My opinion of Blogs

Although I've never had a blog before this one, I have nothing but positive feelings about what a it means to be a blogger.

I have yet to think of a reason to write my own blog apart from this one but that doesn't prevent me from appreciating the good things that arise from blogging.

If you look at what was available before user-friendly blogs came along, it's no surprise that there are billions of blogs online today. WYSIWYG applications were great but still required some technical know-how to make the content viewable online.

The development from CMS (Content Management Systems) which are Not user friendly, to WYSIWYG web blogging platforms has removed much of the technical hurdle for ordinary people. Now it's easier for anyone with something to say or just a curiousity to create their own blog - for free.

Age, sex, religion the entire gamut of worldviews make no difference here in the blogosphere.

I think blogs have extended the abilities from email and newsgroups, where the content of a blog is asynchronous but on a timeline that is surrounded by a relevant mix of hyperlinks and further choices within the blogs context. A single blog page makes a point or three and it serves up information without losing the reader in what might be termed irrelevant or uninvited communication. There is no such compendium of 'threading' or interconnecting patterns in an email or in newsgroups.

The true positive here is the blogger does not have to work hard at connecting ideas or forming loose categories since most blogs offer support to do that in some way or another that is point and click friendly.

Unfortunately the popularity of blogging lends itself to everyone thinking it's ok to blog about everything. Nearly. Some blogs are wrong, and I believe most of them fall under the business or commercial end of the blogosphere. Call it a gripe but I see no value in a blog that purports to help or inform when it's written like a product brochure or service proposal. I land on the page like that and immediately feel that the author is not 'there'. I expect a blog to give me a reason to believe there is a person with an opinion behind the page, but that's just me...

My Student Page URL

My URL is on a Curtin University server so it's not viewable for everyone:

http://student.curtin.edu.au/~14399200/

I chose to use the student web space because I am quite comfortable using the Unix/Windows webserver path to uploading websites. I had no idea this choice was going to challenge my every urge to bail and simply blog about it. Well I am not one to give up so easily so I used what is only useful to latecomers like myself... the Net11 discussion board; posts by frustrated students trying to ftp their files to their student web space. Thank you to all for participating!

The process involved finding the appropriate instructions, downloading the appropriate files, installing software, file transfer and then viewing. The instructions made it look simple enough. This paragraph gives the impression it is simple. But it was not as easy as it looks. In fact I often felt like I was trying to break into Fort Knox.

I found this task quite interesting to do - as I worked through each step, I reminded myself of the user considerations and overall security issues that the folk at Curtin University (obviously) thought about before they threw the student webspace keys to me. Impressive!

Copyright

OMG I had to double check that the cartoon image I used on my Email Metadata~ology page didn't breach any copyright. Phew I found the evidence I needed, it's ok to embed the cartoon in a web page as long as the code is left unchanged. I remember feeling confident about it being ok but having to scrutinise my image use just now made me anxious about missing details somewhere. I really like the cartoon and it's relevant for the page it's on, so to take it down would have left me feeling sad and a tad dopey as well.

• Would I be in breach of copyright if I put the Curtin University logo at the top of this web page for an assignment?

Difficult question. Although it's clear that the logo is copyrighted and I know it is also Trade Marked, it would be wise to seek permission to put it anywhere on the web page let alone at the top. I considered placing a screenshot of the Trade Mark page here but chickened out at the last minute as I'm not 100% certain if that's ok either! Because it's a logo I think I'd be pushing the limits by asking to put it where logos normally go - at the top of a page. A logo can be thought of as the identity of the entity (no rhyme intended, words simply fell) and having Curtin's logo at the top of this page would be deceptive, I could literally "ride on it's kudos and weight" with whatever I write.

I think :)

In the Beginning...

This is going to be fun and no doubt an education too.

Aaah my first real blog... Questions have cropped up all of a sudden, thoughts that I had not considered before such as, why did I not start a real blog before today? Why didn't I do it? Perhaps I never had a good enough reason to begin writing a blog. I don't have all that much spare time so to start a blog like this means... I have a good reason! Yes I do.

All other attempts at blog-making and blog-ex (perience) I classed as "I need to know enough so that my clients don't think I am totally clueless" or words to that effect...

Well I'm no longer silent. If I'm literally 'outed' and that's a personal fear of criticism I guess, then so be it. Pulling back the Net Curtin begins!