Thursday, September 27, 2007

HW 13: Business

After reading “Blogs Will Change Your Business” by Stephen baker and Heather Green (Kline and Burstein), I believe that the impact of blogging on business is more important then the impact of blogging on business. I feel that Blogging is not only a great idea for the business owners but as well as the workers. More and more workers could work from home. That would stop the pollution of the cars and would save on gas. The only thing is that people have to be careful of what the put on it. “..a programmer names Mark Jen started blogging about his first days in the goggleplex….two weeks later Goggle fired Jen”( Kline and Burstein 224-225).

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

HW 11: Nuclear Weapons...We'll Listen

After reading "Making Global Voices Heard: An Interview with Rebecca MacKinnon," (Kline and Burstein) I chose to talk about the North Korea Zone (http://nkzone.org/nkzone/). One entry from this blog, titled “Much ado about Missiles”, talks about how Syria and North Korea Missile scare is not nuclear at all. I feel that the writer of this blog, Timothy Savage, feels like the government is trying to hide something. “Washington insider Chris Nelson claims to have ‘absolutely solid information that the Israeli bombing raid on Syria was aimed at...and took out...missiles and/or weapons parts. Period.’ "(http://www.nkzone.org/nkzone/entry/2007/09/20/much_ado_about.php)". Wall St Journal’s John Bolton is the only one who thinks that there is something going on. When Rebecca started the NKZone in 2004, I feel that she really started a new part of her life. I feel that her main goal when she started this to now has remained. I think that Rebecca did the right thing by leaving CNN because the world is changing and some day there will be no TV but all blogs.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

HW 9: Blogging is my Hero

After reading “A Weblog Saved My Life Last Night”, an interview of Ayelet Waldman, I think Mrs. Waldman is mistaken when she says “Some woman on the infertility blogs express a level of immense pain which is followed by an outpouring of love and support in the community. Maybe I’m reading the wrong men’s blogs but I don’t see that on any of them” (Kline, Burstein 312) because she overlooks men have the same feelings as woman but we share them in a different way. I know I can’t just come and say what is on my mind and share my feelings but we feel the same way. I agree when she says “...I imagine there is a certain level of education on the web” (Kline, Burstein 314), because my experience of doing research papers and other online activities confirms it. I think that when people read the blogs they should be careful on what they put in it. The fact that Mrs. Waldman put a suicide note on the blog, really made her think of all the things the people have read. I think she won’t be writing on the blog anytime soon.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

HW 7: Leave Kids Alone!

I feel that if a parent monitors everything that is online, then I don’t think that a child will be free to write what on his or her mind because all that they are thinking is that they have to make their parents happy. For a parent has to monitor the child then I don’t think that right. Growing up as a child to a teen to a young adult and now finally an adult, I think that kids should have the same laws as everyone else. In her article, “My So-Called Blog,” Emily Nussbaum states that “a significant number of writers treat their journals as actual diaries, toting up detailed accounts of their day” (Kline and Burstein 354). I think that if a child wants to write something personal, then why should parents need to monitor that? I understand that parents are only trying to look after their kids but there is a time when a parent could abuse that privilege and I think looking and or monitoring their online Journals or other online sources is wrong.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

HW 5b: The age of Technology

“I blog, Therefore I Am” is a chapter which I do not agree with at all. It starts off with cartoonist Stephan Pastis talking about the relationship between comic strips and news papers. Then it goes on to talk about emphasizes that “we confront the possibility that a new communications and publishing technology- in this case blogging- will endanger massive change in our society, most especially in the role and power of the traditional mainstream media” (Kline 238). I disagree with this at all. I do not think that this will endanger massive change in our society. I feel that the new technology is a small step in a much bigger picture. I feel if we can now go on the web and look up some really interesting information about certain things then I feel we can help even save live. Technology can be a good thing and a bad thing. I like the idea of Netspeak. Netspeak is “a method of conveying texts, thoughts, and even emotions in the shortest form. Even the panel of experts at a recent Washington symposium on the language on the internet thinks it is doing more good then harm. Everything has its ups and its downs. “..Any school teacher can attest, the more kids write …. The more educated and successful they will surely be in later life” (Kline 251). I have to say that the new way of technology and the old way of books and old fashion research are two ways that the old way will never go away but the new age is coming and coming quick.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

HW 6: Semester-long Project

Thinking of something to do for my semester-long research and writing project was easy. The social computing technologies that I am most interested in would have to be instant messaging for one. I love people and I love talking to them. Now that I am at college and I am away from all of my high school friends that are still in high school, it is just so easy to communicate with them. Another great example of computing technologies that I am interested in would be social networking services. I love to go on facebook just to see how all of my friends are doing. Some people just like to write down something with out a response right away and I feel that it is also an easy way to communicate with love ones. Finally I use to like to play online games like online card games. Virtual worlds are a topic that would be interesting to learn more about. The three kinds of empowerment of marginalized groups that I am interested in and would like to find more about would have to be Issues of learning disabilities because I do have a learning disability and would like to find more information about it. I would love to also find out the rights and empowerment of people who have cancer. I have known and I know people who have died or who is dieing of cancer and I want to see if they still have the same rights as we do. The last one I want to find more information about would have to be overcoming racism because I want to know why people can not accept someone. We are all human and we should all be treated equal. The geographical areas that I would like to start to look in would be North America and the United States in General.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

HW: 4 orbit gum

When I walked in the door into my dorm, the first thing I saw was my orbit gum. I went on their website, http://www.wrigley.com/wrigley/products/products_orbit.asp , and saw that their promise was “For a Good Clean Feeling, No Matter what”. I believe this saying is not completely true because if I eat a flowerpot full of dirt and then I put a piece of the gum in, I would not feel clean. I would still feel like there would be dirt in my mouth. I also feel that when they say "just brushed clean” is not an accurate saying because the gum does not kill all the germs that brushing can kill. On the other side of the debate, gum can improve some oral health. When I went to http://www.gumisgood.com/oral_health.html and I read about the oral health I found out that “Chewing gum stimulates the most important natural defense against tooth decay - saliva.” After reviewing both sides of the debate to figure out if orbit gum’s motto is correct, I found out that it is still irrelevant but needless to say, I will still enjoy it.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

HW 2: Politics and Blogging

"Our Government is being robbed"(Kline 3) is just the opening to a very exiting debate between two bloggers, Chris M. Fick and Jerry Hurtubise. In discussion of our government between the two, Fick suggests that we are being robbed and we don’t even know about it. He says that the media is owned by the right wing. On the other hand Hurtubise, A right winged, says that the right winged party’s movement is bigger than anything that the left party has ever done. I found a very interesting is that being extremely shortsighted to get rid of the huge influence that bloggers are just starting to have upon the American political scene. In the 2004 presidential elections, 28 million readers went to all different political blogging cites. Liberal blog DailyKos drew 7 million alone. Six months after it still drew 11 million visits a month. After reading on, I found this blogger to be very interesting. “One blogger’s suggestion resulted in 115,632 handwritten letters being sent from the candidate’s supporters to eligible voters in the upcoming Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire.” (Kline 16). At the end, looking back on the debates and thinking about how politics and blogging work together, I read about how Frank Barnako, from CBS, and he says “no one reads blogs” (Kline 4). He then states “At least [Wall Street] traders read blogs, then, and act on what they read…Political blogging is like Ralph Nader, Nobody pays attention.” After reading about blogging and politics, I wonder what blogging will incorporate next.

HW 1: Going Global!

After reading Dan Burstein's 12 key ideas from "From Cave Painting to Wonkette”, I would have to agree when he states that Blogging is going global. “It is not just us wild ‘n crazy, uninhibited, populist Americans who like to rant” (Burstein xxiii). After reading this, it reminded me of one of my friends who moved to England and she had really no way to communicate to us. She started a blog and told us all her new stories. We have not lost contact because of it. When searching for a blogger online I came across all sort of different languages. I found Japanese, Hindu and much more. I know that with today’s uprising in new technology, more and more people are turning to internet sources to communicate to people. People in Iraq (especially our soldiers) should have a place where they can write down thoughts. They have been writing down thoughts all over the globe for thousands of years but now with new technology, we can do it with a little more pizzazz. Where ever you are in the world you will find someone who is blogging and writing down their thoughts.