The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Reflections and life as a blogger

2010-02-21T16:14:00.002+08:00

The process of creating a blog is extremely easy - process meaning finding a blogging client and setting up the blog. But what about maintaining and updating your blog on a regular basis? What about language? And from there on as the list grows, you might soon start to think that the process of creating a blog is well..not entirely an easy one.

For me, I decided on using a client that i was familiar with as i had been using blogspot.com for my previous blog which I deleted some time back as i was always too lazy or tired to update but now that i have some time for myself, might as well start again.

Your blog will be viewed by your family and friends and in fact anyone from any part of the world can view your blog as long as he/she has an internet connection available. Not everyone thinks the same way as you and thus are likely to have a different opinion from you on numerous topics. But to avoid conflicts, it is important on your part that your blog publishes decent content, stays free of use of vulgarities and you do not post hate remarks about others' religions etc. That can cause quite a commotion especially the latter which might lead you into lots of trouble with the authorities.

By writing on your blog frequently, you pick quite a few skills such as improving the use of English and Grammar through reading up on different issues on trusted websites, analysing skills, catering for the community rather than yourself alone,being sensitive to sensitive issues and dealing with sensitive issues in the correct way and connecting with people of different cultures and religions from around the world. Through interaction with those people, you stand to learn alot from there about their traditions and the way they think. It gives you a broader picture as to how different people look at issues in many different ways.

To avoid causing unrest through your blog entries, it is extremely important that you adopt a neutral point of view when it comes to sensitive issues. By siding with one particular side may cause the supporters of the other side to be unhappy with your statements and that can lead to an conflict. At the same time like mentioned above, obscene material is to be banned from being put up on your blog as many might find something offensive which you or a few might not. Thus, it is very important to keep the wishes of the majority into mind before deciding on a controversial post.

Issues in print/online publication.

2010-02-16T13:01:00.005+08:00

Print publications often restrict the creativity of an individual and are not cost effective. For example, to have an advertisement made for an entire page in a newspaper is going to cost you thousands of dollars and it will only be valid for a day! The following day, that newspaper would be found in recycling bins.

With page restraints, the artist would have to work with limitations and even adding color to his advertisement might cost him more and his employer would want a simple black and white advertisement rather than colour.

Print publications often restrict the creativity of an individual and are not cost effective.

But the marvels of technology and internet have removed that barrier nowadays. All you need are photoshop skills and website building skills that can be learnt in a month ( at your own pace ) and for less than US$100 a year, you can have a fully functional,highly advanced website up and running and you being able to make changes anytime you want at no additional costs !

If your website is superbly designed, it will definitely get lots of hits and attract many visitors. It would be circulated in cyberspace at the speed of light.
Now you think you are able to do that with a magazine or newspaper advertisement?

http://www.vwasia.com/publish/vwasia/singapore/en.html

The Volkswagen website above has given lots of information about all of its car makes to users who want to find out more. Just think about their cost and space used if they were to do it in a newspaper.

Issues in print/online publication.

2010-02-16T12:52:00.002+08:00

Ok let us move on to a different kind of online publication - Youtube.

Youtube has changed the world altogether ever since its introduction in the market a few years ago. Everything and i do mean everything you want is available on Youtube. I heard a story once about an American kid who would watch youtube and get driving lessons from there and then would sneak out with his parents' car in the nights. That is what youtube is all about now.

Anything that you ever wanted to learn can be learnt over youtube through step by step tutorials, uncensored news is shown there and various interesting topics are discussed there with the topics being analysed at the same time as well. The latest being the attack on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was fake and pre-planned ! Talk about normal people being extraordinary !

Check out the video for yourself.

But an issue with youtube is that despite filters, almost everthing can be uploaded there such as obscene videos. Another thing is that through advanced software,certain videos can be remade into fake ones and can alter a story altogether.

Issues in print/online publication.

2010-02-16T12:47:00.002+08:00

Now let us talk about the advantages and disadvantages of a newspaper, the different sides segments of a newspaper.

The advantages of newspapers are such as that it allows you to reach a huge number of people in a given geographic area ( particularly useful in places with limited/no internet access )and you have the flexibility in deciding the ad size and placement within the newspaper. Quick turn-around helps your ad reflect the changing market conditions. The ad you decide to run today can be in your customers' hands in one to two days.

The disadvantages are that ad space is expensive and creativity is limited when it comes to advertisements. Your advertisement is likely to have a short life as a newspaper today is considered useless tomorrow.

For a country like Singapore, a huge disadvantage for newspapers would be the restriction in the forums section where anything to do with Singapore's policies or the political system is completely banned. It is like propaganda in a way- only publishing stuff to appeal to the government, missing out on lots of important information in the process that makes a newspaper unreliable and terribly biased.

Issues in Print/Online Publications

2010-02-16T12:37:00.002+08:00

There are pros and cons for everything that there is in the world. Similarly with print publications and online publications. Let me officially begin.

Let us start with the Issues With Blogs. A blog can be used by anybody at anywhere and at anytime without having to pay anything for its usage and yet get the attention of the entire world. It can be used for great benefit by voicing out your opinions and even setting up an online business for free.
But ever wondered the disadvantages a blog can create?

There is no confidentiality as it is a public forum is the first thing. Secondly, a more extreme issue would be what if someone makes use of a blog and starts a hate campaign against a particular race/organisation/association? That would be disastrous. It would cause terrible unrest in the most peaceful of countries. It would be tough to shut down the blog at once and even if that is done, another blog can be created as easily as the first.Blogs also are not suited for issues requiring immediate solution.

There we go. That was an issue in online related publications. Give me a few minutes and i will get the next one up.

http://www.onlineedublog.com/blogs/

Classifications of blogs

2010-02-16T12:15:00.002+08:00

Do you want to reach out to a related niche? The latter will require some creative thinking and be a bigger challenge, but don’t be afraid to go beyond the obvious! Now you can thanks to another blogging term called - Blogging Communities. I am going to go through http://www.blogcatalog.com/ with you guys.

With bloggers from all over the world, you can get all the latest happenings from anywhere in the world as soon as it is happening and even faster than the media. Of course another valuable thing for the blogging community is allowing discussions where you can talk about numerous issues concerning the world. You are able to connect directly to the authors of blogs that you wish to talk to about or ask some questions regarding their posts. Of course there are also general talks with other members.

You can follow your friends' blogs too at the same time and keep in touch with them and know about their latest happenings concerning them. Then photo and video sharing gives you that extra dimension of communication with the world and your friends and loved ones. By sharing videos and photos with your family friends, you can be far but yet remain close to them. As for the world, photos and videos of real life happenings allows you to experience and witness an action that could never be shown on mainstream media.

Below is a good website that features 25 of the most popular blogs in a lot of areas. Feel free to check it out.
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/blogs

New forms of media publishing, e.g. newspapers, magazines are online as well as printed format now

2010-02-16T12:11:00.003+08:00

It is raining heavily outside and your dad wants you to get him his daily newspaper but you do not want to get wet- so what do you do? Refuse him and have he ground you? Don’t worry my friends, there is a solution now! Get the newspapers online!
Yes it is true, majority if not all newspapers and magazines are available online nowadays for convenience of reading while at work or if you are too busy to go out to get the print form of a newspaper or a magazine.

Let us take the example of The Straits Times. It is available online and you have to pay a small sum and you get full access to the newspaper as you would if you subscribe to it (it’s cheaper though when it’s online).

For me, I love reading news from The Sun, you can get all the weirdest news you have ever come across from there and most of its headlines are free to read. Like The Sun, you have other British papers like The Guardian and The Daily Mirror just to name a few. In fact, name any major paper and you are bound to get it online all with the click of a mouse button.

I think that the reason for many newspapers going online is simply the demand of internet usage is worldwide; everyone has an internet connection at work or at home. Ease in accessibility and usability of the internet has millions all over the world using it to complete their everyday tasks from checking weather forecasts to downloading music files to their media players.

It also allows you to switch between tasks rather easily without making it obvious. For example, you are doing a very messy Excel Spreadsheet for your boss and your eyes are tired and you feel like reading a good old tabloid, very simple- log on to the internet and type in the name of the tabloid you want at Google and there it is. All with the click of a button. And you can switch back to your Spreadsheet the moment your boss is coming!

Environmental issues too played a part in getting more magazines and newspapers published online right now as you do not have to make use of any paper at all if you want to publish a newspaper or a magazine online. Your cost is none (except for web hosting) and you get thousands of subscribers, so in a way you are getting paid to save the world!

Designing for print versus designing for online

2010-02-16T12:09:00.001+08:00

Lots of new designs are being created through software nowadays for example the intensive use of Photoshop for nearly ALL design related stuff. I don’t know about you guys but has it ever occurred to you whether print design has more impact or online design has more impact?

I was thinking about that just a few minutes ago and here is what i came up with.
Print designs can be striking and yet intricate and pack much more impact than a web page, take the example of a newspaper advertisement. especially because the entire double-page spread is in-your-face in a fraction of a second with words in bold saying ‘GUCCI’ . Compare that to perhaps Gucci’s website, the sudden impact is caused by the print design. What do you think?

For my next point, i got it off a website which i found particularly useful as i felt the meaning of the whole article would be changed if i wrote in my own words. Here it is :

Print design is 2-dimensional, with much attention paid to layout. It is obviously possible for the reader to turn the page, but substantial interplay between different spreads is rare. Typically, each view is a design unit created for a fixed size canvas - often a big canvas when designing newspapers or posters.

In contrast, Web design is simultaneously 1-dimensional and N-dimensional.
A web page is fundamentally a scrolling experience for the user as opposed to a canvas experience. A small amount of 2-dimensional layout is possible, but not to the extent of creating a pre-planned experience with a fixed spatial relationship between elements. Users often begin scrolling before all elements have been rendered, and different users will scroll the page in different ways throughout their reading experience.

Precise placement of elements on a web page goes against the nature of HTML and can only be achieved to an approximation for pages that are able to adjust to different window sizes. Thus, 2-dimensional relationships between page elements are less important than 1-dimensional relationships (what's early on the page; what's later on the page).
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html
How about that for an explanation?

Browsing is what the Web is all about. When analyzing the "look-and-feel" of a website, the feel completely dominates the user experience. The experience and feel that you get of a well-designed website gives you an elegant experience surfing that particular page and it wants you to come back for more.

Of course, the technical wonders amidst the messy hidden codes of an excellent website allow you to further admire the creator of the website and you start appreciating the effort that has been put into designing that particular website.
In print, navigation mainly consists of simply the turning and flipping of pages. Because page turning is so limited, it is often not even thought of as a design element.

Type of printing material used plays a part. For example, compare browsing through a Gucci advertisement in a fashion magazine to an advertisement in the newspaper. A magazine uses glossy paper that has a shiny appearance compared to the boring recycled paper of a newspaper page.

And to sum everything up:
Print can stun the reader with high-impact visualization, but the online medium ultimately wins because of the user engagement that is made possible by non-static design elements. The Web can show moving images under user control and it can allow the user to manipulate interactive widgets. In the future, it will also be possible to use alpha-channel blending and overlay multiple layers of information.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html

The role of blogs today.

2010-02-16T12:01:00.005+08:00

Blogs are becoming every so popular nowadays and can be used for many different purposes. For example, letting others know what is happening with you, communicating local information, buying/selling items over blogs and much more. Blogs provide a forum for communicating in cyberspace with people from around the world.

For a country like Singapore which has a strict media control, blogs have given one options to relay their message to the public directly instead of having to go through the forums page in The Straits Times in which your message would have probably been rejected.

In Singapore, many controversial topics regarding local politics that are barred from appearing in the mainstream media are now appearing over the internet and the most commonly used method are blogs. Members of the public write their opinions on their blogs and relay their message across to everyone around the world without any filter.

The ease of use of blogs is also an important factor that is attracting more bloggers. Blogs are easy to maintain and use and they are also free for use. There are many blog providers that you can choose from to set up your own blog.

Then, there is buying and selling over blogs that saves lots of advertising and marketing costs for entrepreneurs. Because of that, there is a rise in the number of people who set up shops on blogs and use it to sell their items. Usually, news of cheap items for sale travels fast in cyberspace.

Here is an example.

http://tualobang.blogspot.com

Blogs were meant to be used for personal means. For example, let us assume that i am going overseas for work attachment for 6 months. It would be expensive if i were to call my friends back home every week and tell them what is going on with me and over the phone, there are chances that some things might be missed out. But you can update your loved ones about yourself from another country everyday and that too for free ! Talk about a good deal !

Some even use blogs to write books. If that particular book is a good written book, they get published. Some examples are of blogger Tucker Max whose book ' I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell' made the New York Times Bestseller List and the book based on Julie Powell's blog “ The Julie/Julia Project” was made into the film 'Julie & Julia' making it the first case of its kind.

So you can see that blogs have given an excellent opportunity for everyone to be able to express themselves over the internet and give themselves opportunities to excel at certain areas they might not have been able to in the real world due to many reasons, one of them being budget. I am no fortune teller but i can assure you of one thing though- Blogs are here to stay !

References:

http://www.tuckermax.com
http://ebizmba.com/articles/blogs

My Maiden Post

2010-02-16T11:45:00.002+08:00

Hello everyone. Everyone is moving into the new media age and i felt i was not keeping up with the pace.

I thought i had to or else i would be lost in the media world in cyberspace so here I am – with a blog ! That's right, i have set up my own blog space over here to give my insights over issues concerning us and even not to issues concerning us but issues which are a global concern. I am also very busy with my work schedule and through this blog, i feel it is a good way to remain connected with friends and we can find out what is going on in our daily lives.

I would be posting issues that have concerned me over here and would be giving my insight them, i would love it if you can take some time off and visit my blog as often as you can and provide your opinions as well. That way, we will all be learning together and at the same time we will also be keeping in contact !

That's it for my first post. See you guys very soon !

PS- I would be uploading links of some of my favourite songs at the end of each post. Hope you guys enjoy those songs!