final website decision :)

Soooooooo...after wrestling with the decision about my website topic, I have settled on using my Technological Autobiography. This decision came to me for 2 main reasons. 1) It is the earliest assignment we did, therefore something I don't mind revisiting this late in the game and 2) when all else fails, write about yourself. I have decided to take my site viewers on a journey through my stages of computers, websites, typing, and eventually social networking, linking to my current blogs and even pictures of my first computers. My argument will be based on the fact that I am a product of a severely technological generation and prove this by displaying all the ways in which I use technology.

Hopefully I got this arugment/topic thing right :)

website wonders

Website ideas!!! :)

1. Autobiography: My literacy autobiography focused a lot on my education and my parents occupation as teachers. Although I did enjoy writing my autobiography, I don't think there is enough information to really make an interesting website.

2. My review was on the website Posterous. This could make for an interesting website because I enjoyed using this site and there is more I could explore. I was also thinking I could compare and contrast Posterous with other blogging and networking sites to possibly formulate my argument that Posterous is a good site. BUT, now that I think about it, this may not be enough juicy info for a website either.

3. My research paper was on online and interactive fiction. This is probably my best bet for a website because there is a lot people don't know about online fiction since it isnt extremely popular so there are a lot of different links and authors I can expose in my website. Also, I was hoping to write a piece of online fiction because I enjoy writing fiction and have never done so online.

but overall, I'm stuck and not sure what my website will be yet. (I'm still recovering from the research paper!) :)

Research Rut

Hi. I'm Courtney, the bad news bearer. After writing the rough draft (and I mean ROUGH) draft of my research paper, I was frustrated to say the least. While my topic interested me and I usually have no problems sitting down and writing, I was stuck on this paper to say the least. My research through me over the edge, partly because of the lack of research I found. I had a hard time finding research specific to my topic and once I did find any good journals, the opinions were extremely vague and almost uninformed. Therefore, I decided to scrap my annotated bib and start from scratch, writing my rough draft with only 2 sources and my own opinion. Now I feel more prepared with this clean slate. After reading Amanda's comments on my paper, I felt much more successful because of her positive feedback on parts of my paper that I thought I made no sense. In addition, after going back over my paper with fresh eyes, I realize that I have a good base and can now move forward with my research. Also, once Cathy informed us we can use "I", I was ecstatic. Being a creative writer, the use of "I" is huge for me as it makes me more comfortable to use my creative voice. Often times, I jumble my thoughts in research papers because I focus on sounding formal so by using my own voice I feel I will have more success writing my final draft.

Research Sources

To begin my research and find sources for my paper, I decided it was necessary that I first become familiar with online fiction before I began hunting for research about it. After all, how can I research a topic I have not even explored? Dr. Gabor directed me to Mark Amerika, a popular online fiction writer whose stories are written specifically for the internet only. What I found interesting was that these stories are not simply a word document that comes up on your screen for you to stare at blankly much like the page in a book. These stories are interactive and include graphics, links, different plots, and each reader has a different experience based on the links and paths they choose. As part of my research and beginning to find sources, I found this interaction with Mark Amerika's site very helpful because it taught me a little about what I would be researching. I also found a site buzzle which was full of online fiction for me to explore. Finally, I am having a bit of trouble finding really and reviews, criticism, or praise of online fiction. While I have found plenty of sites that support these authors, I have searched high and low for any sort of opinion and have yet to find any. If anyone can steer my in the right direction, that would be greatly appreciated! :)

Possible Topics

1. How is print fiction being affected by the growing populatiry of online fiction and do devices such as the kindle have an affect on this?

2. How do we ensure that community based sites such as wikipedia do not override credible, academic sites as a place for information?

3. Is online, community based journalism taking the place of traditional print journalism? If so, how can we ensure that the online based information is credible?

Steady as a Preacher, Free as a Weed

"American Honey" by Lady Antebellum is my current obsession. Trendy (blah), but oh so catchy, it is on repeat in my car.

Part 3: The Verdict.

Overall, I am pretty smitten with Posterous. While I have not completely taken to using it as my everyday blog (I do have two other blogs as well as a Facebook page and a life outside cyber space) I do see myself transitioning over to this site as my main writing space. This site can definitely be defined as a writing space because it gives its users a blank slate (aka an email, how much more blank can you get?) to write, sing, illustrate, embed, say, not say, whatever they want. It allows for free reign while posting and gives the opportunity to do so from the comfort of your own email server. Like I said, no crazy user names, codes, websites, or hoops to jump through and remember. Your own email address will do just fine. My criteria for the site as a writing space were simple, yet firm. Accessibility and Easiness. I don't want to mess with a site that takes me a week to figure out (*cough* Google Buzz *cough*) or that I can only access through the site itself while on a computer that only uses javascript or whatever those weird programs are called that websites make you download in order to use the site in the first place. None of that exists in the world of Posterous and for that, I am eternally grateful. My writing is uninhibited and untouched by the many distractions of cyber world, and posting through email can be compared to the simplicity of putting pen to paper.

Enough said.

A+

Part 2: Easy? Piece of cake

For those who hear the word "blog" and are unfamiliar with the term, things like web cams, linking back and forth, technical lingo, and the words "really hard" come to mind (true facts backed up by my asking around my own house). Posterous proves all of these blogging assumptions to be absolutely FALSE. While I have blogged before and experienced these tricky posting hurdles that have steered me away from many sites, Posterous makes posting things other than words so easy, I almost forgot it was a writing space. For example, today I came across this hilarious video on youtube and wanted to show numerous people who I knew would get a good laugh. Instead of 1) waiting until I saw each and every one of these people in order to show them or 2) texting/calling each of them prompting them to go watch, I simply copied and pasted the link into an email, and clicked send. Then, to my joyful surprise, Posterous embedded the youtube video for me in a posting and the video appeared right on my page. With other blogging sites, this embedding stuff is not so easy. With Posterous, the simple "Copy and Paste" trick is all one needs.

Not only is embedding pictures easy, embedding pictures is even easier. The other day, I was listening to one of my favorite songs "American Honey" by Lady Antebellum and one particular lyric really struck me. Long story short, I immediately wanted this lyric shared with the world and I wanted to find a picture that I thought would match the words. Less than 2 minutes, one google image search, and and email later, and my song lyric and picture were posted, simply by copy and pasting the photo into and email along with the lyrics in the subject line. The great thing about Posterous is the subject line of your email acts as the title of your post. Easy enough right?

In addition to how easy it is to post on your own Posterous site, Posterous makes your life even easier by allowing you to repost your postings to your Facebook, Twitteer, Myspace, etc with one click. When you sign up with Posterous, the site simply asks you if you are a part of any of these other sites. By clicking yes, and logging in to those accounts, you have successfully set up autopost and allowed Posterous to repost your Posterous postings onto your Facebook, Twitter, etc without having to do any extra work. This allows for your site to be seen by even more viewers, even those who are not a part of the Posterous community. Allowing tons of people to read more of my thoughts and hear what I have to say? Yes please.

These shots show my Posterous postings on my Twitter and my Facebook.

 

Finally, the easiest part about Posterous, is figuring out how to use it. My biggest pet peeve with any site is the FAQs page (Frequently Asked Questions). These pages are typically harder to navigate than the site itself and I usually end up never revisiting because I get too frustrated. However, the clean and tailored look of Posterous does not end just with the main site. The FAQs page is so easy to use it is ridiculous. The questions are huge and bolded and are the kind of questions I was actually asking myself, not just questions the site people assumed I would ask. THEN, right after the question was a step by step answer along with an image to show what would really happen when one did what the steps explained. Amazing. Whoever designed this site deserves a raise.

Overall, I give Posterous a HUGE

A+

for easiness and user friendlieness. :)

I'm diggin it..so far. Part 1: Email

After trying out the numerous features included in Posterous, I have concluded that this website is more of a writing space. The site allows freedom to post whatever is on your mind with the simple send of an email, making this a space for regular activity as long as you have email access. To me, this is key to a writing space, allowing users to access it and let out thoughts whenever necessary, which brings me to my first criteria for the site: ACCESSIBILITY.

Posterous is used only through email. By this I mean, no log in name to remember, no tricky html codes, fonts, or any sort of tricks to posting. The skills to composing an email are all one would need. With that being said, having a cell phone or any sort of mobile device that can access email can also be used to post on Posterous without tracking down a computer. Once your email is sent, Posterous promptly replies with an email much like this:

posterous

Hello Courtney,

Your email has been posted!

Welcome to Posterous! We think e-mailing is such a natural way to share information, there can be no better way to publish something on the internet. So go for it, send us something else! We'll add it to the blog you have already created.

Your new post

Do you want to edit or remove this post?
Click here to edit or remove

and POOF, you've posted on Posterous. 

One thing I did find a bit frustrating about the email service was that my phone, (unlike what I originally thought) is not compatible because, while it does have email, it is not a "smartphone" or one that is directly connected to my Yahoo account therefore I could not post from my phone. However, I was still intrigued with the email feature because I could post from anywhere I could find a computer without logging into my personal Posterous account leaving it exposed to anyone who might have walked by. To the naked eye, it looked as though I was just typing an email. Similarly, to those who are less tech savvy, adding attachments such as pictures or audio files is much easier in an email. In a blog, these things can get tricky especially when one has to add links or embed videos. Typically, email servers are set up easily enough for the average joe to figure out, making Posterous extremely accessible.

Therefore, I give the Email feature of Posterous an:

A-

5 things I should probably do before I decide to formally review Posterous.com :)

1. Post more than just one picture alongside a sentence.
2. Ensure that my posterous account is successfully linked to my Facebook and Twitter to allow maximum exposure
3. Try and post using my phone email instead of the computer
4. Attempt to find at least ONE other person I know in the world that has one of these accounts and communicate with them via Posterous
5. Be sure I understand whether this is a writing TOOL or a writing SPACE

:)

posterous, buzz, delicious, oh my!

While I once considered myself an internet guru, English 105 and Dr. Gabor's list of "writing spaces" we should try out certainly gave me a ran for my money. After clicking on every tab she offered and giving up on quite a few, I decided that the website posterous.com was for me. While it is similar to a blog, it is much easier to manage in terms of accessibility. I enjoyed playing around with the sight because it was a challenge for me to fully grasp while it still has aspects that I enjoy, such as being able to write freely. With that said, as far as I can see so far, I do consider this site a writing space. It gives users a chance to email in their thoughts, stories, pictures, quotes, lyrics, etc. at any given moment and share them with the cyber world. Any site that I don't need to be at a computer for and can email from my phone is right up my alley. Never did I think the internet would get more user friendly and of course, I was wrong. 

my thoughts on other bloggers thoughts.. :)

After reading the articles from the Lore journal, I found the two that stuck with me were, Knit Blogging: Considering an Online Community, and "I Don't Really Want to Go into Personal Things in This Blog": Risking Connection through Blogging.

The article on "Knit Blogging" was not only funny, but it touched on a part of blogging that I think often gets pushed aside. A lot of the articles were based on reasons to blog that were very black and white; they either blogged to keep up their personal life or to further academics. However, the knit blog touched on the idea of reaching out to a specific community that she did not have where she lived. I found this interesting because she really used the blog to meet a certain type of person she could not meet in her own town because there was no access to knitting stores. Of course, other bloggers such as the linguist, Billy Clark, who mentioned he is now part of an online linguist community use blogging to reach out to people with their interests, I am sure Professor Clark can speak to other linguists on his campus as well as online. In my own personal blog, I use it to post my short stories, poems, or other prose that I would like feedback on, much like Amy Earhart and her Knit blog. I have used my blog to form an entirely new community for myself that I do not necessarily have access to because of budget cuts on campus, less interaction with professors, etc.

The article by Carlton Clark discussed his initial use for a blog as a way to only talk about academics. He even mentioned that he did not want people online reading personal things about him, and that those personal stories were meant for people close to him such as his wife. I enjoyed his article because of the way he described his journey with blogging and how he basically found himself through blogging without even trying. Just by writing a few entries, he found it hard not to open up and discuss his anxieties about teaching and being in front of a class. In my opinion, this is what blogging is about. In any form of writing, it is nearly impossible to hold back which is why it was hard for Professor Clark to "not go into personal things." Blogging, just like personal diaries we hide under our beds, is a way to express your thoughts about anything and just because it is on the internet does not mean your brain will stop moving rapidly, begging you to type what you really feel and think. I especially like that he posted his students response to his entry because I think that all teachers should open up more to classes. I completely agreed with the student when they said that hearing personal stories, even if it is just about a great conversation or a good movies, really helps the students and professors both feel at ease.

Attempt #1 at academic blogging

I am reporting live from English 105, in Clark Hall at SJSU. Cathy Gabor has advised us to create an "academic blog" so here goes nothin! Come back and visit.. I may have something interesting to say.

Stay tuned! 

:)