Blogosphere Unplugged

My Reflections

2008-06-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

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?

Wikipedia Vs. Britannica

2008-06-10T06:29:00.001-07:00

The contenders...

(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.

Ethical Publishing: To be or not to be?

2008-06-08T08:31:00.001-07:00

Case of...

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.

Convergence: Little Players, Big Shows

2008-06-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

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.

United Colours of YouTube: Rides The Multimodal Wave

2008-05-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Bachelor of Blogging

2008-05-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

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

YouTube Phenomenon-Marie Digby

2008-05-12T05:31:00.000-07:00

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.

Spanking New Forms of Media Publishing

2008-05-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

Simply because time is of the essence, there has been a trend to mobilise the media. This trend has brought about the birth of moblogs(mobile blogs). With this in mind, blogs are even more accessible than before; allowing users to update their blogs with a camera phone equipped with GPRS. This may arguably be just a fad; but it has definitely been a catalyst to this:

The Cell Phone Book: Interactive Literacy For New Media

A recent essay published in the New Yorker entitled "Twilight of the Books: What will life be like if people stop reading?" tracks a long decline in the popularity of reading books in the U.S. since at least 1937. According to the essay, "Americans are losing not just the will to read but even the ability(Crain 2007). Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer, Steve Jobs shared the same sentiment as the author, stating that "It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is; the fact is that people don't read anymore."

A recent study has shown a steep decline
in literary reading among schoolchildren.

However, the solution to this catastrophe is right under our noses. A point to note is that half of the top 10 best selling books in Japan last year started out as cell phone books.

The books-on-phones genre kick started when a home-page-making Web site company realized that people in Japan were writing serialised novels on their blogs, and figured out how to autocreate cell phone-based novels from the blog entries(Elgan 2008).

Contributing to the cell phone book craze in Japan are long commutes where book reading is hard to do, but scanning the ubiquitous cell phone is easy and convenient. The Japanese have figured out a way to make reading participatory, through cell phones and blogs(Elgan 2008).

On hindsight, Cell Phone Books are here to stay and may cultivate the reading habit among kids and adults alike. Afterall, a cellphone is more of 'need 'rather than a 'want' these days. Beg to differ? Kudos to the land of sashimi, Motorola and Studio Ghibli!

References
Elgan, M. 2008, 'Will cell phones save books? ',Computerworld. [Online] viewed on 6 May 2008, at http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9060501&pageNumber=1

Crain 2007, 'Twilight of The Books', The New Yorker, viewed on 5 May 2008, at http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2007/12/24/071224crat_atlarge_crain

Designing for the Web Vs Print

2008-05-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Jacob Nielsen(1999) argues that blogs are often too internally focussed and ignore key usability issues, making it hard for new readers to understand the site and trust the author. He notes that many existing web documents can be printed out and function just as well. Shriver(1997) shares the same sentiment and stated that better technology does not necessarily equate to better communication. Designers should resist the urge to 'romance the screen' and focus more on its readers. Just let the pictures do the talking.

Online edition of The Star Newspaper

The Print edition of The Star Newspaper

The most obvious difference between print and web is the text placement. Jacob Nielsen(1999) also emphasises the importance of a web document to be concise, scannable and objective. I agree whole-heartedly with Nielsen as readers usually skim through web documents. Besides that, reading a print document would be much easier on the eyes.

References

Nielsen,J 1999,Jakob Nielsen interview, Jupitermedia Corporation, viewed on 9 May 2008, at http://webreference.com/new/nielsen.html

Schriver, K.A. 1997, Interplay of Words and Pictures: Dynamic in Document Design, New York.

Blogging Communities

2008-05-08T10:41:00.001-07:00

In a nutshell, blogging communities are formed around a particular shared interest. It creates a platform for bloggers to share their passions and exchange thoughts. A blogger can link himself to a community by posting the links to other blogs on his own blog. It usually appears as a panel on the sidebar. This phenomenon is THE tipping point! Akin to a word-of-mouth but tips a whole lot faster. A recent shopping community that has been making headlines is A Shopholics Den.

Classification of Blogs

2008-05-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

A blog by another name is still a blog. On the contrary, it can be classified according to its specific category and genre. As a rule of the thumb, blogs can be categorised as personal, corporate or non-profit. Here are some examples of the variety of blogs in existence shaping the blogosphere.

Entertainment- http://perezhilton.com/
Political-http://jeffooi.com
Pets-http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/pets
Fashion-http://shopaholicsu.blogspot.com/
Travel-http://www.travelblog.org/
Sitcom-http://gossipgirl-blog.cwtv.com/

In this tech-savvy zeitgeist, blogging is made easy via a device called, moblog. Say what?
According to BBC News(2007), the number of moblog or mobile blogs escalated with the advent of camera phones with Wi-Fi enabled features. As the name suggests, moblogs are taking blogs to a whole new level. It's really convenient; one only needs to be equppied with a cellphone and voila!, one can start posting entries on- the- go. Here's a link to a moblog for your viewing pleasure-http://moblog.co.uk/blogs.php?start=56&show=5447

Besides that, blogs can also be classified according to its media type.
Vlog(video blog)
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=LisaNova

Photoblogs(Blogs that primarily display photos)
http://www.danielkaspar.info/iamacamera/

Linklog(Blogs that consist ONLY links to other blogs)
http://roadtogrammar.com

Tumblelogs(Concise blogs that feature links, photos, dialogues,quotes, and videos minus the long commentary).
http://www.tumblr.com/

Sketchblog(Blogs specialising in sketch artwork)
http://kristens-sketchblog.blogspot.com/

References
BBC News 2007, 'Hi-Tech Ways To Stay In Touch', viewed on 8 May 2008, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7082566.stm

What's on a Malaysian blogger's radar??

2008-05-07T08:42:00.000-07:00

Blogs provide an avenue for social interaction, expressing random thoughts and even a business channel. Malaysians, epitomised to be truly asian are no different from other global citizens of the blogosphere. Every Ah Chong, Ahmad and Muthusamy has a blog these days. Pun intended as Tom, Dick and Harry would not fit in as well in a Malaysian context. According to Bernhardt(1986), multiple considerations of audience and purpose functionally constrain the text, and influence its shape and structure. I believe in applying theory to practice!

TheCicak.com(literally translated to mean 'The Lizard') is an example of a popular peer-reviewed social interaction blog that discusses issues affecting Malaysian youth.

Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's ex-Prime Minister was the latest personality to jump onto the blogosphere bandwagon. His first post generated a whopping 1177 comments, and counting. Check it out for yourself at http://www.chedet.com/

On a personal note, I created a blog, *connectedthinking during my stint as a Vacation Trainee at PwC to stay connected with the other interns. It doubles as a platform for Vacation Trainees to share their random thoughts and experiences at the office.

Here's an example of a blog used as a business channel. Cuppacakes by Wondermilk was well received not only because it sold pretty little cupcakes that would make one stop and stare; it was actually interactive and the customers like the fact that they are able to engage with the owners. A successful business venture that started its humble journey from a blog. It now boasts a full-fledged cafe in Damansara Jaya. The blog was definitely a catalyst to it.

References
Berhardt, SA 1986, ‘Seeing the text’, College composition and communication, vol. 37, no. 1, pp.
66 – 78.

Cuppacakes 2008, 'The Cuppacakes Show 03', viewed on 2 May 2008, at http://cuppacakes.blogspot.com/

Mohamad, DM 2008, 'The Appointment of Judges', viewed on 6 May 2008, at http://www.chedet.com

The Cicak.com 2008, 'Tap Into The Young Minds Of Malaysians', viewed on 2 May 2008, at http://thecicak.com/

Blogosphere Unplugged

2008-05-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

The Blogging Phenomenon
What is this new buzzword that has taken the world by storm? Blogosphere (not to be confused with 'blogger's fear'), is a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections. The term 'blogosphere' was coined by Brad L. Graham in 1999(UrbanDictionary 2008). According to leading internet tracker,Technorati(2008), 175,000 blogs are born everyday. It is not surprising; as one only needs to be equipped with a computer and internet connection to start injecting doses of intellectual(or otherwise) thoughts to the world wide web. Blogging is made easy with user friendly and noob-proof webhosts such as Blogger or Wordpress. As cliche as it may sounds, blogging is as easy as ABC!

Current Trends
It's an accepted fact that( proven by social behaviour and social sciences), women are better communicators than men. Now, with the new buzzword phenomenon, social media has reinforeced this age-old reality. According to Microsoft(2008), 64% of bloggers are in fact women. However, noteworthy celebrity bloggers such as Kenny Sia is a good representation of the male population and brings the proportion back to an equalilbrium, ceteris paribus.

Blogging Trends by BlogPulse Live

Clickity-click on diagram to enlarge (BlogPulse 2008)

BlogPulse, a service of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, is a window into the blogospehere that tracks the most popular topics bloggers are posting about, updated by the minute! How cool is that?

Trends on the International Front
What makes them tick?
Iran: Political blogs
Middle eastern governtments have dominated the media for decades, trying to keep a monopoly on information. On the flipside, Middle Eastern bloggers are chipping away at that lock, blogging about everything from human rights to the most taboo topics(USA Today 2008). Click here for the full article.

Japan/Korea: Social blogs,corporate blogs(IT Industry)
Japan and Korea unite in the name of technology and the fashion scene. Japan's pride and identity lies in Mazda, Sony, Harajuku fashion, and sushi. On the other hand, Korea has Kia, Samsung, Bae Yong Jun and kimchi. Click on the widget to check out what makes the Japanese tick. A point to note, a whopping 60% of corporate blogs in Korea are from the IT industry.

India: Business blogs(IT), Public Relations blogs
Ironically,India's blogosphere is heavily dominated by men. According to India's national newspaper The Hindu, technology content is the mostly widely accessed, followed closely by news and education.

Trends on the local front
What makes Malaysians tick?

To be honest, a lot really. Malaysians being Malaysians. For example, just a four letter word, S.A.L.E makes them go ga-ga! Personal experience, I went for a Branded Brands Sale at Bangsar Village 2 recently. It opened at 10am. I arrived at 10.23am, and the queue was all the way down from the 2nd floor to get to the 3rd floor. Madness!

In the name of retail therapy. Don't these people work on a Friday morning? I digress. Precisely, why I shall leave the benefits of blogs to Malaysians for the next post. Look out for it!

References

Blog Pulse 2008, 'Blog Pulse Live', viewed on 5 May 2008, at http://www.blogpulse.com/

Microsoft 2008, 'Women Rule In Malaysian Blogosphere', viewed on 28 April 2008, at http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/press/archive2006/linkpage4337.mspx

Milner,R 2008,' Big Haired Big Brothers Take Over Shibuya 109-2', C Scout Japan, viewed on 5 May 2008, at http://www.kilian-nakamura.com/blog-english/

Sia, K 2008, 'When Routine Isn't Exactly Normal', viewed on 1 May 2008, at http://kennysia.com

Technorati 2008, 'Mentions By Day', viewed on 30 April 2008, at http://www.technorati.com/

The Hindu 2006, 'Interesting Blogging Trends Revealed In India Revealed In New Survey', viewed on 5 May 2008, at http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/28/stories/2006112800452200.htm

Urban Dictionary 2008, 'Definition of Blogosphere', viewed on 5 May 2008, at http://www.urbandictionary.com/

USA Today 2007, 'Bloggers In Mideast Transforming Dialogue But Face Clampdowns By Authorities', viewed on 5 May 2008, at http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-02-09-mideast-blogs_x.htm

Wetpaint 2008, 'South Korea-Future Trends', viewed on 5 May 2008, at http://comm215.wetpaint.com/page/S.Korea+-+Future+Trends?t=anon

Blogging with a Purpose

2008-04-22T23:01:00.001-07:00

This blog was born with the purpose to enlighten, evaluate and critically discuss issues relating to document designs and publishing. It is intended to be a breath of fresh air to students majoring in this field as well as professionals who might use it to gain a wider perspective of the document designs and publishing realm. Last but not least, the blogger of this blog hopes to connect with YOU and seriously engage in decent table topics.