Website Design I Like

Personally, I like the website design for 'Don't Stay In'. In terms of layout, it has a rough version of the standard left-hand inverted 'L', with links to different sections of the site across the top. However, the left-hand side is taken up with a live chat box, making the site more interactive and socially stimulating.

The moving screen graphics the sit features are limited to adverts, though are graphically appropriate and almost add to the site.

In terms of accessibility, the site is well set up. Users can browse through various sections, limiting themselves to clubs or geographical regions, as well as easily browsing through their contacts. The site itself if free and easy to join, relying on income from advertisers and donations from users, though users are not obligated to donate and are un-pressured.

In terms of separating itself from the mainstream, the site has an interesting user feature, where if you leave the cursor over a users name, a box flashes up displaying their photograph and stats. Again, this builds to the sites social networking and is an effective tool. Additionally, it provides the site with something that most others do not have.

Overall, I think that some elements could be improved (for example, the homepage scans down a long way as it tries to incorporate many features), but the site itself is impressive.

Nora Paul's 'New News' retrospective

Nora Paul's piece is an interesting review of what was expected of online news production, and what has actually been delivered.

For the most part, I follow what she says, and agree with the analysis. However, I also agree with one of her commentors, that she overlooks solely online based publications. These publications are more geared towards exploring the online forum, and tend to take advantage of the online potential. The reason for this is obvious, in that they cannot fall back on a corresponding print publication, and so have to use the online forum to the best potential in order to succeed. This is especially important as online news publications face the challenge of raising money to sustain the publication.

Money becomes an important issue for online publications. The challenge faced by the online publishers is to make the publication good enough to either make people accept a small fee to view the content, or attract advertisers.

However, following the point regarding Nora Paul's lack of solely online based publications analysis, I feel it is poor to make some of the wide generalisations that she does. She says that online news publications 'haven't done this', or 'haven't done that', yet some have, and the web is so large that I think it is impossible to make any generalisations. Finding the publications that have lived up to the potential is the real challenge.


Overall, I agree with Nora Paul. Online publications currently are not living up to their potential. However, I think this may change as print circulation figures are continuing to drop and the online news forum becomes more important. Furthermore, though online publications aren't achieving what was suggested, it has to be considered that what was suggested as online publications' potential was inaccurate.

The best example of this is the suggestion that online publications can have so much more content that would otherwise be edited out. In reality, people don't always want this content, or to read through the now increased size of the article. The point of online news isn't necessarily the unlimited 'newshole', but may in fact be ease of retrieval and its immediacy. Again, this doesn't mean that online publications haven't lived up to potential, but that what was considered the potential was not necessarily what was best for it.

Additionally, it comes back to money, and until online becomes a more dominant media form and is financed as well as it could be, it will never achieve its potential.

Online Features

When print media sources try to access the potential of the online forum, they often tend to do a straightforward 're-print'. The material they use is the same, it's just online. This is usually the case with TV News channels when displaying stories on their corresponding website. This is also usually the case with print publications, especially magazines and newspapers.


An example of this is Wired's online article 'An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance. Then The Truth Came Out.'

The article was published in the magazine as well as online, and in terms of written content, they're identical.

However, Wired have attempted to take advantage of the online domain by adding extra content that would otherwise take up too much space in the magazine. Specifically, they've added an IM conversation between the piece's subjects. This is very long, and would otherwise consume several pages in the magazine. It's not an essential piece of content, but online it can be shown and rounds off the piece slightly.

Additionally, Wired have incorporated some links to give the piece more life and make it more full and complete.


Without having seen the magazine version, the online re-print works. It doesn't come across as a re-print or cluttered. It works independently and as a separate entity, not reliant on the magazine format.

The Power of Bloggers

It's hard to see just how strong blogging can be. There's a vast blogging community. It's infiltrated the mainstream media. But what is its actual power?

A good case study to look at is that of Trent Lott, the US Senator, brought down by blogging.



Trent Lott, at the 100th birthday of Senator Strom Thurmonds, made a racist comment, and although there was a great deal of mainstream media coverage it blew over within 48 hours.

However, a number of bloggers condemned the remarks made and stuck with it. One blogger, Josh Marshall, even found an interview Lott had given to Southern Partisan, a magazine widely accused of having racist views.

Eventually, and as a direct result of the bloggers, the mainstream media picked the story up again, and it led to Senator Lott's resignation.



Behold, the power of blogging.

Work Blogs

I looked through the list of work related blogs compiled by James Richards and was surprised by the sheer number of call centre blogs. I can attribute two plausible reasons for this.

1) Call centre's attract certain types of people and these people like to blog
2) Call centre workers are stressed and need to vent more than other industry workers

Whatever the cause, I read 'My Worst Call of the Day' and found it hilarious. I think the main reason for this is that the author writes very well. His style is fresh, has a good flow/rhythm, and is well presented.

I think the second reason that his blog is so interesting to read is that everyone has spoken with call centre workers at some point, and it's interesting to see the other side of it.

The third, and possibly most important reason if looked at from a long-term position, is that he doesn't just limit himself to 'the worst call of the day'. He keeps the topics new and interesting by introducing different themes, such as 'What I wanted to say', 'Elderly Stories', and 'What I've said, but shouldn't have'. By varying the topics, the blog stays fresh and interesting.

I really like this blog, my only disappointment with it being that it appears the author has stopped posting. His last post was dated 10/25/2005.

Posting on Blogs

I chose to post on Alfred the Ok's blog, having found a link to it from BigJohn's. I specifically decided to post on it because his latest post was discussing a topic I hear from time to time (You know you're getting old when...), and have discussed with friends before.

I find the topic fascinating. I've had the same discussion with friends. I've heard others discuss it. I've even heard it as a live discussion on Radio 1. I find the answers to it especially interesting.

Most of the comments on Alfred the Ok's blog were short, so I kept mine short as well. Were I writing a longer comment, I would have mentioned the pain in my back, the slight sound I utter as I stand up, my decreasing interest in fashion and celebrity news, and my inability to understand some of the txt spk that is floating around. I can mention so many things, but as the post referred to music, I gave my personal experience of that, and left it at that.

Still, an interesting topic and a well written post.

Online News Comparisons

To compare how different online media sources publish the same news, I'll be looking at Bob Woolmer's death, and how The Sun (a typical UK tabloid), The Times (a typical UK quality), The Pakistan Times (a national paper from Woolmer's home), MSN News (an American based online news media source) and The Jamaica Observer (a national paper from where Woolmer died) present and cover the news.

Bob Woolmer was the 58 year old coach of the Pakistan cricket team. He was found dead on Sunday morning.

The Sun's headline is 'Match fix Mafia killed Bob'
The Times - 'US pathologist called in over Woolmer as Pakistan team faces quiz'
MSN News - 'Woolmer 'had broken bone in his neck''
The Jamaica Observer - 'Woolmer Strangled?'
The Pakistan Times - 'So Long, Woolmer! Tribute to Legendary Coach' and another related article, 'Pakistan's ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Saddened by Woolmer's Death'

The Sun's article is focused heavily on the circumstances surrounding his death, and the motivation behind it.

The Times looks at the cause of death, and addresses the motivation for murder. It has more detail than the Sun in terms of facts, figures and background information.

MSN News features a relatively small article in comparison to the others, and although it mentions the possibility of murder, it is much more skeptical.

The Jamaica Observer focuses more on the local aspect of it, the hotel and some background details, as can be expected. It comments on the possibility of the murder, but focuses less on the scandalous background behind it.

I strangely couldn't find much detail of the 'murder' on The Pakistan Times website. The two articles I found related to the ex-Prime Minister's feelings on the murder, and a tribute.

In summary, as can be expected 'local' papers focus on the local issues. In the Jamaica media, the focus is the hotel and location. In the Pakistan media, the focus is the 'country's' reaction, and a tribute.

The tabloid paper focused heavily on the 'scandal' behind the news, though this again is to be expected.

The global news sources focused on the facts behind the event, and didn't address the local issues in as much detail.

Rojo - Helpful, or just a total pain?

Rojo is a site designed to help you organise your RSS and atom feeds. The concept behind Rojo is fairly simple. You subscribe to it (completely free of charge), and then select news feeds that you want to be present on your Rojo homepage. You can select feeds from a list that Rojo gives you when you sign up, or you can use the Rojo search engine to search for specific feeds.

Personally, I'm uninterested in 'Gossip', 'Fashion', 'Celebrities', 'Entertainment', etc. The only feeds I'm interested in are news related, though not just limited to national news, but global. This said, I don't enjoy reading tabloid stories, or tabloid presentations of national news. With this in mind, I signed up to Rojo, and added the BBC national, and the BBC world news feeds, as well as the Times, Telegraph and Guardian feeds.

This was a mistake.

From what I can tell, Rojo does not limit the number of articles presented through a feed. This resulted in over 10,000 results. Even though the feeds were ordered by age, from my point of view, this makes it useless. I also found it difficult to unsubscribe myself from feeds. This is not to say it is impossible, just not as easy as it could be.

However, these were mainstream media feeds. If you subscribe to a small, specialised feed, you will not be hindered by a result in the thousands. However, unless your interest base was very narrow and extremely specialised you'd still find it pointless.

The Elderly and The Internet

Can the elderly and the Internet 'get along'. My initial impression, was no, no they can't. Once a month my grandmother rings me and tells me she'd like some help with her research. My grandmother is a City & Guilds bead worker and by research, she means she wants to go online and use the Internet to try to find new bead work patterns. My grandmother does not have a computer, so comes to my house to use mine. My grandmother cannot use the Internet, so comes to my house when I'm there so I can use it for her. She does this once a month because her bead work magazine has a website and as a subscriber she can access 'hidden' patterns.

I don't look forward to this time of the month.

I enjoy seeing my grandmother, but I don't enjoy teaching her the same 'skills' anew each time. She tries hard, and acts like the understands and is interested in what I've shown her. By next month however, she has forgotten all I've shown her and insists I show her again.

I was of the opinion that all elderly people had this phobia of the Internet, coupled with the inability to learn.

The Internet Journal of Health defines this phobia as 'computer anxiety' and conducted a study on the elderly and computer usage. They reported that 39% of the elderly (over 65) participants in the study experienced computer anxiety before the study. Only 59% were confident they'd be able to find information on the Internet. During the study, they taught the elderly to use the Internet and computers more effectively. By the end, only 20% of the participants feared the computer, and 80% were confident they could find information on the Internet.

I had assumed that most people over a certain age were unable to use the Internet.

On YouTube, there's a self-proclaimed 'Oldest Man on YouTube', posting at the age of 82. He uses YouTube to post theories, jokes, rants and stories.

There's a 68 year old blogger, calling himself 'Big John', who uses the Internet as a space to 'express himself' and 'rant' for lack of a better word.

However, EarthLink compiled a report on Internet Usage Statistics and state that 79% of people of 65 say they will never use the Internet. It also states that only 4% of people of 65 use the Internet on a regular basis.

Group Blog Evaluation

LDNY - A good plan, but unrealistic?

I felt that the idea behind LDNY was good. It was interesting, it had a specific target market who we could identify and write to, and it was focused so we knew how to go about it.

However, in reality, it may not have been attainable in the long run. Based on geography alone, it became difficult to recommend and review places that we could not physically experience. In addition, in the long term, I feel we may have began to struggle to find events/activities/places to recommend/review. Especially if we limit ourselves to just recommendations. If we were reviewing, we could look at the good, as well as the mediocre and the truly awful. We would have had more scope.

Furthermore, with most of the topics, because we could not experience the subject that we were talking about, we had to read reviews. This inevitably meant that to an extent we were repeating what others said and potentially just reviewing reviews.

In terms of the target audience, although it was clearly defined so we knew who we were writing to, no one in our group is a part of that target (the target being 25-40 business travellers who frequented New York and London).

When it came to the actual reviews/recommendations, I had difficulty reviewing art exhibitions effectively when I couldn't see them. I could see a few of the images, but when it comes to viewing art, it depends on so much more (scale, context, surroundings, atmosphere, etc.). I felt my best review was 'Family Pictures' - The Guggenheim, purely because it was a focused photographic exhibition (which is where my 'art' knowledge is more focused and in depth), and I had seen a few of the photographs before. Even the photographs I couldn't view, I knew the photographers in depth and could still comment on their style and give what I felt would have been a much more accurate review.

In addition, I felt that 200 words are too few to accurately review art. By the time I had explained the concept behind the work and given details as to its location, I had very few words left to be able to describe the work and give my personal interpretation.

I think the lack of personal interpretation led to the site feeling more like an advert than a review/recommendation resource.

The layout of the site led to its purpose being unclear. We never actually mentioned on the site who it was for, or directly commented on what would be discussed. The labels helped, but it was still unclear. The template may have been a poor choice. We couldn't change part of the colour scheme and the title size was stuck, potentially too small. With the layout of the posts, it became more helpful once labels were clicked on and the posts filtered. As a group of posts, the topics were jumbled and confusing. The labels helped, but may have been too inconspicuous.

With images, I felt some could have been bigger. We were trying to maintain a style and layout, but I think for some topics a large image would have been more appropriate, specifically art and potentially food/restaurants as well.

This seems incredibly negative, but we had some strengths as well.

I felt we all wrote well and to a consistent style. Our comments when we incorporated personal opinion were interesting and helpful. I think the idea was ambitious, and although we 'grumbled' about it at times, most of us managed to post once a day and were able to discuss things as a group and work well together.

Will It Blend?

Will It Blend? is an odd cross of the typical YouTube comedy video, and American advertising. It's like the adverts that feature a salesman explaining how an all new washing powder can get the housewife's sheets even whiter.

The advertising itself is somewhat retro, with cliche music, 'flashy' graphics, and inserts of other video clips showing what else can be blended.

It's hard to tell whether or not these 'flaws' are actual flaws. They liven up the video and make it more entertaining. As an advertising tool, it works well. It costs nothing to upload videos to YouTube, and it can only be a minor cost to actually produce the videos. The blender the video feature's, is Blendtec's TotalBlender. This blender costs $400. This is a high price for a blender, but if they manage to sell even 1 through their 'advertising' on YouTube, I'd be willing to believe it completely covers the video production costs.

Will It Blend? raises interesting questions regarding YouTube as a marketing tool, not just a 'place of expression' for a community of web users. The question remains as to what this means for the future of YouTube. Could it in fact become an archive of adverts, all low cost and with potentially wide market penetration? It's possible, but I hope not, and I think YouTube's community wouldn't want it either.

Review of a YouTube Video

'Sweet Pea', is a video documenting the introduction of a female sea horse into a sea horse marine tank. The video starts off quite educational, then turns into a music video. The music doesn't synch up in any significant way, but suits the footage well.

The educational beginning of the video is narrated by the video's poster, and sounds a little wooden. However, the tone of voice he uses when he gives information and the tone of voice he uses when he relates personal stories seems to be the same, so either he's written all material in advance, or that's just his manner of speaking. I'd compare it to David Attenborough's 'Blue Planet', minus the budget.

The video seemed well received by YouTube users, the negative comments only really being directed at the narrator's delivery of information and at the sequence showing a male sea horse giving birth (some viewers thought it disgusting).

Review of 'YouTubers'

'YouTubers' is a compilation video of various YouTube users videos. I think it's trying to give a background on YouTube users and show what an extensive range of people they are. In honesty, I don't know how to review it. It made me feel sad. The music was very delicate and depressing. The videos themselves showed people either ranting at others, or explaining why they used YouTube (the main reason being they lacked confidence to talk to people face to face). The clips that didn't fall into the above categories were miscellaneous activities, or people filming their children or friends, or 'humourous' activities. The clips of people teaching their children and spending time with them I thought were sweet, the other clips just made me feel sad, especially the youth pretending (?) to try to cut his wrists and being unable to bring himself to do it.

Analysis of Shiny Media's 'Heckler Spray'

Heckler Spray is a blog focused almost entirely on gossip. Their gossip is celebrity based, with almost every post featuring at least one high profile celebrity in the title. The posts feature mostly celebrity news, though the writer also contributes a little personal opinion. When Heckler Spray isn't featuring posts based on celebrity gossip, it also features film reviews, tv reviews, betting, and rants.

The posts on Heckler Spray are usually between 400 and 600 words, and are written conversationally, so that the reader feels as though they are being directly addressed. Most of the posts aren't commented on, and when they are, the comments are usually fairly short, reader's opinion of the news featured.

To interact with Heckler Spray, readers can post comments on pieces they read, or email the site directly.

Analysis of Shiny Media

Shiny Media is web based publishing company that started in 2003. They publish online blogs aimed at niche markets. These blogs tend to be aimed at women and are slanted towards stereotypically feminine products (women's clothing, bridal wear, 'pink' gadgets, etc.), though also feature technology, and online rants.

Shiny Media publish blogs to earn money through selling advertising space, though they can also be hired to design corporate blogs. By blogging, they also get the opportunity to showcase their writing talents to media agencies. For example, one of the review bloggers work was seen by the BBC and she was offered a TV slot.

Shiny Media will try to identify niche markets and publish blogs aimed at them. These can either be the result of a group discussion, or can be an individual's idea. For example, their Catwalk Queen website was Gemma Cartwright's idea. Gemma Cartwright, Simon Munk, Ashley Norris, Katie Lee, Star C. Foster, Katherine Hannaford, and Chris Price are Shiny Media's journalists.

Shiny Media's journalists can be contacted through email to the Shiny Media's site, or through comments posted on their blogs. Most of the blogs have 2-4 contributors, and the most successful blogs seem to be their gossip blog, Heckler Spray, Tech Digest, and Shiny Shiny, which received 'complimentary' press from high profile media sources.

Getting on in the Service Industry

When dining out, as a standard, I tip 10%. By UK standards, this is acceptable. This is not to say that I'll tip 10% regardless of how good the service was. If the service was awful I will tip less. I very rarely leave nothing, and have only walked out without paying a bill once (in Cambodia, where I waited 30 minutes for a drink, and 2 hours for a steak that was undercooked. I might add this was in a quiet hotel, not a busy restaurant). However, most of the time, I will tip a little even if the food takes a long time. My reasoning behind this is that the chef probably took ages, and that's hardly the waiter's fault. Even if the prices are excessive, the waiter hasn't set them, he merely delivers the bill. Only if the waiter gives me atrocious service, will I pay the bill and leave nothing for him. I thought everyone acted to this principal.

Then I got a job working as a barman in a hotel.

I have had weeks at a time, where I have received absolutely nothing in tips. You could argue that my service is bad, and I just don't realise it. It would have to be seriously bad though, and that wouldn't explain why I have had guests compliment me so profusely on my professionalism. On other days, I have been the only serving staff on shift, and a wedding reception of 30 people have shown up unexpectedly. On such an occasion, I had one table of 7 people complain to me about how slow my service was, told me I should be ashamed, and then left without paying. At the same time, I had another table complimenting me, telling me they could see how hard I was working and was coping very well with an exceptional situation. Actually, it was a group headed by a somewhat boisterous Scotsman, so what he actually said was "I couldn't do your job, Christ, I'da punched that p***k in the face! Does he not realise he's not the only one in the bar? You're doin fine work." He went on to tip me £10 for a pint of Carling.

Sadly though, I have come to make some generalisations. The first is that English people do not tip, or if they do, it's around 1%. I have had far fewer tips from English people than from any other nationality guest. It is a very rare occasion when I receive a decent tip from an English guest. It would seem the only English people who tip on a regular basis are myself, and my dad, who I learnt this behaviour from.

European guests tip in trickles. It's not 10%, but it's usually around 4%, and is fairly constant. This is excluding the Irish guests. Somewhat bizarrely, I have yet to be tipped badly by an Irish guest. Bizarre, purely based on the law of averages. I should have received a bad tip from an Irish guest by now.

Americans though, take the trophy for best tippers. I once got told that in America the minimum wage is so low, waiters live off their tips. This may help to explain why most of the American guests I serve tip around 20%. This may have something to do with the cost of living in America, in terms of taxes alone. Every American I have told is appalled at the level of VAT (Value Added Tax) that we pay on all goods purchased in England. It is 17.5%

I remember reading an article, I think it was in 'The Guardian', about a study carried out which showed service staff were more offended when they got a bad tip, than when they got no tip at all. I'm not sure why, but this is true. I also remember listening to my brother, when overhearing someone yell at a waiter in a restaurant, telling me that anyone on that table eating something that came out of the kitchen afterwards was an idiot. I'm proud to say I have yet to spit on some one's food, no matter how rude they were to me, and I don't intend to. However, based on my uniqueness in tipping, I may be the only one not to.

Personal Thoughts on 'Baghdad Burning'

Having viewed other 'professional' blogs, I find Baghdad Burning to be one of the more impressive. The author of Baghdad Burning writes with exceptional English, in terms of both range of vocabulary used, and also the accuracy of her spelling and punctuation. From a less analytical point of view, she also writes very passionately. When reading her entries, you get a sense of what she's going through, and a slight insight into what life for her is like.

Compared to Where is Raed?, you find a regular document of her opinions and thoughts on daily life in Iraq. Salem Pax provides this to an extent with his entries for Where is Raed?, but whilst he includes in detail his experiences, it is harder to determine his opinion.

I can't help but question the validity/reliability of Baghdad Burning though. A post which exemplifies this perfectly, is 'Sunday, December 31, 2006: A lynching...'. In this post, the author comments, and casts her opinion on, the hanging of Saddam Hussein. The opinion I find fascinating to read. Writing from a western perspective, primarily, I do not understand the traditions and religious emphasis which thankfully is elaborated on and explained by the author. Secondly, living in the west, I have no comprehension for what these people have been through, so to read her reflections on both the past and the present with reference to the history and the religious undertone is enlightening.

However, my question regarding the reliability of Baghdad Burning comes through her criticism of the western media's coverage of Saddam's hanging. She claims that both CNN and the BBC are misrepresenting the actual events. I think her statements are intriguing, and well worth looking into as they could in fact be the actual accounts, but I cannot help but doubt her as well. I think this is a problem with almost all personal blogs though. Whilst you can build a sense of trust with the reader through your posts, I think it may be impossible to be fully trusted. That said, I don't trust all 'reputable' media sources either...

It is said that to meet their deadlines, the western media reporters had to file their stories before the hanging had even taken place. How can I trust one source over the other. One has a reputation behind it, but one was actually written AFTER the event had taken place. Granted, the western media then followed up with more reports, but in the rush to break a story in time, maybe the truth is lost. What trust can you place in that?