Monday, 29 September 2008

Week 7 -Blogosphere

1. Look at the Wikipedia entry for Blogosphere and pay particular attention to the See Also section. Read up on one of the listed blogospheres in that section and write a post to your blog that explains in your own words what a Blogging Network is and can be - cite examples.

2. Review this course as a blogging network to date. Does it connect out to a wider network, or is it insular? Does this blogging network have a facilitator or should it need one? Consider your role in helping to develop this blogging network. Finally, comment on the strengths and weaknesses as you see them, of a blogging network for online community development.


What is blogosphere? Here are several of the definition for it:

Definition of Blogosphere:Basically it was coined to describe the interconnection between the millions of blogs on the internet.
From http://www.socialmedian.com/story/897649/what-is-blogosphere-what-is-guide

Millions of blogs and their contributors and users to a blog biosphere or ecosystem...Many blogs syndicate their content to subscribers using RSS, a popular content distribution tool.
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci1007574,00.html

The blogosphere is a term used to describe the millions of interconnected blogs on the Internet.
http://websearch.about.com/od/blogsforumssocialsites/f/blogosphere.htm


The first time I have been to Global Voices Online. The goal of Global Voices Online is displayed in teh homepage as following, "Global Voices aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore."The declaration really attrached me. So I clicked links and read them. Then I was totally indulged in reading all the information from it! What an amazing websites! It intergrage lots of information on different topics, on almost every country in the world, and of course, info of the latest news can be read here as well.

To me, using blod and reading blogs is a new experience, only after I started this course I get more "touch" with blogs. Before that to me blogs are more private space to share infomation with friends. I never try to get into the blog network before. ALL I did is follow the links some pages that I read and read somebody's blog. This time when I tried Global Voices Online I realised a blogosphere could be so huge like Global Voices Online and could contain such a varity of topics. I added it into my favourate websites and would visit it regularly later, and I am sure I will get more acknowledge on blogoshpere.


Review this course as a blogging network to date. Does it connect out to a wider network, or is it insular?

For me as a new user of blog, and also always struggled to read all the postings and discussion at the beginning (thanks Leigh set me free by telling me it's optional to read info from google discussion group, and I did, totally ignored it ^_^). Now I only focus on reading the posts from my blog list. So as far my experience to date, the blog connections of this course is more like a group rather than community or network. Maybe to others who read and cross linked a lot it is a wider network.


Does this blogging network have a facilitator or should it need one?

This blogging network is a bit different. We have learning goals to achieve in a certain period of time. So for members dedicated into the course and would like to keep on track we have to read and post regularly and to make sure everyone is on the right track and encourage them to getting to the goals every week, we do need a facilitator to organise, encourage, give feedback and trace everyone's process.


Consider your role in helping to develop this blogging network.

Same as Kay Lewis mentioned in her blog, I am doing the similar things: posting regularly ( I am still far behind and trying to catch up now); reading and commenting others blogs (mainly those from my bloglist) etc. I am sorry to say maybe I didnt help very much on helping to develop the blogging network. I am just focus on the "small group" of my bloglist and try to be active in reading and posting, although I know I am not that active as I should be :-(


Comment on the strengths and weaknesses of a blogging network for online community development.

The most significant character of using blog for me, a new user, is that blog is more private space. I feel it's mine blog, recording all the thoughts of mine understanding. I do have a strong feeling of owning it. Sometimes I am suprised to this feeling too, especially when I examined all the content on my blog, which is nothing personal, private or sensitive. I know everyone can read my posts and leave comments on my blog but still I look after it like taking care of my baby :-) and it's mine, how wired... :-)

So this kind of privacy keep me feel safe and more comfort. But on the other hand, it's not like discussion forum, every topic is listed publicly and easy to be accessed. Blogs content is not easy to organise and displayed, the difficulty of access maybe a barrier to public awareness? Or maybe I am still not quite familiar with the way to access and visit blogs so that's why I feel it's not that handy to move from one blog to the other.

7 comments:

***** said...

Hi Joy,

Your blog inspires me. I think it's one of the best blogs we have in this course. It's a dedicated FOC08 blog, so I know that when your blog comes up on my blogroll that there will be a relevant post. I really appreciate this because it makes it easy for me. I recommend to others that they read your blog.

:)
artie

Kay Lewis said...

Hi Joy

Well done! I can relate to your comments about starting to feel more comfortable in your blog even though we have been somewhat private in our thoughts - I think it has been the encouragement we have received from those who have commented and supported us in this journey so far!

Elaine Dittert said...

Hi Joy
I can relate to your comments about you feeling ownership of your blog. You feel pride that it looks the way it does, that you have built it from scratch (and let's face it, like you, I had never considered setting up a blog before this course!) You feel a real sense of achievement when you look on your blog and see others have read it and liked what you wrote - enough to leave comments. What a lot we are learning in this course!
Cheers
Elaine

Joy said...

Hi guys,

Thanks for your wonderful comments.

Sorry for the late reply, I travelled to China several days ago, visiting my families for one month holidays now (but still need to catch up with this course :-( and I cannot access Internet at home and have to go to the Internet Cafe which is a bit far away from the place I lived in.

Artie, thx for your encouragement. I am struggling all the time trying to catch up. But I did learn a lot from the discussions occured here and thx for your wonderful posts which helped widen and deepen my thinking. They also helped to build up my confidence on this course too :-)

Yes Kay,as you said, the comments we've got on our blogs thru the learning period are really important and supportive. I am sooooo happy to have you and Elaine here to do the same course again and support each other as we did in last paper.

Thx Elaine for your feedback. I think of us are new users of online communities and blogs. I am happy we started this course and tried something new. Most important is I learned a lot which I never use or even heard before.

Cheers,
Joy

Leigh Blackall said...

Great post Joy... I think you are really seeing things clearly when you post. And really nice to see authentic comments coming in :) the only thing I would suggest (for you guys' fledgling blogging network :) is to make a concious effort to add links to each other, and expecially cross reference. So Joy, where you mentioned Kay's blog in your post - make that a link.

I am really pleased that you are feeling a sense of pride in your blogs, and the ownership. This is one thing about blogs that forums etc don't have so much of. If you browse other blogs, you might notice a lot of the little features (widgets) they add that extends their blog.. this is a sign of pride in blogs I think.

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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