Mircroblogging

What is Microblogging?


Microblogging is a networking service that allows mobile users of cell phones and other Internet connected devices to stay abreast of activities within a group by receiving frequent published updates, typically of 140 characters or less. Text messages are uploaded to a microblogging service such as Twitter, Jaiku and others, then distributed to group members. All parties subscribed in the targeted group are instantly notified of the microblog, enabling groups to keep tabs on one another’s activities in real time. A Microblog can also be public, with arbitrary subscribers joining and dropping microblogs at will.
It’s not only students who can benefit from this modernized, improved version of the telephone tree. Faculty might also find uses for microblogging. For example, when preparing for performances, band and drama teachers could use microblogs to network participating students for improved organizational efficiency. The quick nature of microblogs makes it a good management tool when the success of a project relies on many different people pulling together in a timely fashion.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-microblogging.htm


Types of blog's such as 'Twitter'

'It also allows you to keep track of what other people are doing as well, either by monitoring their Twitter updates online, or by receiving updates directly to your phone in the form of SMS text messages.'

'Panorama have started using this online service as another means to provide you with the latest information on the programme in a way that suits you.'

'Twitter allows us to send out simple alerts about upcoming shows, programme and website highlights, as well as last minute schedule changes.'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_7755000/7755960.stm

If you are not registered to twitter its a quick and easy process. When  

going on the website http://twitter.com/ there is a large icon located on the page which is shown on the side of this page. When clicking on this button you go through a few steps to set up an account. This is a quick process and doesn't take long when you have made your account you can do a variety of different things such as following people you are interested in and see the news posts that they are making on a regularly bases. 

When posting a 'tweet' on twitter it was provisionally made for tweeting by text, so you are limited to 140 characters on each tweet. This can be an advantage for many people as some people don't like to read lengthy message would rather see something get straight to the point, with this service this will allow that to happen. Another feature is shown in the top right of the page when on your account. This shows you your total amount  of people following and the amount of people you are following. This is a good gadget as you can track how many people you are being followed by and how many you follow this allows you to look at people you like when you want to rather than having to search for each person. 

With all sites there are advantages and disadvantages of twitter. Twitter has a variety of different advantages such as:

• Is easy to use, and can sign up easily and is only a short process and no confirmation email is needed so you don't need to worry about having an email account.
• You can make as many accounts as you want, and everyone that follows you are known as your friends so you don't get peoples posts you don't know.
• Twitter also has unique profile templates, which can be created through HTML mode or purchase it through legitimate dealers in different auction sites related to templates.

There are also a variety of disadvantages such as:

• Is truly a social networking or social media, but there are many limitations. Twitter has no applications rather than other sites like Facebook and MySpace.This wont be a big problem for everyone though.
• You can only upload one picture, which is your display picture and must be small, compare to other social networks which you can upload as many pictures as you want. This is a problem for a wide variety of people as you wont be able to share pictures of you and others, as it will take a longer period of time to do so.
• You also cannot upload music files here on Twitter, but you can upload on the other social networks. This means you wont be able to share any new music you may have found. 

Alot of celebrities have been caught on twitter 'tweeting' things they shouldn't and have been banned from games. For example Kevin Pietersen "was fined after leaking news he had been dropped from the England one-day team before it was confirmed."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/8982126.stm

G mail priority inbox find the important messages you recieve and sorts them for you.
At the top of the email it will bring the important emails to the top of the list, and the rest will go near the bottom of the list.
It has a star feature with this you can put emails you want in this folder this will allow you to come back to them in the future easily.
Gmail is a better service for organising emails where as hotmail will have all the emails together and give you problems when trying to find emails.
Gmail has filters which can automatically put a star on emails from spersific people this will allow you to access this emails straigh away.
Gmail has a great spam filter which can sort emails which will be good for you, this will be a excellent feature for people that use there mail frequently. This will allow the person to acces there important emails that will be at the top of he inbox and the less improtant emails will be at the bottom of inbox's. This  will develop when frequently using your email.
It records which emails are important are for you it will then sort it out into a prioroity listing, it also records the emails that you reply to the most this will go down as more important and emails and be higher in the inbox and the emails that arent as important will be at the bottom of the inbox.
You can also manually input emails to the top/bottom of list.
For a system like g mail to work efficently you will have to give it a period of time depending on how often you use the mail features as at first it wont be aware of which emials are important and which are spam.
The end result will be better as you will be able to access the emails you need quicker.

What is a Blog?


"A blog is sometimes referred to as an online personal journal. It is a site designated for an individual to write about his/her daily experiences, to illicit thoughts and often allowing readers to offer their comments. The term is a shortened form of “weblog”. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding content to an existing blog is referred to as "blogging". Individual articles on a blog are referred to as “blog posts”, “posts”, or “entries”, and the person who created the blog post is often called a “blogger”."
http://forum.telestream.net/forum/help/english/What_is_a_Blog.htm


How are blogs different to normal sites?

"1. Blogs Get Indexed Quickly By Search Engines Normal Websites Don’t!

2. New Content Added To A Blog Is Instantly Viewable And Picked Up Superfast By Search Engines!

 More information on these two points visit the link below."
http://www.internetbusinessmart.com/featured/why-blogs-always-win.php

Why People use blogs?
"Blogs are extremely useful, both to the writer and the reader. The writer may have a lot of knowledge to share, and the reader may want an informal way to learn about a topic. Some people use blogs to find other people with similar problems, issues or situations. Blogs can be anonymous, which helps a lot of people share information without being known."
more information is provided on the website link below.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_people_use_blogs

Advantages and Disadvantages of blogs
Advantages:

• The consumer and citizen are potentially better informed and this can only be good for the long-term health of our societies and economies.

• Blogs have potential to help the organization develop stronger relationships and brand loyalty with its customers, as they interact with the ‘human face’ of the organization through blogs.

• Blogs, in an intranet environment, can be an excellent way of sharing knowledge within the organization.

• Blogs can be a positive way of getting feedback, and keeping your finger on the pulse, as readers react to certain pieces, suggest story ideas, etc.

• Blogs can build the profile of the writer, showcasing the organization as having talent and expertise.

Disadvantages:

• Most people don’t have very much to say that’s interesting, and/or are unable to write down their ideas in a compelling and clear manner.

• I have often found that the people who have most time to write have least to say, and the people who have most to say don’t have enough time to write it. Thus, the real expertise within the organization lays hidden, as you get drowned in trivia.

• Like practically everything else on the Web, blogs are easy to start and hard to maintain. Writing coherently is one of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks for a human being to undertake. So, far from blogs being a cheap strategy, they are a very expensive one, in that they eat up time. As a result, many blogs are not updated, thus damaging rather than enhancing the reputation of the organization.

• Organizations are not democracies. The Web makes many organizations look like disorganizations, with multiple tones and opinions. Contrary to what some might think, the average customer prefers it if the organization they are about to purchase from is at least somewhat coherent.

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm

Find three interesting news stories about blogs and how they have affectes peoples lives.

This article shows the mass growing of blogs around the county. The blogosphere is continuing to grow, with a weblog created every second, according to blog trackers Technorati. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4737671.stm

"Blogs Will Change Your Business", this shows how more business's are trying to encourage the use of blogs and that it can be easier to learn from.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931001_mz001.htm

A 17-year-old girl has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage in connection with a house party which left a family home wrecked.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6553763.stm

How are comments useful on a blog?

Comments are useful on a blog as it can give people a wider variety of opinions on a certain topic. For example it could be a review of a hotel/game and books, from reading this people can get a better understanding wether to purchase or visit a certain place.

Screenshots of how to use a blog

The screenshot above is my template for my current blog on http://www.blogger.com/. This can be editeded in the design section, this is a good feature as you can upload gadgets for your blogs. When uploding gadgets you can re-arrange them in the template. Thsi is good as you can set which parts of your blgos are most important and can be viewed at the top of the blog. But there are some not so good features as by doing this poeple may miss out on some key information around the page this can be changed by re arranging the template in this mode to do so.

Ict Lesson

Summary of  lesson 6/09/2010
Today we have looked at designing our blog. I have used a variety of different gadgets to help users and myself on the blog. A key gadget we added was the blog list this is where you can view main blogs to help you find more infromation for the course, this works as a shortcut so it will also save time when trying to find an important page that you have visited before. I can visit sites quickly and also share my posts with me other class friends. This will help me throughout the course as we can share information quickly.

Above is a print screen of  my blog's template design, i choose the grey colour so that the key information would stand out in black font on the page. Also so that the blog would suit my style of blog. I accessed this by going to design blog then templates were you select it from a variety of different blogs.

This is a print screen of my template for the template, I edited this in the design section of settings and then choose this layout. The reasons i chose this layout was because i felt the blogs and key infromation were near the top of page wand was more structured, this would help people to see my most recent posts rather than the post's that was posted before.

From all of this i managed to edit my blog so that it was to a better standard this has given me a better understanding of how blogs can be used and how i can use them to my efficently.