Facebook + Carl Williams = Connectivity!

I recently read, what i thought to be a great blog by Cassie entittled Facebook: friend or foe to which i replyed via comment. It regarded the concept of facebook being a sinkhole, a vortex that flattens relationships into yes/no choices (Bruns, 2008). Secondly, it raised the issue of connectivity...and whether Facebook does infact connect people or rather help randoms spy upon unsuspecting individuals....

Well, while writing this delightful assignment this afternoon, I was listening to the news broadcast on the radio...(multitasking) ..and suprise suprise, facebook made the daily news!!! And for what reason you may ask???

Nothing else other than the one and only concept of Connectivity!!

Carl Williams, the infamous leader /notorious murderer of the gangland war in Melbourne during the 70/80/90's is keeping up to date with the world and staying 'in touch' inside of his solitary confinement...via FACEBOOK!!!

Carl Williams has over 900 friends ( chances of knowing 900 people...who knows, its not up to us to decide who he considers friend or foe, personally i dont want to know) two who are Wayne Carey (currently a top friend out of 24) and Tony Blockbell....

So does this mean that these people want to be associated with one of Australias serial murderers or that they simply want to boost their friend count to be more popular??? How does being friends with Carl Williams make you popular?? Or could it be because they think that if they become a friend of Carls, he will openly confess all his deepest, darkest secrets...which, whether you choose to believe it or not, have already been portrayed in the channel nine hit tv series....UNDERBELLY.... Prey tell me someone...

So apparently, even in the most adverse situations, facebook is helping individuals keep in contact with the rest the world....

Curiousty has got the better of me and I admit that once i sign off here that i will most likely check it out...I'm gonna presume that there will be no security measures on it, no doubt Carl most likely hates security at the moment...mainly due to the fact, it is what will keep him locked in a tiny cell for the remainder of his life...And if not, the thought of requesting to be one of his friends will most likely present itself...all so i can see in the profile that is...of Carl Williams!

Actually i couldn't wait....this is the link for CARL WILLIAMS FACEBOOK.....

So apparently he has more than 900 friends....try 2,654 at last count and apparently its gonna take a week to accept all the friend requests...so lets has it as a guess that in a week he will have 3000+ friends....

So if u want to stay 'connected' there's the link ;)

THe Blogosphere in all its glory!

A few posts ago, I discussed blogging, how it started, the reasons behind it and more or less...what it is, at base level. I then went on to discuss briefly the blogosphere, the community of all blogs. Well upon further research, I have come across some interesting facts on the blogosphere, which sparked a thought for this post.

Firstly, the ‘blogosphere’ was coined on the 10th of September, 1999, Brad Graham , however the first blogger and blog was created in 1994, by Justin's Links ), as a place to air his thoughts and leave them open to debate.

Which lead me to the website Pew Internet , which conducts surveys, and writes reports regarding a plethora of topics. Pew Internet conducted a comprehensive study on the blogosphere in 2006. The results showed that eight percent of internet users over the age of 18 have created a blog and that 39 percent read blogs. Of the eight percent, bloggers are more likely to be young, well educated broadband users with the Pew survey showing that 54 percent of blog creators are under the age of 30, 39 percent have education degrees and 79 percent are connected by broadband. Furthermore, men were proven to be more active bloggers than women, with 11 percent of men creating their own blogs as opposed to nine percent of women. However, percentages showed that women read blogs just as much as men. One interesting statistic is the rate at which blogs are maintained. 66 percent of blogs (2.7 million) had not been maintained within two months, and more shocking, that 1.1 million were merely ‘one day wonders,’ blogs created one day for personal amusement, forgotten the next.

Another interesting point however is that only a minority of bloggers use their blogs for citizen journalism, debate or stories with ‘news value.’ In fact, 37 percent of bloggers said that ‘they use their blog for keeping track of personal experiences of their life, and have no interest in journalism (Pew Internet).’ This is referred to as the ‘Long Tail’ which Sifry defines as the concept of millions of blogs within the blogosphere with the majority of them receiving little or no traffic therefore having minimal impact on the blogosphere (2004). Basically this means that these bloggers use their blog domain to express themselves creatively, using it like an online journal, and as this has little to no public interest, there is little to no traffic to that blog, hence it resides in the long tail of the blogosphere, only in existence for the individuals use really.


Just as we have discussed countless times throughout KCB201 the concept of virtual communities, I believe, that the blogosphere should be counted as one, because currently it is not. It fills the criteria of a virtual community…and the blogosphere actually provides a rather quite large platform for debate, much wider than some other virtual communities, with subject topics ranging from personal issues to political debates. Carroll explains: "blogging represents one of the most democratic media or media formats in history," which I agree with. It allows for open debate, with no boundaries, no restrictions and freedom of speech, unlike many traditional forms of media. The blogosphere has influence; to what extent, is un-determinable, but if politicians communicate with their publics through blogs, then there is arguable reason to suggest that the bloggers who use their website for non-personal reasons, are making their voices heard.

In saying all that I realise I have to a degree ‘dissed’ blogs. However, in actual fact, the blogosphere is expanding at a phenomenal rate, with a blog being created every second. In our case, there were 100+ blogs created in the space of 2 or 3 tuts…but like I said before, there were many cases where blogs were ‘one day wonders,’ and I believe that a fair proportion of KCB201’s blogs will fail to be maintained, after the completion of this assignment. Hence adding to the long tail of the blogosphere, of non-used, uninteresting blogs. So who will continue to use their blog to voice their opinion?

Reference:

Blanchard, A (nd) "Culture Clash: Journalism and the Communal Ethos of the Blogosphere", accessed 12, May, 2008
Carroll, B (nd) "Culture Clash: Journalism and the Communal Ethos of the Blogosphere", accessed 12, May, 2008

Pew / Internet (2006) "Bloggers: A portrait of the internet's new story tellers", (pdf) accessed 12, May, 2008

How do communities evaluate quality???

Communities evaluate quality in multiple ways, depending upon the systems available to them. For example if it is on either of the webcites www.current.com or www.digg.com then one has the choice to 'digg it' or 'bury it' which will register with the relevant servers and boost its populatiry or decrease it! In many ways evaluation by the communities on citizen journalism, is similar to peer assessment for us here at QUT, when in the midst of group assignments.

A second way to assess quality is through comments, which are available to all to view at the bottom of posts or blogs. Here, fellow bloggers have the choice to either add value to the blog, by mentioning more information or points that the author over looked, or critique it, analyse it and raise all the faults if they so desire.

Peer evaluation exists online everywhere. You can see it on Google and Wikipedia especially. However their systems are slightly different to the common blog, as at the head offices of these respectable sources, are people who monitor the content, and if the addage or subtraction of information by one person does not make sense, have a reasonable source or a level of accuracy to it, then it will be deleted. So while citizen journalism can be interactive, it must be of a certain standard...which makes sense, as a comment that is not accademically supported or not proven can potentially damage the credibility of the website, it is posted on.

Enter the acronym of C>A>R>S!

C reditibility

A ccuracy

R easonablness

S upport

You could say this is a guide for what fellow bloggers use to sum up and analyse a blog, commento or any form of citizen journalism.

One - the post must be credible, if there is no credibility -then why is it there, who will read it and how can it be trusted? Secondly, it will damage the credibility of the website it is posted on.

Two - if the post is not accurate, it damages the credibility of the author, the post and the website. Secondly, if it is being posted as 'news' then it needs to be accurate, as the internet is a powerful tool, and information can be shared at a ridiculous pace.

Three - The information, the format and form of posting must be reasonable. The information must be believable.

And lastly - Four - the information must be supported by some form of evidence, an academic who has research to support your argument or claim...or at very least, a fellow blogger or citizen journalist.

CARS all ties into each other as credibility links into accuracy, which links into reasonablness which all in all has to be supported by some form of credible information or evidence to make it any of the above...

There, as shown above, communities can evaluate blogs, websites and citizen journalism through multiple ways of comments, ratings and editing systems, which may or may not be monitored by another level of evaluation....which can all be judged using CARS!

Current News...in the real world!

A news cite regarding citizen journalism... a worthwhile watch..

http://www.current.com/

also look at

www.digg.com

Shall be back on to edit tonite!

THe Magic of the Internet!!!

Internet....pure MAGIC I tell you!

Once upon a time the only way to send and receive news or gossip was via a quill, parchment and a animal (whether it be a owl or horse depended upon Harry Potter or the King of England) but now-a-days... its instant, quick, non-messy and well...convienient.
Where it use to be mail, a mail box, a postie and a letter box...now stands the computer, a email account and a mouse.

Where there use to phone calls on landlines, theres now mobiles, with txt messaging and mobile internet connections 24/7 just incase you need to check the weather...

And lastly...where there use to me MSN via a hotmail account....now stands FACEBOOK and the new addition of FACBOOK CHAT!!! which seems to be very popular according to word on the streets..

THe internet has replaced the common difficulties in life and replaced it with convienience...No longer do students need to sit in a library researching...information now comes to them through a computer screen.

As Creed (2003, p.194) states, “For the world is now, more than ever before, directly ‘around us’”, it is only a computer screen away. The world being that is....THE WORLD WIDE WEB!!!

The internet has to be the most practical invention by far in the last 20years or so...It has come a long way from its origins, even from dial-up to wireless is a huge transformation, allowing the user easy access, at the speed of lightening. The internet has not only opened up the doors of instant access to friends and family globally. It has opened the doors for business's to run and advertise online, for communities to form with common interests, for the average joe to pay bills and organise his life with the few clicks of a mouse, for university students to gain instant access to knowledge...in bountiful supply and well...basically the internet allows one to do almost anything....right down to playing a game of chess...with a gentleman in europe!

If someone from the 16th century were to come back today, they would swear it was magic...but for our generation, its just common practise these days....we all have computers or laptops in our rooms, its the first thing we do in teh morning and the last thing we do at night. Checking social networks, bank accounts and emails is part of our daily routine, so for generation y....its nothing to be valued, until you lose it...

Speakin as somone who has lived without the internet at the begininning of a semester, I truely learnt the value of the internet in the comfort of my own home. You lose connectivity, conveinience, control....and its not pleasureable....I do not recommend it.

So there it is, my philosophical thought for the night. The Internet is magic, its part of our lives and allows us to live at ease, knowing we can just flick a laptop open or push a button and have the world at our fingertips....where ever we may be!

Reference

Creed, B. 2003. The Global Self and the New Reality. In Media Matrix: Sexing the new reality. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin