Message Boards, Anyone? (January 25)

One phrase caught me in this paper: “knowledge brokers.” Of all things, I had never thought of blog users as people who brought to the table unique clusters of interests. I never really thought of blogs as much of a knowledge center either; most of the blogs I have experienced are opinion-based, and often not very well researched opinion.

The blogging realm has never appealed to me in an academic sense; trying to find sources and the ethos of blogging is much more work than the information’s worth, many times. I appreciate and admire the authors of this paper and their well-thought-out explanations on their new technical terms for blogging and information sharing on the internet, but they seem to be missing a completely different medium that fits the middle road between the blog and the mailing list: the message board.

If you really want to get something understood quickly within a specific topic, it is much easier to use a message board than a blog. On a message board, you’re bound to be heard at some point by someone with the same interests, and by signing onto the board itself, you already surround yourself with people at least interested with the topic at hand, if not particularly on your side of opinions. They are well-organized and allow the same types of postings and commenting, only usually more specific in range. But if I read the paper correctly, that’s what the authors wished, some little points of categorization which could easily be facilitated by different threads in a message board.

For collaboration purposes, I believe the message board will be more useful than the blog. Blogs in and of themselves are individual in nature, whereas a message board must be collaborative to exist. I do not know why the authors of the paper disregarded this particular internet form, but they have their reasons, I am sure.

–Katelyn Foley

Death of the Author? (March 18)

Oh, come on, people; we’re not offing the author…

…We’re just adding new types of authorship.

I believe the Miller’s article on the subject of wiki authoring was a little scattered and underdeveloped. It felt more like an editorial than a scholarly essay. There was very little concrete information beyond reading a few articles and surfing Wikipedia for a few days.

The author type isn’t dying out. I’m sure that anyone who chooses to write, edit, or comment on a wiki page knows that they’re not getting anything out of it except, perhaps, popularity or respect from wiki-writing fans. They do not write the articles to reveal their name to the world; they write for the collaboration.

I believe this new phenomenon of writing for a combined purpose rather than for a solo magnum opus quite compelling and very telling in our society. I believe that certain groups in our generation are branching out of the Western “rugged individualist” model of the last many decades and moving towards something a little more collective. And I think the internet and such writing group sites as Wikipedia are fostering this new growth in community, at least on an electronic plane.

–K. Foley

((Revised for inclusion in ePortfolio Cognizance))

Awesome vs. Not-So-Awesome (March 20th)

Honestly, I think collaboration on the web is an awesome idea.

The Multimedia Project Video!

Here are links to the lovely multimedia project videos for my writing for the web class:

Message Board RPG How-To

World Immersion

Have fun!

Remediation Project!

Here it is: To Be What Is

Have fun!

Remediation Project

Here’s the link to my remediation project for my writing for the web class:

“To Be What Is”

There is little to say other than it is a new take on a few of my former creative writing pieces.

Peace out and have fun!

To Intro:

Laurie R King’s official website has recently (as of 1 February 2009) undergone a completely new web design focusing on the visual as opposed to the original text-based main page. This recent switch to visual and picture links adds to the ongoing ease of usability, holding even more fascinating tidbits of interactive information for the readers while waiting for her next book. Even through these changes towards a more visually centered audience, she holds her credibility by continuing to lend her voice (and that of her main character, Mary Russell) to various aspects of the site.

Old and New Pictures

The layout for Laurie R King’s official website has undergone a complete change due to her daughter’s web knowledge. Originally, the website was textually based, including various red hyperlinks and paragraphs of information. The reader’s eye had no real visual to focus on other than the large body of explanatory texts and textual hyperlinks within the main central column. If viewed in the wrong browser or in a small text size, the site could be daunting.

The site has now slimmed down to a sleek interface of picture headers, drawing the viewer’s attention first to the dark blue heading banner with its bright golden eye and Laurie R King’s name in a simple yet bold serif font. From there, the viewer’s sight is filled with four large and colorful book covers of Laurie’s newest writings with small one-sentence descriptions of each story; clicking on an individual book will take you to the book’s webpage. Giving these book covers the main space on the main webpage emphasizes the importance of King’s printed works; if it were not for the books, the site would not exist. Her picture in the right hand column links to her press and contact page while a montage of her book covers leads to a link showing where the viewer can buy her books.

Old and New Aesthetics

From the beginning of the website, the aesthetics of the website were second to information given. The background color was a yellowish tan which held red links and small black texts, organized in three columns with little pictures to relieve the space. The left hand column served as a menu with little links strewn about while the right column held more hyperlinks with some picture links as well. The center column held almost all text in paragraph form with some bulleted lists containing both text and hypertext.

Now, however, the website contains a beautiful clean gray scale background with off-white boxes surrounding important information. The font is now a simple sans serif black with a good amount of space between lines. Instead of a left hand column menu, there is a handy universal drop down menu provided underneath the heading banner and a search bar on the right. The right hand column now holds only a few pieces of information via pictures, such as the author and a link to sign up for the newsletter . The viewer does not even have to scroll down to see all the contents on the right column, keeping the layout simple and to the point.

Community

The Laurie R King website holds a considerable fan base ranging from young preteens to women of considerable respectable years. However, the website now holds appeal for both audiences with the introduction of a streamlined universal template and visual introductions to the site.