Podcast #3

http://www.archive.org/details/Podcast2_993

Click here to follow link.

Podcast #2

http://www.archive.org/details/Podcast1_581

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HW36: Pre-Turkey Podcast

http://itw101.blogspot.com/2007/11/blog-of-one-own-22.html

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HW35: Goodbye blogger.

Dear Readers,

I have learned a lot about maintaining the blog and completing the assignments over the past 13 weeks. I've learned a lot about the timeliness involved in updating a blog every day. I hope that someone can read some of my blogs and be influenced to read from more sources that they are accustomed to. By comparing news that they hear from different sources with different credibilities, it can help provide for a well-rounded opinion. After this class is over, I think I'll be deleting this blog and discontinuing to post. I have concluded that blogging, although undoubtedly interesting, is not for me. However, I respect and admire those who have worked to improve the world of blogging and increase its audience.

Thanks,

AndrewReynolds

HW34: Tea Customs in Iraq

The custom of evening tea is very important to most Iraqi families. In a October 18th, 2003 blog published in her book entitled Baghdad Burning, author Riverbend states that, "no matter how busy the day, everyone sits around in the living room, waiting for tea." This gathering usually occurs daily for most families and the exact process of making the tea differs from family to family. However, in Iraq, "teabag tea" is considered a low-end, non-respectable tea. If a family were to serve teabag tea as opposed to blending the leave mixture and water beforehand, the servers "risk scorn and disdain" because a teabag blend is an insult to experienced tea connoisseurs (Riverbend).
If the tea is made correctly, the gathering becomes a center for conversation within the family and a board for discussion, if any problems were to arise. I believe that this break in the day that Iraqi families take is vital. It brings families close, it builds networks, and it can definitely help in educating children within the family of the world around them.

HW30: June Cross & Scott Ritter Symposiums

June Cross

June Cross, a former writer for the Boston Globe and current professor at the Columbia University School for Journalism, discussed her story at the Mabel Brown Room and wowed another audience with the work on her documentary entitled Secret Daughter. "As I tell my students, what you think means nothing," says Cross in reaction to her response to being in front of the camera instead of behind the scenes as she was taught as a journalist.

The event featured the documentary which discussed Cross' life of secrets, false faces, and a family's unity through the segregated years in our country's history, not nearly far enough behind. Intertwined inside of her tale were the tales of her parents, who were of different color skin. Due to the ongoing prejudice in the United States in that time period, the child and the relationship needed to be kept secret from both families to avoid any tension. After the breakup June was forced to live two separate lives -- one with her real mother, and one with a trusted friend in Atlantic City -- without ever getting to know her father. She was raised as an "adopted" daughter and did not know the entire family history until her documentary opened a channel for her mother to share the secrets and to finally reveal her tale.


Scott Ritter

Former UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter, fueled the audience toward change in the White House. His presentation entitled, "Citizen Soldier: Global Warrior," represents his call for a uproar amongst citizens in this country to fight for their rights. "We own the constitution. Not Bush. Not Congress," said Ritter in an effort to gain the audience's support. He talked about our fourth amendment rights as citizens that are being directly violated by the USA PATRIOT Act. By wiretapping without warrants, the government is committing unreasonable search and seizure as defined in our constitution.

He goes on to talk about our government showing signs of fascism by allowing an oligarchy (leaving government in the hands of the rich few) with a militarism. He also calls the war in Iraq an "illegitimate" war. He talks mostly of the addiction to consumer goods and our expensive lifestyles that is fueling this war. The thought of the United States intentionally and illegally using the resources from another country.

HW23: With Apologies to Virginia Woolf

By splitting up the reading lists for 14- to 15-year-olds by gender has some going out of whack. Then again, it could just help widen the already outstretched gender gap in the United States. Perhaps the idea is to help “weed out” those who don’t follow the self-defined “norms” during gender identity stages in childhood. Or maybe it is thought that the boys and the girls would both be more interested in reading books that they could relate to. That could be a very efficient learning style. That is exactly what this blog, Collective Voices, talks about. Although biased, the article raises very important questions involved in our children’s education.

HW 18: Let's vote for him...yeah, no.

The Democratic Party (democrats.org)

http://www.democrats.org/a/2007/10/out_of_touch_ro.php

The post is so sad because it talks about how presidential candidate Mitt Romney is so unfit to be our leader, yet a lot of people still support him. It’s my least favorite blog because it gives two examples of the candidate’s weakness…talking. In one example, Romney completely disregarded a woman’s complaint about her personal economic hardship by offering her a volunteer job for his campaign since she “could talk on the phone.” Obviously, Romney wasn’t completely ready to show support for her hardship, but even if we give him a break on that one, he also completely disregarded a wheelchair-bound citizen’s question asking if Romney would arrest patients who use medical marijuana to ease pain by walking away from him and not even attempting an explanation. Now that I’m done complaining, let’s keep Romney and any of these other dopes who are simply on an agenda out of the White House before we all get completely disregarded.

HW 17B: Information vs. Gossip

After reading “Blogging the Presidency: An Interview with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga” (Kline and Burstein 41-48) and “Sex, Lies, and Political Scrapes: An Interview with Ana Marie Cox” (Kline and Burstein 56-62), I’ve concluded that Daily Kos would be more likely to influence the way I’d vote in the upcoming election. Zuniga’s blog covers underground political dirt, injustices, and other very important political matters. This blog is much more statistical and factual compared to Cox’s Wonkette, which is basically just a political gossip blog. Although somewhat important, Wonkette’s topics just don’t dig quite deep enough for me to form an opinion on a politician. Sure, I can learn about their sexual orientation and who they’ve been seen with lately; however, I’m not able to judge whether the candidate or politician is working up to the standards that his job requires, which is the most important value for a politician to possess. I also found it very interesting that Zuniga’s blog has, “forced the resignation of Senator Trent Lott, exposed the fraudulent documents at the heart of a CBS 60 Minutes story on President Bush’s National Guard career, contributed ideas and slogans to both candidates’ campaign speeches, and mobilized millions of party activists to raise money and get people to the polls.” This quote shows the importance of Zuniga’s political blog as another way of getting information and news that needs to be informed out to the public.

HW17: Favorite Blog of the Week (Bush Administration Caught Overspending…Again)

www.democrats.org/a/p/bush_administra_37.html

The blog of the week that I chose was from Democrats.org. The post explains how in a year’s time, Bush administration officials spent over $145 million on first-class travel, and over 65% of it was unauthorized and/or unjustified. This blog makes me want to go crazy. I, myself, am usually an extreme liberalist so it makes me even MORE ANGRY that the Bush administration has been doing the extra spending with all of the other very expensive political mumbo jumbo that is on their menu (a quick example: Iraq). It’s very easy to see, now more than ever, why our government is in such great debt. I’m also angered by the fact that this news comes after President Bush vetoed the bill that legislated funding for millions of low-income children’s health insurance because the bill was “excessive” in cost.

The author of the blog, Stephanie Taylor, states that the report is “further evidence of the need for government sunlight laws requiring agency disclosure or business-class travel to Congress.” I agree with her completely because I think that if the information was being fed through Congress it would be easier to spot over-spending and even more scandal inside of an administration crawling with them.

HW16: The Five Things That Make Blogging Hot

Blogging is so popular online because of five things, according to Robert Scoble (Kline and Burstein 130). First of all, being able to publish your blogs with simplicity and ease is very important. Next, tags and pings help with being able to discover the overall subject of a blog if you needed relevant information. Thirdly, being able to communicate to other subscribers over the blogsite seems to be infectiously popular. The fourth thing is being able to click on a URL that will bring you directly to a blog post, keeping it even simpler for new or beginning users. Lastly, with syndication, blogging is the owner of the most simple syndication system on the net, keeping users as far away from frustration as possible.

HW14: Internet as a dangerous tool

Since the Internet has become so popular and vital for us to be constantly connected, it has also become an equally as dangerous tool assisting terrorism, pirating, and even child molesters. On the other hand, the Internet is the strongest tool for spreading information (For example: news sites, chat rooms, instant messaging, email, blogs, search engines, academic sites, etc). After all, that was the original intent of the Internet—to help communicate and send information at a rapid pace. Conversely, the Web has become a massive public pool full of kids with uncontrollable bladders. In addition, there is no declared security force (or life guards) providing any kind of limitation to what goes onto the Web. However, as stated in the First Amendment of the United States constitution, our freedom of speech is protected…and valued. Therefore, we as United States citizens are free and protected by our country to post just about anything, as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of any other United States citizen. In conclusion, the Internet is a very valuable tool as well as a dangerous place.

HW 13: Communication Over Business

In my opinion, I think the impact that blogging has on communication that is not business- or profit-related because it creates a new portal and yet an always important different viewpoint on news and other issues in the world. Of course, business-related blogging has its advantages and it works in its own way; however, when it comes to importance of our well being on this planet or in this country, international communication is key. Blogging can change the way global communication is offered, received, and stored.

In Baker and Green’s “Blog’s Will Change Your Business” (Kline and Burstein 221-233) the authors discuss how blogging is important as an online journalism center:

Blog reporters showed their value following the Asian tsunami in December.

Thousands of them posted pictures, video footage, and articles about the disaster

long before the first accredited journalists showed up. MSNBC, which ran hours

of tsunami footage on its Web site, has since opened an entire page devoted to

citizen’s journalism. (Kline and Burstein, 232)

In this quote, the true importance of a global view on global events. Never before blogging have we been able to discuss and understand viewpoints from a different area, unless you consider photojournalism and even international journalism. But blogging makes it so much more readily available.

HW11: Oh My News!

The blog I chose was OhMyNews (english.ohmynews.com). OhMyNews is a site where ordinary citizens can write articles as if they were journalists in the press. Therefore, the bloggers who blog on OhMyNews are just regular folks around the world. They tackle worldly as well as national issues through open journalism which is reviewed by a team of professional editors. The blog was very helpful and it got the word of the public out in a very professional manner, which is exactly what Rebecca MacKinnon says about the blog on page 331 of Kline and Burstein's Blog! Of course, many will probably disagree with this assertion that OhMyNews helped a presidential leader gain power in South Korea with help from the public, who blogged on the site and swayed enough voters for the unpopular candidate to assure his victory.

HW 9: Waldman

I agree that some bloggers spend too much of their time and energy to keep up their blogs because my experience online and with my friend confirms it. I've noticed that some of the more dedicated bloggers can spend an upwards of around 3 to 5 hours online per day. For example: my friend back home likes to keep up on her blog and journal and would consistently revisit her site throughout the day. Once before school, once or twice during school, she'd check it instantly after coming home, twice more before dinnertime, and again twice more before going to bed. This experience with my friend from back home has helped me understand the addictive nature behind blogging and other social communicating devices online.

HW 7: "My So-Called Blog"

I think that kids should have the right to their privacy from their parents and should also be able to write freely online. Obviously, communication between parents and children is pivotal for security and a positive relationship. I don't think that parents should be badgering their kids and sneaking behind them to uncover personal information, even if it results in a more secure and protected future.

Emily Nussbaum, in her article, "My So-Called Blog," describes some of the positives that blogging and other online communication sites can provide for kids. She talks about a young boy named "J." Nussbaum states:

Online, he could blurt out confessions of loneliness and insecurity, worrying aloud about slights from friends. Yet despite the fact that he knew that anyone who wanted to could read his journal--and that a few friends did, leaving comments at the end of posts--he also maintained the notion that what he was doing was private. He didn't write for an audience, he said; he just wrote what he was feeling.
(Kline and Burstein 352-353)

I think that this boy, J., truly shows how blogging can comfort its users. The confidentiality that he shows in his blogging truly shows that he trusts the blog site and trusts that people could never criticize him for what he writes within the blog.

Ideas For Semester Project

The social computing technologies I'm interested in are blogs, social networking services, and wikis. I think I need to know more about blogs and wikis especially, because these are the two that I have the least interaction with out of my top 3. I wanted to look into social networking because I wanted to focus on how social networking can help a presidential candidate who only has 3% of the GOP vote. The Republican Senator from Texas, Dr. Ron Paul has used Facebook and MySpace to promote his campaign and to win over the cyberworld vote, which may prove to be quite a boost in this upcoming election. Dr. Paul has over 60,000 friends on MySpace and has also spread the message to Facebook, serving as the admin to his own Facebook group. In addition, I'm very interested in what is going on in our government and with anything that has to do with issues of citizenship, rights, and empowerment of undocumented residents. But, with this piece, I think I'm going to stick with how the social networking sites have helped Senator Paul and how it will unfold for the future.

HW 5b: "I Blog, Therefore I Am"

On page 238 of David Kline’s “I Blog, Therefore I Am” (Kline and Burstein 237-252), the author suggests that blogging will “engender massive change in our society, most especially in the role and power of the mainstream media.” From this quote, it’s easy to see that Kline thinks very highly of blogging and the future of blogging in this world. However, I disagree with this statement and especially with the idea of blogging becoming competition for mass media. To agree, blogging is a community that works in it’s own world in a very efficient manner. But it is a much different world in the mainstream media. The mainstream media is an empire surrounded by money and politics. Now, I should probably tell you I’m studying journalism to hopefully major in it after my education here. I love to write and I love to read good writing and honestly, only the best blogs get printed to be read across a mainstream medium. I have read a lot of good and professional blogs, but it is never the same as a more professional or traditional method of communication. I can acknowledge the author’s standpoint, but I can not support it.

HW3: My Whole Life I Have Heard It Said...

After reading "Toward a More Participatory Democracy" (David Kline) he discusses how blogs effect our society and political views. My whole life I have heard it said that politicians would only be campaigning on TV and radio, but now with the internet's breakthrough in communication it seems that politicians have a new force to attack dry campaign fundraisers, find new members, and increase the number of supporters with a more readily available communication style. A fact that I found interesting was that prior to the 2004 election, blogging sites were getting more hits than some of the most popular news sites! This stat just goes to show how blogging is becoming so popular and excitingly more influential. WIth politicians now using blogs more to convey their standpoints you ultimately have a new medium from which to campaign. I think it is a better way to communicate ideas and religious views in a continual time-frame. In conclusion, blogging has become and will continue to become a prominent aspect of future politics.

HW2: International Blogging Beats "Foreign Relations"

After reading "From Cave Painting to Wonkette" (Kline and Burstein xxi-xxvi), I chose his sixth idea which basically states that blogging as we all know it is and will be becoming increasingly global. Personally, I can connect to this statement because I do a lot of blogging that can be seen all over the world and is important just for that reason. Without global communication, we'd be nothing. I also think, on the other hand, that international blogging can be very difficult to accomplish with hundreds of thousands of different culture barriers all over the world. What is completely okay for a citizen of the United States to do may not be as alright for a different user in a more strict area of the world. For example: China. However, being able to express your opinion freely along the infinite lines of the global net is not only important, it's vital for Earth's future success and well being. Maybe it'd be doing a better job negotiating with the world than we are...