Reflection

As a blogger, it is my responsibility to make my readers understand and show their interests towards my writing and the content of my blog. Blogging is not about merely typing and posting information. A good blog, need to have a good writing, discussion about relevant issues, creativity, distinctively and also enables the readers to communicate and interact with each other with hyperlinks and chatter box provided.

A good writing in a blog is essential. In writing blog, appropriate argument and theory need to be clearly stated to enhance the readability and understand of the readers. According to Rothman (2009), good writing presents an analysis of argument/theory in a form utilizing empirical evidence and/or logical reasoning in an attempt to better understanding. In addition, referring to Tsan (2007) in “Qualities of a good blogger”, a good blogger needs to continue learning, exploring and supplies ideas to the readers. Not only a good writing is required, a well structured and designed blog is needed to enhance the appearance. As mentioned in Reep (2006), a good document design guides readers through the texts by directing attention to individual topic and enhance readers ability to remember those sections. In this blog, heading, subheading, balance of white space and chart are used to enhance the appearance and understanding of the readers.

Further, blog is the combination of texts, images, videos, chatter box which interacting with each others. It is a form of multimodality which helps strengthen the message intended to be conveyed across to the audience (Walsh 2006). Citation and references are provided to acknowledge the author of original ideas. It is a way of ethical writing to avoid copyright infringements.

Referencing

Reep, DC 2006, ‘Document Design’, Technical Writing, Pearson/Longman, Chapter 6, pp. 133 – 172.

Rothman, S 2005, What Makes Good Scientific and Technical Writing?, viewed 5^th April 2009, http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9447/error?cat=4.

Tsan, J, 2007 Qualities Of A Good Blogger. EzineArticles.com, viewed 14^th June 2009, http://ezinearticles.com/?Qualities-Of-A-Good-Blogger&id=823015.

Walsh, M 2006, ‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual, and multimodal texts,’ Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no.1, p.24-37.

Rise of the mobile video blog

Video blogging has moving from webcam and onto the mobile phones nowadays. Mobile video blogging has become a familiar sight which provides convenient to the users. It is possible to do onboard editing by adding text, voice track and then directly send it over video sharing website such as YouTube, Facebook and ShoZu, without the need of transferring all over to computer (Simmons 2008).

Mobile Vidoe Blogging
Source: Google Image

Mobile Video blogging ease the communication of the society by high speed and convenient features where users can post up the video anywhere, anytime. However, there is limitation of the increasing dominant of mobile video blogging as some of them are against the ethical principles where unhealthy and irrelevant video are posted up.

Mobile video blogging is communicated to the publics through a synchronization of modes which incorporate spoken or writing language, moving images, music and sounds. This is known as multimodal. As stated in Walsh (2006), multimodal can ease the readers to understand and interpret the message better than monomodal. In addition, the combinations of the texts, images and sounds can afford readers with better information than either one alone. According to Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006), verbal and visual need to support each other in order to reach a definite meaning in interpretation and deliver it effectively to the readers.

Further, the effectiveness of citizen journalism in providing information at speed is surprisingly out of expectation. Referring to McShea (2009), media was not the main stream of getting first hand information while it was the blogosphere and eye witness accounts loaded up to the web on Facebook, blogs and YouTube videos. This can show the effectiveness and how powerful mobile video blogging is nowadays.

After looking at the benefits mobile video blogging, the negative issue needs to be emphasizing too. The ethical issue which violated the communication is concerned by the publics and government nowadays. For example, Chinese government has banned its citizens from videos from YouTube to prevent the spread of harmful information and for national security (Oates 2009). In March 2008, China blocked YouTube during the riots in Tibet as videos which carry unacceptable political issues have been posted up (cnn.com 2009).

To read more about ‘Why China banned YouTube, visit cnn.com. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/ptech/03/25/youtube.china/

As conclusion, mobile video blogging provides us with high speed and convenient communication on the net which fully utilize multimodality in delivering messages. The effectiveness of citizen journalism in providing information at speed is rather fast too. However, the limitation such as ethical issues needs to be taken into consideration to prevent the spread of harmful information.

Referencing

Cnn.com 2009, YouTube blocked in China, viewed 11^th June 2009, http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/ptech/03/25/youtube.china/.

Kress, G, & van Leeuwen, T 2006, ‘The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication’, Reading images, Chapter 1.

McShea, K 2009, What the "Purple Tunnel of Doom" Teaches Us About Crisis Communications, Emerald Strategies, Inc, viewed 11^th June 2009, http://www.emeraldstrategies.net/buzz/articles/2009/200901-purple-tunnel-of-doom-and-crisis-communications.htm.

Oates, J 2009, China bans YouTube again, The Register, viewed 11^th June 2009, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/24/tibet_china_youtube_ban/.

Simmons, D 2008, Rise of the mobile video blog, bbc news, viewed 11^th June 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7392594.stm.

Walsh, M 2006, ‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual, and multimodal texts,’ Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no.1, p.24-37.

"Harry Potter" Author Wins Copyright Claim

“Harry Potter” author, J.K. Rowling has own her claim that Steven Vander Ark’s “Harry Porter Lexicon” has violated her copyright and caused her irreplaceable harm. Rowling then sued the publisher, Michigan-based RDR Books as the lexicon is just the rearrangement of her original work and it is amounted to plagiarism as it has been copied so much. However, the publisher lawyer argued that the lexicon is just a reference guide, a legitimate effort to organize and further elaborate the complication of Harry Potter (cbsnews.com 2008).

Source: Google Image

Under Copyright Act, it is illegal to copy others opinion and treat it as own. However, it depends on whether the case is under fair use principle or not. Otherwise, it would be treated as plagiarism and violate the rights of copyright.

Copyright is a form of protection to the authors of “original works of authorship” including literacy, dramatic, musical, artistic and certain other intellectual works (Docstoc 2008). However, the doctrine of fair use under copyright principle allowing copying in certain and limited circumstances (Tysver 2008). The fundamental belief in fair use principle is that not all copying should be banned, particularly in socially important endeavors such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research.

In this case, it is argued that the lexicon is more likely a teaching material that further elaborates the complication of Harry Potter, but the original author does not agree with this statement. As stated in Stanford.edu (2007), if the copyright owner disagrees with your fair use interpretation, you might infringe upon the rights of the copyright owner and may be liable for damages.

Under Copyright Act, there are four factors to be considered in order to determine whether a specific action is considered as fair use or not. They are the purpose and character you use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion taken and lastly the effect of the use upon the potential market (Tysver 2008).

Under the purpose and character, the publisher is finding no fair use as it is for profit, commercial gain as their purpose is to publish the book and gain profit from it. In my opinion, if it is just for review or criticize, Steven can just continue his website publishing but not sell the book. Secondly, the amount and the portion Steven taken from Rowling’s work as mentioned by Rowling is totally plagiarize as it is just rearrangement of her original work. From the two points above, it can show that there is no fair use under this case.

Further, under ethical publishing principles, it is stated that original writer’s work must be acknowledged and clearly reference in the cited ideas or statement (Game & West n.d.). Otherwise, it would turn to be plagiarism where the source is not cited.

Referencing

Docstoc.com 2008, Copyright, viewed 10^th June 2009, http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2389631/Define-Copyright-Laws.

cbsnews.com, "Harry Potter" Author Wins Copyright Claim, viewed 10^th June 2008, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/08/entertainment/main4426302.shtml.

Game, A & West, MA n.d., ‘Ethical Publishing Principles-A Guideline for Authors’, Aston Business School, viewed 10^th June 2009, http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:GUCZ1iif1w4J:www.bps.org.uk/downloadfile.cfm%3Ffile_uuid%3D224B55CC-1143-DFD0-7E9A-408F74B75795%26ext%3Dpdf+ethical+publishing&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=my.

Stanford.edu 2009, Copyright and Fair Use, Stanford Universities Libraries, viewed 10^th June 2009, http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/.

Tysver, DA 2008, Fair Use in Copyright, BitLaw, viewed 10^th June 2009, http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/fair_use.html.

Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming

Facebook is one of the popular social networks which extended the social interactions from physical to digital. Facebook has grown phenomenally and today, it has came out with the new-look with new layouts and designs with the aim to allow the users to interact in faster and convenient ways. However, this has left some devotees fuming in adopting the new design. Forums devoted to savaging the new Facebook format are flooded. Some dislike, but some had given the positive feedback about the better organized and improvements that have been made (australianit.news.com.au 2008).

Facebook New Layout

Source:Google Image

An appropriate web design and layout of Facebook is essential in easing the users in social interactions, provide better visualization and thus gaining their acceptance. Hence, it is also depend on the personality of the users on how they perceive the changes.

Facebook has make changes to the design and layout with the motivation by feedback from the users and the trend toward information sharing online. Efforts and hard work had been done in order to create a design and layout that best suited the users. According to Reep (2006), a good document design is able to increase the usefulness of document as it guides readers through the text and keep readers focus on the information they need. Headings, subheadings, logos and icons are used in Facebook as appropriate outline, sequence; identification and linkage are provided which can reduce the confusion of the users.

Further, research has been done about the visualization application of social interaction with individual Facebook users showed that Facebook provides users with visualization flexibility where they can instruct what data they would like and animated the events (Okamoto & Buza 2008).

Multimodal texts are those texts where meaning is communicated through a synchronization of modes (Walsh 2006). Facebook has utilized this function as it incorporate images, videos, music and sounds in communicating with the users all in one place. This could enhance the interrelation of the modes and thus improve the communications.

As mentioned above, some users gave negative comments about the makeover of Facebook. Their acceptance towards the new layout may depend on the personality on how they perceived the changes. As stated in Desai (2009), it is more likely a psychological issue as people always resist making changes to something they have accustomed. In this case, I personally think that they might be reluctant to change as they are familiar with the old layout. But once they get used to the new one again, they will find that it is useful and improved.

Overall, I personally think that an appropriate layout and design is essential for Facebook in easing the interactions and provide better visualization. The negative feedback received of the new layout may due to the personality and resist of making changes of the users.

Referencing

Australianit.news.com.au 2008, Facebook makeover leaves some devotes fuming, viewed 6th June 2009, http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24328928-15318,00.html.

Desai, A 2009, Facebook new layout reviews and feedback, Gigathoughts, Word Press, viewed 8^th June 2009,

http://www.gigathoughts.com/uncategorized/facebook-new-layout-reviews-and-feedback.html.

Okamoto, T & Buza, K 2008, ‘Visualization and Social Interactions in Facebook’, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, pp.232-233, MIT Media Laboratory, Cambridge.

Reep, DC 2006, ‘Document Design’, Technical Writing, Pearson/Longman, Chapter 6, pp. 133 – 172.

Walsh, M 2006, ‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual, and multimodal texts,’ Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no.1, p.24-37.

Emoticons and email ettiquette

With the growing dominance and widely used of computer-mediated communication nowadays, the problem of the inability of people to accurately interpret emotions and intentions in email has also increasing. This is then lead to the rising of email users that embed emoticons in their messages to assists meaning-making process. Not only that, the formality and informality and also structure of an email are highly depend on the situational and cultural context within which they are interpreted and who are the reader (abc.net.au 2007).

Example of emoticons in gmail

Source: Google Image

Emoticons are visual cues that enhance the communications and understanding of email as it helps to reduce the misperception and mistakes in interpreting the message. However, a good writing in the sense of good structure, appropriate situational and cultural context plays an important role in assisting readers in perceiving the messages from the email too.

According to Rezabeck and Cochenour (1995), emoticons provide support to written communication as they are a means for better defining emotions and intent regarding a particular phase or statement via electronic mail. It is able to clarify the exact meaning of messages by simply adding a happy face, J after a joke or sad face,L for sad statement to emphasize the nature of the messages (Rezabeck & Cochenour 1995). In addition, Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) highlighted that the integration of text and image could enhance the effectiveness in delivering the messages. The use of emoticon in email writing reflects the integration of text and image where both support each other and reach a definite meaning in interpretation.

On the other hand, integration of text and image is not always the best way as it depend on how well the document has been designed (Schriver 1997). The quality of writing and structure are essential in an email as it relates to the situational and cultural context within which they are interpreted and who the readers are. Referring to Putnis and Petelin (1996), a good writing must consists good understanding of conventions and principles as what may right for one purpose, maybe wrong for another. The most effective writing takes into account the readership and also situation. For example, in business and professional convention, formal writing is likely more appropriate as it highly constitute their image and credibility. So, it is not suitable to include emoticons in formal writing.

As conclusion, I personally think that emoticons can help to reduce the misperception and mistakes in interpreting the message of an email. Yet, it is important to distinguish where and when to use and not to use emoticons according to the level of communication formality.

Referencing

Kress, G, & van Leeuwen, T 2006, ‘The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication’, Reading images, Chapter 1.

Putnis, P and Peterlin, R 1996, ‘Writing to communicate’, Professional communication, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Rezabeck, LL & Cochenour, JJ 1995, ‘Emoticons: Visual Cues for Computer-Mediated Communication, Education Resources Information Center, A unique accession number assigned to each record in the database; also referred to as ERIC Document Number (ED Number) and ERIC Journal Number (EJ Number).ED380096, pp. 1-14.

Schriver, KA 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures’, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., Chapter 6, pp.361-441.

Schwalbe, W 2007, Emoticons and Email Ettiquette, abc.net.au, viewed 2nd June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm.

New forms of media publishing

Media technology improves radically and leads to the advancement forms of media publishing nowadays. Media publishing is no longer stick to the traditional newspapers, magazines and television news anymore. The use of Moblog, Vlogs, Photologs and a lot more are now growing at a quickening pace and turn to be part of people’s daily lives. Not only that, online newspapers are now available which readers do not need to purchase printed newspaper and gain information and news with just a click (thestar online).

One of the popular video-sharing website in Malaysia, YouTube enables people from the world to post up videos and watched them by just typing in keywords. It is convenient and enables the information and news to spread at speed to people around the world. However, it is not surprising that videos that contained unethical issues are posted up in YouTube. For example, a student from Muar, Johor has posted up a video clip of the song 'Negaraku' which contains negative elements such as racial issues and touched on religious sensitivity (dailyexpress.com 2007). This video carried anti-government messages and lead to massive sensational in Malaysia.

Negaraku video from YouTube

Referencing

Dailyexpress.com 2007, 'Negaraku' is outside police jurisdiction, viewed 12^th June 2009, http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=51920.

Classification of blogs and blogging communities

Classification of blogs
With the increasing of blogs today, there is a number of ways in classifying them accordingly. Blogs can be categorized by subject matter, device, media type and status of publishers.

Subject Matter
According to Technorati.com(2008), blogs can be classify into six different subject matters:

1. Entertainment
2. Business
3. Lifestyle
   
4. Politics
5. Sports
6. Technology

Device
Blogs can also be defined by the type of device used to create them. Moblog is a blog written throught a mobile device, such as mobile phone or PDA (Teh 2007).

Media

1. Vlog (Blog that contains video clip-Video Blog)-YouTube
2. Linklog (Comprise links and URLs)-Jaani's Linklog
   
3. Sketchlog (Ccontains a portfolio of sketches/drawings-Kristen's sketchblog
4. Tumblelogs (Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types)
5. Photoblogs (Comprise photos)

Status of publisher
Blogs can also be categorized according to the status of the publishers, whether it is for personal-sharing personal information (Kennysia's blog), professional- sharing political, technology or education matters (Jeff Ooi's blog) or business & corporate purpose (Dainty Dresser).

Many blogs are combinations of styles, and this makes identifying and classifying them difficult. In my opinion, to classify them accordingly and accurately, not only we have to look into the subject matters, device, media and status of the publishers. Topic discussed in the blog, style, format and audience of the blogs have to take into consideration too. It distinguish what type of audience usually read what kind of blogs, the topic, style and format used in a blog determine what the publisher wants to deliver to the audience.

Blogging Communities

Blogging communities is formed by a group people that sharing similar interests and views work together to turn the interest into passion. These communities enable readers to access a specific blog of their interests and bring them into different subject area. These can be done through communication tools such as permalink, comments and tags.

An example of a community is the Global Voices community where more than 200 bloggers around the world work together to bring you translations and reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with emphasis on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media (globalvoicesonline.org 2009). Members of the community support each other hence enhances the learning process.

Example of Global Voices Homepage:

Source:Google Image

Referencing

Globalvoicesonline.org 2009, About, viewed 12^th June 2009, http://globalvoicesonline.org/about/.

Technorati.com 2008, Blog directory 2008, viewed 13^th June 2008, http://technorati.com/blogs/directory.

Teh, PL 2007, An Insight of blogosphere over the Internet, School of Management and Information Technology, UCSI, viewed 10^th June 2009, http://www.ucsi.edu.my/jasa/3/papers/AC8.pdf.

Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits to the community

Blogs are increasingly dominance with the growing of online communication technology nowadays. A blog is a form of web publishing maintained by individual where personal opinions, events or comments are posted up and share with the world while blogosphere is the collective community of all blogs.

The current blogosphere

A number of studies have been done and they showing an agreement that blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream (Technorati 2008). Blogs are pervasive and turn to be part of people’s daily lives. Blogosphere is growing at a quickening pace as Technorati currently tracks 35.3 Million weblogs, and it continues to double about every 6 months (Sirfy 2006), as the chart below shows:

Source:Sirfy 2006

In addition, according to tracking results by Technorati, over 75,000 new weblogs are created every day, equivalents to a blog created per second (Sifry 2006).

Trends and types of blogs in Malaysia, Asia & Europe

Malaysian blogosphere has become an important place to share out their voice. There are a number of blogs types which include personal, entertainment, humour, technology, politics, marketing and education. Survey estimates by Ulicny (2008) shows that 46% of those online in Malaysia have a blog. Further, politicians blogs are quite popular which account 20% of Malaysians’ listing of blog reading interest (Microsoft 2006).

Some of the top political blogs are:

• Jeff Ooi
• Rocky’s Bru
• The Scribe A Kadir Jasin
• Susan Loone
• RantingbyMM
• Anwar Ibrahim
  

In Asia, according to research done by Microsoft’s MSN and Windows Online Service Business cited in Microsoft (2006) shows that Asia’s blogosphere is fueled by youth with almost half of all bloggers and it is treated as a means to maintain and build their social connections and to express themselves. In addition, it is found that 74% of the Asians found the blogs written by friends and family are most interested. Also referring to Gaman (2007), 28% of the Malaysian Top 50 Bloggers write about personal stuff.

In Europe, it is reported that personal diary-style blogs are far more popular which accounting 43% of the top blogs in Italy and 30% per cent in Europe (Mackenzie 2006). Also, political blogs are dominant too with the rising of rankings over Europe.

Benefits to the community

Blogs nowadays is treated as the source of information for readers. The effectiveness of the information spreading at speed is rather surprising and faster than mainstream media. It enables the readers to get the first hand and up-to-date information about issues that they are concerning such as political, social, business and advertising. They can read blogs according to their preference and classification of blogs. In addition, it is another way for the readers to keep in touch with their friends or family by reading their blogs or writing blogs to keep them informed. Besides, readers are free to leave their comments in the blogs and hence increase the communication of the world.

Referencing

Gaman 2007, 50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia, Sabahan.com, viewed 12^th June 2009, http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/.

Mackenzie, K 2006, European bloggers find their voice, Financial Times, viewed 11^th June 2009, http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=European+bloggers+find+their+voice&y=1&aje=true&x=9&id=061010001665&ct=0.

Microsoft Digital Advertising Solution 2006, Blogging Phenomenon Sweep Asia, viewed 11^th June 2009, http://promotion.hk.msn.com/pr/20061127Blogging_Phenomenon_Sweeps_Asia_TradePR.pdf.

Sifry, D 2006, State of the Blogosphere, April 2006 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth, Sifry's Alerts, viewed 12^th June 2009, http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000432.html.

State of Blogosphere/2008 2008, Technorati.com, viewed 11^th June 2009, http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/.

Ulicny, B 2008, Modeling Malaysian Public Opinion by Mining the Malaysian Blogosphere, Vistology, Inc., Framingham, MA.

Purpose

Issues in publication and design of documents are open for discussion in this blog. It is created to stimulate understanding about the important of document design in publishing your work through several media. The target audiences are those who are interesting or fancy to learn more in publication and document design area, especially tertiary level students.

Document Design

Readers are exposed to countless documents daily. It is not surprising that they filter out documents based on visual presentation that is preferable. According to Nielsen (1997), people rarely read word by word from the web. They usually scan through the page and pick up relevant information. Hence, a good document is vital to make the information accessible.

Document design refers to the physical appearance of a document which format elements taken up essential roles in retaining important information and help readers move through the document (Reep 2006). The most important format elements, white space will be discussed.

Slide 1 (Previous)

Slide 2

Slide 1 is too wordy and unbalanced between white and text space as there is too little space between one point to another. Changes have made in slide 2 with larger space provided between points. According to Reep (2006, pp.157-158), ‘white space rests readers’ eyes and directs them to important information’. It also enhances the readability of a document and assists readers in processing the text efficiently (Reep 2006, p.158). They will find it easier to get information from slide 2. Slide 1 is too lengthy which would make them stop reading. Putnis and Petelin (1996, p.254) also stressed the important of balanced white and text space in the specific strategies of documents design.

In addition, a good document highlights the essential contents of the document which assists readers read efficiently (Andersson, cited in Putnis and Petelin 1996). Slide 2 has worked this out rather than slide 1. The main points, ‘text’ and ‘image’ were highlighted and information shown below is separated with different headings. Besides, information is presented in bulleted list and short sentences in slide 2. This would draw readers attention towards the document rather than slide 1, in long sentences and wordy. According to Parker (2003, p.280), the use of bulleted list to organize information and keep it as short as possible will enhance the visual appealing and noticeable to readers.

Slide 3 (Previous)

Slide 4

A good writing should be specific and include relevant details. There is no fixed format, right or wrong writing (Putnis& Petelin 1996). The things that concerned are the readership and effectiveness of the writing in delivering messages to the readers. According to Rothman (2009), good writing presents an analysis of argument/theory in a form utilizing empirical evidence and/or logical reasoning in an attempt to better understanding. Slide 4 has presented argument based on the empirical evidence as compared to slide 3 where unclear statement is presented. Slide 4 created a better understanding with detail explanation of the arguments supported by appropriate factors.

Referencing

Reep, DC 2006, ‘Document Design’, Technical Writing, 6^th edn, Pearson, New York.

Putnis, P and Peterlin, R 1996, ‘Writing to communicate’, Professional communication, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Nielsen, J 1997, How users read on web, viewed 5^th April 2009,

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html.

Parker, RC 2003, ‘Designing documents for web distribution’, Looking good in print, 5^th edn, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Rothman, S 2005, What Makes Good Scientific and Technical Writing?, viewed 5^th April 2009, http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9447/error?cat=4.