Mary's NET11 Blog

Well after some 200 posts on my personal blog, I guess I do have some tips for new bloggers! :)

Tip # 1

Write for YOU.

Don't write your blog because your best friend has a blog, or because your favourite movie star has a blog or because you feel left behind because even your neighbour's dog has a blog!
If you write a blog because you truly want to, you'll find it is easier to write and update, and best of all you'll love doing it.

Tip # 2

Respond to comments on your blog.

Have you ever commented on a post that you loved on a blog? and then you felt so disappointed because never got a reply.
You chose to write the blog and enable comments, so you should also respond to ALL those comments - value your readers and they'll keep on reading.

Tip # 3

Blogroll.

Network, network, network! If you 'blogroll' or link to other blogs you read you'll feel more a part of the blog world and you may even get a reciprocal link, and with it, new readers!

Tip # 4

Format your posts.

Please write with a clearly defined text colour on an easy background colour. Have you even been to a blog where the writer may have had something great to say, but you could just never stand the red text on black background? Keep your readers in mind when choosing font, size and colour.

Spacing is also very important - make sure there in enough in your posts, and don't forget proper spelling and appropriate post headers!

Tip # 5

Keep it real. Don't ever say anything you wouldn't say in the middle of a room full of people.

Don't use your blog to break friendships, gossip about great-aunts or grouch about current or (possible) future employers. They can all use Google too...


So new bloggers, keep these tips in mind, go rule the blogosphere, and have FUN! :)

- Mary

Labels: Module 3

After reading through the recommended articles (see reference list below) I came up with a list of -

The 5 most important 'rules' when writing online:

1. Write less, and divide the writing into meaningful sections.
If your readers see a huge un-formatted mass of content, they aren't even going to begin reading it. Make sure you include descriptive headers, appropriate formatting and remember that people don't like reading online.

2. Summarize your main points at the start.
Because people are going to be scanning across your page quickly, make sure they don't miss the important information. So start with your main points.

3. Emphasize important headers or content by applying different styles to them.
Just like I've done in this list, I've made the headers in bold and number large, to show people that this information is divided into different sections.

4.Make your links descriptive.
Just like writing a good email subject line, a good link description lets people make an informed choice about whether they will click on your link.

5. Use bulleted or numbered lists to display content.
I use this rule a lot. If you use lists it is so much easier to organise and read the content.


More Thoughts

After reading Nielsen's (2006) article F shaped pattern for reading where he notes the results of a study into eye patterns while reading online (they tend to follow an 'F' shape) I realised I read in this manner! - especially since I've started studying full time and researching a lot makes me read almost constantly for hours on end.

References

Neilsen, J. (2006). F-Shaped pattern for reading web content. Retrieved April 10, 2007, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html

Neilsen, J. (1997). How users read on the Web. Retrieved April 11, 2007, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

Dartmouth College. (2003). Writing for the web. Retrieved April 10, 2007, from http://www.dartmouth.edu/~webteach/articles/text.html

Jerz, D. G. (2003). Top 5 web conventions (writing and design). Retrieved April 11, 2007, from http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/conventions.htm

Labels: Module 3

Labels: Module 3

I used Filezilla to FTP my web page to Oasis, all the files uploaded fine and I was ready to view my page. However, I couldn't see anything I had uploaded when I typed in the address http://student.curtin.edu.au/~13769789/ all it would do was time out!

So I checked out the NET11 discussion boards, and sure enough the secret to getting this working was installing Curtin's VPN software on my laptop. A quick laptop restart and http://student.curtin.edu.au/~13769789/ was working fine.

- Mary

Labels: Module 3

This task required me to read about copyright on the Internet, and then answer the two following questions:

• Have you used images or words on your web page or website that contravene copyright laws?

I haven't used any images or words on this learning log or on my Curtin webCT student page that contravene copyright laws.

Any images used in my learning log have been drawn/created by me, and all text written by me. If any other information has been used to form my view on an issue, I have referenced the sources at the end of each post.

The template I am using for my learning log has been used in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Licence. That means that I am free to share or adapt the template, so long as I attribute the original author in some way. (in this case by the link at the bottom of this blog, showing that the template was designed by conzep.com).

My webCT student page uses a background image that I didn't create, however when I downloaded the image, the author offered it for use on any Web site, provided that a link back was provided. I linked back to the author in the footer of my page.

• Would you be in breach of copyright if you put the Curtin logo at the top of your web page for an assignment?

Yes.

I feel that after reading about copyright on the Copyright Website and also Copyright at Curtin that putting the Curtin logo at the top of a Web page for an assignment would not be acceptable.

If I did feel I needed the Curtin logo at the top of my Web page for an assignment, I would first have to contact Curtin and gain the necessary permission from them to include their logo on my Web page.

Reading about Copyright also reminded me of a post on the NET11 webCT discussion boards 'Blogging for Assignment 3' where we discussed if it was good netiquette to ask before you linked to someone else's blog. The Copyright Website had some good advice in regards to this issue:

"As it stands now, there appears to be a doctrine of implied public access on the
Web. The Web was created on the basis of being able to attach hypertext links to
any other location on the Web. Consequently, by putting yourself on the Web, you
have given implied permission to others to link to your Web page, and everyone
else on the Web is deemed to have given you implied permission to link to their
Web pages.¹" -(Copyright Website, n.d.)

In my personal experience this does hold true, as whenever I create a link to a site, I don't go and specifically ask them for permission, unless they have written on their Web site that they want people to ask them before linking.

This has happened once to me, as in a post for my NED11 studies I wanted to link to Hobbes' Internet Timeline. However, he had specified on his page that you should ask permission before linking. So I emailed and asked for his permission to link to his Web site - and it was graciously granted.

Here is the post in which I linked to Hobbes' Internet Timeline.

The more study I do, the more I realise what an important issue copyright is, and that it is essential to understand exactly what copyright rules are relevant on the World Wide Web.

- Mary

References

¹ Copyright Website. (n.d.). Website linking issues. Retrieved April 11, 2007, from http://www.benedict.com/Digital/Web/WebLinks.aspx

Labels: Module 3

I tried to validate my webCT student page (found in the student presentations area) using the W3C Markup Validation Service.

I first encounted 7 errors, these were easily identified and fixed by closing some tags, and making sure everthing was nested properly.

The next 2 errors I encounted were solved by removing the /> from the end of my declarations in the head of my page, and replacing them with just >

The final problem I am left with is as follows;

Namespace Found in non-XML Document
Namespace ""
found,
but document type is not XML!

Byte-Order Mark found in UTF-8
File.
The Unicode
Byte-Order Mark (BOM) in UTF-8 encoded files
is known to cause problems for some
text editors and older browsers. You may
want to consider avoiding its use until
it is better supported.

I got this page to validate earlier (before I added meta-tags) so I'm guessing the remaining errors are due to me incorrectly declaring something in my meta tags.

- Mary

Labels: Module 3

Labels: Module 3

Note: I wrote this as a draft Friday, as I had a swimming competition on Saturday, and forgot to publish it on Blogger until Monday afternoon.

Well I haven't updated my Learning Log very much over the past two weeks! NED11 Internet Design studies have almost completely taken over for now, as I have an assignment due in around 2 weeks.

Module 3 : Contributing to the Infosphere: e-writing?

I love blogging. It is a great way to have a diary of personal thoughts - especially if you are someone who uses the Internet a great deal - as I just wouldn't get around to writing a traditional text based diary!

Blogging is also a great way for everyone to have a 'voice' in cyberspace - no matter who you are if you write it, people can read it. And I think that because bloggers tend to read, comment and link to each other's blogs regularly is the reason why this form of writing and communication has become so popular.

Personally I find it a lot more interactive that the days of personal home pages on Geocities etc, as I feel a blog is like a mix of a personal home page, emails (people tend to write posts in a similar manner to emails), discussion boards (the comments section) and even to a small extent, instant messaging (if you manage to strike a time when you are replying to comments at the same time as your readers are commenting).

This mix, teamed with the fact that you need no HTML knowledge (most blogging Web sites make posting as easy as using a Web based email program) is why I think blogging will continue to be a very popular pastime for many Internet users.

Volcano Web - Task 1

I've been building the 'famous' Volcano web homepage - I guess this is to test our knowledge of HTML, or to teach us HTML if we don't know it. It is so easy that I type in the code in my spare time :)

I know I can just upload an HTML page to WebCT with a header, footer, links, meta tags, title etc., but I thought why not just make the whole Volcano Web Site for fun! :)

I'll be blogging again next week, with hopefully a LOT more updates,

- Mary

Labels: Module 3, Reflections