Observations from articles provided
HTML Task
“Thoughts about HTML, do you feel a sense of achievement? What are the differences between HTML and blogging? What do you like best?
The HTML task was easy for me, since I have been involved in HTML and other web development for quite a while. I decided to create a web page that was useful to me, and hopefully to other NET11 users. The web page contains the most frequent links that I use when working on NET11. It also contains a few of my favourite websites. I like HTML.
It is difficult to decide if I prefer HTML over blogging because blogs are HTML. I like the way that blogging opens up HTML functions to somebody who doesn't want to learn HTML. Similar to what Wikipedia does, Wikipedia takes blogging to a new level in my opinion. Since I am quite technical, I do like getting my hands dirty with HTML, but I also like the convenience of having the HTML code written in the background for me, which is what blogs and Wikipedia do.
Optional FTP Task
Please click the image below to go to the working HTML page that I wrote (index.html) for this assignment, I have uploaded this page to the Presentations space on WebCt.
I realise that the images/logos on this page may contravene copyright laws, but I am going to keep them here for the moment, mostly because I don’t have time to change it and partly because I like the look of the page with the graphics in there.
Optional Standards Task
Online Writing Guidelines
The 5 most important rules (rather than call them rules, I will call them 'current guidelines') for writing online are:
Be careful with flashy websites
Sometimes a website is created with the intention to blow the user away with so many flashy animations and interactive user interfaces that they end up doing the complete opposite and turning the user away. Apart from the obvious problems with too many graphics and too little content, there are issues with compatibility, formatting, browser support, security and download speed that make needlessly flashy websites something to avoid as much as possible.
Allow the user to create/add content
You should also encourage the users to write comments on your content, although it is advisable that these comments are passed through a vetting process that monitors them for abusive content. With a blog this is different of course because it's part of what blogging does, but with a custom built web site, then this is more applicable.
Make the content customisable
Allow the user to configure various aspects of the web page to suit their needs. This is dependent on the website being able to store cookies on the user’s browser. A good example of this is iGoogle and the BBC's new main page, both of these web pages allow very customisable content, with the BBC website getting it just right in my opinion.
Be constructive not destructive
Try to avoid berating people and places because they don't somehow fit with your views. Be careful before you write comments that could hurt a person or make them feel like they are somehow not 'good enough' to write on the Internet. A lot of people abuse their fellow Internet users and one or two mislaid comments could really have an impact on that person, so much so that it could put them off writing anything else on the Internet.
Don't lie
For example if you are deciding to give medical advice or other information about a product you see on the Internet, don't lie and if your not sure if your really correct then say that, or don't advise at all. The Internet has a bad name in the Medical profession for instance, quite rightly too. But the Internet is a great place to find information about health if you know where to look and don't get sucked in with people trying to tell you your very sick when your not. This is a fairly new phenomenon on the Internet, where people are self-diagnosing to the extreme and making themselves sick with worry needlessly.
Observations from articles provided
The advice in Nielsen's paper is a little less relevant today, since the Internet is now less corporate and more personal and social. With the invention of Wikipedia and blogging the rules go out the window.
As more and more people write on the web, the Internet becomes much less corporate and more public. The Internet now runs on people power.
I don't think you could get a typical Internet contributor to read rules on writing on the Internet because I don't think they would care, which is good and bad, since most everybody could do with some training on the subject before they get stuck into writing on the Internet.
Sarah Horton's guide is more relevant for today's writers, since she is more interested in how you present your information, chunking documents and providing ways to let the user read the documents like an encyclopaedia are good hints. She declares that writing for the web is different to writing traditional books and articles, she is totally correct, that's one of the disadvantages of the Internet.
To get traditional journalist/writers content onto the Internet a manual (or these days some companies automate it) process needs to take place to convert the traditional document into an Internet version. The automated option here is commonly used on newspaper websites, where the traditional print is converted into HTML automatically. Often it can be seen that some logic is put into the conversion that spots relevant words that are good candidates for turning into a hyperlink. An example is the Irish Independent newspaper website. The articles on this website have automatic links that allow the reader to click on a word to get more information on that subject or person. This has its advantages and disadvantages; if the article has mentioned a persons name and you didn't know who that was then its a handy reference point, but if its linking to something that your not interested in (which is more often than not) then your eyes get drawn to that link and you may miss the content. Sarah talks about the overuse of hyperlinks in your online writing; this is a good example of that. I am aware that I have also used a link in this blog to jump to a few websites; in this case I think it was a good use of hyperlinks to add to my blog.
Legal Issues
Copyright Questions
“Have you used images or words on your web page or website that contravene copyright laws?”
I don't believe I have, the images I have used are just the logos of the companies that I have linked to, I think it is common for the logo or image of the website that you are linking to be used as the actual URL to that site. The fact that the images and words I have used are being used in an educational context means that the copyright people would consider this fair use. If I was somehow using this material to make money or pretend that I am somehow representing that website/company then I would be in breach of the laws on copyright.
“Would you be in breach of copyright if you put the Curtin logo at the top of your web page for an assignment?”
No, because the course is part of the
Blogs - Reflection
“In your learning log, record your thoughts. Consider various uses for blogs such as citizen journalism and personal blogging. Have you seen in your net travels any interesting uses for blogs? This blog entry is an opportunity to tell us what you really think of blogging!”
I must say I was sceptical at first. I can't say that I was a huge fan of blogs until I started to actively use them for this assignment. I was a little bit judgemental, thinking that blogs were a sign that the blogger was a bit needy for attention. I still have a feeling that some people write blogs to try to belong or to get acceptance socially, where they are not able to in other ways, wether that is right or wrong is not for me to say.
There is a possibility that the blogger can get obsessed with comments and positive feedback, to the point where it becomes unhealthy to blog. I have seen that there are some great examples of blogs out there, some of these I have mentioned earlier, and on the flip-side there are some useless blogs that don't seem to provide anything to the user. It could be that these blogs also have their place in Interspace.
When I realised I had to write a blog for this course at first I was a little annoyed, I thought "why am I being asked to do something so visible to everybody on the Internet?" Then I realised that by doing this task you got an understanding of what it means to contribute to the Internet rather than use the Internet as a tool. I must admit that most of my experience on the Internet (except for Facebook) was in a business sense, where I have designed websites and tools, that was contributing, but not in a personal way. Now that I understand blogging more, I am happy that I have had to write this blog, and it has shown me that my preconceived ideas about blogging were wrong; this is normally the case though when you make up your mind about something before you actually try it.
Web 2.0
Everybody keeps asking what Web 2.0 is, which is a bit of a problem, if you have to keep asking; then it’s dubious if it even exists. Plenty of people profess that they know what it is; they write long articles on the Web to verify that they are experts in this field. I will not be foolish enough to say anything other than this: Web 2.0 is just the development of the www in motion; it doesn’t have to be labelled with a version number.
People like to give things names and version numbers, the Web is not like a movie, it doesn’t exist as a document that has many revisions, were not going to come to a point in time and say “ok now that’s Web 2.0 finished, lets start on Web 3.0”.
I suppose the latest giant leaps in social networking and media sites like Facebook, LinedIn and YouTube could be considered the catalyst for the Web 2.0 labelling frenzy, but there is so much more going on now that these sites are only part of the story. It’s handy to look at advancement as giant leaps, and that’s all very well if you’re bringing out a new version of a car or a games console, but version labelling doesn’t work with Web, maybe that’s why it’s causing such confusion?
Before we all get too excited about the way the Internet is developing, we need to take a look at our lives in general and how the Internet is really improving them on a daily basis. This is a hard thing to do, because I see certain aspects of the Internet as very addictive, social network sites especially and this can be a bad thing for people’s health, as speculated recently on the BBC Website. I am sure that in the future we as a human race will look back at these times of Internet advancement and think “what were we thinking”, akin to when we look back at the 60’s and 70’s now and think “what was I wearing and why was I dancing like that”. I believe that we are only just beginning to understand how the Internet can help us to communicate, but that’s only the very edge of what we eventually will get out of it. So labelling is fine for some people when it comes to the Internet, version 23674.0 won’t roll off the tongue as well as 2.0 does though.
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