My group looked at a lot of Twitter posts under the tag "#Japan" and found some interesting things.
Many people are using Twitter to get the word out about fundraising efforts. Promoting the Red Cross fundraising efforts via text message is a very common occurrence. Along the same lines, there are a lot of people offering prayers and thoughts for the victims. On the opposite end of that spectrum, there are (of course) some rude and negative comments. Some people apparently feel the need to make jokes or out-of-line comments. The worst part about these is that they are put in the same bin under the Japan hash tag.
Twitter is also being used to get out information to various groups of people in Japan. One interesting thing I found was the use of the US Army's Twitter account in the hours after the quake and tsunami and earthquake. They used their Twitter account to reach soldiers stationed in Japan regarding evacuation procedures.
There are a lot of links to news reports on Twitter as well. In that regard, looking through the tweets is a very useful tool to simply find out what is happening in Japan. However, some people have posted some inaccurate information about the situation. Our group discussed the thought that a person may misunderstand something they see on the news, and then take to Twitter with inaccurate statistics. That can be troublesome for people using Twitter to consume news.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
What I've Done
The following is a list of what I have done thus far in my Weblogs and Wikis class (the reason I have this blog in the first place). I'm sure that after writing this list I will have a minor panic attack and realize that I need to get my act together. But maybe that's the point of the assignment.
1. I dusted off my Twitter account, and now I'm fully addicted to it.
2. I created this blog, which I have basically abandoned. The tab stares at me and makes me feel guilty every time I open Chrome.
3. I created a Diigo account, and I have bookmarked things here and there. One article cemented my idea to delete my Facebook account. I made a blog post about it, and a week or so later, I actually deleted it.
4. I've bookmarked the required class readings on Diigo.
5. I also bookmarked a cool video on Mpls/St. Paul that I intend to do something with at some point, but for now I just want people to see it.
6. I made a blog post about the issues surrounding blogging and literature, as well as blogging and journalism. I didn't really come to any groundbreaking conclusions, though.
7. I realized that I'm not as computer-savvy as I thought.
8. Wikis aren't my thing.
Here's an organized look at what I've done with/think about the components of the class:
Where I've Been (and where I'm going)
1. I dusted off my Twitter account, and now I'm fully addicted to it.
2. I created this blog, which I have basically abandoned. The tab stares at me and makes me feel guilty every time I open Chrome.
3. I created a Diigo account, and I have bookmarked things here and there. One article cemented my idea to delete my Facebook account. I made a blog post about it, and a week or so later, I actually deleted it.
4. I've bookmarked the required class readings on Diigo.
5. I also bookmarked a cool video on Mpls/St. Paul that I intend to do something with at some point, but for now I just want people to see it.
6. I made a blog post about the issues surrounding blogging and literature, as well as blogging and journalism. I didn't really come to any groundbreaking conclusions, though.
7. I realized that I'm not as computer-savvy as I thought.
8. Wikis aren't my thing.
Here's an organized look at what I've done with/think about the components of the class:
Where I've Been (and where I'm going)
Friday, January 28, 2011
Blogging and My Future Career(s)
In the Spring of 2012 I will be entering the real world; searching for a job and living in my parents' basement. I'll be looking for a career working with words, whether in the literary publishing field or the journalism route. Needless to say, these two fields are very often mentioned in the same sentence as blogs.
People say that publishing on a blog isn't really publishing, and bloggers aren't journalists. However, blogs are changing journalism and publishing, and no one would deny that.
Here, a blogger at successful-blog.com debates whether a blog can be literature: http://www.successful-blog.com/1/blogging-as-literature-why-not/ but I would rather think about what a blog can mean to someone who is looking to launch a literary career. A blog offers a writer a place to get their work out into the world. Instead of sending a short story or poem directly to a literary magazine, a writer can post it on their blog and see what people think about it. It's a better version of handing a manuscript to a friend and asking for feedback. People will be more honest online, since they likely don't know the writer and can hide behind the veil of anonymity. Real, honest feedback is so important to a writer, and a blog's comment field is a great place to get that feedback.
As for blogging and journalism? Most journalists have their own blogs now, so obviously there is something to it. Print journalists can criticize home-body bloggers all they want, but at the same time they know it is changing the game. Like a writer looking to be published, blogs can do the same thing for a beginning journalist or a freelancer. Blogs are a free way to get your words and your name out to people. Why not sell your article to a newspaper, and then publish it on a blog? Thenextweb.com has a nice piece on the blogging vs. journalism debate: http://thenextweb.com/us/2010/08/18/blogging-vs-journalism-the-ongoing-debate/
People say that publishing on a blog isn't really publishing, and bloggers aren't journalists. However, blogs are changing journalism and publishing, and no one would deny that.
Here, a blogger at successful-blog.com debates whether a blog can be literature: http://www.successful-blog.com/1/blogging-as-literature-why-not/ but I would rather think about what a blog can mean to someone who is looking to launch a literary career. A blog offers a writer a place to get their work out into the world. Instead of sending a short story or poem directly to a literary magazine, a writer can post it on their blog and see what people think about it. It's a better version of handing a manuscript to a friend and asking for feedback. People will be more honest online, since they likely don't know the writer and can hide behind the veil of anonymity. Real, honest feedback is so important to a writer, and a blog's comment field is a great place to get that feedback.
As for blogging and journalism? Most journalists have their own blogs now, so obviously there is something to it. Print journalists can criticize home-body bloggers all they want, but at the same time they know it is changing the game. Like a writer looking to be published, blogs can do the same thing for a beginning journalist or a freelancer. Blogs are a free way to get your words and your name out to people. Why not sell your article to a newspaper, and then publish it on a blog? Thenextweb.com has a nice piece on the blogging vs. journalism debate: http://thenextweb.com/us/2010/08/18/blogging-vs-journalism-the-ongoing-debate/
Thursday, January 20, 2011
On the verge of deletion
The time is almost here: the day I delete my Facebook. It's something I've been planning to do for a couple of months, but somehow I still have an account. I check it about once every two weeks, and all of my photos have been transferred to a file on my computer. I'm not trying to make some anti-society point by deleting the account like some people. I don't mind being a part of a huge commercial mass. my reasons are more practical than that, and mostly stem from paranoia.
First, I fear that employers looking at my Facebook will see my as unfit to hold any sort of responsibility. Facebook has painted a slanted portrait of my life. The only time I appear in photos is when I'm at a party. I rarely find my way in front of a camera when I'm sober. The result? Looking through my Facebook pictures, someone would assume I was a sloppy drunk who does nothing but attend theme parties. Instead of sorting through the photos and untagging the ones that have a beer in them, I'm choosing to delete my account. Keeping it would leave me with about six photos and a list of friends, most of which I can hardly remember.
Second, I don't like my information being harvested and sold to advertisers. I do have a Gmail account, and I know they do something similar. However, my Gmail account doesn't have my interests listed, connected to photos of me. The fact that people are extracting information from my life and analyzing it in order to sell products to me through increasingly invasive means really bothers me, and I'll choose not to participate.
First, I fear that employers looking at my Facebook will see my as unfit to hold any sort of responsibility. Facebook has painted a slanted portrait of my life. The only time I appear in photos is when I'm at a party. I rarely find my way in front of a camera when I'm sober. The result? Looking through my Facebook pictures, someone would assume I was a sloppy drunk who does nothing but attend theme parties. Instead of sorting through the photos and untagging the ones that have a beer in them, I'm choosing to delete my account. Keeping it would leave me with about six photos and a list of friends, most of which I can hardly remember.
Second, I don't like my information being harvested and sold to advertisers. I do have a Gmail account, and I know they do something similar. However, my Gmail account doesn't have my interests listed, connected to photos of me. The fact that people are extracting information from my life and analyzing it in order to sell products to me through increasingly invasive means really bothers me, and I'll choose not to participate.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Naming my blog
There are three steps in signing up for a blog on this site. The second one -- naming your blog -- is a real challenge. I overlooked the fact that I would have to name it, and when I was forced to do so I had a flashback. It was about three years ago and I was sitting sitting in a garage about to draft my first fantasy football team. Everyone else in the league had played the previous year(s) and already had a polished name. What I came up with I would rather not mention, it was so stupid. a couple of years later, I now have, in my opinion, the best team name in the league.
But naming this blog might have been worse than naming my first fantasy football team, except for the fact that I wasn't surrounded by eleven men loaded with beer and waiting for me to come up with something witty. After looking at different sites that claim to be the guide to a perfect blog name, I ended up partially stealing a name from a list. That blog is called "The Note," and I sat staring at the wall for ten minutes trying to find something similar. What I came up with is not half as good, and I'm left wishing I had the power to steal that name.
But naming this blog might have been worse than naming my first fantasy football team, except for the fact that I wasn't surrounded by eleven men loaded with beer and waiting for me to come up with something witty. After looking at different sites that claim to be the guide to a perfect blog name, I ended up partially stealing a name from a list. That blog is called "The Note," and I sat staring at the wall for ten minutes trying to find something similar. What I came up with is not half as good, and I'm left wishing I had the power to steal that name.
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