Module 3 - Blogs and Web 2.0

Blogs


In an attempt to discover the range of uses for blogs I visited ‘blogs of note’ at http://blogsofnote.blogspot.com/.
Some of the uses I discovered for blogs were:


· To keep friends up to date with each other’s everyday lives. (People displaying everything from photographs to recipes, and descriptions about daily events.)


· A way of expressing personal opinions on issues. (This provides people who would not normally use the internet as a way of communicating their thoughts and ideas, a platform they can use to express themselves. This is primarily a good thing as offering a different prospective on issues is often helpful. However, the reader also needs to remember the possible unreliability of any information offered on these sites, as it is with the internet in general.)

· To display items created by individuals as a form of advertising what is available for sale.

· To display missing people in an effort to help locate them.


Blogger is relatively easy to use. As a beginner I had very little trouble setting up my blog. I consider overall blogging to be a useful tool. I like the security settings which allow the user to limit access to their blog allowing a degree of privacy. I would not use a blog myself for personal use. I am mainly a private person and prefer to talk to my friends and family face to face. I can see however, that a blog would be useful if I were to move away from my friends and family and wanted to give them the option of keeping up to date with what I was doing.

Blogger. (n.d.). Blogs of note. Retrieved April 26, 2009, from http://blogsofnote.blogspot.com/.


Web 2.0

The applications that Web 2.0 refers to seem to be the ones that have provisions for user input. For eg
· blogs
· Wikipedia
. My space etc.

I first visited the Internet Communications furl list at Diigo.com and watched a short instructional video. It explained the many tools available on this site. In this site you are able to

· List the web pages that you find interesting to allow easy access at a later time or, access for your friends to see what you have been looking at.
· Highlight sections to allow easy recognition of specific information.
· Comment on web pages for future reference or for a friend to access.

I proceeded to sign into the Net 11 list. This contained links to web pages which I was able to follow.

I then went to the html list which contained a link to each site with many links having a short description.

I preferred the html version. As a new user I found it straight forward and easy to use. This saved me time as there was no need for an instructional video. It lacked all of the advertising and glitz of Diigo. This meant I didn’t need to waste time working out what parts of the page were relevant to what I was there for.

I can understand that there are people who would find Diigo useful. It would be easier to create a Diigo bookmark than a html bookmark. The options it offers would be of great benefit to anyone who wanted to share sites with other people. Once users were familiar with the format they could easily allow other people to view web pages they recommend, as well as their comments on each page.
I think that the reason I did not enjoy my Diigo experience is that I am time poor (like many people). It would be impossible for me to study the operation of every site that was going to make things easier for me. Some people would be of the opinion that these sites would end up saving me time, however I do not believe that at this stage of my study, the time they save me justifies the initial time spent investigating and learning to use their applications.

Diigo, (2009). Retrieved April 27,2009, from http://www.diigo.com/?source=redirect_from_furl/

Diigo, (2009). net11resources. Retrieved April 27,2009, from http://www.diigo.com/dashboard/net11resources

net11,(n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2009, from http://wievia.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p8GOFx-elftrxl3h80up_xuZsctBHCKWcH_uCngHae_M_zdfG5