HW 13: Blogs Will Change Your Business

After reading "Blogs Will Change Your Business" by Stephen Baker and Heather Green (Kline and Burstein 221-233) I realized how important blogging could actually be to a business or company. I found that the impact blogging has on a business is much more profound than the impact blogging has on communication that is not business- or profit-related. Blogs in a business could provide a new variety of ways for work to get completed in a very efficient and non-time consuming way. Especially since “they’re the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the internet itself.” (Kline and Burstein 222) Blogging in a business is a great way to introduce a new product to society while at the same time allowing the customers to express their feelings about it at the same time. Blogging will keep the consumers up to date about recalls of the product, new versions or editions of the product, answer frequently asked questions and allow the consumers to provide feedback to the company that could potentially benefit the product as well as the company. Blogging in a business is an extremely great idea in they eyes of many, and many more to come.

HW 11: OhmyNews

After reading over all the blogs in Rebecca MacKinnon’s “Making Global Voices Heard”, I decided to look into OhmyNews at english.ohmynews.com. I thought this would be interesting to look at because MacKinnon described it as “a kind of online newspaper” and I figured it would be fun to look at. The site itself looks as if it were to be a regular news website such as CNN or NBC. There are many articles on the page that refer to events happening in other countries and things of the sort. The blog is made by professional editors who taking in submissions from the general public daily. One of the blogs is about how a Brazilian Samba was celebrated in Japan with sushi, which I found to be very interesting. MacKinnon’s description of the blog seems to be accurate to what the site is today. The site continues to have polls in the right hand column just as she mentioned in the text. In general the site is just the way that she had explained it. MacKinnon mentioned that the page featured information on politics, which remains accurate to this date as well. Of course, many people will probably disagree with this assertion that what MacKinnon wrote about the blog is not factual at this point in time. They may say this due to the fact that election information is not bombarding the entire site. I feel that her description compares exactly to what I thought I would see and what I saw.

HW 9: A Weblog Saved Your Life? Yeah Right

After reading the title "A Weblog Saved My Life Last Night" (Kline and Burstein 308-314) I was very curious about how this was possible. Ayelet Waldman explains how she wrote a suicide note on her blog, and it ultimately saved her life. People began responding to this note, reached out to her, and let her know she had a problem and she was not functioning clearly. Although I agree with Waldman to a point, I cannot accept her overall conclusion that blogging is amazing, affectionate and life changing. I do however agree with her statement "the blogosphere has given these people a sense of community" as referring to suicidal people. I believe that this is a beneficial way for these people to express their emotions and allow for others to give them advice. On the other hand, I do not think that people should be leaving suicide notes on blogs. Not only is writing in this form wrong but also what if a child were to get a hold of the blog and read it. People need to take into consideration what age groups might be reading what they write and not to expect to be able to blog as they please. Blogging as a daily routine I see no problem with, there just need to be limits and guidelines of what is and what is not acceptable.

HW 7 No Monitoring

I feel as though it would be immoral for a parent to monitor everything that their middle-school child writes in an online blog. Blogs provide a way for many people to express the way they feel without fully revealing their identity. Many people are self-conscious or shy especially middle-school students where they are turning into teenagers and entering a new school. Blogging provides these people with a way to open up and say what they really feel without making them feel scared. Blogging also helps these people out by allowing them to ask questions, which they were afraid to ask in person and still get answers from many people. In Emily Nussbaum’s text “My So-Called Blog” she states:

“But for a significant number, they become a way of life, a daily record of a community’s private thoughts- a kind of invisible high school that floats above the daily life of teenagers.” (Kline and Burstein 351)

She shows readers what blogging is, why it is popular among middle-school students, and describes the way that bloggers see it in order to provide a better understanding. In order for a parent to monitor everything that their child writes is not only a violation of privacy but it is wrong. Parents should learn to trust their children and have the confidence that what they are typing is just a way to express themselves and not a way to do wrong.

HW 5b: I Blog Therefore I Am

After reading “I Blog, Therefore I Am” written by David Kline I found it very had to disagree with much of what he wrote. Within the text Kline speaks of how blogging is very important and is becoming more common in society today. Kline claims that even though blogging is so popular it will not be the conclusion of mainstream media. I would argue with Kline in a way on this statement. I think that blogging will continue to play a large part in the media however; I question that it will overpower all other media at this point in time. Kline argues, “ Blogs are simply a continuation of a phenomenon.” (Kline pg 246) I do not believe that blogging will continue to have the heavy impact on society that is has up to this point. After a while the thrill will be no more and blogging will be just another way to communicate and not such a big deal.

HW 6: Semester Loooooong Project

The Social computing technologies that I am most interested in are instant messaging, social networking services and chat rooms and text chat. I chose these three because I use each of them almost everyday. I chose instant messaging because it provides me with a way to contact my friends and family who are 150 miles away. This comes in especially handy when it comes to talking to my Nana. She like to carry on conversations forever so when I am talking to her on AIM it is convenient so that I can talk to others while she is typing and get work done at the same time if necessary. I chose social networking services because I use Facebook as well as Myspace. This gives me a way to share my photos and random funny things that I find with friends and family everywhere. I have no particular reason for choosing chat rooms but I am interested in the way that they portray women. For my selection of marginalized groups I chose overcoming sexism, overcoming racism and overcoming homophobia. I chose these because I feel that they are a big problem today in society. The geographical areas which I would like to study are the US and North America. My primary reason for choosing these areas is only because I have never seen any other parts of the world and am honestly not that interested in them.

HW 4: option 1 Dr. Pepper

For my product I looked up the soda Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper is mentioned on page 105 in the chapter “The Voice of the Customer” (Kline & Burstein). I found out that Dr. Pepper makes several products that I had no knowledge of in the past. I found that they make regular Dr. Pepper but also Diet Dr. Pepper, Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, Caffeine Free Dr. Pepper, Caffeine Free Diet Dr. Pepper, Berries and Cream Dr. Pepper, and Diet Berries and Cream Dr. Pepper. I found this information on the Dr. Pepper website which is located at http://www.drpepper.com/. I found this information interesting because I thought with Dr. Pepper being such a uniquely flavored drink that it would not come in flavors such as Berries and Cream. It was informative in such a way that I found out a way that I could drink Dr. Pepper and keeping it diet at the same time. Dr. Pepper gives you several options and flavors to pick from that still remain a diet soda.

HW 3

David Kline shows a great deal of knowledge about political blogs as shown in the text "Toward a more participatory Democracy". Many people assume that the news that is heard over the radio or on the television is the correct and the most reliable source of information possible. However, after reading this selection I believe that political blogs may be just as if not more effective than any other source. Also, most American’s do not believe that what is said in the media is always true. There are in fact cases where the story might be changed or incorrect in parts but that gives no reason to believe that none of it is true. Kline states, “not tot take anything away from the Republican Web strategists- their man won the election, after all-but Trippi and others maintain that the GOP was not the only party to use the web to unleash the energy and initiative of millions of citizens and allow them to shape the course of campaigns.” After reading this idea I am very curious to see how political blogs effect the upcoming election and I am also anxious to read some of the blogs and see what people have to say.

HW 2

After reading Burstein’s twelve key ideas in "From Cave Painting to Wonkette" (Kline and Burstein xxi-xxvi) number six really intrigued me. I was surprised to read that bogging had actually been more common in other countries as opposed to the USA. What really shocked me is not the idea that blogging is going global but that it didn’t originate here in the USA. This makes me wonder that if other types of networking and such are more popular in other countries as well. It was also said that the most influential blogs are from other countries as well which I did not find that shocking. In other countries living is more difficult and I can definitely see how blogs by people from different countries could be very moving and inspirational. After reading Burstein’s ideas I am now more interested in reading blogs from the countries in which blogging is more popular than here. As mentioned in the text, a month after a Chinese friend had predicted that blogs would have more impact on revolutionizing China and bringing it fully into the modern world than any other influence, it seemed to happen (Kline and Burstein’s xxiii). This just goes to show that when someone expresses his or her ideas it has an impact on what actually goes on in the world. It is nice to see that people take other’s ideas into consideration.