Reflection: Overview on the "W" & "H" of Blogging and New Media

@ IPAM on 21 September 2007 by Ivan Chew
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"W" and "H"... stands for... Why are you Here?... that's on one of the opening slides... Oh yes, in fact, before the session, I was wondering, why "W" & "H"? Does it stand for the "What" and "How"? or something else... well, as the session moved on, there're more "W" and "H"... Hm... creative - creative in keeping the participants in suspense and sustaining the degree of curisoity :D

Yes, why attend the session when I'm already pretty well-verse in blogging? People around do ask. Then, how am I going to measure my 'gain'? Will it be time well-spent? Having to 'perform' the 'miss-the-meeting ritual' - spending the morning making sure my 'voice' is represented during the meeting and making sure anticipated info going to be asked for during the meeting were there...? argh....

So why? Hm...

• The title of the talk attracts me - not so much of 'blogging' (unfortunately more than 50% of the time Ivan spoke about Blogging), but 'New Media'. What is it? Has it got something to do with IDM? Heard and having spoken a fair bit about IDM but still not too clear - still seeking for a specific answer - as many a time, responses came across came with lots of personal opinions/views - I want something that's more neutral!!! A definition that I'm looking for... before interpreting the way the organisation wants to shape it.
• Of course, blogging is my (current) passion (ok, guess I get hooked into it)... so, no harm hearing more about it (since I'm a self-learnt blogger)... especially how it's used in a context outside education! My belief: There's always something new in something we know - no matter how well we do something :D This has been proven right, over and over again. So, be open! In fact, I learnt something new about blogs and wikipedia today!

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About New Media... it's about social engagement, connecting people to people and it comes with this element of openness! There... he presented a formual that layman could understand:

• Web 2.0 + Media >> New Media

Web 2.0 comes with the following (characteristics and how I interpret it... based on what I heard):

• interface-riched environment - it goes beyond a webpage comprises of text and static image only. It now comes with animation, embedded clips, pop-ups, etc... It's multimedia in a way.
• allows others to access our data - yes, it's put up there... where anybody who 'passes by' can just stop-by to see - so the door of the house is always opened. Of course, we can close the door too... where only 'invited guests' can enter.
• API: Application Programming Interface - this is chim chim chim... don't recall Ivan explained, but also can't get much out of wikipedia. So, it's simply some kind o technical stuff to do with programming?
• access from multimedia devices - there's one part mentioned about accessing online applications - I think it belongs here? Yes, it has becoming common and convenient that we don't really need to buy application software anymore, but simply use the application online (and many a time, it's free!).
• The shared documents and spreadsheets are not new to me - when Paul shared earlier this year. Similarly, the wealth of online applications that BY shared with us after her conference has widened our choices.
• However, all these sharing are really 蜻蜓点水 . It's the awareness of the existence of these software - and its basic features. It really takes the time and interest to look at them and play with them. For instance, BY shared about the collaborative features of BUBBL.US and C-Map... sounds impressive but "show me" rather than tell me... Drawing from/Extending Ivan's analogy, at least before I 'taste' the chicken, I know how the chicken 'looks' like!!! Also, tell me why it's good? It gives me reason to try it. Connect it to something that would interest me!
• Snipshot seems interesting that allows us to edit picture online - http://snipshot.com/. Hey, just wondering, is there any similar software that allows us to edit video clips online? Then this will come in very very handy for baseline - perhaps we can introduce snipshot in our baseline workshop?
• I thought the educational use of Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/) is well illustrated (though I'm not sure if Ivan had in mind when he showed us the feature) - everybody (at least most people) know that it's a platform where people could upload photos and possible add some comments to it. However, it's the first time that I come to know that we can add notes to selected parts of an image in Flickr. Hey, it makes a big difference! Nobody has pointed out that to me before! This discovery leads me to think... it's something we can tap on for learning. Perhaps it's time to venture into Flickr? We can probably tap on that for our workshops too! Just hopped by Flickr and notice it has the "map" feature... hey, that would be handy for Geography and Science Fieldtrips... ok, will explore further... possibly something to share with BY and ST :D
• continuous updates and upgrades - Yes, the 'change' is constant in the internet... there's continuous changes every microseconds in the internet. Updates and upgrades - whenever the system is connected to the internet, we'll be prompted of update messages. Quite regularly, I'll discover upgrades in the blogger editing interface... yes, people have been talking about new features, what's better... change is contant and change signifies progress... at least that's my view of the internet.
• from outsourcing to overcrowding - Yes, in the past, we'll outsource the work to others... but now, technology has brought 'services' to people... people contribute... so, it's tapping on the changed behaviour - the behaviour of the netizens... Hm... being k-po? or generous? helpful? well, it's up to us to interpret the behaviour of this 'species'... well, the internet has created a community with new characteristics that's not so observable in the physical human community... Hm... perhaps time to put in more thought to this...
• from consumer to prosumer - I know what's a consumer... but the term prosumer seems chim...

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Something useful (... have been asked several times by participants from different workshops):

• Forum (something that stands out, when compared to Blog): (i) Discussion is the focus (ii) Rely on responses of contributors (iii) any registered user can participate

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3 key words from Evan William (creator of the blog) about ... : Frequency, Brevity, Personality

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5 Web 2.0 tools mentioned in the session: (1) Wikipedia (2) RSS (3) Flickr (4) Technorati (5) RSS

Something new to me...

1. Permanent link: Learn more about this "permament link" - its purpose and how it works. Yes, in fact I've been forwarding such links to others when I want them to go to specific page. However, not knowing it's called "permanent link".
2. Different versions of a wikipedia writeup can be traced!!! It's so amazing! That reminds me of the moodle platform that Sun Li shared in the last ICET. Just wonder... does "wikispaces" allow us to see different previous versions (just like wikipedia)?
3. The analogy used to explain RSS, to illustrate before and after RSS comes into the picture - getting 3 participants to pretend to the webpage publishers. The reader will have to visit individual webpages to read any updates (in fact, the reader has to 'detect' what's changed). With RSS, the RSS will capture any updated 'screens' from all the identified sites and put them into a common place. Then the reader simply go to this one access point to see any updates captured. In fact, I know how RSS works, but I thought the analogy is useful in helping layman to understand how it works.
4. One new thing I learn about RSS is whatever captured is the info published at that point of time. It will remain there even if the publisher removed it from the web at a later date. Wah! A new discovery! RSS is a new way for readers to receive information!
5. Ivan shared that Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com/) is one of more friendly blog aggregator. No doubt. In my exploration, I discover Google Reader (http://reader.google.com/) is even friendlier and easier to use... however, also discovered the danger when all are supported by one service provider, when thing goes wrong, all goes wrong!

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Other sites introduced:

• jaiku www.jaiku.com : Heard about it (from BY), but not used before... still have not heard of anything unique... so not going to explore yet... Oops! Does that mean I won't bother to explore in near future? Hm...
• twitter http://www.twitter.com/ : Heard about it (from BY), but not used before... still have not heard of anything unique... so not going to explore yet... Oops! Does that mean I won't bother to explore in near future? Hm...
• YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ : Yes, have gone in recently and learnt to put up clips in there to be integrated into the blog
• TeacherTube http://www.teachertube.com : BY introduced this to us when she returned after the conference... yes, there's this hippy clip that when the teacher raps about area and perimeter (if I remember correctly).
• Tomorrow.sg http://tomorrow.sg : Something new! I only came to know about yesterday.sg (http://yesterday.sg/) via the e-Museum thing. That brings me back to some good old times (eg. the Kallang Theatre memories).
• Internet Archive http://archive.org seems to have the potential for schools' use.

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Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/

First time come across this thing call "cc" (ie. creative commons)... Just wondering, is it something very new in our local context? Is it something that's recognised in the Singapore context? More info on this will be helpful...

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Podcast... characteristics:

• audio file
• available via the internet
• comes with RSS feed

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Some tips from Ivan on "How to engage effectively"

• Start as a passive reader
• Post comments
• Progress to become a producer
• Identify yourself
• How to co-opt bloggers for public relations - Art of conversation; don't treat bloggers as an afterthought; don't tell them what to do...

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More useful links...

• ask@nlb.gov.sg
• http://blogcoursedemo.blogspot.com/2007/09/additional-updated-references-for.html