Module 3 - Tasks Blogs

The World according to: [insert YOUR name here]

John Heilemann stated that “Nothing epitomises the democratising tendencies of web 2.0 more that that new form of expression we’ve come to know as blogging” (Sen, 2008).

My first experience of creating and using a blog to be connected in this way was for blog Net 11. It was very easy to produce and maintain. Timeliness is a key component of blogging. An interesting quirk of blogging is that it is both an archive and up to date at the same time.

– I know of one friend who has a blog and one of the directors at my work has one too.

Anyone can share their thoughts with the (connected) world and it is a one-to-many relationship/conversation. Chad Hurley is quoted as saying “the internet is about connecting individuals or connecting individuals to information” (Sen 2008).
Blogs are a very social communications channel and can be shared, ‘endorsed’ (eg via placing lists of other blogs (‘blogrolls’) on your blog.

Interesting uses for blogs include:

• citizen journalism - people can report to the world from their perspective (which can elude government censorship).
• ‘personal’ blogging eg a good way of recording events (travel, weddings etc) with a disparate and distant set of people. For some people, there would be the personal satisfaction of seeing your name in print (almost a form of vanity publishing).
• a communication channel for a group of people with a common interest – eg a bookclub.
• educational purposes - my net 11 blog where I record my tasks and reflections.
• client/customer engagement eg engaging a target audience by a company - eg Martha Stewart editors of Everyday food magazine blog about meals – Dinner tonight. This helps to sell the magazine and other MS products sells. in a similar vein, On the road is one Gourmet Traveller magazine blog, which keeps you up to date with the latest travel secrets.
• advertising – the recent ‘In an Absolute world’ campaign for Absolute vodka, featured “more than 20 online blogs and websites” (Gopal, 2008).
• celebrity or personality blogs to fans (again can have a commercial slant
• entertainment for pure escapism or gossip Perez Hilton.
• companies with staff blogging to customers
• companies with management or staff blogging to each other as an internal communications channel
• businesses/self employed networking and as a way of marketing yourself to prospective clients eg share your works or as Schutzsmith (2008) suggests; “commenting on blogs...to quickly gain exposure to the clientele you are trying to reach”.
• sharing specific topic information for:
  business business of design online , education, such as dented reality (used on this course) or social purposes (Tokyo eater).

It’s quite voyeuristic being able to ‘look into’ the thoughts of others - I am sure that some people really don’t consider that (unless they take steps to have a closed circle) anyone who wanted to can access the information.

I can see personal applications for blogging but wouldn’t actively seek to publish one - unless it was for a specific and required purpose, such as my Net 11 blog.

References

Gopal, S. (2008, August). Absolute Vision. (Campaign profile). Desktop Magazine, p.26.

Schutzsmith, D. (2008, April/May). Marketing for the Lazy Designer, Dynamic Graphics p.72.

Sen, P. (Executive Producer) (2008, July 29) Download:the True Story of the Internet. Episode People Power [Television broadcast] Australia:Foxtel.