemed the lesser two candidates, Ron Paul and Huckabee, tried using Logos arguments to appear reasonable and knowledgeable, but probably aren’t going to get much points for not appealing to our emotions.

more about social networking

I am further amazed at how many more websites I have come across that are forms of Web 2.0, specifically social networks. There are sites out there like Xanga, Faceparty, Cardomain, and many other sites that involve Web 2.0 that serve social purposes. The ironic thing is that I came across these sites through Wikipedia (a 2.0 member itself). It seems this boom is going to continue for a long time, and the amount of people will most likely grow larger that use these. While generations change and people get older, the younger crowd will take over the use of these social network sites. I would be very excited if I were one of the lucky ones who came up with these ideas.
I still think the most amazing thing about social sites are how much information people are willing to share about themselves. People are willing to put up pictures of themselves doing almost anything, and are willing to write revealing information as well. It’s funny because these are personal things that they probably wouldn’t be willing to share if they were asked to by their teacher on the first day of class, but are ok with letting random people see. I think this aspect may pose some major questions and problems in the future.

About rhetoric

Rhetoric is especially relevant to our society during political election years like the one we are in now. Every politician uses it to speak to the masses about issues that they think are important to us. Turn on any news channel and you’ll most likely hear a politician talking about “change” or maybe “cleaning up Washington”. These are all ideas that are appealing and create images in our minds of good things that these people want to do. It is funny because none of this is actually specific. You hardly ever hear these candidates discuss how they can actually change and what they would change, or how they can clean Washington, but it sounds good to say it broadly. This is generally because most people only catch and remember that rhetorical phrase that sounds like something good rather than some specific, detailed, and generally boring outline.
I really don’t think there is any better example of rhetoric in society than through politics. When people don’t have to get specific and can engage in manipulative and non-binding language, it is hard to pin them down. Politicians don’t want to be pinned down. They want to be able to shift positions if something becomes unpopular quickly. They put the responsibility of finding out what they really believe on each individual citizen.

Jan 23 readings

I think Tim O’ Reilly’s article goes into great detail about software application and what it means for Web 2.0. I found the part about Bittorrent software the most interesting because that is an application I use. It is true that the more people use a file, the better it works. I find on Bittorent that when something has more people “seeding” a file, it downloads faster and is better quality. When more people become familiar with a new software and start using it, they figure out ways to make it better and bring more people into using it so it becomes mainstream. I also think Wikipedia is a fascinating idea. The fact that anyone anywhere can edit whatever they want, and millions of people will probably read it and accept it as fact is amazing. It really seems to me like one of the top forms of Web 2.0. I think before long we will have to ask ourselves whether it is more important to have many multiple forms of text on the internet that everyone can contribute to, or to have limited amounts of it with factual accuracy.

Reading Facebook

There is little doubt in my mind that nearly everyone under 25 is on Facebook. I am stunned at how many people I knew from high school and college are on the site. It’s amazing how everyone seems so open to sharing personal details and images of themselves. The majority of tagged pictures I see often involve the individual drinking, partying, or hanging out with people. I find it strange that people would actually want others to see them drinking. If you don’t change the privacy settings, than anyone in your network can see your profile and such. Imagine your employer, teacher, or even your parent logging in and seeing your pictures of being really drunk. I think people see Facebook as an abstract form of communication; they don’t fully understand that people they don’t know actually will look at their profiles. They think only their friends would want to see what they are doing when truly many potential important people might want to.
The messages that people write on each other’s walls are generally about hanging out or how they miss each other. This reinforces Facebook as a top new way of communicating. The fact that people leave messages asking what they should do later that same night means that these people have full confidence that the other person is going to use Facebook that very day. I think this shows that what Facebook does is it keeps people in sync, and also acts as a way of keeping in touch with people you probably otherwise wouldn’t have any contact with anymore. It serves as a social link that wouldn’t exist if not for Web 2.0.