Reflection

As I end this blog, I must say that producing it has been an interesting learning experience for me. Things that I have discovered:

• Appreciate blog hostings

It has challenged me into familiarising with a new blog host and I now realized how different each blog hosts can be. Not to mention, I now understand how much effort were put into making the experience of a non-HTML user much easier with the blogging programs.

• Importance of multimodality

I am now more familiar with not only writing and designing for an online material, but also ensuring that the blog consists of multimodal elements such as hypertext, hyperlink and images. Having done this blog, I understand the importance of multimodality in the design of a document as it helps to create and give a clearer meaning (Walsh, 2006).

• Blogging = Beneficial activity

Apart from that, I believe that blogging is a beneficial activity and I foresee it to grow more in a few years, especially with new usage and trends of blogs such as the Advertlets and Google Adsense advertisings; generating income for many bloggers.

Having said that, people need to appreciate the freedom of speech and expression given and use it wisely and appropriately; eliminating cyber-bullying, spamming and avoiding law suits regarding defamation. Otherwise, laws that may be enacted can restrict internet movement and expression which will make the experience less entertaining.

Overall, this has been great. Thank you.

Blogging: a new way to generate cash

Blogging for many people may have started out due to the hype of blogging a few years back. However, now there is a new purpose for blogging. Apart from it being fun and interactive, it is now a way for people to generate revenue.

Companies such as Google have come up with their Google Adsense whereas, closer to home, in Malaysia, a new company called Advertlets have taken a step into the same direction as Google by providing Malaysians an opportunity to make some money out of blogging (Lee, 2007). Popular bloggers such as KinkyBlueFairy and Yvonne Foong have taken this opportunity to make money out of their high amount of blog visitors.

Google Adsense screenshot

 

Advertlets screenshot

Basically, bloggers have to write and ensure that their blogs have a high number of visitors while the companies mentioned above (Google or Advertlets) will provide advertisements that are relevant to the content of the blog. Bloggers make money out of advertisement clicks or even doing write-ups on a particular product advertised. The combination of the appropriate advertisements relevant to the writing content is brilliant as the readers can connect with the writing and the advertisement better. As Shriver (1997; p.411) said that pictures and text used properly can affect the clarity and engagement of the message. Therefore, this way of advertising is more effective and cost-efficient.

Bloggers and advertisers, both benefit out of this new method and usage of blogs.

As a blogger and a new member of Advertlets myself, I must say that it is a reasonably good way of doing something that I love and generating some revenue from it. Perhaps, this new form of money making program will boost the growth of blogging more in years to come.

 

 

Reference:

Lee, C 2007, ‘Blogging and big bucks’, viewed 7 June 2007; [internet], http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/5/29/itfeature/17847964&sec=itfeature.

Shriver, KA 1997, ‘Dynamics in document design: creating text for readers’, Chapter 6, pp.361-441, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York.

Is Wikipedia accurate and usable?

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia have been compared to Encyclopaedia Britannica with much controversy. People have questioned Wikipedia’s reliability and accuracy (Giles, 2006). Due to Wikipedia’s unusual and forward move that allows anyone to edit information on the encyclopaedia have caused its reliability to be in question.

PERSONAL IDEA

However, I truly enjoy using Wikipedia as a point of reference as informations are always up-to-date. The information are also constantly edited and cited. Therefore, I personally feel that it is a good place to start reading about something. After all, any form of reading or research requires a lot more reading than simply from one source. Therefore, it would not be harmful to use Wikipedia as long as more readings are done to garner more perspective.

REPORT BY ‘NATURE’

Coming back to the accuracy and reliability of Wikipedia, a research report by Nature have concluded that the difference in accuracy between Wikipedia and Britannica, is actually not that big. In fact, when compared, Wikipedia had 4 inaccuracies where Britannica had 3 inaccuracies (Giles, 2006). This is actually quite stunning considering the standard of Britannica which has been considered top-notch; and the only slight difference with Wikipedia makes Wikipedia seems somewhat reliable.

WIKIPEDIA ACCURACY & USABILITY

No doubt Wikipedia’s editing element is flawed by ‘fake professors’ or uncredited contributors, this research results by ‘Nature’ have somewhat thrown the Wikipedia’s inaccuracy idea. It is constantly being edited and its accuracy is there. Combined with its hypertext and links to other articles and citations on the net, this multimodal (Walsh, 2006) design of encyclopaedia can be beneficial if used properly. Therefore, I feel that Wikipedia is usable and reliable.

 

References:

Giles, J 2006, ‘Internet encyclopaedias go head to head’, viewed 5 June 2007; [internet], http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/438900a.html.

Walsh, M 2006, ‘The textual shift’, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp.24-37, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy.

Elements of good design

Reading online is said to be much slower than on print. Jacob Nielsen (2007) has said that it takes 25% more time to read online and therefore writing should be short, scannable and easily viewed. Also, as Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006; p.180) have mentioned, framing will provide a sense of connectedness in a design. These are good elements of composition and it should be incorporated in a blog or website design as well.

BAD BLOG

However, a good example of a blog that does not follow these rules must be “Pink is the new blog” as I find it messy and completely going against all rules of composition.

 

‘Pink is the new blog’ screenshot

FRAMING

First of all, it would be great if the website had a proper border or framing to guide the audiences’ eyes when trying to scan and look out for information. As it is now, there are words everywhere including advertisements and graphics making it really disorganised. A simple line to divide the sidebar and the writing area would have made such a difference.

COLOURS

Next, the colours are too painful to look at. Pink and white on black, does not look pleasing to the eyes and it disrupts the reading flow. As it is, reading online is already 25% slower than on paper (Nielsen, 2007), therefore a disturbing colour is really unnecessary.

ALIGNMENT

The alignment of the sentences and alphabets in the website is terrible. There seems to be no fixed alignment. The sidebar started of with a center alignment before moving to a left alignment all of the sudden. This does not work if online readers’ eyes were to try and scan through the page.

Elements of design are simply essential in helping online layout and writing. Therefore, I truly feel that the author of the blog needs to rethink and revamp his website in order to help his readers read more easily and pleasantly.

 

References

Kress, G & Van Leeuwen, T 2006, ‘Reading Images: The grammar of visual design’, 2^nd edn, Chapter 6, pp.175-214, Routledge, London.

Nielsen, J 2007, ‘Writing for the web’, viewed on 6 June 2007; [internet], http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/.

 

Disclaimer: This is solely for education purposes and does not intend to defame the owner of “Pink is the new blog”.

Digital & Information Divide

THE INTERNET

Although internet has kicked off the ground; and according to Ramasamy (2004), most people in the urban areas – 93% of urban Malaysians (Zaitun, 2005) – have access to the internet, many around the globe still do not have access or have limited access to it. Therefore, I feel that there is a digital divide and information divide amongst people who are internet savvy and those who are incapable of getting access.

RESTRICTIONS

This is happening due to location in the rural areas or for some, due to restrictions and regulations. For instance, in China, the government have the ability to censor materials coming in from outside China (Stroehlein, 2002). In Iraq, internet is only available to some ministries, not to the public (Stroehlein, 2002). Therefore, books and other reading materials that we, in Malaysia can easily have access to; are limited to them. This creates a divide in information accessibility.

DIGITAL AND INFORMATION DIVIDE

As we are living in an internet age, I feel that this is a flaw in information flow. This digital divide is unfair, as they are denied access to all the information and knowledge that we can obtain. Perhaps, if this digital divide cannot be overcome soon, internet books and reading materials should be made available to them in printed form if possible so that the ‘information’ divide will not be there anymore. This form of publishing issue needs to be address in order to create a balance in the dissemination of information.

 

References:

Stroehlein, A 2002, ‘Censorship wins out’, viewed on 5 June 2007; [internet], http://alternet.org/story/12965.

Zaitun, AB 2005, ‘Overcoming the Digital Divide – A Proposal on How Institutions of Higher Education Can Play a Role’, viewed 4 June 2007; [internet], http://pppjj.usm.my/mojit/articles/pdf/April05/10-Zaitun-final.pdf.