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?