Activity:
Research
- What is a Blog, what does it do?
A blog is a
personal web site or web page where an individual can record links, ideas and
other thoughts. Wikipedia states: “A blog is a discussion or informational site
published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete entries (‘posts’)
typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post
appears first)” (Wikipedia, 2014).
They allow
individuals to express their ideas towards a particular subject, allowing the
individual to post images in relation to their chosen topic. Many are used as
online diaries offering relationships to form with their readers and other
bloggers.
They allow
readers to post comments and engage with the writer.
- What types of blog are available? Provide 3 examples (URLs) and front-page screenshots of blogs that cater for a specific demographic.
There are many
different types of blogs. They are different not only by their content, but
also by the way the content is written and delivered.
Personal Blogs: are ongoing diaries or commentary
written by an individual.
Microblogs: when small pieces of digital content
are posted, such as pictures, links, short videos, text, or other media on the
Internet. Examples include Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and by far the largest
WeiBo.
By genre: focusing on particular subjects, such
as music, health, fashion, travel (also known as travelogs), etc. How To/Tutorial
blogs are also now becoming increasingly popular. “A blog featuring discussions,
especially about home and family is not uncommonly called a mom blog and one
made popular is by Erica Diamond, who created Womenonthefence.com, which is
syndicated to over two million readers monthly” (Wikipedia, 2014).
By media type: blogs comprising videos are called
vlogs, ones comprising of links are called linklogs, a portfolio of sketches
are sketchblogs, one comprising of photos is a photoblog and ones written on
typewriters and then scanned are called typecast or typecast blogs.
By device: Blogs may also be defined by which
type of device is used to compost it. A blog written on a mobile device like a
mobile phone could be called a moblog.
Reverse blogs: is when users, rather than a single
blogger, compose the blog. They can be written by several contributing authors
on a topic, or opened up for anyone to contribute, although there is typically
some limit to the number of entries to keep it from operating like a Web Forum.
Examples of: Music
blogs
1) Wordpress
 |
| she blogs about music screenshot |
2) Blogger
 |
| music for maniacs screenshot |
3) Tumblr
 |
| the music point screenshot |
- Compile a list of 5 blogging systems and list their strengths and weaknesses. Specifically look at customizability, ease-of-use, is there any advertising? Can I remove any sponsorship branding? Can I delete it? Can I use is for commercial purposes? Is there free technical support? Is it search-engine-friendly? Can I embed RSS feeds? Can I add a sit tool to find out the number of visitors? Is it secure (is it hack-proof)?
http://wordpress.com/
Wordpress has become
one of the more popular blogging systems to date. One of the pros is there many
themes and plugins they offer. It is easy to install and out of all the Content
Managing Systems out there, Wordpress would have the biggest community. They
are freely available as Open Source Code, which means you can freely modify and
distribute the code without paying licensing fees.
However, this
could also be seen as a con. With Open Source you are granted a number of
freedoms not available with closed-source software, but it is not free-for-all.
This means any code, you create, and distribute yourself, and must be GPLv2
licensed. There is also the concern for security. PHP applications are
susceptible to flaws in security. Over the past few years many major issues have
been solved, but there are still the occasional security bug that may pop up.
These days WordPress release updates regularly and patch discovered issues
pretty quickly.
Deleting your
page is pretty simple. I have did this for my first blog I set up for this
course.
There is a
tremendous wealth of support forums for Word Press. You are only limited by
your imagination in what you can build with it.
You can host
your own site, or there are many hosting solutions available. Although, it can
be advantageous to manage a self-hosted site, as it can provide for a larger
amount of disk space and FTP (file transfer protocol) access.
Extending a Word
Press site with powerful plug-ins is done with ease. Plug-ins allow you to
easily install applications such as life streaming, maps, Facebook ‘Like’
buttons, and sharing apps.
Medium is a
place on the Internet where people share ideas and stories that are longer than
140 characters and not just for friends.
Twitter founders’ new blogging platform, Medium has removed
the ‘comments’ feature. Some bloggers may look at that as a deal-breaker,
taking platforms like Roon and Medium out of the running as potential options,
while others welcome the approach. On one hand, you can argue that quality
content will encourage quality comments; on the other, there’s always someone
out there with something negative to say.
The comment feature does however encourage a social media
conversation. Disabling comments means anyone who really wants to let you know
what they think can only do so using social media. This encourages interaction
on the likes of Facebook or Twitter, creating more buzz for yourself.
Another advantage to using social media rather than blog comments
comes back to the topic of anonymity. If the comment is made through social
media, that user’s followers can see it. That creates a certain level of
accountability, and decreases the change of trolling and negative comments. There’s
obviously no right answer as to whether or not to have a ‘comment’ box. It all
comes down to personal preference, since it’s all about what you want to
achieve with your blog. In some cases, comments can add substance to the
conversation, while in others it’s simply a distraction.
Medium allows you to contribute often or just once in a blue
moon, without the commitment of a blog. And either way, you’re publishing into
a thriving, pulsing network — not
a standalone web site, which you alone are responsible for keeping alive.
http://www.squarespace.com/
Squarespace is a
drag and drop website builder specifically focused on providing rich-imagery,
highly polished/finished experiences for website builders. This gives the
illusion it is targeted for unique users such as designers, boutique
businesses, and portfolio driven websites.
“Squarespace is able to achieve an
unprecedented level of control over the experience of creating and hosting a
website. This end-to-end control allows Squarespace to deliver the best website
creation tools on the web, which in turn enable the most sophisticated and
modern customer websites in the industry”
-Anthony Casalena, Squarespace CEO
and Founder (website builder expert,
2014).
Strengths: Their templates give off a
sophisticated look and feel. All templates are responsive, meaning they resize
their content to the browser type and will automatically resize to help your
visitors gain optimal viewing experiences. This is great for mobile devices,
which are fast growing for most users. The extensive styling options allow the
user to customize their site without editing codes. Adjusting fonts, colours,
image opacity, sidebar width etc. are done with ease.
Weaknesses: The editing screen and live preview
screen are separated. This makes it difficult for the user to format his/her
website layout the way they want. What they see in the editing mode is not
necessarily what they will see after they publish the site. Re-arranging
certain image blocks can also prove to be a tricky experience. For the
beginner, these could prove to be too overwhelming.
Squarespace does
provide the user with a real-time analytics dashboard, which helps to track
hourly traffic, up to traffic data for the past 12 months. It also supplies
data information of who referred someone to the website, the most popular
content etc. It allows the user to optimize all the basic SEO functions, such
as titles and descriptions for your overall website or for each web page. A site map is automatically created and can
be submitted to Google through Google Webmaster Tools. This is not a feature
that all website builders offer.
https://www.tumblr.com/
Tumblr is a
microblogging platform. It allows the user to “post text, photos, quotes,
links, music, and videos from your browser, phone, desktop, email or wherever
you happen to be. You can customize everything from colours to your theme’s
HTML” (Tumblr.com, 2014). You have
the freedom to customize your Tumblr however you want. You can design your own
theme or choose one of the many provided, both free and paid.
Strengths: It is easy to Share on Tumblr. It has
a Bookmarklet that allows the user share things quickly when browsing other
sites from their browsers Bookmark Bar. It also allows the user to edit
multiple posts from the same time through its’ blog mega-editor located on the
Posts tab. Short URL’s are provided for when you want to share a link to one of
your posts but you don’t have room for many characters. You can reblog any of
your posts to your other blogs and it allows readers the opportunity to answers
any questions throughout your blog that ends in a question mark. With Tumblr
you don’t have to write a long post to generate hits, reblogs and comments.
Unlike other blogging platforms, Tumblr has a built in community, therefore you
done have to build your own before you start receiving feedback from readers.
Privacy is taken
very seriously. Tumblr was acquired by, and is now a wholly-owned subsidiary
of, Yahoo! Inc. as of June 19, 2013. Although their Privacy Police does not
govern what their users do on their Tumblr blogs and they do not take
responsibility for the information collection and use practices of any
individual blog or blogger.
There are also
many keyboard shortcuts for quick, ease of use. E.g. L to like the current
post, J to move forward through posts, K to go in reverse.
It offers a variety
of custom share buttons too.
Weaknesses: Like Twitter, Tumblr allows you to follow friends, although it is extremely difficult to find people that interest you. There is no directory and it does not show you who other people are following.
Tumblr has
attracted a young audience. There are many teens that use it as a personal
website. The Tumblr iPhone app is stylish and impressive and utilizes the
iPhone’s native elements including the camera and audio recorder. You can
upload rich content in a matter of seconds and the user experience is second to
none.
Tumblr is most
suited to artists, designers, and photographers. Those who do not need words to
describe their work. Tumblr allows you to post a picture, tag it with the
proper keywords and gain tons of feedback without the need of a long from
article. Just about every big name in fashion such as Vogue, H&M, Jcrew and
many others have a presence on Tumblr.
http://asaph.phoboslab.org/
Asaph (pronounced: uh-s-uh-f) is another micro-blogging system, focusing on collecting links and images from other
pages. It allows you to post content directly from any page you are on. Asaph
is currently in Beta stage. It needs PHP5 and MySQL4 to run. To
install, just unpack the zip, enter your database settings in lib/asaph_config.class.php
.
The only way to post new entries to your Asaph blog is
through a bookmarklet. After logging in to your admin menu, you will see the
ASAPH bookmarklet on the left. Just drag this link to your bookmarks bar and
you're set.
Asaph is not
a full blown blog and it does not aim to be one – it just does this one task,
but it’s pretty good at it.
Conclusion:
The obvious choice to start is Word Press. It's mature,
solid, scalable, secure, supported by a thriving community, has a bazillion
plugins, and it appears to be the leading open source blogging solution. It's
written in PHP, which while not my first choice is a language I’m fairly comfortable
with.
References
Tumblr, (2014).
About. Tumblr.com. Retrieved March
04, 2014 from http://www.tumblr.com/about
Website Builder Expert, (2014). Website
Builder Expert, Squarespace Review 23014 – What’s with the Hype? Retrieved
March 04, 2014 from http://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/squarespace-review/
Wikipedia, (2014). Blog. Wikipedia.com. Retrieved February 25, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
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