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.