Wednesday, September 26, 2007

HW 13 "Impact of Blogging on a Business"

Blogging in businesses these days are becoming very influential. Besides for the internet being the most popular way for people to receive information, blogging itself is having a deep effect on how the world perceive issues on just about anything. According to the article: "Blogs Will Change Your Business" by Stephen Baker and Heather Green, "there are some 9 million blogs out there, with 40,000 new ones popping up each day. 40 new ones everyday that could be talking about your business, engaging your employees, or leaking those merger discussions you thought were hush-hush". With bloggers discussing there businesses over the internet, it's leaving no privacy. This is how businesses are finding things out about what there current employer may think about them. Businesses expect that you would use simple common sense when discussing there company-especially when it's open for anyone to view. Google was one company that unfortunately had a problem with this. Baker and Green discuss how a young programmer blogged about his first few days on the job. He said that "Google's health plan was less generous than his former employers Microsoft and he argued Google's free food was an enticement for employees to work past dinner." Google fired the programmer. This goes to show that blogging about your company in a negative way can result in punishment. "If it's something you wouldn't email to a long list of strangers, don't blog it." I highly agree with this statement. You shouldn't broadcast to the world-especially about your job, because nothing on the internet is ever private. Anyone can access it. Society used to think that before the internet became as popular as it is today that nothing was so open and you can pretty much vent about your life in a blog. You never would have thought people would look into it, or even be interested in what you were saying. But recently (or within the past few decades) society suggests that "Blogs are what's causing the Web to grow. If a company wants to track millions of blogs simultaneously, it gets a heat map of what a growing part of the world is thinking about, minute by minute."
Besides the drama of what Blogging can do to a company, it can also be used as an advertising tool and be very influential towards a business. In a positive blog, company’s employees can discuss what the job offers and makes them standout aside from other businesses. Although competitors are able to view this and could find out what they are up too, competition is what makes businesses achieve better greatness.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

HW 11 "Making Global Voices Heard"

The name of the blog that I decided to discuss for this assignment was the topic on The North Korean Zone titled, “The Tragedy of Building Trust with North Korea”. In this blog, it discussed how the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors tried “shutting down North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, and heavy fuel oil and humanitarian aid are shipping from South Korea to the North”. Throughout the argument, it talks about how North Korea is still in crisis and “playing to the domestic politics of other countries to command a higher price for its cooperation.” Whenever a country tries to build trust with North Korea, it always seems to backfire. The types of people who comment back on this type of blog are people who seem to be very confrontational about North Korean problems because they are probably from around there. They have a strong opinion on the issues.
Rebecca Mackinnon in her interview called, “Making Global Voices Heard” discussed why she chose to start her new career focused on North Korea. She tells us that the “media covers the stories in a haphazard fashion”. Mackinnon states that there are no blogs in North Korea. She started a blog there called the Watch Blog that is a group outside North Korea that talks about what is happening there. I feel that this blog parallels with the blog online because they both discuss the issues going on in North Korea and this place doesn’t have a very trustworthy government.
Of course, many will probably disagree with this assertion about the issues going on with North Korea. Mackinnon thinks that North Korean’s internet access is very bad because they’re scared about what their government might do to them. People from North Korea may think differently and that there government is not the problem. This could provide a conflicting issue within my blog.

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=425196

Monday, September 24, 2007

HW 12 Intro Para of Semester-Long Project

Throughout humanity today, one of the most popular pastimes being used on the computer are social networking services. In my opinion, it would be interesting to learn about these types of services online that include face book and MySpace; for two examples. I think it would be fascinating to learn if about the networking services in the United States versus Asia. It would also be interesting to find out if they use them in other places around the world and how often as well as how long they have been using them. If they have been using them before Americans have I feel this would also be very appealing to me. The type of marginalized groups I am most interested in learning about are overcoming sexism. Throughout my youth and educational career, I was able to learn a little about the different issues going on with sexism. In researching this for my semester-long project I feel I will be able to get a better understanding of it.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

HW 9 "Punching Holes in Old Faded Mirrors"

“Punching Holes in Old Faded Mirrors” was the title from am interview with Arianna Huffington. In this interview she discusses her participation in the blogosphere world and starting her own Blog; referring to it as a ‘blogazine’. Called the Huffington Post, she describes it as a “Combined breaking-news section with a group blog”. Huffington has made many explanations about blogs. She states how “Blogs have made a huge difference because they have broken the monopoly of the mainstream media. An enormous amount of people have become their own reporters”. Huffington is surely right about bloggers being their own reporters because, as she may not be aware, recent studies and from other readings in the book, “Blog!” have acknowledged the fact that bloggers are becoming more accurate with the issues they are discussing. I also agree how Arianna Huffington discusses that in the blogosphere world, the chance of a Blog being incorrect have a better chance in being corrected and improved.
Although there is not much information stated by Huffington that I disagree with, there was a line she said that I found a little controversial. She thought that the media was “Suffering from attention deficit disorder”. She thought that they only paid attention to one story at a time and don’t talk about any other issues. Although I agree with Huffington up to a point, I cannot accept the overall conclusion that the media constantly only deals with one problem on the news or in the newspapers at one time. Looking through any daily newspaper, there are plenty of breaking stories throughout it. They may have one huge breaking story more intense that some of the others, but the media never fails to not discuss them. Overall, I feel that Arianna Huffington portrayed well her thoughts upon blogs and I believe The Huffington Post will be a successful blog in the future.

Monday, September 17, 2007

HW 7 "My So-Called Blog"

Most parents would agree that in order to protect their children they should monitor all the websites and things that they do when they are on the computer. Inn my opinion, I think that it is better to allow your children to have their own privacy and be able to decide for themselves what they do when there using the internet. If they are old enough to be able to work and successfully use a computer, then they can determine what responsible acts in using the World Wide Web. Blogging and journals online are ways for kids to open up and express themselves if they feel they can’t any other way.
As Emily Nussbaum’s put in her chapter titled “My So-Called Blog”, “…exposure may be painful at times, but it’s all part of the process of putting it out there.” (Kline and Burstein 352)
“Teens, especially says Nussbaum, seem to be aching to share what normally would be considered private experiences: For a significant number, they become a way of life, a daily record of a community’s private thoughts”. (Kline and Burstein 349)
These two quotes are basically stating how teenagers and young adults who use the internet for blogs and journals feel that they can talk about their life easier by typing it out online rather than putting it all out there in person. Blogging has become so popular with teens that it has essentially become a way of life to express your feelings on a day to day basis over the internet for others to read.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

HW 5b "I Blog, Therefore I Am"

In David Kline’s reading titled, “I Blog, Therefore I am”, I found a paragraph that I disagreed with. The quote starts off by saying, “It was a once thriving medium killed by decades of mediocrity, fueled by the insidious tradition of older strips never going away, resulting in an apathetic generation of younger readers who no longer have reason to ever open their newspaper.” What this emphasizes is that they think that the youth rarely ever reads the newspaper. I disagree with this quote because being a teenager myself, I personally read the newspaper. We’re forced to read newspapers considering I am in college they always have newspapers in your dorms and dining halls. Even if you don’t read it, sometimes you need to relate your homework to an article for a certain class. Walking through my campus on a daily basis I always observe someone looking through the ‘morning paper’. I can definitely argue with this quoted statement from Kline’s passage in the “Blog” book and I feel that this is a negative speech.

HW 6 Interest Statement

After looking over the possible options on the list for the Semester-Long Project, I was able to decide what interested me.
The social computing technologies that interested me were email and email lists, instant messaging, and social networking services. I found these to be fascinating because these three choices I already use in my free time when I am on the computer. I enjoy using them and have much background on the three.
The type of employment of marginalized groups that I am most interested in finding out about are overcoming sexism, overcoming racism, and overcoming ageism (inequities based on youth or lack of youth). I find these three topics to be very interesting to me because they are controversial issues.
The two geographical areas that I am interested in learning about are North America and the United States. Because I live in the United States I think it would be fascinating to look deeper into what kind of issues are occurring in our country today. Learning about the issues in North America would also interest me because I can compare the problems that occur here to that of it North America. I can see how they are similar and differ.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

HW 4 "The Voice of the Customer"

“Great brands are always built on promise”, quoted Greg Thomas in “The Voice of the Customer”. One great brand that I have always loved and continue to use is Lander Baby Lotion. This brand parallels with Thomas’ statements upon brands because Baby Lotion has continuously for years been a popular and reliable lotion for your skin. In my opinion, I speculate that this brand offers to have a soothing and moisturizing effect on any skin type.
After looking into this brand on the internet I was able to find out many things about this product that they don’t tell you about on the actual bottle. Lander promises that its product “Smoothes, Soothes, and softens delicate skin”. It also states to be “effective in restoring healthy feeling and looking skin. This unique formula absorbs into the skin to soothe as it softens and protects your skin”.
I think that Lander Baby Lotion does deliver on the promises that they say on the bottle and on the website. From personal experience of using this cream my whole life, I can fully agree with what they say about this product.

http://store.darisimall.com/520817.html

Thursday, September 6, 2007

HW 2 "Burstein's 12 key Ideas.."

“Blog will continue to be important in politics for a long time to come”.
In this blog entry it discusses how blogs are beginning to become more important than the actual media when it comes to the presidential campaigns, for example. They have more important things to say about the elections and can actually influence the votes when the elections are pretty equal. They discuss how blogs are an interesting part of the campaign coverage.
I find it interesting to have blogs when it comes to politics because on a good note, they can be very supportive in helping the running politicians. It can influence the American voters with whom they choose by giving them more realistic ideas of who is a better choice to be working for our country. I can relate to this blog because now that I am 18 years old I am of legal age to vote. I feel that by reading blogs online about the presidential elections I can get a more fulfilling idea of who is the better choice.
Many people assume that the media is always correct when it comes to the elections. I have come to realize through reading “Blog” by David Kline that you can’t always believe what you read in the media. Bloggers are becoming more precise with their entries which make me comfortable with the fact that I can get a better knowledge of elections by reading them.

HW 3 "Toward a More Participatory Democracy"

In reading Chapter 1 of “Toward a More Partipatory Democracy” David Kline recognized the idea that Blogging is conflicting differences between opposite views. Elections have become the greatest example of how blogging has had an impact in our daily lives. Blogging has influenced the different political views of many Americans opinions; especially how our country is being run today. For example, according to the media, they broadcasted that “Iraq had weapons of mass destruction; then suddenly, their wasn’t.” This goes to show that what they broadcast on the news and in our newspapers isn’t always politically correct. Bloggers almost always catch these problems in the news and there ideas are more accurate. Problem is we’re so used to the idea of the news always being right that no one takes into consideration anything about the accuracy of bloggers.
Another problem occurring with the media today is they don’t have coverage on religion and it is becoming “remarkably absent from most mainstream American media”. People have begun to find this a problem because some of the worst issues in our country today have resulted in the disagreements between religions. Bloggers have been able to fill the lacking of religion from newspapers and television by writing precise blogs discussing what the media is refraining from.
It has become common today that “the media can merely benefit from some new (blogger) blood”. Americans today tend to believe that having some of the bloggers intelligent backgrounds on large issues in our country today can only benefit us and make our media become more accurate.
In my opinion, I feel that blogging is more correct than a good amount of stories that the media tells us in the newspapers and on the daily news today. I no for a fact that newspapers can completely butcher stories and turn them around to something that didn’t even happen. For instance, I went to High school with a student who committed a crime and it was put in the newspaper. He was in one of my classes and discussed that they made the story sound worse than what really happened and was extremely upset with how the media told the story. This makes me more familiar with how David Kline discusses the inaccuracy of the media today and how we need more bloggers to be part of the media.