RSS

RSS or really simple syndication is a useful tool to stay connected to websites you find enjoyable. It is somewhat tricky to start up since you must be a member with google or find another website that has the same possibilities. RSS is a technology that allows you to skim through new articles posted to website or new blogs if that is a website that is subscribed to. It compiles a list since you were last on of the new posts and is something that could be very useful.

It is a good way to stay updated on information that is new to websites that you find enjoyable to read and also puts everything into one place. This allows it to be simple and organized shortening the time needed for reading up on websites. The negative side of the RSS technology is that it only shows new information and does not allow for full detail. If you want to look or “wander” around a website you must still go to the original site making it a useless middle step.

This technology is directed at a certain group of people that enjoy browsing sites and staying updated with their news. I am not a personal fan of this because it is unnecessary since I do read and stay updated with many sites. When I need to see information on the Internet I prefer searching for it and choosing which I would like to read rather that using the same site repeatedly. This technology may not be useful to all but it is a good alternative to using desktop software for this sort of task. It is frequently updated and keeps the software new as opposed to the desktop where new software needs to be downloaded, bought and takes up space on the computer. It is a much better source and I would recommend the switch to anyone using desktop software.

Twitter

In creating a twitter account I learnt how to talk to people and how to create a “hash tag”.  It is when you add at the end of a statement something that is a general theme or topic involved. You can share where you are, who you are with and what specifically you are doing as long as it is under 140 characters. My opinion of twitter is that it is too much, over the top of what needs to be shared. It allows people to know your location and what you are doing at every second of the day. It is very personal and does not give any privacy.  It also allows you to also see what others are doing and you can get caught up in other peoples lives. It disconnects emotion and the social aspect of communication.

The one way that twitter could be something of use is when there is breaking news that needs to be shared worldwide. It can get information out quickly as long as it is very short. It is very different from blogging because of the limitation of how much can be written. It allows only short form of what has happened where blogging can go into full detail of the events. Blogging can be a very personal thing and also very informative where twitter is neither.

Overall, I believe that there are too many social networking sites to choose from when one could do it all. 

Blogging

The point of this assignment was to familiarize with technologies, the first being blogging. It is a way to quickly get information out or an outlet for someone to express themselves openly. It is very easy to get started and is open to everyone. Using blogger the first step was to create an account then you were free to create your page. They give you basic outlines that you can choose from for the set-up and background, or there are advanced options where you can take apart individual areas of the webpage and make them your own. Blogger has been a simple and effective way to get information out easily and is something that can be used by all. It is a new and improved idea for magazine and news since it is up to the minute and is also free. It allows the information to be more publicly available since some do not have the funds to purchase the news daily. I believe it will eventually take over printed media. The main disadvantage of blogging would be the loss of jobs in the area of journalism unless people had to start subscribing to the news or magazine related blogs.

There are numerous blogs posted and created daily and are easy to find by simply using google search specifically for blogging. You simply need to type in an area of interest and then will be shown numerous choices that involve that topic. Personally I used 3 key words: rowing, cooking and news. These gave me three very different blogs that proved to be very useful.

The first was a blog about the sport of rowing. For those that do not know much about the sport they had different blogs on the sport itself, the required equipment, physical demands and where it takes place. They also provided general workouts for the erg machine as well as links to more rowing websites and where else to look for more information.

The second blog was about cooking. This blog gave simple recipes and step by step instruction for how to make them. They gave a wide range of choices from breakfast to dinner with everything between. They included in their blog links to blogs about ethnic food and baking and gave recommendations for which they found to be easy and delicious.

The final blog was done by the Toronto star, specifically on cycling in the city. It has all the latest news on the events on two wheels in the city including plans for bike lanes and creation of off road bike trails.

All these blogs were easy to find and my personal blog was easy to create. It is a new way of getting information out that is expanding and continuing to get popular. It is there at your fingertips, which is what people want and have gotten used to, information right when they want it.