Friday, December 5, 2008
Is Blog Space Threatening MySpace?
If anyone reading was there with me, then you remember only being able to upload up to 9 pictures to your page at a time, you remember when changing your layout was way cool and different, you remember when people first started removing their top 8, you remember when there was no status or mood field yet, no home page layouts, etc..
I think it's interesting that I see so much of the same potential in blogging networks, but even more!!
In browsing through random blogs, you see everything from sales pages, people documenting hobbies or projects, personal journal type blogs, family blogs, teen blogs, professional blogs, etc. These same types of sites can be found on sites like MySpace, only perhaps in a bit of a different light. That last fact is what I think gives the blogging community a leg up on the foundation they are working with vs what sites like MySpace started with.
Blogging is by far not looked down on by the 25 and up age groups, as MySpace was or maybe even still is. Blogging can be used by the young, but is still appropriate for older folks too. In general, blogging is a respectable idea for anyone who can spell and read.
Like the beginnings of MySpace, most blog accounts have a home page, accept comments, allow for pictures or video, and allow you to "decorate" with layout templates.
I am gonna be bold and predict that blogging may very well in the future follow a similar pattern of development as sites like MySpace. I foresee it being only a matter of time before "everyone has a blog" (which to some seems to already be the case), you can email or message people via their blog site, coding sites may add blog templates if they haven't already, a status bar or mood field may be almost certain, and a bulletin board between you and your followers would be amazing. And while we're at it, maybe we should all add a place for our top eight followers too, lol. I'm kidding on that last one.
My point is, blogging communities may have a shadow to cast on sites like MySpace, if they haven't already cast it. While MySpace may currently have what I believe to be a more "connected community" via a more developed user face, I also believe that blogging networks have the potential to gain on that aspect and then prevail also in other things such as a bigger user population and a greater range of acceptable uses, making blogging networks a for sure threat to sites like MySpace.
Briefly, I'll refer to my comment that, "sites like MySpace may be a more connected community," and clarify what I meant. I've only been blogging for a couple months now, but what I feel blogger accounts lack are ways of communication between the site publisher and the reader. There are very little default ways to contact a given blogger. In fact, there is only one, comments. There is no blogger messaging system or bulletin board. Such links would have to be added by the maker of the site and routed to their personal email.
In the future (and I mean future as in it's beginning to happen now and is growing), I see bloggersville being very successful, as a new and revolutionary way of publishing news, ads, journals, projects, etc. And sites like MySpace may suffer, as people move from smaller radius sites like MySpace to bigger broader communities like blogging networks. That is, if blogging networks proceed with user interface developments, adding new abilities and functions and greater ease of connectedness.
Guess we'll see.... meanwhile, I'll continue to use both :-)
Friday, November 28, 2008
Lee Siegel, "Against the Machine"
On Wednesday, a group of my classmates came together to give a presentation on the undoubtedly hard to swallow book, Against the Machine: Being"Culture has changed from being 'passively' to 'actively' entertained."
human in the age of the electric mob, by Lee Siegel. The group members were Kay, Devin and Samantha.
They began by painting a picture of the author as an established critic, professor and novelist. He comes across as being very harsh, heavily opinionated, and not a mainstream type of guy.
You might guess, after noting the title of the
book, he is full on against technology and the direction it is pushing us. He seems to think the rise of the Internet and all the advances in technology it has brought us are pushing us further and further away from popular culture and closure and closer towards popularity culture.
Siegel talks about the use of the Internet to further ourselves, and says there is "too much self interest" evolving.
Siegel
goes on to bash American Idol and it's contestants, comparing them to the players of the Internet, the "easy girl" and the "class clown" included, saying they just want to be big, they just want to be liked, and they'll do whatever we say to get that from us.What it all boils down to is Siegel's elitist opinion that people should stick to what they're good at, rather than mix and intertwine. For example, corporate professionals should socialize with other corporate professionals and other groups a like. He sees people broadening their horizons as a bad thing and calls it "watering down our culture" instead.
It was personally hard for me to understand all of Siegels points and analogies, but I think there is little next to obvious about the common opinion of this critic/ author. However, it is worth noting that he has been applauded by some for speaking out of line about something valued by so many, and for some showing inertia when it comes to the fast paced changes the Internet caters to, he taps into a glimmer of hope for those who wish it'd all just rewind and go away.
I of course am out of my seat about it. Funny thing though, I kinda wanna read the book, LOL.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Reflecting: South Sound Technology Conference, 2008
"Never allow a crisis to go to waste!"-Rahm Emanuel
Friday, November 21, 2008
A Presentation in the Works....
Indeed, projects and presentations are in the works everywhere and deadlines are fast approaching.
I am part of a group of 7 students working on a class presentation that we have been asked to summarize our portion of here in our blogs by our professor, Andrew Fry. I'm not going to give it all away, but I'm excited to share a bit of what I've personally got in the works.
My group is reading a book, World Without Secrets: Business, Crime and Privacy in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing, written by author, Richard Hunter, VP of GartnerG2, a division of Gartner Inc., the worlds largest technology research firm. The book, in a very small nut shell, discusses the effects of the technology based revolution that began decades and decades ago and how it is creating a transparency not known before the power of technology came about. It investigates the pros and cons of this phenomena from Hunters valued prospective.
Our group of 7 has chosen to divide the contents of this book so that as much material is presented as possible without overwhelming any one persons work load. With 14 chapters, each group member simply chose 2 chapters to cover.
I am excited and enthusiastic about the two chapters I will be presenting to the class, chapter 6 which is titled Software Without Secrets and chapter 7 titled The Rise of the Mentat. Chapter 6 gives an in depth wealth of insight into Hunters few of the "Open Source Movement" and his take on how it affected business and the marketing and growth directions of software. Hunter was actually a sceptic of the movement initially, so it was interesting to learn of his opinions of how successful open source code actually was and is. Chapter 7 is interesting as well as it talks of, as it's title might hint, the rise of the Mentat, humans trained and genius enough to act as and perform duties of computers. Hunters prospective on this fascinating rare ability is of course in depth and articulate.
I don't want to say too much more, don't want to ruin it for the actual presentation, but I'm excited and nearly done putting things together. It'll be great to really get to finally put everything together some time in the next two weeks when my group and I make our presentations to our class.
Check out another outline from one of my group members, Oksana.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
It's that time of the quarter!
It's that time of the quarter!
Apparently the end of the quarter has snuck up on many of us. In fact, it was only two nights ago, I myself was loosing my mind in frustration, stressed about coming deadlines while trying to plan my next quarter at the same time. Needless to say, I was relieved to realize today that I'm seemingly not alone.
Geesh, I sound like a newbie to the college life, when I'm in fact not at all. But my point here was simply to point out a phenomena I witnessed today, as my instructor snapped, my counselor frowned, people were absent, present students were tense and I myself was a bit strained!
"It's that time of the quarter", is what I was told all day. And all I could say in return was, "Yup, thank goodness for the coming holiday breaks!"
Hang in there my fellow peers! Lets finish strong! :-)