Blog Classification

With the emergence of blogging, bloggers have created diverse content for many reasons, such as to increase the uniqueness of their blogs, or to attract more readers. As such, many different types of blogs have emerged the different purpose of use. (Libray.Think Quest)
Some are business purpose, some are reviews, some are updates, personal topics and so on.
Some examples of the classification types of blogs include:

Subject matter:
1. Politics, e.g. Malaysia Digest
2. Fashion, e.g. Black Milk Project
3. History, e.g. Blog 4 History: American & Civil War History
4. Law, e.g. Law Eddie.com

Device:
Moblog or mobile blogging, e.g. Dan's Blog (2.0)

Media type:
1. Vlog or video logging, e.g. Dhiya Faris
2. Linklog is URLs (hyperlinks) blogging, e.g. iamcal.com
3. Sketchlog, e.g. Christine's sketch log
4. Tumblelog is similar to link log but with more variations of posts, e.g. Zeo's tumblerlog

Status of publishers:
1. Business blog, e.g. Business Blog
2. Corporate blogs, e.g. Linked in Blog

In my opinion, subject matter is one of the method that I will considering. Is easier for readers to understand the specific topic and keywords that relates matters that they concern.

Reference:
Library.Think Quest, n.d., Blogging the Phenomenon, viewed 28 April 2011, http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01130/typesofblogs.html

New forms of Media Publishing

Social networking is going to change the way we relate to each other in pretty far-reaching ways. In fact, the new media driving change across our cultural, our social and even our political landscapes. For instance, common interest groups can help users coordinate for collective action. Social network sites may fulfill many of the promises of civic journalism, such as delivering shared, relevant information to its users and providing a place for exchanging ideas where audiences have become coauthors on interactive websites. (Sebastián Valenzuela, 2008)

The five impact of new media :
• Experts coming under pressure from new voices who are early adopters of new technology
• New organisations emerging to deal with the social, cultural and political changes
• There is a struggle to revise the social and legal norms -- especially in relation to intellectual property
• The concepts of identity and community are transformed
• Educators are pressured to prepare their students for the newly emerging world (Gavin, 2008)

However, Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. (Flixya.com, 2009)

The growth of Facebook user within few weeks.
Image Source:http://www.malaysiacrunch.com/2008/12/how-many-facebook-users-in-malaysia.htm

Facebook is a great way to connect with your old high school and college classmates. This is the biggest selling point to facebook because it really does allow you to reconnect with a lot of old friends and to make new friends.

Nowadays there are many people using the tools of facebook for business purpose due to the cost of online advertising on portals like Facebook is lower than conventional methods, and also provides a wider audience and greater visibility.

Due to the fabulous growth of social networking such as Youtube, twitter, blogger, Facebook and so on, people now are more updated in such way of networking rather than a hardcopy newspaper or live TV news. People are more concern the comments, status in the social media which are even more up-to-date to the reporter. A sharing of feeling, pictures and video is part of the lifestyle to them.

Reference:
Flixya.com, 2009, Introduction to Facebook, viewed 5 May 2011, http://www.flixya.com/blog/1671957/INTRODUCTION-TO-FACEBOOK

Gavin, 2008, Servant of Chaos, Five impacts of New media, viewed 2 May 2011, http://www.servantofchaos.com/2008/02/five-impacts-of.html

Valenzuela. S, Park. N, Kee. Kerk, 2008, Lessons from Facebook: The Effect of Social Network, Submitted to the 9th International Symposium on Online Journalism, Austin, Texas, viewed 5 May 2011,
http://online.journalism.utexas.edu/2008/papers/Valenzuela.pdf

Surfthenetwithkids.com, n.d., Surf the net with the Kids, Internet Safety Pro and Cons, viewed 5 May 2011 http://www.surfnetkids.com/go/safety/752/pros-and-cons-of-facebook/

Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits to the community

Blogging gives you the power to connect, change, communicate, relate, inform, learn, grow, share, explore, nurture, help, transform and earn, across the globe, all at the touch of a keypad. Blog simple a website that allows you to upload a stream of information through text, audio and video, but it is how to blog and why that makes the differences. (Whyyoumustblog.com)

The blogging phenomenon has great potential through its power to create social cohesion and to elicit support for members of a community. Blogs are personal platforms where individual broadcast their perspectives on current events, the media, our culture and anything else that strikes their raw material available over the web based on the personal interests. (James. M Branum 2001)

Says David Sirfy, for nearly four years, we have been tracking and enabling the growth of this phenomenon and theirs is much in our data to indicate that the medium is “growing up.” There are too large of amount of people blogging where could not even make a count on that. That is why there are no reports shown of the number of blogger 2007.

Another great benefit of blogging is that posts can also be used as a free advertising vehicle. (David Fisherman) This is what happening in Malaysia where blog is a free advertising vehicle, and recent years has been encounter many fashion blog can be found. If you have something you are trying to promote on a limited budget, what better way to achieve this than to write a post others can instantly read and does not cost the marketer a single penny

On the other hand, politicians nowadayds in Malaysia are blogging as well (figure 1)such as the Prime Minister Najib, DAP Chairman Lim Kit Siang, ex-Prime Minister Dr.Mahathir Mohamad and so on. As mentioned blog is an online diary, the leaders whose carry high reputation will definitely bring an impact to society as well!image source: http://malaysiadigest.blogspot.com/2008/04/list-of-malaysia-politicians-blog.html

However, the state of the blog is strong, and is maturing as an influential and important part of the web and social networking. It has been building up for many years and it does really work to the community as well.

References:

Blogherald.com, 2011, The Blog Herald, How many blogs are there is someone still counting, viewed 21 April 2011, http://www.blogherald.com/2008/02/11/how-many-blogs-are-there-is-someone-still-counting/

David Fisherman, n.d., Ezine @rticles, Why Do People Use Blogs, viewed 21 April 2011,
http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Do-People-Use-Blogs&id=332394

James.M, 2001, JMBzine.com, The blogging Phenomenon, viewed 21 April 2011, http://www.ajy.net/jmb/blogphenomenon.htm

Whyyoumustblog, n.d., How to blog and why, viewed 21 April 2011, http://www.whyyoumustblog.com

Document Design

Based on the presentation slides that me and my course mate was done with a presentation last week, my opinion was very good overall but the color background of the presentation slides look dull (figure 1). The color was not so attractive that grabs the attention from the audience. According to Wendy Russell, choose one that is appropriate for the audience. A clean, straightforward layout is best if you are presenting to business clientele. Select one that is full of color and contains a variety of shapes if your presentation is aimed at young children.

Figure 1

A good powerpoint slides include consistency. According to the figure 2, the slide was posted the citation on the top right, but other slides was pasted on the bottom. It might be confusing the readers to read the citation first instead of images that given. Hence, layout is important.The consistency of readings is always from top to bottom (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1998).

Figure 2

Besides that, Shriver (1997) states the effective mean readable and legible, the appearance of text, headings and paragraphs affects the way reader approach and understand the content.

Another trick to improve good presentation is to communicate with the audience. If possible take the time provide the opportunity for audience to ask question the things that they do not understood fromt the presentation that you convey. (Zane L Marquez, 2010)

Last but not least, to improve a good presentation will be presented in correct grammar and possitive issue. According to Anderson, a good documents will help readers to narrow down the main point of the documents to the readers. Besides, a good document might help readers to think positively and encourage readers to read. (Anderson, 1987)

References:

Anderson, P 1987, " Technical Writing: A reader centered approach." 2nd edn, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Orlando, Florida.

Kress, Gunther & van Leeuwen, 1998, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Arts, p.196.

Shriver. KA. 1997, Chapter 6: Dynamics in document design creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.

Wendy Russell, About.com Guide, 10 Tips for Creating Successful Business Presentations, <http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Good-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=4313178>

Zane L Marquez, 2010, How to Make a Good PowerPoint Presentation, viewed May 18 2010, <http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Good-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=4313178>