classroom blog

Web 2.0

2008-05-16T09:54:00.003Z

When deciding what would be appropriate for CANVAS we must take into consideration the new improvements of the web, and the capabilities web 2.0 has given us.
While many facets of this new meduim are helpful for general online use some would be redundant on a site of our size. To make CANVAS successful we must only take what we an use productivly from Web 2.0.

Flash: After discussion we have decided to use flash to create a community atmosphere within the 'Your Union' page with a flash slide show showing party pictures taken by our users. It creates user generated content, a chance for users to comment and become interactive within the site and is also a nice addition to masses of copy.

Comment: When craeting a site that covers sensitive issues to a small community it is important to give the user a chance to have thier say. Comment boxes at the end of features and news stories enhances the community atmosphere and helps users communicate thier ideas in a convient place with other like-minded people.

RSS feeds: With a site as subject specific as ours a feed needs to be carfully selected. This could be easily done on Google news and we could choose topics such as students news, student finance and student news from around the world.

Search engines: As our site grows with time it will become harder to navigate and find specific topics that many be archived, here the search engine would be useful but while our site is small and easily navigated it would be rather pointless.

Social bookmarking: As much as we would like to think our content is worthy enough to be bookmarked I think it would be useless to try we are a small site catering to a equally small audience, bookmarking would be time consuming and useless.

Multi media: This is one part of 2.0 that we can use to our advantage adding links to video or embedding it within the page gives another dimension to a story and stops the raeder from getting bored. We must on the other hand be careful to use it wisely and not get carried away with adding to much that will distract readers from the copy.

Blogs: Thsi could either enhance the site or distract readers away from the main site. Blogs could be a great added extra which create a bigger sense of community by adding other students degree specific blogs or they are taking traffic away from CANVAS and giving it to less important sites.

Flash

2008-04-14T17:49:00.003Z

After trawling through lots of flash media on various websites I have come to the conclusion that it is not where the flash player is, whether it be on a site designed for children or silver surfers, it depends on how appropriate it is.
I think that Flash should only be used when really needed, this is why it works so well on the National Geographic site because it is such a visual site Flash is needed to compliment the story. I think the idea of 'Flashtbation' can be seen on sites such as CNN and BBC where they have either used video from the TV programme or added pointless video that doesn't add anything to the bigger story. Sorry you have to follow links but I couldn't get video up!

competitor analysis

2008-03-12T13:45:00.000Z

I chose to analyse The Sun website, I believe it to be one of the best examples of Web 2.0 being used at full potential.
The site uses all the new tools to its potential but still chooses to re purpose stories from the paper. It doesn’t include links within the text and hasn’t been cropped to fit the web page. This would be a problem for many news websites as lengthy stories would tire the eye and prevent further reading. Luckily this works for The Sun as stories are short and punchy with lots of humour, they also have a large type size making stories very easily readable. I can understand why this strategy works for The Sun, why would you add links that take traffic away from your site when you don’t need to?
The Sun has placed itself well within the news media market, it is not just a news site but an interactive activity comprised of many interactive elements, these include:

Flash, the website homepage is filled with flash players showing the extent of this weeks high winds. Most stories are accompanied with a flash player enhancing the main point of the story. Flash works to add an element of newsworthiness to the story and also manages to tell a story without reading a word. The site works on the premise that any person should be able to access news however intellectual you are.

Links, every word or picture on the homepage has a link to an internal story; it is a very accessible site. From the front page you are able to access all parts of the site just through links but there are no external links to outside pages. This is probably a technique to keep people on their site, the only external links are to advertisers which makes complete business sense.

Comment, after every story there is a comment box; the site seems to crave comment and feedback on every story. This invites the sense of community that is born out of Web 2.0. There is also discussion boards after every piece, it give users a chance to discuss current issues together with The Sun that is the mediator between the users.

Audio and visuals, the homepage has an audio flash player, they use this medium to look at side issues in a current news story. I think this is a great strategy as users get bored easily, this way they stay on the site longer and consume more information. Most main stories are paired up with a flash player that includes audiovisuals. The site has a whole section dedicated to this medium where new music videos can be viewed and video specials watched.

RSS feeds, The Sun has its own feed personalised so users can join it and constantly read up-to-date Sun specific news. This means that users are constantly connected to the news agenda and are constantly informed of news.

Text and email alerts, these again have the function of keeping the user informed and on top of news. It is usually used for sport than general news but the function is the same, it keeps users connected to the site so they are more likely to get the alert then check the site for further information.

Instillation features, the most interesting feature of this news site are the ability to customise it. After Murdoch bought MySpace he used it on his news site as well, due to Web2.0 you can now control how you see your page and have the ability to ‘jazz’ it up. You can also set the site as your homepage making it ever more accessible to the user.

Were back.....

2008-02-05T11:54:00.000Z

New Semester.

To create a student online website connected to Canvas and the union we must look at other universities that have done the same.

When looking at the University of Bristol's union website it occurred to me that updating the site on a regular basis would be a necessity, they have chosen to do it weekly, I think this would be an achievable goal for us as a team. The website consists of general news, polls and mailing lists, quick links, pod casts and updates on 'what’s on' at the union. This is a successful formula for Bristol and I believe that we would be able to maintain and generate the same level of news and information. To keep the site fresh with news we could re purpose Canvas stories and headline them on our site, add stories that didn't make into the paper and include other lighter stories i.e. fashion, entertainment, union announcements.

I also found that certain sections were important to include, on the Sheffield website and the Loughborough site they included news highlights, exhibitions of latest work, forums and an event calendar. They also had links to sister publications and podcasts As we discussed in class a forum may not be achievable, it is not used by all university websites so maybe it is not a necessity for us.

I definitely believe to create this balance between the union and the paper we must have sections that include

News highlights
Online exhibitions
Events calendar
Union news
Entertainment and lifestyle.

The main problem is creating a balance between connections with the paper and the union, we do not want the site to become more focused on one or the other, to strike this balance I believe we must become the bridge between the two. This website will be the link between the pod cast, paper, TV students and the union. Therefore we must include all these facets in our site.

I believe our website should include the lighter side of university life that the paper does not, by including relevant and up to date union news we can become a user friendly portal for students to keep informed of university news and entertainment.

NYLON

2007-10-02T16:30:00.001Z

Website analysis

I have chose to look at the website ‘NYLON’, although it’s main consumer focus is the publication which is USA based, the website itself has all the appropriate characteristics of a well formed online publication.

To look at it face value it would seem to be just another modern online representation of its print counter part, but unlike the ‘Observer’ and ‘I:D’ magazine it uses the website to its full potential, not just to advertise the magazine or edit printed copy to fit the website, but to draw a new online consumer in.

They manage to do this by using an interesting feature, ‘NYLON’ uses its online platform for social networking, and they have many ‘MYspace’ sites designed for the fans and to make contacts. This feature is also used to break down their target reader; this can be seen in the culture tab where by they use different countries to give relevant news to their audience. This also gives consumers a chance for feedback and to interact with the journalists, this is becoming a more popular attribute in news sites such as ‘The Sun’ where comment pages are left open for reader discussion.

The site itself is easy to navigate with all the relevant options displayed at the top of the page, it uses useful roll overs which indicate which features of the site can be accessed i.e. fashion, beauty, culture.
The site is left aligned showing all new articles and current news while advertising sits to the right hand side.

Like ‘Dazed and Confused’ website they take full advantage of the multi media element of the web, they use filmed features and profiles to enhance the site and to use the full potential of the site as we will only read so much.

Like most sites that are print dominated you can access the publication in a digital format. I feel that ‘NYLON’ has made full potential of its brand, branching from print to social forums and multi media elements.

Review of Observer feature.

2007-09-26T17:02:00.000Z

Hanging my head in shame for the lazy souls of the Observer online.

Unfortunately for me, this article is exactly what’s wrong with online journalism, and in my opinion showed the lack of true online journalism.

The story itself was a brilliantly written for the Observer, it looked at the widely popular Grazia magazine and how the BBC has decided to make a fly on the wall documentary about the magazine. The style was up beat, making little jibes at its lack of professionalism and schoolgirl attitudes, but overall praised its success in finding the gap in the market.

This did nothing to impart faith in the growth of online journalism; this was a simple edit job from print to online.

For one it was far too long and completely un-readable for a long space of time, the text was too small and there wasn't sufficient spacing between the texts that made it feel very cramped.
There were also no visuals to rest the eye from text; it was block text from start to finish, which made it rather boring to read. Some pictures of the interviewees would have enhanced the story.

It also made no use of a roll over or hyper linking to any sites, this made it a rather dull story which could easily have been 'jazzed up' with links to other sites, possibly the BBC site and Grazia itself; a multi media element could have been used by showing a clip of the new documentary (if available).

I found this a very disappointing example of an online feature, there was no use of the many facets of the Internet, and had not been changed to fit the short snappy style of good Internet journalism.

Good to be back. Web retrospective

2007-09-26T16:12:00.000Z

Review of Nora Paul's look at the promises of the Internet a decade after.

While some of the promises made by Internet trailblazers still exist today, Nora Paul gives insight into the false promises made 10 years ago.

The internet is still a limitless news hole with much space for in-depth new reporting, unfortunately it is not used for this capacity; as now we understand the limitations for reading text on screen, and how we process news has changed to a more brief overview of news. .

Hyper linking is still a valuable asset of the online function; it opens a story to many more interpretations and more in-depth reading on other sites. This is not as common on typical news websites such as The Times online, as it moves readers away from the page and therefore removes focus away from the news page.

While I would agree that there is a varied style of news reporting, this generally comes from un-quantified sources making it less trustworthy and more unlikely to be read.

A great example of the better follow up on news stories would be to look at the Madeline McCann story online, such websites as The Sun and The Mirror give a constant flow of news on this continuing story.

I think the greatest aid to the online news-reporting element is multi media; stories such as the Virginia Tech shootings and Saddam Hussein’s hanging were enhanced by video footage. By reading a story like the examples I gave, and then having the opportunity to hear or see footage gives a greater dimension to a story and there fore makes it more interesting.

Nora Paul makes good points about the limitations of the Internet, but she fails to comment on the consumers change in acquiring news. She touches on the 'time starved but news hungry consumer' but fails to mention that the internet has given us options on where to read our news; we are now our own gatekeepers of news, we can pick and choose which and where news to read, unlike generations before us we can choose which news to read.

Paul's piece is also limited in its idea of 'news', I believe that news is no longer just current affairs but it falls into many categories from celebrities to finance. We use blogs, forums and other modes of the Internet to get niche and specific news that would never be offered in a conventional newspaper.

Nosey bloggers- good or bad?

2007-04-08T21:26:00.000Z

In the cases that we have looked at in class I believe that bloggers play an important part in news agenda.

In my view they act as a regulatory body, which would be too expensive in press media. The likes of OFCOM and the PCC are used to protect the reader/viewer, not to analyze news stories.

Therefore these blogging societies scrutinise what would otherwise be ignored. They have become a society of little investigative reporters, analysing stories and using a sceptical eye to re- examine evidence and reporters themselves.

But I can see that bloggers can also have a negative affect on the news agenda itself, right wing supporters in America use blogging societies to plant conspiracies. They have the ability to keep their agenda anonymous, while stirring information and rumour against certain people in the press sphere.

The power of the blogging community raises some interesting points. Why hadn’t journalists researched their stories properly in the first place, then there would be no need for a second opinion. This degrades the reputation of journalists and their ability to be trusted.

The power of bloggers has increased dramatically, with many journalists finding their stories from blogs such as Guido Fawkes. This means that the power structure has flipped; with more bloggers than ever finding better information than journalists there is a bigger market for citizen journalism than ever before.

In conclusion, I think that blogging has bettered the level of news we are receiving as all news is now filtered and scrutinized by a second party.

Dan Rather

2007-03-30T14:33:00.000Z

Ok so I have to find the connection between this dude and blogs.

I think I’ve got it; Dan Rather was a CBS anchorman from 1981 to 2005.

He did a rather controversial piece on George Bush’s military service in 2004. Rather claimed Bush had failed to fly in the Texas Air National Guard as he refused to obey orders. This was apparently documented in files held by Col. Jerry B Killan.

Bloggers found Rather biased and unfair, in an online forum 'freerepublic.com' bloggers discussed the authenticity of the documents found. This evolved into a full investigation into the documents, which were indeed found to be false by the bloggers.

This lost Rather his job and credibility. Silly boy.

Occupation bloggers

2007-03-24T21:11:00.000Z

' In a room full of psychotherapists, a big cigar is never just a big cigar"

This blog is about a female psychotherapist named Ms. Melancholy, she is British and the blog contains her opinion on her job and the world around her.

I think this is a very successful site, unlike others that claim to be occupational, like the Librarian blogs, she takes you as far into her a job as possible. The level of writing is good and she has a lovely flow to her work.

Ms. Melancholy uses the blog to vent her frustrations in a witty and humorous manner.

The interesting part to this site is that she sees her colleagues as her enemy, she can relate to the average Jane and keeps a good overview of her job to help the reader feel more comfortable.

There was a little jargon, which can be intimidating, but she tied current events into her occupation sphere well, such as Ulrika Johnson's sex addiction programme on channel 4.

All in all I found her funny and very interesting.

At least I now know even the shrinks need a rant sometimes.

Commenting on a blog

2007-03-24T20:49:00.000Z

Your assignment.... if you choose it. Commenting on a blog.

I chose to write a comment on a post on the subject of an artist named Ryan Holsopple.

He has started a 'who dunnit', Cluedo style call in for the public from a phone booth in NYC.

Not quite art, not quite theatre. I thought this was an interesting move forward for installation art and street performance.

Get your wobbly bits out

2007-03-16T22:29:00.000Z

Show off your muffin tops with pride, well they are in Iceland.

The first ever 'real beauty' pageant is being held in April. The rules are you have to be over 20 years old and have had no cosmetic surgery (bad luck Cher). Their looking for inner beauty

So that’s my synopsis, now for the really interesting bit...

I sourced it at The Sun website (who else). In true red top fashion they took the subject in a jovial manner, making fun and coining it a pageant for ugly people. They completely missed the message of inner beauty and twinned it with a picture of ' the bride of Weinstein'. They gave it little space on the website and used it as trivia, rather than news.

The news BBC website had more grace when approaching the subject, but yet again gave little space to the subject. While they saw the point of the pageant they gave little concern. They did not even give a link to the website. This again came across as trivia and worked as a nib rather than a news story.

Across the pond, well Iceland, had a more interested view than western websites. Obviously a localised story will instantly make it more readable, but they gave it more space, and had more sources. They talked to the promoters and took it very seriously. This story uses the beauty within as a hook, unlike western press who poke fun at the idea.

Surprisingly American press had a very positive attitude to this piece. They gave space on the page and again used many sources to create a more informed news piece. This surprised me as I assumed the land of the size 0 would have looked down its nose at a 'beauty within' pageant.
Yahoo gave integrity to the story and treated it with respect.

An interesting perspective was from a European website. They treated the subject as a social experiment, to test and 'challenge' western ideas of beauty. They treated it as radical act, trying to reverse stereotype and ideology. This was the most refreshing news piece I read. It didn't recycle the same angle, it produced a new perspective.

So that’s what I found, I was really surprised by the emotive style of American press and the suppression of the story in British press. I was surprised no British press included the Dove campaign for inner beauty; I thought this would have tied the story nicely into current affairs. With the campaigns for abolishment of size 0 in the press, I thought it would have made this story much bigger than it was.

Update......

2007-03-16T14:36:00.000Z

Silver surfer week, 22nd to 26th of May.
"This has been one of the most exciting things I've done in years."

Get your granny out! and take her to one of the designated centres across the country where sponsors such as AOL and Microsoft help get your granny up and running as a fully fledged surfer.

In sponsorship with Age Concern libraries around the country are staring free training courses.

Update......

2007-03-16T14:24:00.000Z

the 'Grey market' is set to explode by 2010, says some 'Futureologists' (like thats a real job!) Micheal Wilmot.
2/3 of adults using the internet are nearly in retierment. He predicts that by 2010, 80% of oldies will be shopping online.

OAP's will rule the internet.... ahhhh

2007-03-16T14:12:00.000Z

Ok, so i have to find out about old people on the internet, so i have to define what an old person on the internet is.

I found out they are coined 'Silver surfers'. They are generally over the age of 50 years and have a large disposable income.

Since there is only so many stanna stair lifts and knitting catalogues you can buy, they are clouding the online shopping market.

This boom in the online market is called the 'grey market'. Cool huh?

Critical evaluation.

2007-03-09T15:50:00.000Z

LDNY: a site designed for business professionals commuting to and from London and New York, looking for cultural activities.

I feel the concept, in a niche market, was a good idea. I feel the target market could have been widened to incorporate, not just business people, but holiday makers as well.

After much deliberation I feel changing the name from NYLON to LDNY was a good choice as it made LDNY stand out as a blog. The name is still clever and also gives a clue to the content of the site.

Posting once a day was an attainable goal, I feel by timing the posts at intervals within the day would have made it more attractive to the user.
By regulating the posts to coincide with incoming flights would have made the site more attractive.

There was no definition between posts for New York or London, this very confusing and off putting. If I had more time I would have put flags next to the posts to make this clearer.
Using pictures for every post was an attractive element; this made the site more attractive and less wordy.
I feel the linking within all of the posts was necessary and done well, there was purpose to the links and the links were also relevant.

As team leader I feel was competent, hard at times, but the results can be seen on the site. By making decisions as a team, I feel we became very productive and started to have similar writing style. This made the site more cohesive and successful.
By being very detailed in our production plans I found it less stressful and easier to perform my tasks as restaurant specialist.

The design was disappointing, obviously there are limitations to using blogger and page design was a big fault. The design was basic and rather boring.
While too much detail is distracting, I feel the site looked barren and sterile. If I had more time I would have used a design package to create a more aesthetically pleasing design.

My personal posts, were not my best work, I felt constrained to fill the brief instead of reflecting my true writing style.
On the whole I feel I improved my flow problems and kept to a strict formula of writing that delivered the correct information clearly and concisely.

Lonleygirl15, you choose you tube

2007-02-21T21:08:00.000Z

The widely known ‘You Tube’ video phenomenon started 8 months ago in June 06. It starts as a 'REAL' video diary voyeuristically bobbing through 'Bree', a 16 year olds life. It was revealed this was a publicity stunt by the 'New York Times' , and since has leapt into life with sketches in 'Epic Movie' and other media jaunts. We are all narcissists at heart, striving to nose into other people’s lives, such is the human way! Unfortunately curiosity does kill the cat.

The first posts did get my attention; the clever use of camera angles , fast forwarding scenes and using props to entice the viewer into her life is great.
From a business angle, what a great and clever idea, using an accessible medium and keeping the viewer interested, is very Blair witch of them. I wish I had been in on the scheme.

Unfortunately the media hype has ruined the innocence of the diary sequence, and since, many more 'you tubers' have stepped on the bandwagon. It has become far too commercialised and frankly has made the you tube viewers sceptical. The camera affects have become far too specialised and the human-interest aspect is lost.

But this diary hits the heart of 'you tube'; following the growth of a person is a beautiful thing. It has changed the face of the site and has shown the power of the Internet, with worldwide recognition. Unfortunately one great endeavour does not forgive all of the rubbish that pile onto the site daily. This is a great social experiment, view this, and leave the rest.

kill me ... kill me now

2007-02-09T23:59:00.001Z

The dreaded Valentines day... ahhhh

I can think of nothing more terrify than a child spearing me with an arrow (who knows where its been), well maybe one thing, the one event that scares every singleton to their core, VALENTINES DAY.

It is bad enough that we have to endure 'Rom Coms' on our own while the love struck pair next to you play tonsil tennis, let alone the one day a year where we are truly shunned by society.

Smug couples will enjoy fine food, good wines and presents just for being easy, I will be relegated to my bedroom with only the company of two fine men, Ben and Jerry. I am destined to sit in my pyjamas, alone, for eternity.

While women try desperation, copious amounts of vodka and a dance floor to bag a man on this most prolific of nights, I wonder what is there to do for refined women who keep their legs closed? Nothing, fuck all.

I have tried many proverbial bandages to heal my bruised heart on another lonely valentines, now I feel lost. I have tried many ways to dodge the starry eyed lovers. Curling up in my duvet, singing cheesy love ballads and drinking far too much red wine is a very appealing solution this February.

I am afraid denial seems to be a better friend to me, in my time of need than a good Cabernet Sauvignon; the best way to embrace my secret self-loathing is by far the most fun. I try the ambush approach, I take myself to the enemy (with a few girlfriends for backup), to the most romantic restaurant I can think of, we strut in, have far too much wine, and laugh uncomfortably loud pretending (of course) that we haven’t a care in the world. Ingenious.

But with almost all of my friends taken to the dark side this valentines and the other few hiding under the covers, it’s just me AGAIN and with nothing to do. As fun as pure hatred for couples is, I feel something productive would be a healthy option, but unless I want to join a singles mixer, ride the London eye on my own, or 'enjoy' a singles film club, I’m screwed.

If I think about this logically, couples literally envelop cities on valentines, making it suitability uncomfortable for singles to show their face in public. Restaurants are a no go, and unless you enjoy sitting next to that couple who are most definitely going to second base, the cinema is like anthrax to the singleton. It seems every activity requires a '2' when the day dawns, pool, bowling, theme park, ice skating- I could go on, but then I might have to kill myself.

All I can say in the end, is thank god for 15th, half price roses and cheap chocolate, maybe that's the little dividends single people get after this most horrific of days.

2007-02-07T15:34:00.001Z

TONY ITS TIME TO BLOG....
Reviewing IAMFASHION.BLOGSPOT.COM

From blogzines to fashion advice for the car crash couture celeb its easy to get lost in the world of fashion blogs. Whether your a technophobic 80 year old or a budding fashionista iamfashion.com it's a great place to start surfing the stylish blog wave.
Unlike the heavy weights of fashion blogging such as flypaper and my fashion life this website is more of a feather weight when it comes to using it. Its easy to use scroll system and archives help you keep up to date on everything that is new and shiny in the fashion world. Whether it be ss (spring summer) or aw (autumn winter)you will be sure never to feel intimated by those Prada wearing bitches at work again.

But if your just after a quick link to the next extravagant purchase from netaporter your way out of its league, a great stepping stone for the cute and clueless surfer. This site has a plethora of links to other blogs like justmycupoftea which wont scare you with loads of jargon and insider gossip. Its basic navigation and popular topics make this site very user friendly, while still being playful and witty.

While a little shaky on writing style and tone,its a generally a bit of fun but annoying text language can ruin any website, "lol da nw chloe bg iz wkd" see my point? And with a constant bombardment of pictures any eager fashionista will grow out of its awkward style very quickly.