Reflection

After blogging about the past few entries, I felt that as a blogger we have to know the social semiotics function before we can start posting. Social semiotics is defined as the way people make meaning on a certain matter (Schirato and Yell 2000). So as a blogger, I must always be aware on the type of words that I am going to use in my blogposts before posting it or it will cause some misunderstanding.

A blogger must also have a blog with a design that is user-friendly and simple so that the readers will not have trouble navigating around the blog (Reep 2006). Using that statement from Reep, I designed my blog to be simple with just a few colours so that it does not confuse the readers and I have included some labels in the sidebar for easy navigation. I also learnt that a blogger has to be knowledgeable about the culture that they are in so that they do not get in trouble for using the wrong terms (Schriver 1997).

References

• Reep, D 2006, ‘Document Design,’ Technical Writing, vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 133-172, New York.
• Schriver, K 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures,’ in Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York, ch. 6, pp. 361-441. 
• Schirato, T and Yell, S 2000, Communication and culture: An Introduction, 2^nd edn, viewed on 11 June 2011, http://books.google.com.my/books?id=x0eCjzs0bhwC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=schirato+and+yell+on+context&source=bl&ots=1HAIVUbhv0&sig=tLFOc7uQ5CAKC3ekRLw6XhNVYWA&hl=en&ei=_IjzTfGgII3QrQes0dDzBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false .

Blogging Communities

In White's article called 'How Some Folks Have Tried To Describe Community' (2005), she used Community Guy's opinion on what he thinks the right definition of community. He states that blogs,forums and wikis are tools used to form communities through interaction in blogs,forums and wikis. From this statement,it can be deduced that a blogging community is a community that consist of bloggers that interacts with each other that may or may not share a common interest.

Holman (2011) stated that to create a blogging community,one must reach out to established bloggers,respond to commentors,write posts in reaction to others,create a local blogger meet up and share link love.

According to White (2006), there are three types of blogging communities which are Single Blog Centric Community,Central Connecting Topic Centric Community and Boundaried Community.Single Blog Centric Community are blogs which are owned by one blogger or an organization and communities are formed through the people who comments on the blog.Topic Centric Community are blogs that are linked to each other based on a common interests or topics.Boundaried Community are blogs and bloggers that gathers under a single platform.

An example of a blogging community in Malaysia is Nuffnang. Its is a blog advertising community that enables bloggers who registers to this community to gather and attend events such as movie premieres,workshops and seminars and it acts as a platform for advertisers to promote their products (Nuffnang 2007).

Nuffnang can be classified as a Boundaried Community because its a website where bloggers can gather and share their comments on certain topics and its where the bloggers can share their blogs among each other as long as they are registered in Nuffnang.



References:

• White, N 2006, Blogs and Community- launching a new paradigm for online community, The Knowledge Tree, viewed on 29 April 2011, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community> .
• White, N 2005, How Some Folks Have Tried To Describe Community, Full Circle Associates, viewed on 29 April 2011, <http://www.fullcirc.com/community/definingcommunity.htm> .
• Nuffnang 2007, Nuffnang, Malaysia, viewed on 29 April 2011, <http://www.nuffnang.com.my/about-us/> .
• Holman, K 2011, How to Create a Blogging Community, Spice Up Your Blog, viewed on 29 April 2011, <http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/2011/03/how-to-create-blogging-community.html> .

Classifying blogs

According to Simons(2008),the word 'blogging' is too general to be used to describe different internet based publications from different groups and people.That is why a classification system is needed in order to differentiate the blogs,the subjects, the device used, and the state of the publishers.

By classifying blogs by the subject matter that is talked about in the blog's content,it will help the readers to choose which blogs interests them more and it will save time. Jagalla(2010) states that the subject matter should not be too 'broad' or else the best search results will not be easily found.

Examples of classifying blogs by subject matter:
-Politics. Example, Malaysia Today. Which is created by Raja Petra bin Raja Kamaruddin as a website where anyone can give their opinions on Malaysian politics and this is a news blog where there is a 'no censorship' policy (Wikipedia 2011).
-Fashion. Example, Fashion Toast. Rumi Neely is a well-known fashion blogger and she posts pictures of her outfits and her experiences in the fashion industry.
-History. Example, The History Blog. Livius blogs mostly about European History and medieval times but
-Law. Example, Discourse.net . Michael Froomkin is a Professor of Law from the University of Miami School of Law and he blogs about his teachings of law.

Referring to Simons (2008),Malaysia Today can be classified as a Pamphleteering Blog because it is a news blog that criticizes the Malaysian politics and how it is portrayed in the media.

While the Fashion Toast blog can be classified as a Diary Blog and The Advertisement (Simons 2008) because she blogs about her daily adventures and her blog is filled with advertisements at the sidebar and sometimes she blogs about the brands being advertised in her blog.

Moreover, The History Blog can be classified as a Exhibition Blog (Simons 2008) because Livius is blogging about her interests and knowledge about European History.

Lastly, Discourse.net can be classified as a Exhibition Blog (Simons 2008) because Michael Froomkin is blogging about his profession as a Professor of Law.


References:

•  Simons, M 2008, Towards a Taxonomy of Blogs, Australian Policy Online, Swinburne University of Technology, viewed on 28 April 2011, <http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0> .
• Jagalla, C 2010, Classified Information: Patent Searching by Classification Part 1, Intellogist, viewed on 28 April 2011, <http://intellogist.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/classified-information-patent-searching-by-classification-part-1/> .
• 'Malaysia Today' 2011, Wikipedia, viewed on 28 April 2011, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Today> .

Blogging and its advantages

Source:http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction

The size of the current blogosphere in the world based on Technorati report in 2010 has increased compared to the previous years with 7200 bloggers participating in their survey and thanks to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

According to Microsoft Advertising(2007), Malaysians are blogging more often now because of the internet accessibility and 41% households are found to have broadband internet access which increases the blogging trend.The blogging trend is also increasing thanks to technology such as smartphones and tablets and social networking sites such as Twitter which can be known as micro-blogging.Twitter is known as the micro-blogging phenomenon because it has a word limit of 140 characters only and the short blog posts known as a 'tweet' is much easier to be posted online thanks to mobile phones according to Jacob and Wu(2008).

The type of blogs that are most commonly found in Malaysia are political blogs,lifestyle blogs, and food blogs based on the Top 100 Malaysian blogs according to Rice Blogger(2009).

The benefit of political blogs such as the Anwar Ibrahim's blog is that it provides a platform for him as a politician and his supporters to get to know more on his whereabouts and his vision on how he will make Malaysia a better place if he was the Prime Minister.

The benefit of lifestyle blogs such as Cheeserland is that the blogger is able to share her experiences and her daily routine as a full-time blogger to the readers who are interested.

Food blogs such as Pure Glutton only focuses on blogging about food so it will help its readers to get reviews on places to eat and the food quality before the reader tries out the restaurant themselves.




References:

• Sobel, Jon 2010, State of the Blogosphere 2010 Introduction, Technorati, viewed on 27 April 2011, <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/> .
•  Research confirms boom in Malaysia's blogging scene 2007, Microsoft Advertising, viewed on 27 April 2011, <http://advertising.microsoft.com/asia/NewsAndEvents/Article.aspx?pageid=890&Adv_Articleid=5337> .
• Wong, A 2009, Top 100 Malaysian Blogs, Rice Blogger, viewed on 27 April 2011, <http://www.riceblogger.com/top-100-malaysian-blogs/> .
• Jacob, R and Wu, S 2008, Twitter: an Analysis on the Microblogging Phenomenon in Relation with Community and Identity, Scribd, viewed on 27 April 2011, <http://www.scribd.com/doc/16825839/Twitter-an-Analysis-on-the-Microblogging-Phenomenon-in-Relation-with-Community-and-Identity> .
• State of Blogosphere 2010 Dissected 2010, YetAnotherStudio, viewed on 27 April 2011, <http://www.yetanotherstudio.com/2010/11/08/state-of-blogosphere-2010-dissected/> .