HW 42

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #56

HW:37 second podcast

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #34

HW 36: Gabcast

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #5



Episode # 5

Letter to my Blog Readers

My blog for my ITW class was the first blog that I had ever kept. Before taking the class I was not even really sure what a blog was. Not only have a learned a lot about politics, literature, and Iraq during the course but I have learned a new form of writing. Blogging is very personal and somewhat casual. I hope people that have read my blog could have perhaps learned about some of the things I have read about, for example some of the articles in Blog! By David Kline and Dan Burstein. Also I hope they could learn about how blogs work and how it is a type of informal writing and you are free to write about whatever you want and share your opinion with literally anybody who has the internet. The works that I feel most proud of on my blog are probably most of my responses to articles in Blog! I feel like I really began to understand a lot more about blogging but reading the book and how much it affects today’s society. Before reading this book I never understood how big blogging actually was. I found it really interesting to read the essays and the interviews about famous bloggers. I think I am most proud of this work is because it is when I really began to understand blogging and what it is all about. After the semester is over I don’t think I am going to continue to blog, however I will probably make the blog private so others can not view my work but keep it for records for what I have done throughout the year. This was definitely an interesting class and it introduced me to a new way of writing, it was fun to experience something different rather then writing numerous different papers or just normal responses.

HW 34: Date Palms and Tea

“Dhuluaya is an area near Sammara, which is north of Baghdad. It’s an area popular for its wonderful date palms, citrus trees, and grape vines. The majority of the people who live in the area are simple landowners who have been making a living off of the orchards they’ve been cultivating for decades.” (Riverbend, 103) There are over 500 different types of palm trees in Iraq, some are short and some are stocky. A date tree never fails to bring a sense of satisfaction, they are the pride and joy of Iraq farmers and landowners says Riverbend. They are a huge part of their culture; no garden is a garden if it doesn’t have a palm tree. Not only are the decorative but they act as homes for birds during the winter that fly to Iraq. In Iraq there are over 300 different types of dates, each one has its own specific name, texture, and flavor. Some may be dark brown and soft while others are bright yellow and crunchy. (Riverbend, 104) These trees are just another example of something that has been taken away from the Iraqi people, soon after occupation many of the palms on the streets were cut down by the troops for “security reasons.”
In Iraq most families gather together in the evening for their “evening tea.” It seems to be away for the people to relax in a casual way, no matter how busy or stressful the day everybody is always gathered around waiting for their tea. “If you serve a teabag tea to an Iraqi, you risk scorn and disdain a teabag is an insult to tea connoisseurs. It speaks of a complete lack of appreciation for the valuable beverage” (Riverbend, 108) Families sit gathered around a small coffee table wit ha tray of tea and something to eat such as biscuits or bread and cheese. One person is known to pour the tea and they are the ones to add sugar. In Riverbend family dad gets two spoons of sugar along with Riverbend. E gets three and mom gets one. They discuss the events of the day and what is going on with the troops, things that they should be aware of. I think that many Americans also have traditions such as the Iraqi “evening tea” for us it may be our family dinner where the family gathers together and talks about everybody’s day.

HW 32: Schopping for school supplies

The topic that I decided to summarize in Baghdad Burning is shopping for school supplies. The blog first starts out with Riverbend saying how every year her cousin S. brings her two daughters to shop for school supplies but ever since the war, she hasn’t let them step outside the house. They don’t have malls in Baghdad so they went to a shopping area and school supplies are sold at “makatib” or a stationary shop that sells everything from toys to desk sets. (Riverbend, 95) Riverbend goes into great detail about the process of shopping for school supplies and the different things that are available to them. I was surprised by this particular blog, which is on pages 94-97 mainly because it reminded me when I used to go shopping for school supplies when I was younger. Riverbend discusses how important it is to buy colorful notebooks and erasers that smell like strawberries and stuff. This definitely reminds me of when I was in elementary school, the colorful notebooks and pens and pencils always seemed much more interesting to me then the plain ones. Riverbend states “The shop assistant looked exasperated when I started smelling the erasers and S. hissed that they all smelled the same anyway. No, they DON”T all smell the same they all taste the same…we went with some strawberry-shaped erasers that oddly enough, smelled like peaches.” (Riverbend, 95) Riverbend seemed to know what exactly what her cousins daughters were going to like for school and had a strong opinion that the more the kids like their school supplies the more they will appreciate them and take good care of them. It was interesting to read about how cautious S. is with her children, they had not left their home all summer long and she was frightened about the upcoming school year and would not be able to feel safe until her daughters got home everyday. Kids going to school in Iraq is something that scares parents, Riverbend also mentioned how parents monitor and look after the school to make sure that their children and neighbors children are safe.

HW 31: Depleted Uranium

I had never heard of depleted uranium before Baghdad Burning. Riverbend caught my attention when she spoke of depleted uranium, she made it sound so horrible and it was surprising me to that I had never heard of it. She stated “I remember depleted uranium…Those are household words to Iraqi people. I remember seeing babies born with a single eye, three legs or no face-a result of DU poisoning.” After reading this it made me want to learn more. Riverbend said that depleted uranium are household words to Iraqi people, meaning that they are familiar with it and most of the have probably been effected by it in some way or another. The depleted uranium weapons used in 1991 have resulted in a damaged environment and an astronomical rise in the cancer rate in Iraq. (Riverbend, 47) Depleted Uranium (DU) is uranium remaining after removal of the isotope uranium-235. It is a waste product of the uranium enrichment process. It is primarily composed of the isotope uranium-238. In the past it was called by the names Q-metal, depletalloy, and D-38, Depleted Uranium is a radioactive material and a chemical material. The principal health consideration of Depleted Uranium is due to chemical toxicity. The organ at greatest risk from chemical toxicity is the kidneys. Of less concern are Depleted Uranium’s radiological hazards. (wikipedia.com) this one paragraph of Baghdad Burning just goes to show another horrible aspect of Riverbend’s life and how many things she actually has to deal with on a day to day basis, something which most of us are not at all familiar with.

Works Cited:

Riverbend. Baghdad Burning. New York: The Feminist Press, 2005.

Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. 2007. Wikimedia Foundation. 7 Nov. 2007.

HW: 30 Citizenship Symposium 2

The second Symposium session that I attended was on Thursday November 8th. The lecture was titled “Citizenship and Responsibility.” The speaker Tom Lantes was first introduced by his daughter Katrina. His daughter was more than happy to introduce her father, not only is he her father by he is her hero. Tom Lantes was a survivor of the Holocaust and came the United Sates after WWII. “America did not teach man the idea of freedom; she taught how to practice it.” This was a quote from the President of France, whom Tom has established a close relationship with. Lantes spoke very passionately about the United States and how much it means for him to be here; he has made a life for himself in our country even though he only arrived with nothing but 5 dollars in his pocket. He also spoke about the upcoming president and what he should bring to our country. First they must bring our country together domestically, and two they must rebuild the prestige, respect, and status for the United States internationally. He is very concerned with the image of our country and so passionate about his feelings towards our society and the changes that are hopefully soon to come. He questions why our reputation is so much less impressive then it was just a few years ago, and he also stated that people tend to forget about all the positive things the U.S. has done and only focus on the negative aspects of our government. Lantes is very influential and his speech was not only motivating but it made me think about our democracy in a deeper way then before

HW 30:Citizenship symposium 1

The first Symposium session that I attended was on Tuesday, November 6th. Provost Emile Netzhammer started the day off by talking about obligations of citizenship and how it is important for people from the community to get involved, through events such as town meetings. The main speaker of the event was Nancy Tobi; the title of the session was “Citizens Gone Wild.” She addressed the question of “what kind of democracy to we want?” Nancy definitely had an interesting background; she grew up in Lexington Massachusetts, also known as the birthplace of American liberty. The main part of her discussion and what I found most interesting was our government and how people run it. She questioned the actions of our government and the secrecy which voters actually have. She stated that she distrusts the act of “Checks and Balances” and that elections should be fully open and observable. The only secret in an election should be the voter’s ballot. “Government is the servant of the people and not the master of them” This quote was stated by Bev Harris and was mentioned numerous times throughout her speech. Nancy Tobi is an extremely concerned citizen and only wants what is right for the voters. She questions some of the motives of the government. This quote explains that the government should be catering to the people’s needs and wishes, not giving demands and telling them what to do. Tobi gave a very dominating and influential speech, it is important for people to be aware of what is going on with today’s government and to be involved as much as possible.

HW: 28 "An open letter to Riverbend"

After reading your posts from August I began to think a lot more about the war and how it is affecting everybody’s life so dramatically everyday. It was upsetting to read about how scared and alert you have to be all the time, even when you are in your own home. The more and more that I read about your life the more I think about my life here and how lucky some people are and they don’t even realize it. The fact that so many women are not able to attend college anymore or work in their jobs is horrible, people living in the United States need to be reminded about the conditions in Iraq and how peoples lives have changed so drastically due to the war on terrorism, I found your post on Saturday, August 23, 2003 extremely upsetting, you stated:

“Females can no longer leave their homes alone. Each time I go out. E and either a father, uncle, or cousin has to accompany me. It feels like we’ve gone back 50 years ever since the beginning of the occupation. A woman, or a girl, out alone risks anything from insults to abduction.”

It is hard for me to even imagine living like this; I have never had to deal with being scared for my own life in my own home or town. I can’t imagine how devastating it must be to be terrified for your life and watch neighbors homes be invaded and hear of young innocent children dying in just the next town over. Obviously it has hard for me to relate to you Riverbend, but by just reading your posts I have come to learn a lot more about Iraq and the war in general. Though it is definitely upsetting, I think it is important for people to read your blogs and learn more about the every day life in Iraq. I also think that is kind of you to be able to sympathize with the American troops, you are clearly able to see them suffering and wishing that they were somewhere else, I know that some people must only feel hatred towards the troops, but they too are suffering just like everybody else.

HW: 27 annoted bibliography

Baghdad Burning is a remarkable book written by Riverbend. Riverbend is a 24 year- old female that lives in Iraq. She first started this blog as a place to complain about the occurrences that are going on in her life. She had always wanted to start a web blog but she never thought anybody would read it, her blogs had become so popular that they were transformed into a book that is being read all across America. While reading this book the reader will learn important information about the background of Iraq and the invasion of the United States and how it has effect their lives. Riverbend will discuss what is going on in Baghdad and how terrible and frightening it can be to live there. This book has a lot to do with our course, A Blog of One’s Own, first of all the entire book is made up of different blogs that Riverbend has published online. It also ties into women and the digital revolution, it shows how popular blogs truly are, I find it extremely interesting to see that women in Iraq are aware of blogs and that we are able to communicate with them over the internet. This book truly does emphasize the fact of how important blogs are and how our society is constantly changing and women are gaining more and more power all around the world. After skimming the book and reading some blogs it is already easy to see what kind of writing Riverbend does, it is pretty casual and easy to understand. However, what she is writing about is extremely important and dramatic and can often be upsetting. She goes into great detail about the war and her own opinions about American and especially George W. Bush. Benefits from this book is that it has the potential to reach out to people all across the country and begin to see the war in a different light, even if people are not interested in politics and the war this book is a great way to get information and learn about what is going on around the world. Some challenges may be that is difficult to read because of how upsetting it really is, hearing about innocent people being killed, people that Riverbend know and having to always hear her talk about being scared in her own home.

HW 25: Riverbend and Iraq

I was surprised when I read the forward of Baghdad Burning written by Ahdaf Soueif. Forwards in books are usually somewhat boring and monotonous, however the author immediately had my attention at the beginning. Soueif starts out by describing Riverbend and what her blog is about. He states:

“Baghdad Burning brings us as close to the war in Iraq as it’s possible to be. And “close” does not mean just knowing about electricity cuts and water shortages, about street battles and raids on homes; “close” means right inside the heart and mind of young Baghdadi woman as she lives through the war.” (Soueif, vii)

By just reading the forward I already feel extremely close to Riverbend and her family, I find it so interesting about how her readers are all so dedicated to her blog and check it constantly. If they hear news about Iraq they always check her blog to see if a new post has been written to insure her safety. I am already excited to read her book and hear her stories about what it is like to live in Iraq, I also hope to look at her blog and see what kinds of things she has to say there.

The introduction is written by James Ridgeway, the context includes more of a background about the United States and Iraq. He goes into great detail about the United States relations with Iraq and other countries, he goes on to describe September 11th and what an impact it has made on both of our countries. It is important to read the introduction to get a sense of what is going on today in the Middle East and what specifically has caused so much violence. One interesting fact I learned from the introduction was that the United States was planning on invading Iraq even before September 11th occurred. He states:

“The Bush administration appears to have determined to go to war against Saddam as a primary foreign policy goal well before 9/11. Claims of fault UN inspections, weapons of mass destruction were stated as the reasons for attack; all have been proven clearly false.” (Ridgeway, xvi)

My own memories of the U.S. invasion in Iraq are very personal; I was only in 7th grade when the World Trade Centers went down. I remember being extremely confused and hurt that something like this had happened in our own country. There was obviously much more to our invasion then I had understood at the time, that is why it is so important for people to understand what is going on in Iraq, and Riverbend’s blog seems like a great way to do that.

HW: 24 A room I call my own

In chapter 5 Woolf goes into an explanation about how far history has come. In the begging of A Room Of One’s Own women were extremely inferior to men and had little or no rights. They had to attend certain schools and were only allowed to do and write certain things. Now Woolf notices a great change between men and women, she states:

“I had come to last, in the course of this rambling, to the shelves which hold books by the living; by women and by men; for there are almost as many books written by women now as by men.” (Woolf 79)

Today, women and men are considered to be equal, women are allowed to write whatever they wish to and can hold the same kinds of jobs and have intelligent conversations as men do. Today, there is not supposed to be any social difference between man and woman. Obvisouly there are always going to be people who are reluctant to think that men hold a higher status then women, however it is very hard nearly impossible to prove today.

“If we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think”
(Woolf 113)

Women have come such a long way since this book was written, and this quote stated by Woolf is something that she had always dreamed of. To me “A Room of One’s Own” is the ability for a person to have the freedom to write and think what they want. The comparison that she makes to a room is that back then it was not common for women to be able to express themselves It perhaps was not common to have your own room either. Today most people have their own room and women are finally able to be free of thought and write and talk about what they wish. Ironically, I do not have my own room, I have been sharing a room with two other people for three months now. I am however free to do what I went with my given space and I have room and time to write and think as I please.

HW 23: Jezebel and Woolf

“With Apologies to Virginia Woolf”

As most of you probably know I am extremely concerned about women and women’s rights. Women are constantly being mistreated and are often put below men. I have recently been keeping track of the blog jezebel. Which can be accessed at www.jezebel.com. What I like most about this website is that it is ultimately empowering women and giving them a place to share their thoughts and opinions. One of my favorite posts of the week was Return Of The British Bridezillas at http://jezebel.com/gossip/hells-bells/return-of-the-british-bridezillas-313638.php. This post just goes to show that women today have more control over events such as weddings, they actually get an input. I think of Jezebel as a place for women to write about topics that interest them and things that they are concerned about. After all every woman needs a place of her to write and think, and I think that Jezebel is just the place. “ A woman might write letters while she was sitting by her father’s sick-bed. She could write them by the fire whilst the men talked without disturbing them.” (Woolf 62) Blogging is a great way to be heard it brings me joy that women are able and actually allowed to express their opinions and get their voices heard. What I find most interesting is that people who are not writers still have a place to write and get feedback from their work. While this writing is much different from then what I am used to reading it is still relevant to this time period and the people that are reading it.

HW 21: Dear Sister

A Room of One’s Own written by Virginia Wolfe is definitely a difficult read. I also had trouble understanding the first chapter and what the author was trying to get across to the reader. In the first chapter the character, Mary is in distraught over the importance of women and fiction. She goes on to describe what she thinks this means she states, “The title women and fiction might mean, and you may have meant it to mean, women and what they are like; or it might mean women and the fiction they write; or it might mean women and the fiction that is written about them.” (Wolfe 3) This goes to show that Mary is contemplating what these two words mean and she goes on to show us that they can be interpreted in many different forms. When trying to describe “women” Mary compares the works of different poets, men and women poets. In this first chapter it is important to understand that women are not as powerful as men but they too still need a “room of their own” to express their ideas and perhaps write about them. Mary goes on and describes a river that she is walking by and a college, she reflects upon the images that she sees and ties that back into the question of women and fiction. I believe that your teacher felt that is an important book to read because it goes deeper into gender issues, you must remember that during this time period women were not as powerful and did not have as many rights as they do today. It is important to remember that women were not always considered equal, and this chapter goes into detail about how important it really is. My own personal reaction to this reading was that it was definitely hard to understand and interpret, perhaps because it is a new type of reading and the answers are not as clear. I think to fully understand what Virginia Wolfe is trying to understand I will have to look deeper into her work.

HW: 19 "Web of Influence"

Web of Influence written by Daniel Drezner and Henry Farrell was a very interesting article that showed the influences that blogging has had on our society. The paragraph that I have decided to respond to is on page 85 and continues onto page 86. I found it surprising that the authors argued that blogging couldn’t influence global politics. MY POINT IS that Drezner and Farrell felt that blogging has had a great impact on politics and the blogosphere is responsible for huge adjustment on our society. FOR EXAMPLE, he states “Blogs are already influencing U.S. politics. The top five political blogs together attract over half a million visitors per day.” (Kline 85) I found it surprising that they considered blogging to never impact our world globally. IN OTHER WORDS I personally think that blogging someday will go global and influence things such as politics all around the world. Another comment that surprised me was Farrell states “The typical blog is written by a teenage girl who uses it twice a month to update her friends and classmates on happenings in her life.” (Kline 85) Before entering this class that is what I thought blogging was primarily about, however now I feel that there is much more to blogs than providing a social life. Blogging has become people’s careers and I think that someday it will impact global issues.

*templates from Graff are in all caps.

HW 18: least favorite blog

I found my least favorite post at jezebel.com; the post was about models and what it takes to be one and what you have to go through. I found this post extremely disturbing and thought that is would be very unhealthy of young girls to read, especially girls who are self-conscious about their own body. The title of the post is Forbes: Models Are Starving, Financially Fucked & Computer Analyzed and it can be found at http://jezebel.com/gossip/business-models/forbes-models-are-starving-financially-fucked--computer-analyzed-308222.php.

Here is one quote from the post:
“Stop eating. Grow. Be at least five foot nine, weighing 110 to 120 Ibs. This would give you a body-mass index of about 16 to 18. "Models starve themselves, and we tell them to," says Richard Habberley, a top agent with Elite, which reps Victoria's Secret hottie Alessandra Ambrosio and Maybelline face Jessica White.”

This quote is degrading to women, it is enforcing the fact that women should look a certain way and if they don’t then they won’t make it as a model and they will be looked down upon from others. I think it is ridiculous that somebody would actually say this, he states “models starve themselves, and we tell them too” it is sad that somebody would admit to this especially when so many models and people have serious eating disorders that ruin their lives. We as a society should be trying to improve this impossible ideal body image, the last thing people should be doing is promoting it. I think that Jezebel is a fun website to look at and there are a lot of interesting topics, however this particular post I thought was extremely inappropriate.

HW:17b Cox vs. Zuniga

After reading the two articles in Kline & Burstein and visiting the two different websites, I think that Daily Kos by Zuniga was much more influential. First of all, he seemed passionate about blogging and his job. Blogging started out as a hobby for him and it literally turned into a career. I found it extremely interesting about how he kind of stumbled upon blogging and decided to give it a try so he would stop annoying the people who had to listen to him talk about politics everyday. He seems to have a lot of influence on the Democratic party and previous campaigns.

Zuniga states “I mean, all I can do, along with other political bloggers, is gather up my raders and talk about the issues, bounce ideas off each other, maybe offer some talking points, and then point them to things that need to achieve the political goals we want.” (Kline 48)

I found this quote interesting and I thought it told a lot about his personality. He is so open to ideas and truly is passionate about what he does. Another thing I liked about him was the layout of his blog. I thought it looked very professional and the writing was less casual than other blogs that I have looked at. I think the reason Zuniga’s blog is more likely to influence me when it comes to voting in upcoming elections is because I felt Cox’s blog and interview was much more informal. It kind of seemed like she did not care as much about what she was doing and was not as excited about political blogging and blogging in general.

HW 17: “Is It Every Little Girl’s Dream To Babysit? One Video Thinks So”

I looked at two different blogs, one was “Okay, That's It Ladies: Time To Buy A Playstation 3” which can be found at http://jezebel.com/gossip/dick-in-an-xbox/okay-thats-it-ladies-time-to-buy-a-playstation-3-301659.php and the other one was “Is It Every Little Girl's Dream To Babysit? One Video Game Company Thinks So” at http://jezebel.com/gossip/low-score/is-it-every-little-girls-dream-to-babysit-one-video-game-company-thinks-so-306751.php. What I found so interesting about these two blogs was that they corresponded with each other about a topic I thought was pretty rare. Both blogs discussed how girls are labeled as people who only like to shop, gossip, and are concerned about how they look but in reality girls like things that boys do too. In this particular case they discuss video games, and how girls like to play as much as boys do and how games are even becoming focused on girls more and more. ”6-14 year old females, to whom Ubisoft is marketing babysitting, fashion design and figure skating games: Maybe some of them will be pleased with these choices, but aren't you willing to bet that some of them would also like games where you kickbox, DJ, or blow something up?” This quote goes to show that people are definitely looking at girls from a different viewpoint. The reason I thought these blogs were so interesting was because it was a topic that I had not really heard much about and I thought it was good that people are breaking away from the stereotypical image of what a teenager girl is like.

HW 16b: Scoble's 5 pillars

Robert Scoble is very adamant about blogging. He states “To me, a good blog has two things: it’s passionate and it’s authoritative.” (Kline 125) He feels that blogs do nothing but good things for companies who allow their employees to blog about certain brands or products. He feels that there are 5 things that have made blogging “hot” over the past couple of years. They are ease of publishing, discoverability, cross-site conversations, permalinking and finally syndication. I think ease of publishing and discoverability are relatively easy to understand. Part of what has made blogs so popular is how easy they are to make and how anybody can publish a post anywhere and about anything. They are open to so many people that it is hard for them to not become popular, they have impacted many aspects of today’s society. I took discoverability to mean that is easy to become discovered when blogging. There is always somebody that will respond to you and blogging has made a huge impact on companies such as Google and Microsoft. It is easy to become noticed on the web. He said that cross-site conversations allowed him to see who was linking to him with trackbacks. Not only do blogs help you communicate with other people but you can see where these people are coming from and who is keeping track of your own personal blob. Permalinking was a term that was new to me, I think that Scoble feels it is so important is because he can isolate a URL that will take him to a post. I felt that this aspect of blogging made it easy to find other blogs on the web, it brings you right to something that you are interested in without having to search. The fifth topic is syndication, which allows you to view a large number of sites. This allows you to keep track of more things at once and introduce you to more things about blogging.

HW: 13 Business Blogging

I personally think that the impact of blogging on business is much more important then blogging on communication. I see other types of blogging, as hobbies that people have and while blogging about business can actually be productive. Baker and Green seem to believe that nobody can afford to close their eyes to the world of blogging, they emphasize how blogging with eventually shape every business. Companies have already begun to realize how much of an impact the internet has on our society and blogging is becoming a huge part of that. I think that business blogging is something positive that has come out of this whole process, it allows customers to get a better look at the company and the product they may be purchasing and it allows business to advertise and make more profits. From Green and Baker “You can bet that your competitors are exploring ways to harvest new ideas from blogs, sprinkle ads into them, and yes, find out what you and other competitors are up to.” (Kline 223) Not only will business blogging affect the customer but it will allows companies to see their competition more clearly. There is clear evidence that business blogging has already started to make an impact. Mark Jen was a Google employee and was shortly fired after he blogged about how his former employer, Microsoft had a more generous health plan. this just goes to show that businesses are aware of blogging and how it could help their company or ultimately destroy them.

HW: 11 "Making Global Voices Heard"

I decided to look at the blog Global Voices that can be found at
www.globalvoicesonline.org. The blog looks like it was put together very formally and professionally. While the writing seems to be casual, it is all written in well English and is very understandable to any audience. Some of the blog titles are “Myanmar: Tens of Thousands Join Protest led by Monks” and “ World Reaction to the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights.” All of the blogs are about different events going on around the world, this website acts as another way to get news information without watching television or reading a newspaper. I also visited Jeff Ooi’s blog at jeffooi.com. In “Making Global Voices Heard” Mackinnon states about how we are seeing an emergence of blogs and how Jeff Ooi’s blog has become extremely popular because he is not afraid to criticize the Malaysia government. After visiting his blog I didn’t get the same impression, while he does discuss Malaysia there seemed to be may more irrelevant topics. The writing is much more casual, it sounds more like a conversation and there are numerous YouTube videos posted on the blog. I expected there to be more topics about problems with the government, especially after reading Mackinnon’s interview. YET SOME READERS MAY CHALLENGE MY VIEW and decide that the blogs are making a difference in the world and are allowing people to become more involved in the mainstream media. In my opinion Jeff Ooi’s blog was not as professional and informative as I thought it would be based on the reading.

HW 9: Huffington's interview

“Punching Holes In Old Faded Mirrors” is an interesting interview with Arianna Huffington. She is a social and political activist, who is trying to strengthen the impact that blogs are having on national conversation. “She is about to move blogging from the realm of the anonymous individual to the realm of the celebrity collective.” (Kline 343) Throughout her interview Huffington makes a lot of interesting points that I had never taken into consideration. She goes into detail that blogs allow everybody to be their own reporter and what is so great about that is because these people are driven by passion rather than deadlines. Also she confirmed something that I had questioned, she states, “The great thing about the blogosphere is that it can be self-correcting. If there’s a fact that a blogger puts out that’s wrong, the chances of it being corrected quickly are very great.” I thought it was extremely important that Huffington made this clear because I think a lot of people are probably skeptical about the information that they are receiving through blogs. One thing that I disagree with is when Huffington claims that blogs have made a huge difference in the mainstream media. I THINK HUFFINGTON IS MISTAKEN BECAUSE SHE OVERLOOKS the fact that so many people are still unaware about blogging in general. Yes, it has made an impact but I don’t think that the mainstream media would be in any trouble without blogging.

HW: 7 Teenagers on blogging

I disagree that parents should monitor everything that their middle-school child writes online. I personally think that the internet is a good way for teenagers to express their emotions. If parents were strict about what they allowed their children to do online, they would then express their feelings in a different way perhaps a way that is more dangerous way. Teenagers need a place that they can go and literally vent about the current days events or about how they are feeling. Blogging allows kids to express themselves and even get feedback from peers and friends. In the article “My So-Called Blog” Emily Nussbaum describes how young people today are dominating the blogging world and how they have somewhat transformed it. “The vast majority of bloggers are teens and young adults. Many teen blogs are short-lived experiments. But for a significant number, they become a way of life, a daily record of a community’s private thoughts—a kind of invisible high school that floats above the daily life of teenagers.” (Kline and Burstein 351) This quote emphasizes how blogging is ultimately good for teenagers today. Blogs allows kids to let out their emotions in a safe manner and let them communicate with the people around them. Teenagers need their freedom, parents monitor enough things today already, and kids should be able to freely write what they want online. It is up to them to decide how much they want to share with others and what kind of information they want to put out there for other people to read.

HW 6: Semester long research paper

Topics that I am interested in that deals with social computing are instant messaging, social networking services such as facebook and chat rooms. The reason that I am most interested in these topics is because they are the ones that I am most familiar with. I feel comfortable discussing them and I am also very interested in learning about them all. I was unsure about the topics of empowerment of marginalized groups. I ended up picking overcoming sexism, racism and overcoming inequities in access to education. I would like to learn about these topics in the United States and Europe. I think it will be interesting to learn more about how they are affect our society as a whole and then being able to compare that to the European culture and to see the similarities and the differences. I want to pick an interesting topic that I will have a lot to write about and something that I am interested in. I think a lot of the topics mentioned will be fun to learn about and will be easy to write about.

HW 5b: "I Blog, Therefore I Am"

“I Blog, Therefore I Am” written by David Kline discusses how blogging is becoming so common and important in our society. I did however agree with this essay more so than I have with articles in the past. Mainly because he goes into detail about how even though blogging is becoming so popular it will not be the end of mainstream media. I question Kline in the fact that blogging will continue to have such a significant impact on our society. I see blogging as more of a hobby that people have acquired over the years. Kline argues, “ Blogs are simply a continuation of a phenomenon.” (Kline pg 246) While blogging is definitely interesting and something new to me I don’t see it has taking over the media. Another part of the article that I did not agree with is when Kline acknowledges “Netspeak” and how it will change communication over the years. I don’t think that the way people communicate over the internet or text messaging will affect people’s ability to speak and write correctly.

*using safari (couldn't use different color text)

HW 4: Option 1: Harley-Davidson

"The voice of the Customer" written by David Kline shows how blogs have not only effect the political world but are affecting businesses as well. Almost every brand today has a blog of their own or people are blogging about their company, whether it is good information or bad. The brand that I decided to look up was Harley-Davidson. Kline mentions Harley-Davidson on pages 106 and 111. When discussing this brand Kline goes into detail about how executives of the country and huge fans of Harley-Davidson so they are able to provide insight about what type of improvements customers are going to want to see in the motorcycle. I found most of the reading interesting, especially to see how much of an impact blogs can actually have on companies and how they can literally destroy them with bad postings about a product. I looked up Harley-Davidson's main page on the Internet. The website is https://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/SEM/company.jsp?locale=en_US&camp_id=16&source_cd=SEM_Google_Company&GCID=S18577x001&KEYWORD=harley+davidson. The first thing that you see is "The motor company wasn't built by riding a desk." This catchy phrase is an advertisement that is tell their consumers that the people who make this product are interested in what they are doing and that they go out and experience if for themselves. What I found interesting about the product was that they put a lot of pride into their product and it seems that everybody that is putting in their input is interested in it themselves. “Great brands are always built on promise.” (Kline pg 112) This quote definitely stands true, especially with Harley. They are promising that their brand is of high quality and that they believe in what they are selling.

Hw 3: Toward a More Participatory Democracy

"Toward a More Participatory Democracy" written by David Kline goes into great detail just about how much blogging has impacted our society and most importantly politics. It was interesting to read how much of an impact they have had on previous elections and how popular they have really become. Kline states that "leading up to the 2004 presidential election, the ten most popular political blogs collectively had 28 millions visits from readers." Still being unfamiliar with blogs it is amazing to me to see how many people actually blog themselves and use blogs as places to gain information about politics and different subjects. Americans tend to believe that hey are receiving false information from newspapers and news channels. Kline states “45% of Americans said they believe little or nothing of what they read in their daily newspapers.” I found it hard to believe that people would trust articles that they read on blogs more so than they do in newspapers. Kline also made an interesting point about how political blogs have turned politics into a participatory sport rather than a spectator sport. The impact that blogs already have only shows how much of an impact they are going to have in our country’s political future. Kline does a great job at convincing the reader about how important and influential blogs have ultimately become within the past couple of years. He has showed me how passionate people are about them and that they create a productive way for people to be heard.

HW 2: Blogging goes global

Blogging is going global:
It is hard to believe that use of blogging has grown so much over the past couple of years. Not knowing much about blogs before this class started it is amazing to learn about them and how much they are expanding. David Kline’s 12 key ideas about blogging emphasize just how common they are becoming. As Kline says “blogs are already changing culture and politics around the globe.” Relating to this is somewhat difficult, mainly because blogging has never been part of my life. However, it is clearly growing and taking on many responsibilities such as politics. I find it interesting that people have adopted this idea of blogging and have become extremely interested in it. It is surprising to see how much of an impact blogs have had on serious issues. Not only have they become popular in the United States but they are making their way around the world and virtually connecting all of us together. Kline also discusses how blogging software allows more countries like the UK, Australia, and Sweden to get their voices heard on numerous subjects. It is clear that blogging with continue to dominate in today's society and will only become more and more popular.