Assignment # 3

There are several things I like about RSS. First off, they are excellent ways to keep up on website updates. I usually end up forgetting to check one or two sites I regularly visit, and having tools like this ensures one does not miss anything. This tool also helps simply sites with many news articles posted daily. These readers place articles in a list like fashion making articles once lost it the sea of news more easy to discover. Finally these tools are fairly simple to use. Most RSS can be added with a button click. Then copy and paste of the URL into bloglines add feature.

I could actually see myself using RSS technology for my personal life having already placed several web sites I regularly visit on bloglines. How I plan to use this technology is mostly as a filtering tool on large new sites. This should prevent scrolling through news articles of little interest in order to find the ones I want. I also plan to use it as a time saving tool on sites that only update once every several months. Now with this tool I only have to visit the site once an update has been added instead on weekly searches.

The easiest tool for finding feeds was visiting my favorite web sites and looking for the orange RSS icon. The ease came from not having to search a database of information and simply just visiting the sites I care to have feeds sent to me about. Then posting the RSS feed link URL in bloglines.

Assignment # 2

I would say my knowledge in Web 2.0 tools is average for my demographic. Using "If the Shoe Fits" article as way of organizing my knowledge of Web 2.0 tools I would say I'm very knowledgeable in publishing platform tools having creating a blog of my own and several podcasts for SCSU. My familiarity with social networking tools are also excellent having spent time on and creating content for sites like Facebook and Youtube. I also have much experience in democratized content networks, for I have used Wikipedia almost weekly since my introduction to it several years ago. As for Virtual networking platforms, edited social news platforms, and content distribution sites I have barely used or heard of them until I read the description of them on the site. So my knowledge about them and their use is poor. Finally I have been aware of information aggregators since high school. When finding news relevant information for a particular paper topic was useful.

When talking about Web 2.0, most are referring to the change in Internet trends from limited linking, posting, and content editing on web pages among a limited amount of people. To where web pages at times almost entirely depend on people to post, share, link, and comment on information . I believe technology defines Web 2.0 because ever since the invention of the Internet or even media people have wanted to be able to manipulate what they see and be able to share it. Before the advent of the technology though, it required specialized knowledge and considerable amounts of time in order to do so. Now with new technology, this process is much easier allowing anyone with the desire to create, share, and edit information the ability to do so.

I believe Web 2.0 is not a radical departure from the ways we interact with each other. It just an easier way of doing so. Before Web 2.0 one could still share photos, it just required someone to take their photo album to a friend's house. Another example is that people were still able to comment or share news with others before Web 2.0. It just required someone with a willing ear instead of just logging to a site like dig. I do believe though Web 2.0 is a radical departure from Web 1.0 information. With Web 2.0 information is potentially less reliable with anyone able to post. For example hidden motives to articles are harder to spot. Instead of only well known institutions and people able to post information on Web 1.0. Now anyone can making it nearly impossible to detect.

Assignment Number 1

Since I have created a blog on another site I have had previous experience creating a blog. When comparing that process to this process one, I found the steps required to create an account on blogger.com frustrating. To even create a blog account I had to make a Gmail account, which I found odd because most site do not require a specific e-mail service account, and I had to edit my internet security options in order to log in. Which at my other blog site did not require. Besides that the set up and composing of a blog post were simple. I have discoverd though that blogger.com has much nicer publishing template with many features similar to Microsoft Word and easy photo/video embeding.