The production of this blog was truly an eye-opener for me. It enlightened me on many aspects of media publshing issues. From the basic elements of design principles and layout to the core of compositions; it's been a fulfilling journey.
It also created another milestone for me, as I can proudly say I'm a competent blogger now. Being a noob-blogger is history. My daunting task of creating a blog was made easy by the user-friendly features and ready-made layout provided by Blogger.
My biggest take-away from this blog has got to be applying publishing and design theories to the current publishing issues. Putting theory to practice is as good as it gets and I am thankful to have had this opportunity to share my 2 cents worth of thoughts with the other fellow citizens of the blogosphere. More importantly, I've learnt to blog ethically, by sticking to the ground rules.
As they say, all good things must come to an end..but the memories will certainly live on. I have a piece of artifact archived in the blogosphere. 3 words that sum up the way I feel as I pen this down right now: happy, happy, happy. Need I say more?
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Wikipedia Vs. Britannica
The contenders...
VS 
This battle is akin to one of Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield. Much has been said about Wikipedia's credibility. On the contrary, could one complain considering it is an infinite library of knowledge, available for FREE? Beggars can't be choosers, can they?
According to CNET News(2005), Wikipedia is about as good a source of accurate information as Britannica,the venerable standard-bearer of facts about the world around us.
However, Wikipedia suffered hiccups when an article written linked former journalist, John Seigenthaler to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and John F. Kennedy. At the same time, the blogosphere was buzzing for several days about podcasting pioneer, Adam Curry when he was being accused of anonymously deleting references to others' seminal work on the technology(CNET News 2005)
In response to situations like these and others in its history, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has always maintained that the service and its community are built around a self-policing and self-cleaning nature that is supposed to ensure its articles are accurate(CNET News 2005).
A study by Nature, showed that on average, Britannica makes 2.92 mistakes per article and Wikipedia 3.86(CNET News 2005).
While the error rate for each encyclopedia was not insignificant, such numbers demonstrate that broad review of encyclopedia articles is needed. The results prove favourable to Wikipedia, going head on with a contender that applies subscription rates. People generally think information found on Britannica are more credible than Wikipedia's because they are peer-reviewed. However, results from the reserach conducted by Nature prove otherwise.
According to Nielsen and Morkes (1997), credibility is a essential on the web as users do not want to be “fed with false facts”. On a personal note, I reckon Wikipedia could pose more credible by getting its content peer-reviewed from time-to-time as well as to rate its moderators while exposing the minority bad apples.
References
CNET News 2005, 'Study: Wikipedia As Accurate As Britannica', viewed at <http://news.cnet.com/Study-Wikipedia-as-accurate-as-Britannica/2100-1038_3-5997332.html>, on 10 June 2008.
Morkes, J & Nielsen, J 1997, Concise, scannable, and objective: How to write for the web, viewed at http://www.useit.com/, on 7 June 2007.
VS 
(Wikipedia 2008) (Britannica 2008)
This battle is akin to one of Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield. Much has been said about Wikipedia's credibility. On the contrary, could one complain considering it is an infinite library of knowledge, available for FREE? Beggars can't be choosers, can they?
According to CNET News(2005), Wikipedia is about as good a source of accurate information as Britannica,the venerable standard-bearer of facts about the world around us.
However, Wikipedia suffered hiccups when an article written linked former journalist, John Seigenthaler to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and John F. Kennedy. At the same time, the blogosphere was buzzing for several days about podcasting pioneer, Adam Curry when he was being accused of anonymously deleting references to others' seminal work on the technology(CNET News 2005)
In response to situations like these and others in its history, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has always maintained that the service and its community are built around a self-policing and self-cleaning nature that is supposed to ensure its articles are accurate(CNET News 2005).
A study by Nature, showed that on average, Britannica makes 2.92 mistakes per article and Wikipedia 3.86(CNET News 2005).
While the error rate for each encyclopedia was not insignificant, such numbers demonstrate that broad review of encyclopedia articles is needed. The results prove favourable to Wikipedia, going head on with a contender that applies subscription rates. People generally think information found on Britannica are more credible than Wikipedia's because they are peer-reviewed. However, results from the reserach conducted by Nature prove otherwise.
According to Nielsen and Morkes (1997), credibility is a essential on the web as users do not want to be “fed with false facts”. On a personal note, I reckon Wikipedia could pose more credible by getting its content peer-reviewed from time-to-time as well as to rate its moderators while exposing the minority bad apples.
References
CNET News 2005, 'Study: Wikipedia As Accurate As Britannica', viewed at <http://news.cnet.com/Study-Wikipedia-as-accurate-as-Britannica/2100-1038_3-5997332.html>, on 10 June 2008.
Morkes, J & Nielsen, J 1997, Concise, scannable, and objective: How to write for the web, viewed at http://www.useit.com/, on 7 June 2007.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Ethical Publishing: To be or not to be?
Case of...
In October Ms. Rowling and Warner Brothers sued RDR for copyright infringement, and in November the company suspended publication so that Judge Robert P. Patterson Jr., of the Southern District of New York, could assess the merits of the suit(The New York Times 2008).
J.K Rowling usually makes her public appearences at booktores and theatres before thousands of her fans. However, on 14th of April 2008, Ms. Rowling, author of the wildly popular Harry Potter series made an appearance on the witness stand in a Lower Manhattan federal courtroom, testifying against a small publisher looking to bring out an encyclopedia based on her work.
Ms. Rowling has supported much of the fan output, doling out awards to Internet sites and granting interviews to Web masters. But when RDR Books, a small publisher in Muskegon, Michigen, announced it was planning to publish a print version last fall of a popular fan Web site called “The Harry Potter Lexicon” (hp-lexicon.org), Ms. Rowling and Warner Brothers, the movie studio that has adapted her books into films, balked. Their objection is that the book merely repackages Ms. Rowling’s work and, unlike the free fan sites, is intended to make money for its publisher(The New York Times 2008)
In October Ms. Rowling and Warner Brothers sued RDR for copyright infringement, and in November the company suspended publication so that Judge Robert P. Patterson Jr., of the Southern District of New York, could assess the merits of the suit(The New York Times 2008).
J.K Rowling arriving at the Manhattan Court (The New York Times 2008)
Click here for a copy of the law suit.
Jean Hollis Weber provides guidelines to avoid the infringements of copyright and intellectual property. Her website, 'The Technical Editor's Eyrie is complete with everything one should know to avoid ignorantly getting into publishing woes.
References
The New York Times 2008, 'Rowling To Testify In Trial Over Potter Lexicon', viewed at <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/books/14potter.html>, on 10 June 2008.
Weber,J.H 2008, 'Technical Editor's Eyrie', viewed at <http://www.jeanweber.com/newsite/>, on 10 June 2008.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Convergence: Little Players, Big Shows
Are mobisodes stealing the limelight from television content? According to BBC News(2008), the size of a television or a computer screen seems to work for long-form shows. ie. Stuff that lasts half an hour or an hour. However, on mobile phones and much smaller delivery systems, it's hard work. It is quite a daunting task watching The Lord of the Rings on your iPod and probably would never will feel right. Watching Frodo on a tiny screen would be an insult to fellow citizens of Middle Earth.
Mobisodes at your fingertips (ABC News 2008)
Truth be told, mobisodes are in fact gaining popularity and gives the old-school television a run for its money. Data from South Korea showed that there is a real appetite for it. Many Koreans spend up to 90 minutes watching mobisodes on their mobile phones everyday(BBC News 2008).
As Dave McQueen, principal analyst at Informa puts it "TV is a medium that everyone understands, and so is mobile"(BBC News 2008).
Better than its original counterpart? (Motu 2008)
An article by Max Dawson(2007) entitled 'Little Players, Big Shows', explores the role of aesthetics in television's current convergence with mobile telephones and portable media players like the iPod. According to Dawson(2007), mobile television's hardware aesthetic is pervasive, and has already endangered the establishment of repertoire production techniques that are geared towards small screens, reduced frame rates, short battery lives, and limited storage capacities of mobile television's central artifacts. Due to a high demand for mobisodes, it is difficult to have a standardise format across the line.
Interestingly, multimodality plays a role here. Walsh(2006), describes how a paradign shift has taken place in a society whereby we are increasingly bombarded by multimodal texts. Kress & Van Leeuwen(2006) shares the same sentiment and emphasises on temporal composition in film and television.
References
BBC News 2008, 'Future of TV:The Production Company', viewed at <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6143350.stm>, on 10 June 2008.
Dawson,M 2007,'Little Players,Big Shows:Format, Narration, and Style On Television's New Smaller Screens ,viewed at <http://con.sagepub.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/cgi/reprint/13/3/231> ,on 10 June 2008.
Kress & Van Leeuwen 2006, 'Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication',John Benjamins Publishing Company,U.S.A.
Walsh M 2006, ‘'Textual shift”: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian journal of language and literacy, vol. 29, no 1, pp. 24-37.
Mobisodes at your fingertips (ABC News 2008)
Truth be told, mobisodes are in fact gaining popularity and gives the old-school television a run for its money. Data from South Korea showed that there is a real appetite for it. Many Koreans spend up to 90 minutes watching mobisodes on their mobile phones everyday(BBC News 2008).
As Dave McQueen, principal analyst at Informa puts it "TV is a medium that everyone understands, and so is mobile"(BBC News 2008).
Better than its original counterpart? (Motu 2008)
An article by Max Dawson(2007) entitled 'Little Players, Big Shows', explores the role of aesthetics in television's current convergence with mobile telephones and portable media players like the iPod. According to Dawson(2007), mobile television's hardware aesthetic is pervasive, and has already endangered the establishment of repertoire production techniques that are geared towards small screens, reduced frame rates, short battery lives, and limited storage capacities of mobile television's central artifacts. Due to a high demand for mobisodes, it is difficult to have a standardise format across the line.
Interestingly, multimodality plays a role here. Walsh(2006), describes how a paradign shift has taken place in a society whereby we are increasingly bombarded by multimodal texts. Kress & Van Leeuwen(2006) shares the same sentiment and emphasises on temporal composition in film and television.
References
BBC News 2008, 'Future of TV:The Production Company', viewed at <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6143350.stm>, on 10 June 2008.
Dawson,M 2007,'Little Players,Big Shows:Format, Narration, and Style On Television's New Smaller Screens ,viewed at <http://con.sagepub.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/cgi/reprint/13/3/231> ,
Kress & Van Leeuwen 2006, 'Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication',John Benjamins Publishing Company,U.S.A.
Walsh M 2006, ‘'Textual shift”: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian journal of language and literacy, vol. 29, no 1, pp. 24-37.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
United Colours of YouTube: Rides The Multimodal Wave
The possibilities of YouTube are endless. Here's a video that aims to bring out that spirit of patriotism that lies deep down in your heart(usually modestly reserved for Independance a.k.a Merdeka Day) all over again. Kudos to Pete Teo and company(a line up that includes Yasmin Ahmad and Tony Fernandes)!
Here In My Home-Malaysian Artistes For Unity
Incidentally, this is a classic example of multimodality in full swing too. According to Walsh(2006), multimodal texts refer to printed and digital texts which comprise of more than one mode. This interesting video clip combines sound, moving images and written text to provide a comprehensive understanding on unity.
References
Walsh, M 2006, ‘”Textual shift”: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian journal of language and literacy, vol. 29, no 1, pp. 24-37.
Here In My Home-Malaysian Artistes For Unity
Incidentally, this is a classic example of multimodality in full swing too. According to Walsh(2006), multimodal texts refer to printed and digital texts which comprise of more than one mode. This interesting video clip combines sound, moving images and written text to provide a comprehensive understanding on unity.
References
Walsh, M 2006, ‘”Textual shift”: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian journal of language and literacy, vol. 29, no 1, pp. 24-37.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Bachelor of Blogging
UiTM to start blogging courses!
Are you at a crossroad after high-school? Undecided on which course to pursue? If you're willing to take the road less travelled, look no further, this article extracted from The New Straits Times explains it all. If you're good at it, you could be taking home a stable monthly fat pay-check via Advertlets and NuffNang. Now how does that sound?
SHAH ALAM: Malaysians interested in blogging may soon be able to take up courses on the subject at Universiti Teknologi Mara.
Its vice-chancellor, Datuk Seri Prof Dr Ibrahim Abu Shah, said the university was ready to help prospective bloggers become more credible in their reporting.He said blogging was different from traditional media, which required reporters to have academic qualifications."Anyone can become a blogger now," he told reporters after a seminar here yesterday. But this did not mean bloggers could write about anything, as they first needed to master several aspects of writing, such as language, ethics and accuracy of reporting.
Ibrahim said he supported any proposal to offer courses on blogging and that it was the most suitable time to do so. "We know bloggers are intelligent, but we want to help them be more professional." Earlier in his speech, Ibrahim said the function of traditional media had changed with the arrival of new media, which he said focused more on the younger generation.
He added that people saw new media as an avenue through which they could express themselves and speak their minds.(NST 2008).
References
The New Straits Times Online 2008,'UiTM To Start Blogging Courses', viewed on 13 May 2008, at http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/National/2238941/Article
Are you at a crossroad after high-school? Undecided on which course to pursue? If you're willing to take the road less travelled, look no further, this article extracted from The New Straits Times explains it all. If you're good at it, you could be taking home a stable monthly fat pay-check via Advertlets and NuffNang. Now how does that sound?
SHAH ALAM: Malaysians interested in blogging may soon be able to take up courses on the subject at Universiti Teknologi Mara.
Its vice-chancellor, Datuk Seri Prof Dr Ibrahim Abu Shah, said the university was ready to help prospective bloggers become more credible in their reporting.He said blogging was different from traditional media, which required reporters to have academic qualifications."Anyone can become a blogger now," he told reporters after a seminar here yesterday. But this did not mean bloggers could write about anything, as they first needed to master several aspects of writing, such as language, ethics and accuracy of reporting.
Ibrahim said he supported any proposal to offer courses on blogging and that it was the most suitable time to do so. "We know bloggers are intelligent, but we want to help them be more professional." Earlier in his speech, Ibrahim said the function of traditional media had changed with the arrival of new media, which he said focused more on the younger generation.
He added that people saw new media as an avenue through which they could express themselves and speak their minds.(NST 2008).
References
The New Straits Times Online 2008,'UiTM To Start Blogging Courses', viewed on 13 May 2008, at http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/National/2238941/Article
Monday, May 12, 2008
YouTube Phenomenon-Marie Digby
Cover of Rihanna's 'Umbrella...ella..ella...eh...eh'
Thomas Friedman was right; the world is indeed flat these days. It would have been an interesting debate if Chirstopher Columbus was still alive today.
Marie Digby clearly exemplifies how one can get from where one is; to where one wants to be. Marie Digby successfully kick-started her music career by broadcasting herself on YouTube, a video sharing website which allows users to upload,view and share video clips. Marie shot to fame with an acoustic cover version of Rihanna's Umbrella. Gives Rihanna a run for her money I reckon. Check out Marie Digby live this Wednesday(8th May 2008), 8pm at Highstreet, 1utama.
Updated..
On a personal note, I went for the gig and it turned out to be a huge success! Approximately, a strong crowd of 3000 turned up. Not bad for an event that relied on word-of-mouth publicity. This illustrates how viral marekting in full swing works too(USA Today 2005).
References
USA Today 2005, 'Viral Advertising Spreads Through Marketing Plans', viewed at <http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2005-06-22-viral-usat_x.htm>, on 10 June 2008.
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