Week 9

This week we discussed social networking sites.

To embrace and demonstrate the pros and cons of this type of Web 2.0 platform I have posted the rest of this portfolio entry on the twitter...

Week 8

This week we took a look at Wikis.

Quickly this is a list of the characteristics of a Wiki;

1.The main idea is it is a collaborative web page that is created by a bunch of people rather than just one or two site designers.

2.Once a wiki is up any editing such as text or image embedding is done in your web browser.

When editing they do not use HTML but their own code which is then turned into HTML when you finish the edit.

3. They have intuitive linking, something appearing in one wiki page is often given it's own page and that page can be reached simply by clicking on the word.

Example; chicken is mention in an article. It would be linked to a page about chicken.

4. There is an option to discuss the edit's with other people viewing the page before it is edited.

5. There is a log of the changes kept and the ability to go back to any previous version of the page.

Most of the lecture/tut was about wether wikipedia is an actual credible source.

I'd like to say that it is, usually.

The Wikipedia is, the wisdom of many after all so how could it not be a credible source?

After watching this I was convinced;

This guy however, is the founder of Wikipedia so of course he will tell everyone how awesome it is.

I think in the class we never came to a decision about wether it is a credible source or not. One side argued that it wasn't whilst the others did.

To keep this post short I'd like to conclude by saying Wikipedia is a great source of information. Everything I ever look for information on IS on Wikipedia after all BUT it should not be the only source you use.

I find Wikipedia is especially useful in finding out information that is already well known by some such as how many episodes there have been of a particular TV show. It isn't as helpful for finding out release dates of games and movies or about things that are upcoming. A lot of the time these are written by speculators or people who think they know everything but actually don't.

The Wikipedia should be used as a guide for further research by using the references left behind by the contributors.

The Wikipedia, if there isn't references, don't reference it.

Week 7

This week we looked at blogs.

I thought the lecture was interesting this week. Especially the story of the blogger that got his hands on a number of photographs of coffins containing dead American soldiers and then posted them on a blog. Previously this was not allowed to be done in the American media and it made the media in America decide to eventually stop following this rule.

I found it amazing how one blog managed to change a whole nation.

The other part I found great was how blogs can be used as a media watch of sorts.

The other story was about how a photographer had edited his photograph of a fire to make it look worse than it was. A blogger noticed this and posted it on his blog causing the photographer's bosses to get a bit annoyed.

In the tut we discussed wether blogs are a good source of information at all.

I couldn't decide, some blogs have brilliant information on them but I find that they are few and far between. There are more blogs that are dedicated to creative, like the photoblog I posted previously, or simply opinionated content. Some are just shit.

There are those that do give you links to good information. There is practically a blog about anything and it's quite possible to find a blog where someone has posted heaps of links to websites they think are useful and relevant to the topic.

Humans after all are the best type of search engine.

Hmm... I guess then that blogs are a useful tool to an extent but are NEVER the only source of information you should use.

I think that a blogs place on the web is for anyone to have their own space on the net where they can discuss and share whatever they want, including their own creative work.

Obama looking at awesome things.

This is why the web is awesome.
I just had to post it.
http://deantrippe.tumblr.com/tagged/presidentawesome