An Update. Yes very cliche.

Mid semester break is about a month. Somehow it feels longer. Probably I've been busy just stoning or really actually wasted time productively. This could be the post where thousands of people would whine about how boring their holidays are, or how their life sucks, or brag about their vacation with pretty pictures.

Trust me,
It doesn't run off that line.
Rofl, but i'm still doing the same thing as them right now -.-

Great, so what was my isi for this post ah? . Hmm yes let's go metaphoric.
I'm a very much private person, i don't really like to blog about whats happening in my personal life. I bet most people i know, are the same. (Seriously, i have nothing to say in the post, hence: it explains the unactive blog account)

Sighs, and my semester will be out around 26th of July. (So as they say) The thing is , i really have a bad feeling about this particular one, everybody might feel the same but if i screw a subject up, i'd most likely have to extend another semester (6 months) for just 1 or 2 subjects. Hmm God? if you're reading, do just cut my some slack. I know i've never been a good slave, but maybe just dwelling a little would help.

Till then,

Adios Amigos.

My Reflection

Above: Blogging poster (source: Google.com)

Great! So what is my reflection towards blogging? To be really honest, i think blogging is a communication tool that will bring more negative approaches instead of positive ones. Why? Back then, blogging wasn't meant to be read by public. Yes, It can be access but the content of the post should not be written for the public. From my understanding of being an internet user for a decade now , blogs are suppose to be personal online diaries. Now, it had become a multimedia menace. On the contrary, Blogs can be an absolutely resourceful and beneficial tool to people. Blogs have generated many new and upcoming document publication theories such as, added hyperlinks , navigational tools will give more reading pleasure and assistance. (Walsh 2006) Secondly, users generally scan words in websites rather than reading the whole sum of text, compared to what we usually do in conventional magazines or books. (Kress & Leeuwen 2006) As a conlusion, blogs do play an important role. Heck! its already becoming a trend. Trend towards a better opinionated community? you decide.

References List

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading images, “Chapter 6: The meaning of composition, Routledge, New York, pp. 175-214.

Walsh, M. 2006, Australian Journal of language and literacy, “The ‘textual shift’: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts”, Vol.29, No.1, pp.24-37

Are E-books taking over your shelves?

Above: An example of an E-book (Source:Google.com)

Brace yourself because one of the effects of the rapid technology of the internet is electronic books! Also known as E-books which consist of text which eventually be classified as e-text as well. It is just your normal conventional book; you just see it digitally through a monitor or digital screen. E-books can be installed in specialized E-readers or PDA (Personal Data Assistant). However, today there are many critics about E-Book itself, from copyright law to copying issues, it still haunts the document designers. (James 2002)

Above: Example of conventional books (Source:Google.com)

The advantages and disadvantages

Well, on the personal note the best advantage would be hyperlinks. Inside, e-books you can have hyperlinks that can be give excellent cross referencing capabilities for the readers. (Doctorow 2004) Besides that, readers who have difficulty reading small fonts in the conventional book , would have the ability to increase font size to a bigger one in E-books. (Doctorow 2004) However, with great benefits would usually have their flaws. E-books generally need power, regardless if it’s being viewed on the personal computer or in E-readers it still needs power to operate. Second, there will always be different file formats, such as PDF, WDF, and etc that might not be applicable to future programs to read it. Basically, there is no standardization of format because technology keeps improving everyday

So how does it take on, in document publishing terms?

Well this is an electronic document, so according to Jacob Neilson many theories will have to be applied to ensure reader’s satisfaction. For example in documents, menu should usually be left justified so that user’s eyes can move in a straight line and don’t have to re acquire the beginning of each new line. (Neilson 2008) In addition to that e-books should have fitted doucmented that have hyperlinks and navigation menu to assist readers during read time. (Walsh 2006)Besides that, readers that read through monitors usually scan the documents for keywords, therefore document designers should plan their articles, journals or materials before writing them down in the document itself. (Neilson 2008)

References List

Walsh, M. 2006, Australian Journal of language and literacy, “The ‘textual shift’: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts”, Vol.29, No.1, pp.24-37.

James F , B (2002) ‘The Electronic Book and PDA’ Viewed at 9^th June 2008 at http://www.scinet.cc/articles/ebook/electronicbook.html

Doctorow, C (2004) ‘Neither E, Nor Books’ Viewed at 9^th June 2008 at http://craphound.com/ebooksneitherenorbooks.txt

Neilson, J (2008) 'Right Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability' Viewed at 9th June 2008 at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/navigation-menu-alignment.html

Splogs, Spam Blogs, What’s next?

Due to the popularity of blogs, people will always find ways to abuse it. Blogs are undeniably a powerful tool for publishing, but if there are into the wrong hands, it can cause search engines mayhem or difficult finding keywords. Splogs or in other words are basically blogs which are published by people or mostly computer bots that will publish information that are stolen from others or publish contents which are scrapes for one particular site. These are also called fake blogs. (Mills 2005) These Sblogs or fake blogs can cause various problems like, wasting time if you ever come across one or just wasting resources of blog hosts.

Above: An example of a splog (source: google.com)

Therefore, many blog hosts websites team have been going through a knock down process to eliminate all this resource consuming spam blogs. An article by Micheal Pollit, tells many staff of blog hosting companies have downed almost 25,000 splogs since late August 2005. (Pollit 2005) This is already a growing disaster, almost 8% of 75,000 blogs everybody are classified as fake. (Pollit 2005) How this does relates to document design and publishing? Well, spam blog not only drives plagiarism by taking materials from other sites without acknowledging the respectful owners, it also alters the information too. So ethically, it is very wrong, publishing speaking. Regardless of what type of blog is it, it also does not follow the theory that users only read and find keywords. (Kress & Leeuwen 2006) Instead spam blog , consist of many unnecessary information that will annoy web surfers.

The Jury

As a result, many weblog hosting companies did various of prevention methods to curb this disaster. For example, Blogger implemented word verification process that only can be completed by humans during the creation of blog process. Build in softwares such as Support Vectors Machines are introduced in the market to curb this disaster as well. (Kolari, Finin, & Joshi 2006) Nevertheless, I personally think this spam blog disaster can never really be fully eradicated, people would still find a way to counter this software.

References List

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading Images, “Chapter 6: The meaning of composition”, Routledge, New York, pp. 175-214.

Kolari P, Finin T & Joshi A (2006) ‘SVMs for blogsphere: Blog identification and Splog Detection’ viewd on 6^th June 2008 at http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/paper/html/id/269/

Mills E, (2005) ‘Tempted by blogs, spam becomes ‘splog’ Viewed on 6^th June 2008 at http://news.cnet.com/Tempted-by-blogs,-spam-becomes-splog/2100-1032_3-5903409.html?tag=nl.caro

Pollit, M (2005) ‘Inside IT: Cashing in on fake blogs’ Viewed at 6^th June at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/nov/17/newmedia.media

Wikipedia Vs. Britannica Encyclopedia

Above: The Wikipedia Logo (Source: Google.com)

The Brawl

The battle of references is often being judged by their relevance and credibility. It’s an obvious fact that encyclopedia is way much older, and is communicated in a form of series that is written inside thick books. Houses to almost 4000 expert contributors and its target audience are educated adults. Britannica encyclopedia is the reference book to look at if one does not know a particular fact or one wants to know more knowledgeable fact. (Sanders 2006) Contents in an encyclopedia is always updated and re-edited to show creditability. In document publication terms, Britannica encyclopedia arranges their facts, listing things which are important, and filtering the less important ones. This means proofreading, is not applicable, as everything is important. Wikipedia is a new online database, which houses thousands of facts and hitched popularity after the millennium. Setting things aside, Wikipedia could have win the user friendly battle by adding more hyperlinks and navigational menu to assist readers with the content of the website. (Walsh 2006)

Above: The series of Britannica Encyclopedia (Source: Google.com)

The Criticisms

Wikipedia is an online source, and they designed their pages of content without any clustering of advertisements. The document designer really carefully planned the documentation page as they have proper table of content to show simplicity. However, the downfall of wikipedia which had contributed too many criticisms is, facts in the contents of the online encyclopedia can be contributed by anybody. (Noort 2005) One of them are, Britannica encyclopedia itself lashes out to wikipedia from a recent study by Nature: A research study publishing magazine. The study and research have accoutered more than 162 inaccuracies in Wikipedia. (Sanders 2006)

The Footnote of it all

Many would say they would prefer Britannica encyclopedia as their primary choice for reference. This is because due to their decades and years of reviewed articles and facts. Contrarily, on a personal note, Wikipedia do give a negative image by letting anybody giving their inputs towards any materials and facts of the world. Online encyclopedia should not follow the conventional way but throwing thick paragraph of text, they should put in keywords as users n the computer scan for keywords as they read lesser on screen. (Kress & Leeuwen 2006) However, if you think of it this way, why must facts and knowledge be contributed by educated elites of academia? It would definitely hold more truth and insight if we get contribution from other societies which aren’t book smart or literate.

References List

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading Images, “Chapter 6: The meaning of composition”, Routledge, New York, pp. 175-214.

Walsh, M. 2006, Australian Journal of language and literacy, “The ‘textual shift’: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts”, Vol.29, No.1, pp.24-37.

Noort V, E (2005) ‘Can you trust Wikipedia?’ Viewed on 7^th May 2008, at http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=255920&area=/insight/insight__national

Sanders , T (2006) ‘ Britannica lashes out at Wikipedia Comparison Study’ Viewed on 7^th May 2008 at http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2152666/britannica-snaps-wikipedia

Moblogs & Mobisode: The new cutting edge communication weapon.

Above: A picture of a modern cell phone browsing the web (Source: Google.com)

With a simple click, you can have your photos or short clips, posted and published in your weblog. People have huge versatility with moblogs, for example mobisode. It is basically broadcast television episodes that have been specially made for mobile phone screens which will last you one to three minutes. One of the advantages that can be obtained is that, users of mobile phones can be entertained anytime, anywhere over the world. Famous ‘spin offs’ series that was made into mobisodes are, 24: Conspiracy which is taken from the 25 drama series (Fox.com 2008)

Above: The anticipated show '24' (Source. Google.com )

So how this does relates to current document and publishing issues? It’s forever an on going process. To compile these mini clips into the compact cell phone screen and resolution will be a challenge. Document and publishers will have to edit these broadcast episodes in a comfortable way to be watch, and take into consideration, where the advertisement is going to be during the broadcast. According to Neilson, if there is any monitor or screen in a device for communication, in our case a cell phone, users are bound to search keywords as they scan the document. (Neilsen 2007) In addition to that, in current mobisode episodes can be ended with hyperlink and navigation menu with text that will be shown in the mobile phone. This would greatly help and assists readers. (Walsh. 2006)

You already have millions in your fingertips

The whole world is already involved in moblogs or mobile TV. Japan is already the leader for mobile TV with 20 million cell phones equipped with TV receivers, followed by Korea. (O’Brien 2008) In Europe, Italy have been the leader for mobile TV with mobile networks commencing mobile TV services as early as in 2006. These Italian mobile TV watchers are offered dozens of live telecast and channels. (O’Brien 2008) So, moblogs or moboside, they are the upcoming battle for publishing supremacy. It is basically how, document publisher utilizes it. Besides that current document designing theories such as hyperlinks and navigation bars should be implemented to give a more multimedia edgey feel in episodes.

References List

O’Brien J, K ‘Mobile TV Spreading in Europe and to the U.S.’ Viewed on 8^th June 2008 at http://biz.yahoo.com/nytimes/080506/1194771946810.html?.v=18

Nielson, J ‘How do little users read?’ Viewed on 8^th June 2008 at
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/percent-text-read.html

Fox Broadcast Television Company 2008 ‘ 24 : Action Series ‘ Viewed on 8^th June 2008 at http://www.fox.com/24

Walsh, M. 2006, Australian Journal of language and literacy, “The ‘textual shift’: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts”, Vol.29, No.1, pp.24-37.

New Forms of Media Publishing

What do you get when; videos can be uploaded on the net to a server which is free of charge? Youtube. Yes Youtube was the first free online video sharing website that was introduced in 2005. The time when video hosting was still considered a scarcity. Why is it so popular? Well it is free to access and upload and there aren’t many restriction and rules to begin with.

"Youtube in action"

There are issues where Youtube are caught hosting sensitive or pornographic issues. However, the Youtube management team has taken actions to eradicate this issue, by applying law where videos will need to have adult advisory steps. (Polly, A, Jean 2006) Recently, Youtube also encounter issues where users posted vulgar words in comment boxes which are not children friendly.

There are many issues ranging from sensitive political videos to obscene entertainment videos that were hosted up in YouTube. Some memorable ones are the videos that documented the local ‘Bersih Rally’ in 2007. Many of the videos were not available in the mainstream media in Malaysia. Another one was the controversial video ‘Negarakuku’ by Namawee which offended the Malaysian Citizens in general. As a conclusion, we can tell that new age media platforms such as Youtube, can be benefits and also disadvantages to our society. Therefore, effective planning before implementing such platforms should taken in consideration.

Reference List

Jean Armour Polly (2006) commonsense media blogs, Viewed on 6^th May 2008 at http://www.commonsensemedia.org/website-reviews/YouTube.html

Designing for Online Vs. Print Documents

We are basically talking about two different mediums; one is online which text is on screen and print which are conventionally straight forward articles printed on papers. Really not much space to be creative, in my opinion. Below you are able to view documents which are designed on print and online.

An example of an online document



An example of a printed document

As you can notice, both print and online designing has its advantages. Online designing for instance can be beautified by added interactive features such as videos and animations. You can virtually see an article come to life, as you read it. However, according to Jakob Nielsen, readers in general do not read an article or text online, they just scan it. (Nielsen 2007) What do I mean by scanning? Try using the term ‘proofreading’. In other words, Jakob Nielsen interprets scanning as highlighting keywords, sub headings which roughly tells a reader what is the whole document about in the first place. (Nielsen 2007)

So print or online designing, which is better? In my opinion, neither. It is a different ball game and market all together. You could derive better response from older readers which are not tech savvy in print media, and vice verse. Fundamentally, the sole objective and targeted audience for the document affects the designing document process.

Reference List

How user’s read on the web: Alert box, Jakob Nielsen 2007 October 1, Viewed on 6^th May 2008 at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

Classifications of 'Blogs'

The Types

There are many types of blogs these days. Some are called Vlogs, Linklogs and Moblogs. However, Moblogs intruded me somehow. Moblogs are basically the new form of taking pictures or even video by storing, sharing, publishing and communicating with meanings and messages. (Koskela, I & Arminen I, 2007) Once a picture is successfully uploaded to their blog, visitors would be able to comment and communicate via chatterbox. It is undeniable; moblogs will appeal more to younger generation crowds when it comes to blogging.

“All you need is just a mobile phone these days”

So how do you identify blogs with many combinations of styles?

Simple, in my opinion the core clue is always located in the content of the blog itself. Besides, another way of identifying a blog is through its decoration or images/template around it. For Example, a photography blog would obviously have more pictures which are edited in it.

What is Blogging community and how do you create it?

We all heard about blogging communities such as Blogger, Xanga and also Friendster blogs that was an extension from the famous social network site. From here, group or rings are created among people who share same interest. To prove credibility for the contents in a blog can be done, simply by linking to credible links.

Through interactive tools such as chat box/comment box and also the new voice comment will make a blog’s awareness high. Experience, trustworthiness and expertise in the particular field you are blogging about are the gold when credibility is mentioned. (Rowse, D. 2007)

Name a new blogging community trend?

Celebrity fan club blogs are a huge trend. For instant, American Idol’s Bo Bice had a blog site at http://bobicemusic.blogspot.com/ where millions of fan share their thoughts, opinion about his music and life.

Reference List

Koskela, I. & Arminen, I (2007) ‘Attractiveness and Responsiveness of Moblogs’ Journal 3. University of Tampere, Finland.

Pro Blogger: How to create a credible blog. (2007) Viewed on 7^th May 2008 at
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/10/24/how-to-build-a-credible-blog/

'Blogs' as a current phenomenon

The Benefits?

Knowing the fact, that we can have a personal page to pen our thoughts online for free is a pretty big deal. Blogs are free to own and it will offer people freedom of speech and limited restrictions to follow. Malaysia’s former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Muhammad recently establishes his own blog at www.chedet.com and quoted:

“Welcome to my Weblog. This site is dedicated to publishing my writings as and when I am able to pen my thoughts and opinions.”

Dr Mahathir Muhammad, 2008

In a glimpse, blogs literally connects people internationally and locally. Furthermore, with new features such as Rich Site Summary (RSS feeds), users can obtain updates on sites instantly. (Lemire, 2005)

What types of blogs are prevalent in Europe, Asia and America?

Due to limitations, I would like to stress upon blogs that made it big during the 2004’s American presidential election. There was a commotion between liberal and conservative blogs during the election. Regardless, blogs were one of the highest media preference for information. Matt Drudge’s ‘Drudge Report’ Blog http://www.drudgereport.com/ had been cited and linked for about 7800 times. (Intelliseek, BlogPulse 2008)

Intelliseek, Blogpulse.com 2008

In a nutshell, blogs had rise up tremendously being an unbiased preferred source of information, politically speaking of course.

What are the trends in Europe, Asia and America?

In Malaysia, the blogging trend is rapidly growing as broadband services are being fully utilized. Blog content are really diverse categories ranging from personal, humor, entertainment and politics. Based on the facts from www.sabahan.com , the most top influential blog in Malaysia goes to www.kennysia.com with 4,828 links from 2,406 blogs. There is about 28% of Malaysian bloggers writes about personal content, which is a big amount in my opinion.

What is the current size of blogsphere?

According to Bobbie Johnson, as of 2007 there is about 70 million blogs around the net worldwide and about 120,000 blogs created everyday. (Johnson, B. 2007) You can already estimate how huge the size of blogsphere today.

Reference List

BlogPulse Campaign Radar 2004. Viewed at 25^th April 2008 at

http://politics.blogpulse.com/politics_summary.html

Blogs Marks the first 10years in Technology: The Guardian. Bobbie Johnson 2007. Viewed at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/apr/07/blogging.news

Dr. Mahathir Muhammad’s Weblog. Viewed at 6^th May 2008 at

http://www.chedet.com/

Daniel Lemire’s Blog , Montreal Canada. Viewed at 26^th April 2008 at

http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2005/02/10/real-benefits-of-blogs/

Sabahan.com: About computers, Blogging, Making Money Online, Marketing and Interesting Stuff. Viewed on 7^th May 2008 at

http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia

Why was my blog created?

Blogs, Blogs, Blogs....

This very blog of mine was created to illustrate my understanding and discussion on theories of document design as well as publication. Yet, this blog is solely not created just to fulfill my academic requisition. I myself have that curious feeling to know how document and publication design theories relates to ‘blogging’. This gives me the opportunity to explore the new medium of e-publishing through blogging which offers various tools such as audio, video and visual inputs.

"Keyboards & Mouse are essential equipment for bloggers"

Therefore, I aspire to have college students as well as professional document designers to view my blog at a daily basis.