Purpose of my blog

Bloggers' Vitamins

"Daily Dosage"

Nowadays, bloggers has been increasing significantly time by time. It is important for bloggers to know how to blog and what benefit can we gain through blogging communities. The purpose of my blog is to share the information that I have learnt in my course "Issue in publication and design". Moreover, provide and share the blogging information with readers who are interested in this field. For instance, "what is the differences of designing for online document (blog) and print document?". Through blogging, I can easily communicate with audience who are interested in this field. Lastly, feel free to leave your comment and share your mind here.

New forms of media publishing

Newest trends and forms of media issues

One of the newest trends of the new forms of media publishing is Youtube. Youtube is a video sharing website where anyone can upload, view, share and leave comment to video clips.

According to USAToday (2007), Youtube is the leader in internet video search. As they continue, there are 2.5 billion video were watched on Youtube which is based in San Mateo and California. As a result, Youtube has added benefits to the communities that people can discuss, share, upload their video at there.

CNN/ YouTube Debate Responses Live (viewed 6th May 2008)

Recently, Youtube and CNN has discussed the “Most Democratic” presidential debate ever in America. O’Brien (2007) states that, “YouTube and CNN have created a new debate format in which voters will send in video questions for the would-be-commanders-in-chief to answer in televised forums.” Therefore, Youtube has become not only a new form of media publishing but creating chances for everyone to ask a question of the future president.

Example of presidential debate by Youtube :

"In 2007, CNN and YouTube partnered to let average Americans ask debate questions to presidential hopefuls. Here, the Republican candidates answer YouTubers' questions." (Stickland, 2005, viewed 6th May 2008)

Reference Lists:

O’Brien.L, 2007, “YouTube and CNN discuss “Most Democratic” presidential debatesever”, viewed 6th May 2008,

Stickland.J, 2005, "How youtube works", Howstuffworks, viewed 6th May 2008, <http://computer.howstuffworks.com/youtube.htm>

USAToday, 2007, “YouTube serves up 100 million video a day online”, viewed 6th May 2008, < http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-07-16-youtube-views_x.htm>

Designing for online document versus print document

Designing for online document versus print document

According to Nielsen (1997), reading from paper is about 25% faster than reading from computer screens. Therefore readers will feel unlikable when reading the online text. As they continue, designer for online webpage should write 50% less text and keep pages short in order to make the readers feel comfortable when reading an online document.

Nielsen (1999) states that printed document can stun the reader with high-impact visualization, but the online medium eventually wins because of the user engagement that is made possible by non-static design elements. As he continue, print design is based on letting the eyes walk over the information, whereas web design functions by letting the hands move the information (by scrolling or clicking).

Generally, there are three main guidelines when designing the online document. Niesen (1997) claims that, the three main guidelines are as below:
· Be succinct.
· Write for scannability.
· Use hypertext to split up long information into multiple pages.

Due to screen readability problem, designing for online document has to be succinct. That is, writing not more than 50% of text as compare to print document text. As skimming through an online document is a fact of the Web, we need to emphasize and highlighting the keywords of document in order to make the document scannability.

On the other hand, online document should integrate pictures and words together in order to help readers meet their goals (Scriver 1997, pg361). Scriver (1997) also states that a picture is only sometimes worth a thousand words.

Example of printed document

Example of online document

Best & Worst Weblog/Website

Nielsen (1999) claims that “Anything that is a great print design is likely to be a lousy web design.” Therefore designing a weblog or website should be different from print design, and should focus more on how to create interaction with the readers. Below is an example of bad Website.

Example of bad website (The worst website that I've ever seen.)

Reference Lists:

Nielsen, J 1997, Be succinct! (writing for the web), Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, viewed 8 May 2008, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html.

Nielsen, J 1999, Differences Between Print Design and Web Design, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, viewed 8 May 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html>.

Schriver, K. A. 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures,’ in Dynamic in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, pp.361-441.

Classification of blogs & examples of blogging communities

Classification of Blogs

There are hundred million of blogs out there, but in general most of the blogs write about entertainment, personal, politics, and fashion. According to Wikipedia (2008), there are many different types of blogs, differing not only in the type of content, but also the way of how the content is deliver or written. Below are examples and different types of blogs in Malaysia:

By Blogs’Genre:
· Personal Blogs: Kennysia.com, Alex Allied
· Entertainment Blogs: Yasmin The Story Teller, Afdlin Shauki
· Political Blogs: JeffOoi.com Screenshot , Lim Kit Siang
· Technology Blogs: SapiensBryan.com, LiewCF.com

By Media Types:
· Vlog (video blog): A blog comprising videos.
· Linklog( link blog): A blog comprising link.
· Sketchblog: A site containing a set of sketch.
· Tumbleblog: Blogs with shoter post and mixed media types.
· Photoblogs: Blogs that includes photo.

By Device:
· Moblog (mobile phone blog): Blogs written and composed by mobile devices, for instance: mobile phone and PDA, are considered as moblog.

Example of Moblog (Sean Gardinier, use moblog to share his personal adventures and educational technology views.)

By Status of Publisher:
· Corporate Blogs: A blog consists of business purposes. It can be used internally in a corporation.

However, there are many blogs combine different topics, styles and format. Firstly, I will look at the content of the blogs in order to identify topics that are suitable for me. Other than that, the blogging styles of the author are important to me as well.

Blogging Communities

What is a blogging community? Generally, people use it to interact and share their interest among the community. Besides, it connects and link the bloggers together. There are a few popular blogging communities, for instances, Friendster, Facebook and Blogspot. These blogging communities have become a new method to interact with people. One of the methods that they use to create the connection among the bloggers is, they make use of chat box to let people express their view and communicate with other bloggers.

Example of Facebook

Example of Friendster

Trend in Blogging Communities

Currently, one of the trends in blogging communities is many of celebrities start to become bloggers. That is, Colbie Marie Caillat, a American pop singer-songwriter. Her popularity was built up based on her song “Bubbly” that she uploaded on her MySpace profile.

Colbie Marie Caillat Myspace (a celebrity who used blogging commuities, Myspace to build up her popularity, now she is a one of the famous pop singer-songwriter.)

Reference List: Wikipedia 2008, ‘Blog’, viewed 5 May 2008,< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog>.

Blogs as current phenomenon and effects on community

Size and Phenomenon of Blogging

In Malaysia, blogging has become a phenomenon that results effects on different communities. Currently, the size of Malaysia’s blogosphere has increased significantly. A research conducted by MSN Live Spaces across Asia, “Blogging Asia: A Windows Live Report” has shown that blogging is a strong force in Asia. The sample size was over 25,000 and the data were analysed by a market research firm, Harris Interactive. According to Windows Live Report (2006), the statistic below shows the facts of Asia’s bloggers:

• Young people and women dominate (except India where it is overwhelmingly a male
  domain)
• 41% of bloggers spending more than three hours a week on blog.
• 55% of bloggers in Asia were found to be female and 45% male, at the same time, 64%
  of Malaysian bloggers are females compared to 46% in the US.
• 53% of bloggers choose to start their blog by sharing photo album and diary.

In addition, they claim that 56% of Asian bloggers are under 25 years old, while 35% are 25 to 34 years old, and 9% are 35 years old and above. 74% of bloggers in Malaysia are under 25. Compare this to the US, where 46% of bloggers in the US are aged 30 or over.
On the other hand, The Star Online (2006) states that most of the Malaysia’s bloggers are women as well and they primarily do it express and share their view with friends and family.

Types and Trends are prevalent in Malaysia

According to The Star Online (2006), the blog-reading habits are generally around three fields. That is, 63% of respondents said they read blogs for entertainment, whereas technology, travel and music were the three most widely and popular read blog topics across Asia and in Malaysia. Other than that, Sabahan (2007) states that, out of the top 50 most influential blogs in Malaysia, 28% of bloggers write about their personal issues; 16% of bloggers write about politics, and 16% of them write about technology. As they continue, Kennysia.com, which is the Malaysia top blogger, write about personal issues and gain 4,828 links from 2,406 blogs and also ranked 234 in Technorati Rank.

Benefits of Blogs to Malaysian Commuinities

According to The Star Online (2006), “Blogging has moved into the mainstream in Asia and Malaysia, and has become a popular way to stay in touch with family and friends,” said Grant Watts, Microsoft South-East Asia general manager for online services group. Therefore one of the benefits of blogs to Malaysian Communities is the ability for readers and authors to leave comments in an interactive format and in a meanwhile create communities.
Blogging becomes a political force
Blogging has become a mainstream for politicians as a tool for express their opinion and forming their own communities. For instance, In Malaysia, JeffOoi.com Screenshot which is one of the top 4th Malaysia’s most influential bloggers. Jeff Ooi has made use of blog to form his own communities, promote his campaign and also express his political view against other politicians. Now, he has become a member of Democratic Action Party (DAP) and also member of Malaysia’s parliament.

Example of Jeff Ooi Blog

Reference Lists:

Sabahan.com, 2007, “50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia” Viewed on 8th May 2008 at <http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/>

The Star Online, 2006, “Most bloggers are women”, viewed 8 May 2008, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/11/30/nation/16180914&sec=nation>.