Keeping Your Blog?

So have anyone decided to keep their blog active. I would love to know mainly because this was such a cool class but secondly I would like to see how you guys projects evolve. I know some of you have other blogs to maintain but I was just wondering. I think I will keep mines up. Now that I don't have to post we will see how up to date I keep it but from time to time i might log in just to say hey! For the people who never blogged before...what is the likelihood that you will keep your blog??

Reflection Post

I looked back over my posts and noticed that I have posted about everything for celebrities, to businesses, to of course myself! My first post said this

"I am really excited to see how people evolve and grow to love this
technology. In the beginning I was against the idea of putting my thoughts out
for the world, or at least the class, to see. I also thought that blogging was
going to be time consuming and forced. But now I like it and I hope everyone
else sees the effectiveness of this technology." (Jan 23, 2008)

From the beginning I was excited about the idea of wikis and blogs. However as the semester progressed I started to get frustrated with having to blog all the time. I hated that it DID start to feel forced. All of a sudden towards the end of the semester I regained a love for this technology. I think it was in part because I started the like what I was doing. The readings were cool but I learn better when I actually get to do things and try them myself. My intentions for the class were to
1. gain a greater appreciation for web 2.o and expand knowledge
2. learn how to apply web 2.0 to everyday life
3. get used to proofreading my work and blogging everyday
4. become more web 2.0 savvy.

I have come to the conclusion that three out of four isn't that bad!! If you read some of my past posts like this one or this one would can see that wikis were certainly in my future!! I feel as if I have fulfilled my intentions for this course. I am always talking about wikis..blogs...not so much :) I am confident in my ability to explain wikis, blogs, social bookmarking, etc. I use my del.cio.us account WAYYYYY more than I thought would and I am inspired (and determined) to make web 2.0 work for me! When I was taking this class it was for one reason only. I love Mrs. Donna and I know that she has a unconventional way of teaching English classes. However in the long run i learned so much and will certainly be taking this knowledge with me!

Check it out!!

I am now the point where I am ready to reveal my wiki. Check it out and add. If you would like to be added as a writer to my wiki comment on this post and I will add you. Make sure to include your email in the comment. Hope you all like it!!

Completion...Sorta

Well I am at the point where i can say "I Done". I decided not to add a local page at this point. I just don't have the information to add. I went back and forth on whether to add it but I wouldn't feel right having these places on my wiki that i have never visited. Maybe as this thing takes off more people will add to it and they will fill that void. I was talking to my mother about my project and she was like "why you didn't do a St. Louis guide!" I simply laughed! I don't even want to think of all the work that would go into making it. Anyway back to my project....im not touching anymore! It is what it is. I make a few of the suggested changes and I am happy with it!

My Other Wiki

I am also doing a wiki for class. It will cover transnational feminism . The point was for it to be a "idiots" guide to understanding the topic. In a perfect world anyone could access the site and by the time they were done could be much smarter. In a attempt to be different i decided not to play it safe and go with pbwiki but instead to step outside of the box and use wetpaint. I really liked how Juanita's wiki looked yesterday so I decided to try it out. I am on the fence whether I will use it or not. I like how it is easy to pick templates for just about anything. However i have had some trouble adding pages. I also want to add a tag cloud and a concept map and I'm not sure i can figure it out on wetpaint, mainly because i am distracted by all the other features. I might create a wiki on pbwiki too just to play it safe. If wetpaint doesn't make sense to me by friday i'll use pbwiki

Presentation Feedback

The feedback that I got today was much needed. I am glad that I stopped at the point that I did. The advise I got was to add instructions or more information about the function of the calender, move the calender up higher, add videos featuring local bands, and add more info about local restaurants. All of these are doable and will be added within the next few days. I am glad that I was able to get feedback before we turned it in. Its good to get feedback from your peers because they look at your project with a more watchful eye. I was just proud that I had that much and from my standpoint it was complete but now I have at leasy four other things that I can add or modify. I was also considering adding a space for the local radio...still grappling with that

Presentation Day!!!

I present my project to the class today. Its all Ive been thinking about hence the fact that this post is so early in the morning. I was excited yesterday but the more I looked at it the more I want to change certain things. Like I think that it looks sorta plain and the huge "FrontPage" is driving me crazy. I don't know maybe I'm just freaking out because i want everyone to like it and not be hard on me. Oh well!!! We shall see. I will probably add some graphics and see what the class things of it. I think we can make changes after we present it. That would only be fair because a wiki is ever changing!

Back to Work

I decided not to touch my blog yesterday and I am haapy with that decision. I showed it to a few people and they gave me feedback, as well as other specials and events, to add and change. So in my opinion stopping wasn't such a bad idea because gave me time to get feedback. I can pretty happy with the finished, or semi-finished project. I can't wait to share with the class and see what they think

Weekend Blogger

I have noticed that I get some really good blogging in on the weekends. I know we are supposed to keep our post to the weekday but the weekdays are so busy that blogging seems more like a task than a natural flow of words. I actually woke up this morning thinking i need to blog. Most weekdays start off with OMG!!! I forgot to blog, and check this wiki, or submit this assignment, etc. What I'm saying is that the weekends are more relaxed and so are my thoughts. If we are trying to adopt new rules to writing my favorite would be stop. And it seems like the weekend is the only time I can do so



BTW...I am not touching my project today. I worked on it yesterday and feel as if I am at a happy stopping point. I just want to look at it as is.

Update

Today I decided that my sports and rec section wasn't needed. Although it seemed like a good idea in the beginning I came to realize that people aren't really looking for things do during the day. I had all my sections done expect for that one because I was trying to figure out how to make the park sound exciting. Also the parks and recreation centers didn't usually have events on a regular basis so the most I could do was talk about the amenities of each place. Call me lazy and not up for the challenge but I really didn't want to deal with it. Next thing was to go back and make sure that I liked the wording of the descriptions. I'm pretty pleased with that part. My next big task will be to add events and specials to the final section of the wiki. This shouldn't take me long to do. After this is completed I will be at a stopping point and ready for me presentation.

Making Wikis Work For Me Pt. 2

I have realized that I have a new found love for web 2.0. I have come to the conclusion that this love has to go somewhere so I have decided to attended grad school. I plan to get my masters in marketing. The plan is to focus on event planning and marketing. I want to be able to apply what I have learned in this class to real life issues so that I can present real life solutions using web 2.0. Given my recent situation with my friend it amazes me how much time people spend on the Internet doing the some ole things when they could be experimenting other other application. I hope to be the person who introduces this to others. Also I have no been able to get corporate blogs out of my mind. I am very interested in how I can implement that for small business..maybe even my own one day. I am really excited about the possibilities. Earlier in the semester i said that the only reason I took this class was because i loved Mrs. Donna. Who would have thought that by the end of the semester I would be framing my career around web 2.o Funny how things work out.

Wiki Woes

I posted in the previous post that I have been tyring to explain wikis and blogs to people so that they can use them and make them work for them . For example the introduction of the Wire wiki to my family during break. My brother likes it so much it checks it once a week. More or less to dispute facts and post but he likes it. I was pretty confident in my ability to explain a wiki, its functions, and why they were useful. I know Mrs. Donna had to convince some of us because aside from Wikipedia we didn't see the point either. Well last night I was trying to explain wikis (AGAIN!!!!) to my friend who wants to start the dessert business. We went over and over the same info like five times and she still didn't get it. I told her to use pbwiki. Because I am familiar with it I could help her and it was free. She told me "well I want a wiki that only deals with food. their isn't a cookiesandcakeswiki". ARGGHHHHHH! So i said research different ones and when you find some you like you can save it to a site called Del.icio.us. Why did i say that. She just looked at me with this blank stare. I was so frustrated I just left. She didn't understand that you could create any wiki on any site. She felt like" @pbwiki.com" didn't sound right at the end of her wiki name. Needless to say she doesn't have a wiki :)