Blog Classification

Blogging has come around with opportunities for anyone to share with the world regardless the subject, place, and intention. As for the types of blogging done nowadays, we can categorise it to 5 simple divisions which are; Personal, Collaborative, Corporate, Topical, and Spam. 


From this, we can clearly see the difference in the direction of the various types of blogs around. Intentions of writing the blogs could be from a personal hobby to a base for corporate identification and information. Other than that, people of all ages are open to the world of blogs and this gives us the many various subjects discussed.


There are also various ways someone could blog as technology is advancing by the minute. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (Art blog), photographs (Photo blog), videos (Video blog), music (MP3 blog), and audio (Podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.


Some examples of the different blogs are shown below:

http://chasnote.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/bbtv-vlogs.png

http://v1.wolfslittlestore.be/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/tumblr.png

 

http://www.blogshopmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/blogger.jpg

Reference

Blood, R. 2000, Weblogs: a Histroy and Perspective, Rebeccablood.net, viewed 29 September 2010, (http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html)

Blogging the Phenomenon 2005, Types of Blogs, Oracle, viewed 29 September 2010,
(http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01130/typesofblogs.html)Wisegeek 2007, What is Vlogging?, viewed 29 September, (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-vlogging.htm).

 
 

Blogging Phenomenon - Benefits to Community

Blogging came into the scene of 'free internet services' in August 1999 by Pyra Labs, which is now owned by Google. After that we can see that almost everyone who uses the world wide web either having a blog or simply just reading other peoples blogs for information as well as entertainment.

http://eagereyes.org/media/2010/blogosphere1.jpg

'Blogosphere' can be simply defined as the world of blogging and bloggers. As we can see in the charts above, seen clearly is the mass state of blog usage around the world as well as the criteria of the different individuals who blogs. 

The blogosphere has seen rapid growth over the years as more people and organizations have started to utilise the blogs as their informative compound. For example, according to technorati.com, 2009's state of blogosphere see's diverse types of blogs being produced by professionals as well as amateur bloggers for various reasons.

From the west side of the world to the east, blogging has caused quite a stir and been used widely. As shown in the chart above, every continent sees a big chunk percentage of weblog usage. Trends of blogging has seen various changes in the direction of the blogs from entertainment, to source of information, personal blogs, as well as a place to look for freedom of speech and write down just about anything. 


In Malaysia we have seen blogs being used as a hub for political issues and also in the same time to promote or pull voters. However, the blogosphere is very wide and you can blog just about anything that you're interested in.

In certain countries we can surely find prevalent issues being blogged about and this is surely seen in Malaysia as political issues have surrounded the public with talks of corruption and extortion. Therefore, blogs are now used to discuss this matter and also show personal persona or perception. 


Benefits of these  blogs for the community as well as foreign observers are that we can see the issue from a different angle and contemplate ourselves on what is right and what is wrong. This is why blogging has now seen a rise of users as it gives us space and in a way our lost right's of 'freedom of speech'.

Reference

Olsen, D. et al 2010, 2009's State of Blogosphere, Technorati.com, viewed 24 September 2010,

(http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/)

Podcast FAQ 2009, What is Blogosphere?, viewed 24 September 2010, (http://www.podcastfaq.com/glossary/blogging-and-podcasting-terms/)

Korte, A. 2005, A Short History of Blogging, viewed 24 September 2010, (http://www.blogherald.com/2005/03/06/a-short-history-of-blogging/)

What is a Good PowerPoint Presentation?

Attraction and concentration of the audience on presentations are rarely accomplished easily. This is not necessarily because of the presenter but simply because of the unattractive slides shown. However, cases of a too avant-garde and unconventional approach does not suit the billing and cause more questions then answers.


According to Krieger, S. (2010), she has laid out 12 tips for creating better presentations which starts off with the most important step; selecting or creating your own theme to give an edge towards your layout. A theme contrives of a coordinated set of fonts, colours, and graphic effects that could be used to enhance the intended information much more clearer and attractive towards the audience. 


In relation to this, Russell, W. (2010) tips the usage of contrasting colours for text and background such as dark text on a light background and vice-versa. She also discourages the usage of white backgrounds and recommends us to use colours like beige or another light color that will be easy on the eyes. 


As for the context of the slides, (AssociatedContent.com 2008) declared that slides should not have too much text. It is better to keep the text to a title and several bullet points. This is to keep it light on the eyes of the audience and not make your presentation draggy. 


Moreover, Marquez, Z.L. (2010) stated also that to make a good PowerPoint presentation, make sure that the slides are easy to read and as supported by Putnis and Petelin (1996), they stated that we should make sure in the document design there are recognisable pattern or flow of information. 

As you can see above, this is what my groups presentation slide looked like and by the layout, context, and colour, it is apparent that this is a not a good slide. The most obvious mistake is the amount of text used in the context. This could have been fixed with a substitute in the form of an image or picture. All in all, this slide is a good example of how not to do your presentation as it is not simple and unattractive.

Reference

Putnis, P. & Petelin, R. 1996, 'Chapter 7 : Writing to communicate,' in Professional communication : principles and applications, p.254. (UNISA electronic library).

Marquez, Z.L. 2010, How to Make a Good PowerPoint Presentation, Enzine Articles, viewed 28 August 2010, (http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Good-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=4313178).

AssociatedContent.com 2008, How to Make a Great PowerPoint Presentation, Associated Content, viewed 28 August 2010, (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/645261/how_to_make_a_great_powerpoint_presentation.html?cat=59).

Krieger, S. 2010, 12 Tips for Creating Better Presentations, Microsoft.com, viewed 28 August 2010,                                                 (http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/skills/presentations.aspx)

Russell, W. 2010, 10 Tips for Creating Successful Business Presentations, About.com, viewed 28 August 2010, (http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointinbusiness/tp/bus_pres_tips.htm)

Freedom of Speech?

Leadership in forms of governance has seen lots of action taken being questioned. Issues of conflict and corruption has seen numerous law abiding citizens come out to speak their mind using the services of technology; primarily blogs. Nowadays, individuals from youth, especially tertiary level students to senior citizens are using blogs to give their perception and thought while utilising the significance of freedom of speech.