POD task 3: Blogging

Early in the course in one of our MOO sessions we were discussing Blogging tools, and preferred/selected sites and tools people were using.  Somebody came out with the statement “all blog sites/tools are the same”, which was a bit of a convesation stopper.

At the time, I recognised that there was something I didn’t agree with in that statement, but didn’t know exactly what it was at the time and couldn’t articulate it in the time available and everything else that was going on in the group dialogue.  From a functional perspective: sure, all blog site tools largely have the same objective – ability to keep something like an online log or diary, and then some. 

However, now I’m at the end of the course and having built up a body of experience in the use of Blogging tools (WordPress, Blogger, CSU Interact, ISPG Moodle) and that comment is still bugging me.  Because I have to say that they’re not all the same.  Whilst they may share largely the same purpose … their usability (ease of use, consistency, ease of learning), capabilities, flexibilities are VERY different. 

WordPress has been a joy to use. 

Blogger, not so impressed.

ISPG Moodle fairly rudimentary but relative simple and therefore easy to use.  The use and appearance of a “Tag cloud” within the Site is very good.

CSU Interact … frankly, I found this one to be bloody hard work.  I can’t seem to add the requisite three entries.  Just one is appearing.  Functionally it seems to attempt/support more capability andmore structure in the content (titles, absract, body, tags, etc) but since I can’t publish some entries that seems of little use.  Perhaps there is a limit to the number of entries I can submit and reached that limit … but if so surely it would notify me in some way. 

So in conclusion, not all Blogging tools are the same.  The user of the blog site needs to be comfortable with how to use it, and importantly … enJOY using it if the blog site is to alive and active with regular updates.  Anything which gets in the way will discourage use.  For commercial businesses those considerations on blogs are probably pushed aside as employee’s as remunarated to forego those expectations and simply use the blog tool provided but I would contend that there are side effects to productivity and quality.

iPod and PodCasting

Today was my birthday (yay).  The celebrations occurred at the weekend … and I’m allowed to because my actual birthdate is somewhat of a mystery (long story, way off topic).

Gifts comprised: clothes, which are

Topic 8 exercise 2: Google Services case study

250 word summary of Google Services:

Really, is there need for anything other a browser+plugin/helper apps anymore?  Use Google Spreadsheets, Presentations, Worprocessor for all the typical “office” needs.  Much of achieving this has only become possible through use of AJAX.  One drawback however: in a desktop application it is easy to paste images directly into documents, but with online equivalents the image n

Topic 6 exercise 3: Online Trust & Reputation

Wikipedia: Trust and reputation of the content on wikipedia is at risk because of the ease by which content can be edited to contain erroneous content, intentionally or through just badly created updates.  Thus undermining the credibility, and any authority.  However it continues to be a highly used general source of information, mainly as a “primer” primarily due to a greater trust in the ability of the Wikipedia community to manage that Risk.  This is largely because the system highly caters to the usability, sociability and sustainability features available. For example, the ability to quickly compare document versions and quickly approve and reject changes is instrumental in is.  This has clearly fostered trust and build reputation amongst the Enthusiasts and Visionaries given the larger number of volunteer participants.  Pragmatists and Conservatists will probably only inspect their level of trust and reputation as required, and possibly on a case by case basis.  Skeptics are unlikely to hold it in trust or reputation until they have a need to evaluate it, at which point they may have an ephiphany moment resulting in conversion to another quadrant.  For all types, “user beware” would be sound guidance.

Second Life: Online trust and reputation within Second Life is widely subjective because the purpose of that online community varies so much.  The intentions of say, somebody seeking virtual social interaction versus a bunch of CSU students attempting to hold a weekly meeting on a potential “CSU virtual island”, would vary significantly. The forced anonymous usernames masks realworld identities so immediate casts aside any realworld reputation, (although, this can be optionally compensated for in the personalisation details settings). The ability to remove clothes in that community immediately makes a student suspicious of the reputation of some areas of the community. Although in a virtual setting surely this is less confrontational and possibly somewhat amusing than could possibly be considered in a realworld setting.  Usability, sociability and sustainablility will need to be crucial consideration for Second Life.  Usability challenges related to movement around the environment and expressing/communication with other users need to be improved to gain wider adoption, particularly in the ”wait and see” Pragmatist and Conservatist groups. However Enthusiasts and Vsionaries seem to have have few problems dealing with these, but could probably assist other groups. Most skeptics are unlikely to cross the gap due to deep-seeted suspicions over Trust and Reputation, and simply aren’t “in the market”, viz my 75 year old father “I have enough to do in THIS life thank you very much”.

Evaluation: Interact on Sakai (POD task 1)

Evaluation of ‘CSU Interact’ hosted on Sakai platform:

Overall site layout

Well structured into pages and with sub navigation and modules per page. Find the

Evaluation: Moodle (POD task 1)

Evaluation of MOODLE:

Functional capabilities:

People/group participants list

Great way to familiarise with details of the group (or their avatars).  Ability to upload

Evaluation: WordPress (blogsite)

This post summarises the WordPress blog site by evaluation against 9 nine design strategies (Kim a) and 3 underlying principles (Kim b).

1. The purpose of the community (and its Blog site) can be stated in the “About” page – which exists by default for every site. This can be