HW 14 Ito/Denton Transitionarama

After reading “Japanese Blogger Champions Internet Democracy” Joi Ito interview (Kline and Burstein 143-150) I had found very interesting and had agreed with many of the statements that Ito had made. For example, I think his idea of hiring unknown writers for his blog sites is very interesting. For instance there are not to many other people who would look for people that are not professional writers to represent there blog. Also I think that it is interesting that many of the people who are blogging or have blogs are not getting paid. After all almost everything in the world these days you have to pay for and I think that it is nice to be able to express your own feelings along with seeing how other people feel for free. In addition to being able to express your feelings for free you, you are able to find blogs about anything. For instance, Ito had made a comment about God and how he didn’t understand the whole concept and he later go on to receive a response from a reverend who had answered Ito’s questions about God. As a result this shows that you can pretty much blog about anything and expect to get an answer. In conclusion, I thought that Ito’s interview was very interesting and I had agreed with several of his points.

hw 13 "BLogs will change your business"

After reading “Blogs Will Change Your Business” by Stephen Baker and Heather Green (Kline and Burstein 221-233) I believe that the impact of blogging on a business is more important than the impact of blogging on communication that is not business- or profit-related. A business can learn so much from a blog. For example, it is able to see what others think about how the product works and what they can do to improve the product. By being able to see what the customers would like to see it would help improve the sales of the company which in the long run would help the future of the company. Aslo by having blogs for your business you can see what the employs may have to say about their jobs and what they think should change. For example, Mark Jens had blogged about his googleplex and how google’s health plan was less generous than his former employee-Yahoo (“Blogs Will Change Your Business” pg 225). Jen had later go on to be fired because he did not use his “common sense”. But I believe that if google had had a place for Jen to blog they wouldn’t have had to fire him and would be able to see what other problems their employees had with their jobs. So in the long run I believe that the impact of blogging on a business is more important because it may help with the customers and the employees of your business.

HW 11 Applying Graff Ch 6 to "Making Global Voices Heard"

The blog I choose was Global Voices, the world is talking are you listening? On this blog anyone is able to blog. The most commonly blogged topics have to do with the large numbers of the world’s citizen. Global Voices is trying to redress some of the inequities in media attention by changing the power of citizens’ media. By using a wide variety of technologies such as weblogs, podcasts, photos, video, wikis, tags, aggregators and online chats. After reading “Making Global Voices Heard” and MacKinnon’s statements about global voices I believe that her statements still correspond to what is being said on the blogs today. I believe that it corresponds to my understanding of what I read because MacKinnons stated that the main reason for this blog was to allow people to be able to post the most important and most interesting information about all the different places in the world (Blog! Pg 332 Kline & Burstein). And after visiting the website and reading several of the blogs I thought that many had covered a variety of different topics about many different places. For example, one blog had talked about China and traffic cops getting machine guns and had different opinions about if this was right or wrong. Of course, many will probably disagree with the assertion that MacKinnon’s and the global voices don’t truly correspond because the different topics they both talk about I believe that they both have the same general idea.

After reading “A Weblog Saved My Life Last Night” by Ayelet Waldman (Kline and Bustein 343-348) I realized that I had agreed with most of what she was saying. But while Ayelet Waldman is probably wrong when she had posted her suicidal note on the internet I understand that she was doing it to reach out for help. Suicide is a serious issue and no one should have to deal with it. But the way that Waldmam had reached out for help I think was the wrong way to deal with the problem. She should have seeked help from someone local instead of broadcasting her willing to kill herself on the internet. Although I disagreed with the way Waldman reached out for help with her suicide note I fully agree with the way she used the infertility weblogs. I believe that pregnancy is a hard time to go through especially by yourself. I understand that you have your husband and family there to support but there’s no one better to talk to about it then someone that is going through the same thing. Even though she is a mother of four children and is still visiting the website I believe is great! She is able to help others with there problems and give to support to those who are having difficulties and second thoughts.

HW 7 "My So-Called Blog"

After reading “My So-Called Blog”(Kline 349-361) I think that it is important for middle-school children to be able to write online without having their parents monitoring their every next move. By allowing their children to express their feelings online it is helping the child to become more independent and to be able to express their inner feelings that they may not feel comfortable sharing with their parents or friends. For example, “J. had had his Blurty journal for about a year. He called it “better than therapy,” a way to get out his true feelings-all emotions he thought might get him in trouble if he expressed them in school or at home (Kline and Burstein 352). Also “Next he reads his friends’ journals, contributing his distinctive brand of wry,supportive commentary to their observations (Kline and Burstein 350) by expressing their feelings online they make receive help and support from others who are either going through the same thing or have gone through the same thing. I understand that sometimes parents are worried about what is being said online and what their children are able to get access to but children are human and will learn from there miskates. But we must always remember kids will be kids.

HW 5b Applying Graff Ch2 to "I Blog, Therefore I am"

After reading David Kline’s “I Blog, Therefore I am” David admits that he believes that blogging may have a large impact on the death of the Big Media. Newspapers circulation has dropped over the past couple of years to 11 percent since the 1990’s and is continuing to drop at a steady rate of 1-3 percent annually (pgs 239, Blog!) which causes me to acknowledge David’s belief. But I have to argue his beliefs in some ways. Knowing that the percentage of people to read the newspaper has dropped the percentage of people to use the internet has increased. Seventy-five percent of Americans use the internet regularly and with the new technology advancements we have today we are able to post the daily news and other media aspects onto the internet. So the reason why the number of people that read the newspaper has dropped so significantly is because of the new ways to communicate using technology. I understand why David Kline believes that blogging may impact the death of the Big Media but I believe it will have a very small impact compared to some of the other factors.

HW 6 Internet Statement for Semester Long Project

Out of all of the social computing technologies that are listed I have basically picked three that have to do with communicating over the internet. This interested me because I believe that the internet has a huge impact not only on my everyday life but the whole world’s everyday life. And it would interest me to see how often and what the average American uses the computer for. Out of the three kinds of empowerment of marginalized groups I picked overcoming sexism and racism along with issues of disabilities or learning differences. These three interest me the most because they are also very common in the average Americans life. People are forced to deal with others being sexiest along with racist causing them to lose certain opportunities that may impact there live. I also choose issues of disabilities or learning differences because they too affect many peoples daily lifestyle and I think it would be interesting to see how it may affect them. Lastly I picked the Middle East and the United States as my geographical areas because I feel that the internet is used most in the United States and is beginning to just come out in the Middle East and I would like to see how the internet has affected the United States and also the absence of the internet has affected the Middle East.

HW 4 Option 2

After reading “The Voice of the Customer” I realized that many brands are trying to attract there customers by making promises about there products. One brand that really caught my eye was Dell computer. After checking out dells website and there promises they make to there customers I began to think what they really meant by all of this. As soon as the website opens the first thing you see is “Dell solutions for the home, yours is right here”, once I read this I got the impression that dell was trying to state that if your having any problems at home dell will solve everything. After using a dell computer I believe that dell is keeping but also breaking there promise. This is because the statement that dell makes is very broad. For example, a dell computer cannot solve the problem of who’s going to cook dinner but may help supply the recipe for dinner. But in my experience with dell when it comes to computer related issues dell has kept there promise by solving my solutions. So in conclusion I believe dell is keeping there promise when it comes to solving computer related issues.

HW 2

After reading David Kline’s essay “Toward a More Participatory Democracy” it has allowed me to see how blogging has affected politics over the years. Many people may assume that the only way politicians campaign is by televising and broadcasting, but blogging is becoming one of the most efficient ways to campaign. In the 2004 election blogging had had a large impact on the election and political blogs are continuing to attract the attention of many readers today. Bush had used blogging to ask for ideas in how to raise money for his campaign and what the readers would like to see done. Blogs are also becoming a more reliable source than our major newpapers and news stations. For example, 45 percent of Americans said they believe little or nothing of what they read in their daily newspaper (Blogs, Kline, Burstein pg 7). Also blogging is also a way for people to express there feelings about religion. Many Americans today believe religion plays a large role in there everyday lives but feel that is it missing in our newspapers and other types of media. I had no clue that blogs would have any effect on the election the way they did in 2004 seeing how I have never heard of blogging until this year. I wonder how it may affect the upcoming election and if it will have the same affect if not greater. In conclusion, then, as I suggested earlier, blogging has become a large aspect of politics and I’m sure will continues to affect the future elections.

HW 1

After reading number six of Burstein's twelve key ideas in "From Cave Painting to Wonkette" (Kline and Burstein xxi-xxvi) I realized that blogging is going global. Not only in the past few years has blogging began to become more popular in the Unites States but also in the surrounding countries. By allowing us to be able to comminucate with the surroundings countries it has caused many to realize the different cultures and different views of politics. Blogging is allowing us to share our ideas with others to help improve and to fix occuring problems. For example, a month after a chinese friend posted a blog that predicted blogs would have more impact on revolutionizing China and bringing it fully into the modern world than any other influence, it had come true (Kline and Bursteins introduction xxiii). This shows that there is a positive outcome when others are able to share there ideas. I've never heard of blogging until I began to read this book and I did not think that it would have such an impact on our eveyday lives. It has made me realize that there are many ways for me to recieve help from others along with giving help, one way being blogging.