Twitter versus Blogs

Blogging allows you to generate more in-depth content. It also requires a long term commitment of keeping in touch with the audience and keeping the blog updated always. As for a personal blog, you might have a bunch of observations, or reviews. Without some sort of updated content, there is a little reason to visit a web site more than once (WordPress.org).

As for twitter, according to Fleet (2009), it is a different kind of commitment. Each post takes just little time. That can give Twitter the appearance of requiring much less of a commitment than writing a 'traditional' blog.

Bloggers use Twitter much more than does the general population. In a poll conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates in May 2009 for The Wall Street Journa’s “All Things D” conference, just 14% of the general population used Twitter – but 73% of respondents in this survey do (including 83% of Corporates and 88% of Self-Employeds). Those who use Twitter say they do so to promote their blogs, bring interesting links to light, and to understand what people are buzzing about. 50% of Part Timers say they use Twitter to market their businesses. Other uses of Twitter, like interacting with companies (24%), politicians (11%), and celebrities (9%), are much less popular (Technorati.com, 2009).

Image 1. (Technorati.com)

According to Technorati.com (2009), 26% of bloggers who also use Twitter say that the service has eaten into the time they spend updating their traditional blogs – though 65% say it has had no effect.

Image 2. (Technorati.com)

As most of the argument going on now is about whether Twitter is taking over blogging. In this case, I don't think so, because, they are both different tools for different purposes. Blogging needs time and effort and recognising audiences, whereas Twitter is more about keeping your nearest and dearest updated what is going on with your lives, sometimes one can post multiple post on Twitter to get immediate engage with the people you want to communicate with.

Both are valuable tools, and both are effective in their own way with different purposes.

Reference:

Fleet, D, 2009, Blogging vs. Twitter: A different kind of commitment.
Accessed 29 October, 2009
http://davefleet.com/2009/02/blogs-vs-twitter-different-commitment/

WordPress.org, Introduction to Blogging,
Accessed 29 October, 2009
http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging

Technorati.com, Day 5: Twitter, Global Impact and The Future Of Blogging - SOTB 2009
Accessed 29 October, 2009
http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-5-twitter-global-impact-and/

Online Design vs. Print Design

The differences of designing for online and print can be compared in major topic areas, for example, types of media, audience, layout, color, technology and careers.

For the types of media, as a print designer, there is magazine advertisement, product design and packaging, business cards, and logos. As for web designer, there is standard HTML websites, flash websites, email newsletters, and banner advertising (Miller, 2009).

In print, most reader would have honed a navigation strategy that suits their interest and motivations for getting news (Schriver, 1998)

In web, reader will first read in a "horizontal movement... then move down to the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement... finally, they scan the content's left side in a vertical movement." (Nielson, 2006).

If readers feel the content for a Web site is disorganised and choppy, it may raise doubts int heir minds about the utility of the information itself (Schriver, 1998).

Image 1. (Sun2surf.com)

Image 2. (Sun2surf.com)

The two picture above are from theSun newspaper. Image 1 is the web version of the newspaper while image 2 is the front page of the newspaper.

In the print version of the newspaper, the layout is neat and clean. It successfully convince the reader to maintain interest in the front page news and nail down the content by choosing visuals that invite them to read about the content more deeply.

In the web version of the newspaper, "newspaper front page construct relations between different events in the news, for instances by positioning some as ideal and others as Real, or some as Given, and others as New." (Kress & van Leeuwan, 1998, pg. 216).

Reference:

Nielson, J, 2006, F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content
Accessed 21 October, 2009
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html

About.com, Graphic Design for Print Versus the Web,
Accessed 21 October, 2009 http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/printvsweb/a/print_vs_web.htm

Schriver, K.A, 1997, Chapter 6: Dynamics in Document Design, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, Front page: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout, Blackwell, Oxford.

Blogging Communities

According to White (2006), 'online community' implied a community who interacted online within some bounded set of technologies, in this case, blogs and forums. Communities could be public or private and visible only to those who joined.

To create a blogging community, I would start by reading other blogs, to get a head start on what I have to say and might discover blogs that I share common interest with. Keep my blog interesting and updated always to keep the audience at my blog longer. Other than that, is by visiting other blogs and leaving comments in other blogs. On way of leaving comments in other blogs is to provide a link for others to find you, to show that you made an effort to engage with other bloggers and ready to exchange information and discussion.

People blog about specific topic they are interested in, from politics, to life style, to sports, to gaming. The communities can be public or private and visible to those who are in the same community as them. An example of a community that decided to use technology to create an experience of a shared community is the Global Voices community, which aggregates blogs from developing countries in an effort to get the mainstream media to pay attention to issues in those countries (White, 2006).

Reference:

White, N, 2006, Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community?
Accessed 15 October, 2009
http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community

Problogger.net 2009, 8 tips for building community on your blog [Image]
Accessed 15 October, 2009
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/02/28/8-tips-for-building-community-on-your-blog/

Classification of blogs

Each blog are classify by its content and its purpose.

For Technorati.com, it classified the 9 major categories of blog, namely

1. Entertainment
2. Technology
3. Live
4. Business
5. Politics
6. Autos
7. Sports
8. Green
9. Science

In Technorati, each of the sub-categories of the can add up to more than 50 sub catergories under 1 major category. For example, under Sports category alone there are 7 sub-categories, namely

1. Baseball
2. Football
3. Basketball
4. Hockey
5. Tennis
6. Golf
7. Motorsport

The taxonomy of blogs will never be final and it will never stop generating new ones to surprise us. According to Simons (2008), she said, historical resonances can be helpful in illuminating what is going on in new media, as well as reminding us that this is not the first time that technological innovation has changed almost everything about how we communicate. Certain human needs persist. The means of satisfying them alters.

Glahn (2009) said, people love to read others’ thoughts about the issues affecting us all. In my opinion, it's a self-expression in the world of blogging, whether the various categories of blogs are there to help us recognise information or to fit their information into a more accurate curves to actual data.

Reference:

Blog Directory 2009, Technorati,
Accessed 13 October, 2009
http://technorati.com/blogs/directory/

Australian Policy Online 2008, Towards a taxonomy of blogs
Accesssed 13 October, 2009
http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0

Bible.org 2009, Increase Your 'Net Worth: Everywomen's Guide
Accessed 14 October, 2009
http://blog.bible.org/tapestry/content/increase-your-%2526%2523039%3Bnet-worth%3A-everywoman%E2%80%99s-guide

The Current Blogging Phenomenon

There are well over 12 million blogs, and 40,000 new blogs are started everyday (Demopoulos, 2007).

The Pew Internet Study estimated that 27% of Internet users were regular blog readers at the end of 2004. That's approximately 32 million people who regularly read blogs. Blog readership jumped 58% in 2004. There is a lot of room for growth as 62% of Internet users are not sure what a blog is. The blogosphere – the world of blogs – is doubling in size every 5 months! Some blogs have millions of readers per month (Demopoulos, 2005). The list below is the most influential blog in Malaysia according to Technorati rank:

i. Kennysia.com
ii. SapiensBryan.com
iii. Hemmy.net
iv. JeffOoi.com Screenshot
v. LiewCF.com
vi. Yasmin The Story Teller
vii. Afdlin Shauki
viii. PaulTan.org
ix. Alex Allied
x. Rocky’s Bru

http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/

In the findings conducted by the media agency Universal McCann, which surveyed young, heavy internet users and found that nearly 30% of them in Britain had never heard of blogs, the ones who visit blogs and would leave comments on them are only 10% of them (Brook, 2006).

However, in Malaysia, women bloggers made up 64% of respondents, while men lagged at 36%. The survey also found that a large majority of bloggers (74%) are below 25 years old, with another 21% between 25 and 34 years old (Microsoft, 2006).

These are the key findings in Survey: Youth and Self-Expression Drive The Art Of Blogging In Malaysia.

·74% of bloggers are 25 years old or younger
· 64% of bloggers are women
· 81% are most interested in blogs by friends or family
· 48% of bloggers like to write their thoughts or comment on the world around them
· 34% of bloggers like to have their own personal corner of cyberspace
· 50% said boring blogs are biggest turn-off

http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/press/archive2006/linkpage4337.mspx

Blogs contributes to the various fields that will eventually make an impact on. As mentioned by Hughes and Kellman (2009), as blogs gain traction amongst a wider and more educated following, their essence as an ungoverned, uncontrolled medium for exchange will continue to grow beyond the reach of borders and governments. The next generation of blogs will be more action oriented, not just commenting on real time events, but driving those events. A blog amplify one’s voice, it gives an individual the ability to communicate globally and enable bloggers to engage with each other’s ideas.

Reference:

Demopoulus, T 2005, Understanding Blogs, The Current Wave of the Information Revolution
Accessed 11 October, 2009
http://www.effectiveinternetpresence.com/articles/blog-speech-transcript.htm

Sabahan.com 2007, 50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia,
Accessed 11 October, 2009
http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/

Brook, S 2006, Blogs struggle to impress in UK, Guardian,
Accessed 11 October, 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/jun/20/pressandpublishing.newmedia

Microsoft.com 2008, Women Rule in Malaysian Blogosphere,
Accessed 11 October, 2009
http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/press/archive2006/linkpage4337.mspx

Hughes, D., & Kellman, R., 2009, Blogging’s Global Impact and the Future of Blogging, Technorati.com
Accessed 15 October, 2009
http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-5-twitter-global-impact-and/page-2/