Filed under: Assignment
Now that we’ve reached the end of the quarter the one element I wish I could have learned more about was the design features behind blogs. Although I made personally touches here and there and played with widgets I’d love to be able to take it to the next level. BlogDesign.com came up with a list of the 5 Ways to Make Your Blog Design Unforgetable!
Among the list include:
1. Break the Norm
2. Pay Attention to overlooked areas
3. Increase the functionality of your blog design
4. Take one design feature and run with it
5. Unique blog design
Reading the article, “Your Television is Ringing” got me thinking about my distaste for Comcast over the years. I’ve always considered Comcast’s corporation to be a monopoly in the Seattle area because they are really the only prominent cable company service in the unless you chose to go with satellite. However, I was reluctant to make the switch for the very same reasons that the article stresses; the importance and benefits of convergence. If I were to chose a satellite provider not only would my bill be higher but I would also have to find a separate service for internet and phone services. Comcast’s bundled services, however, provide a single bill from a distinct provider and always have lower prices when you choose to sign up for more then one service.
When companies continue to buy out one another and eliminate the competition I always initially pegged this convergence as an unfair monopoly. The bigger and better company taking out the little guy. I never sought out exactly how convergence affects the consumers, and especially not positive benefits. However, after reading the article it appears that in many instances (but not all) convergence not only positively affects the business itself but provides positive benefits for consumers as well.
On the flip side, the rush to converge can create many problems especially when the consumers have no demand for such convergence. When convergence includes bundles and discount pricing it proves very successful. But when companies are convergence for untold future advances individuals arent as willing to jump on the band-wagon.
In what ways will convergence reshape technology?
Why is it that other countries (France, Italy) are less inclined to adapt to convergence?
Filed under: Assignment
I used delicious to check out some additional cupcake blogs because I thought the words “delicious” and “cupcakes” couldn’t agree more. 
I had already seen the top search results but liked that they were arranged by popularity to get a better idea of which cupcake blogs were in the front running.
First off, I stumbled across Bake it Pretty which is a great resource for buying fun baking tools. The blog itself is really cute but the tools themselves are even cuter! I’ve seen similar merchandise on other sites but the layout and availability on this site was very useful.
I also checked out Joy the Baker and she has a section devoted strictly to cupcakes. Her photos are really user-friendly and I will definitely have to recreate one of her yummy recipes for our blog!
Filed under: project
So far at OhMyNom we have managed to post every single day since our launch (with an exception to the holiday- Thanksgiving). We’ve also managed to have a variety of posts including:
- Recipes
- Reviews
- Fun miscellaneous
- Home-made creations
- In-class snacks
So far we are completely on track and have drafts waiting to be published for future posts! We still have the mission of tracking down a cupcake chef for a possible behind the scenes interview. I hope you guys have enjoyed the cupcakes we were able to share with the class. Thanks for the feedback!
Two weeks ago a friend introduced me to “Stumble Upon” during a class where we were watching a silent film for two hours. I was instantly saved from deadly boredom. Stumble Upon is the largest personalized content discovery engine on the Web with over 8.5 million members. My classmate also recently did a presentation on Stumble Upon posted on her blog, “The Vogeler” which highlights how certain organizations are utilizing this technology.
For me personally, I’ve been using this technology in order to browse popular sites on the web. When you sign up for a free account you end up checking any categories of interest and Stumble Upon will refer websites to you within those categories when you select “Stumble” on your browser. So far I have found funny cat videos, great recipes, and amazing photography websites through Stumbling. I urge everyone to take the time to set up an account and begin to Stumble away!
In the meantime, check out “The Cutest Video of All Time. Period.” which I came across while stumbling.
Filed under: Reading | Tags: campaign contributions, maplight, online media, politics, Social Networking
I never considered how connectivity to social networking sites from other websites could effect the journalism profession. After reading the article I realize that many news organizations and media companies have yet to realize the importance of developing content on the web that allows for easy interaction from viewers rather than just one-way broadcasting.
It’s important that the comment capability is productive in the sense that readers are not simply presented with an open-ended comment box but instead provide their audience the opportunity for user participation by leveraging social media networks. What I found to be most crucial to utilizing sites like Facebook and Twitter was the fact that these sites generally have users with usernames reflecting their own first and last names which provides authenticity to each user and their statements.
I really enjoyed the second article because I was previously unaware of Maplight.org or even the capability of tracing political contributions. I guess I assumed that there needed to remain some sense of anonymity with contributions however, Im pleased that this information is available to the public; and now so more then ever. I immediately became curious to check out the layout of funds contributed to proposition 8 and found the tobacco companies, lumber yards, dairy industry and banks among the top.
Money is power and Maplight allows users the ability to study the relationship between politics and money without having to go to locations and dig through old archives. Wired stresses that, “These new tools are providing an unprecedented level of transparency, exposing patterns of influence that otherwise would have remained invisible to ordinary citizens.” The access level is just now a button click away and can be easily viewed and navigated by interested consumers expanding our knowledge base as we know it.
What effect do you think providing ordinary citizens the ability to easily document the flow of special-interest money and how it influences the legislature have in the future?
How can online news organizations utilize social networking site to their advantage?
Well, it makes you a genius in MY book, because why else haven’t you gotten one yet? (other then cost of course). However, i’d say a good 25% of my monthly income goes to my iPhone bill and i’ve never once regretted the decision. Every time Im asked about my phone I have no problem explaining to people all the wonderful features and end up starting my own little sales pitch (Apple, are you hiring??). Smart phones are changing the future. I can hardly even remember the time when I had a flip phone. I do however remember that every time I received a text I had to log online which took quite some time, texting really had yet to evolve at this point. Today’s smart phones have longer battery life, easily accessible web access, nicely formatted texting services, and are generally all around user-friendly.
Here are some more reasons why the new smart phones are so successful:
- The smart phones are much more powerful than the personal computers from a decade ago. You can run high quality, full motion pictures without it being jerky. In fact, all of the pictures Alayna and I use for our OHMYNOM.com blog are taken with our iPhones and have incredible quality. The applications available to the iPhone also make it easy to photoshop your photos directly from your phone as well.
- Apple iTunes has more than 65,000 applications to choose from. Which makes customizing your phone for exactly how you want to use it easy. Whether you want business applications, cooking applications, games, they are available to you with a few simple steps!
- You can search for directions using the GPS function. This has to be the highest selling point for me. I don’t own a car so navigating the city involves knowing bus routes and times. The Map application on the iPhone can determine your current location and give you immediate directions specified to walking, driving, or busing. You can also use this feature to check traffic patterns.
- You can use the device as a portable music player. It works the same as the standard iPod however instead of carrying them both around you have the convenience of having both devices in one. Remember the days when you had to lug around a large portable CD player? Yeah, I try not to either.
- Smart phones are more interactive. Integration with social networks, content sharing sites, chat and other social features are being built right into the platform. I realize that the only time I generally access sites like Facebook or Twitter is when Im using my iPhone and since I now have been using my phone as a camera as well I use the phone to upload all of my pictures.
photo credit: rosie hardy
The Newbie’s Guide to Flickr was a great article for anyone new to Flickr or to general online photo uploading. Although I was already pretty familiar with Flickr and uploading pictures to the web I liked how all the ins and outs were covered as well as special widgets and such to make uploading that much easier.
What I wasnt aware of before reading this article was the ability to tag notes in photos. I thought this was a really great feature because I notice a lot of members I follow use Flickr not only to update and share photos but also in the search of constructive criticism from other Flickr users. You can add a note to any part of the picture in case you want to highlight certain features or other users can leave notes commenting as well.
I also had breifly heard about “geotagging” but have never really known what that entailed. Geotagging is a special method of tagging photos with specific locations. This process makes it easier to track down, oh, say… the Space Needle, or a scenic view in Seattle. You can type in specific addresses and also view your photos geographical locations on a map provided by Mappr. Very cool if you’re a world traveling photographer!
Flickr prides itself as an area of community with the amazing ability to share photos across users. In some sense Flickr’s community is a social network that allows you to make friends (or “contacts”) and it also allows you to subscribe to users so that you will see their newly posted work on your main page. Although I dont upload photos myself, I use Flickr to view some photographers work that I really admire. Check out, Rosie Hardy who owes a lot of her success to Flickr and her ability to build a supporting fan base.
Who (if any) is your favorite Flickr contact to keep up with?
In what ways can businesses utilize Flickr?
Filed under: Assignment
http://www.millonesdevoces.org/contenido/
From Obama’s campaign fundraising and rally for healthcare reform, to fighting the FARC with Facebook, its clear that social networking websites are rewriting the rules of public engagement.
In January of 2008, Oscar Morales, an engineer with no political experience, created a Facebook group called “Un Million Voces Contra Las FARC (One Million Voices Against the FARC).” In just one month, Morales found himself organizing a 12-million person, 200-city protest against Colombia’s violent guerilla group.
Facebook has become a catalyst for causes. Although the movement against the rebel group FARC has much of its activism existing solely online, it still shows great potential for raising money, creating change and inspiring a new generation of politically aware young people. Facebook members everywhere are showing a desire to get involved in social causes, even if that involvement means just attaching a badge to their profile or joining a group. An application called Causes created on Facebook makes getting involved easy with the opportunity for any Facebook user with a little passion to create a cause, recruit friends into that cause, organize events and even raise money.
Social software provides a new way of virtual community building and enables interaction, communication, and cooperation. One of the crucial benefits of the virtual sphere is that it is not restricted to geographical constraints. The internet allows us to trespass national boundaries and communicate globally with use of online communities. Facebook allowed individuals to bring together rallies on a global scale as seen with the simultaneous anti-FARC rallies that took place in over 165 cities across the globe.
The speed with which Facebook users installed the application and became “fans” of the rally is one of the reasons for the mass amount of attention given by other forms of media. The massive social phenomena continued to grow with exposure from TV networks, newspapers and radio stations. However, the use of online social media is what really allowed the anti-FARC campaign to reach a global scale without any political party or experienced leader involvement.
What social media has to offer is a sense of trust. So much internet activity can be done anonymously leaving most users uncertain and suspicious of many things they encounter online. However, with use of Facebook, messages are no longer anonymous but instead can be quickly traced back to their source and this source can be placed in the context of other relationships. The message can spread extremely fast by being passed across all facebook users, and people will respond and act on it because it comes directly from friends.
