blogging

I hope everyone was able to enjoy their long weekend this week. I've always found it odd that people would celebrate Victoria Day with lots of drinking, given that it's a holiday based on a Queen who wasn't exactly known for excess. :P

First things first, my blog list: I don't visit a lot of blogs, so I don't feel I have many examples of blogs to share. The ones that I do visit are:

Many of this week's readings address ethical issues that need to be remembered when creating and evaluating blogs. Setting out these ethical pitfalls increases awareness, emphasizing the impact unethical blogging can have on such a wide audience. Perhaps naively, I was a little surprised at the implication that many bloggers don't take care in what they write. I would expect that, assuming there is no ulterior motive, the act of putting thoughts and ideas out on the web for everyone to read should encourage responsibility and increase quality.

I know I've just broken the third of Jakob Nielsen's usability mistakes in my title, but I just watched Juno again and that quote came to mind...anyways....

This week, Scout's article, "101: a primer" demonstrates how blogs can work well for libraries. Scout shows that blogs can market your organization through personal experience and insight rather than advertising and PR.  For a library, this could mean marketing reference, new books, services, kids/teen rooms or market for/with the community.  Multi-authored blogs can be beneficial to the public because they can offer a variance of opinion, categories, writing styles and target different audiences.

Hey all,

Welcome to week 3! This week, we continue exploring the topic of blogs and blogging, with our attention focused specifically on blog content, multi-author blogs, ethics, design & usability, and blogging best practices. The readings, case studies and activities for the week can be found here. There has been some excellent discussion around this topic already over the past week -- I look forward to seeing that continue & develop!

Some reminders for this week:

It occurs to me that writing a blog about blogging must be a metablog, but I digress.

First off, on a matter of curisoity: do any of you folks know anything of filmmaking, digital camcorders or the software that would allow one to edit digitally shot movies on a computer?  I'm considering picking up a low-end HD camcorder (my little "co-op gift"), but don't really know much of the technology.  Though I'd like to say it's for my media sharing project, it's primarily for having fun and amateur filmmaking.  Does anyone have any thoughts on that matter?

Reading about blogs and blogging this week made me realize how the many blogging features I have simply accepted have their own unique history. It was interesting to note how functionality taken for granted can have such an effect on the ways in which people blog. For example, according to Rebecca Blood the simpler interface offered by Blogger helped create a more personal style by making it more natural to post personal thoughts and reactions.