Excergeis

Exegesis

Kirsty Large- LAKMD111

For my Web Communcations assignment, I had to write an excergesis on my blog, including disscussions of contributing and central nodes. I hope you enjoy reading it.

When told we had to do this assignment, I immediately thought of the blogs on the Internet that interest me. While I am usually not interested in writing blogs, I tried to make it as interesting as I could, by using sport as the key focus for my blog. Because of this, I used Blogger as my central node, as I felt it was easiest for me to do, as I am not very experienced with blogs, and other complicated forms of technology. The theme of my web presence assignment is clearly evident throughout my central node, and contributing nodes, which is obviously sport.

When writing my blog, it made me much more aware of the impact that Web 2.0 has had on the internet. If we did not have Web 2.0, then we would not have blogs, and other social networking sites. It also made me aware of the fact that the internet and the World Wide Web are actually two different things. The difference is that the internet provides the structure for the World Wide Web, and the World Wide Web feeds off it.

I made my Blogger account very simple, with very big pictures of sports players. Ideally, this was to draw the attention of anyone that just happened to be looking at my blog. As I am not an experienced blogger, I did my best to ensure that it was quite simple, and was easy to locate what the main focus of the blog is, which sport is, mainly the sports I am interested in the most which is AFL and soccer. One of the best things about the Blogger account was that it allowed you to specifically put in any interests that you had. Being a sports fan, and doing my central node on sport, I put a variety of sports teams I follow, such as West Coast Eagles, Arsenal, and New York Jets. This allowed potential readers, and followers of my blog to quickly have a look and decide whether they think that my blog would be interesting to read, judging by my interests. This technique is more commonly known as tagging, and was discussed in a lecture, which I would to be very interesting.

As more and more people tag their common interests, it makes a folksonomy, which can help people to search for exactly what they want through using these words, and help them in being able to view the blogs that they find the most engaging. For example, I found it helpful when I was browsing through blogs in order to give me some inspiration for my own blog. As a one eyed West Coast Eagles supporter, I certainly would not be want to be reading a Fremantle Docker’s blog, and I am sure the same applies to them reading my blog. My blog account was targeted at West Coast Eagles supporters, purely because of the discussion that would take place on key issues relating to the eagles, and the fact that all my blog posts about AFL had some connection to the eagles.

I found that many of the in class lectures were very helpful in me determining how I would go about making my blog. One of the ones that stood out was Topic 2.4 on Content Sharing. This lecture helped me grasp the idea of how quickly, and how viral content on the Internet and more specifically the Web 2.0 platforms can be shared. This made me really just how many people could be viewing my blog, and how I needed to make sure my views on topics, were sharp and to the point to engage my readers.

Twitter was one of my contributing nodes, and I closely linked it to my central node, which is the blogger account. Topic 3.2 was focused on Twitter, and describes it as a “friend feed”. This means that you can check what your friends are doing at the same time. I think that is a very good summation of Twitter, as it is very convenient for people to use that are busy, as they can quickly log on, and at a glance, see what all their friends are up to. This is one of the main reasons why I utilised Twitter as a contributing node, because of the easy access for people, and the fact that it may be easier for them to use, to check up on my sports views. This is because in Twitter you have to express yourself in 160 characters or less, whereas blogs can be very long. For me, I use Twitter on a daily basis, to check what my favourite celebrities are doing, and also to check sports scores. I also find it handy as I can interact with other users who share the same interests as I do.

Another one of my contributing nodes was the AFL forum BigFooty Eagles. In this forum, I posted, and engaged with other football fans. I believe that this forum ties in very well with my blog posts, as it centre on sport, and the discussions. It also meant I could share my views with others, and get their opinions on my views.

Facebook was also another contributing node. This was definitely useful, as it allowed me to share my blog posts with other Facebook users, and is the contributing node that I use the most. Many of my Facebook friends do not have blog accounts, and twitter so they would not be able to access my blog posts, so this is why I chose to use Facebook as a contributing node, which allowed me to reach another audience.

References


Crash Course In Blogger Ettique, (2009) Retrieved 1st September 2011, from http://heartifb.com/2009/10/02/crash-course-blogger-etiquette/

West Coast Eagles- Big Footy Style! (2011) Retrieved 2nd September 2011, from http://www.bigfooty.com/portal/eagles/

Rowse, D, Ten Tips For Writing a Good Blog Post (2010) Retrieved 1st September 2011, from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/12/30/tens-tips-for-writing-a-blog-post/

Boswell, W, The World Wide Web and the Internet – What is the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web, (2011) Retrieved 1st September 2011, from http://websearch.about.com/od/whatistheinternet/a/worldwideweb.htm

Nathan Lyon- New Test Spinner or Just Another Discard?

New Australian test spinner Nathan Lyon has cause a sensation, taking 5 wickets on debut for Australia vs Sri Lanka. Lyon was one of the chief destroyers, as Sri Lanka were bundled out for 105. The off-spinner became the first Australian to take a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket since the colourful Arthur Conningham in 1894 and the 14th in the history of the game.

Lyon does look like a fantastic talent, but I beleive the key here is to persist with him, and not discard him after one bad game, as has previously been done with other spinners, such as Michael Beer. Only time will tell, but i beleive that Lyon really is a player of the future.

Dyson Heppell- Rising Star Winner 2011

Dyson Heppell was awarded the rising star award, being the first ever Essendon player to win the award. Nine selectors voted for the award on a five, four, three, two, one basis and Heppell received 44 votes. He was a clear winner ahead of West Coast's Luke Shuey (37 votes) and Gold Coast's Zac Smith (21 votes). Heppells dominance of the award has angered many fans, who point to bias from Victorian judges. An interesting fact is that the only judge to give Shuey full votes was Glen Jackovich. As an avid Eagles supporter, naturally, I was dissapointed with Shuey not winning the rising star. However, the comments of Gerard Whately on AFL 360 confused me. He stated that Heppell should be considered higher, as this was his first season. The rules indicate Shuey was eligable for the award. Therefore, I beleive that Shuey and Heppell should have been considered equally, and only taking into consideration their impact on games all season. Still, its not all doom and gloom for the Eagles, as the voting shows, they had 3 players poll votes, equal to Gold Coast.

VOTING
Dyson Heppell (ESS) 44 votes
Luke Shuey (WCE) 37
Zac Smith (GCS) 21
David Swallow (GCS) 18
Jack Darling (WCE) 6
Sam Reid (SYD) 5
Daniel Menzel (GEE) 1
Jack Steven (STK) 1
Trent McKenzie (GCS) 1
Andrew Gaff (WCE) 1

As the above voting indicates, both West Coast Eagles and Gold Coast players were very prominent in voting. Still, this award is not everything, and I cant wait for an awesome finals series by Shuey.