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.