Blogs

Kudos NET11. If  I hadn’t taken this course I might not have ever taken the plunge into blogging at all.

Some blogs that I currently like:

Music: http://obscuresound.com/

A music blog that featuring mp3 downloads, interviews, album reviews. As the name suggests, ‘different’ sounds are explored, so this blog is a way of finding out about some music that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Art: http://www.artnewsblog.com/

Daily news stories from the art world

Current affairs discussion: http://larvatusprodeo.net/

Australian group blog discussing politics, sociology, culture…

Technical Things: http://www.techcrunch.com/

Profiles of new Internet products and companies

Diversity and opinion to me make up the fundamental aspects of blogging. There is the potential for debate and sharing of information. Reading a good blog inspires you to give it a try for yourself – and it’s really not that hard.

Personally, I enjoy the act of putting down words in a blog as a method of formulating and retaining lines of thought and experience. I have checked out Tumblr recently which looks like a good method of quickly posting text, photos, links and quotes amongst other things. My intention is to use Tumblr as a kind of ’scribble’ blog, perhaps not as fully formed or strictly structured like this blog, but more so to capture random thoughts, insights, useful links. I think this is going to come in handy for when I start my next units of study as a way of keeping things close and bringing concepts together. So, thanks NET11 for getting me blogging!

Web 2.0

I thought Web 2.0 was all about gradients and reflective buttons and silly/catchy Web site names, e.g. weebly, Thoof, Yoono, Diigo, ooVoo,  the list goes on here….and here.

But beyond the popular aesthetic choices and the employment of marketing agencies thinking up buzzwords, the characteristics of Web 2.0 take in the web as a platform, proliferation of interactivity and connectivity, shared content, online social networking, blogs, and wikis.

I  think that the the need to define or categorise developments, points to the evolutionary nature of the Web. The Web is not static, and its evolution is tied to not only technological advances, but social changes in the way the technology is used.

A thought provoking counter to hype surrounding  web 2.o is provided in the articles published in First Monday ‘Special Issue: Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0′ and can be found here:

http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/issue/view/263

These articles present a necessary criticism of the rhetoric of Web 2.0. and addresses issues of privacy concerns (especially as so much data related to individuals is spread across social networks) and the corporatisation of online social and collaborative space. Of a particular concern here is the concept of  ‘participatory surveillance’ that online social networking can enable.

The opportunity for greater collaboration brings about greater opportunity for commercialisation?