M Go Blue

Class Blogging

I must say that I have really enjoyed blogging in BIT 320. I think it was a very powerful way to communicate and see what different people were thinking. At the beginning of the term, I didn't immediately recognize the benefits, but I got into it shortly thereafter. I think aggregating all the recent posts as a way to view the blogosphere really improved the way we used blogging. It made keeping up to date on blogosphere developments a lot easier. As did tools like Sage. Learning how to use trackbacks effectively was also beneficial.

As for any future changes that I would recommend to class blogging, the only thing I could think of was having people name their blogs as just their real names. Like, having mine be simply "Scott Foley" instead of "M Go Blue." I thought it might make communication a bit clearer. But, then, after thinking about it more, I thought, you know, I get a kick out of everybody having a unique alias. It is just more fun to talk about what Blogonaut, Hail to the Victors, or Big Blog in the Sky says instead of real names. And real names are posted at the bottom of the aggregated recent posts anyway. So, I really have no recommendations for new changes. The change that was made earlier in the course--the recent post aggregation--really is the only thing that I would have suggested changing, but it has already been done!

Recently, blogging has proven to be a great way to communicate issues pertaining to the second project. But, it has also been a great way to read about people's thoughts pertaining to class issues and issues relating to the way technologies we are studying impact information business. I have grown so fond of blogging that I have created blogs for extracurricular use, and will continue to use them, as they are certainly a great means of communication.

Me on National Campaign Blog

This is pretty cool. Ok, I think it is VERY cool. That is because it is a picture of me on the national blog of a certain Presidential candidate. In the picture, I am with one of the daughters of this candidate. The other person in the shot is my sister, Megan. Anyway, I thought it was cool, and since it involved a blog posting, I decided to share it with the class.

Blogonaut Trackback Attempt

Trackback attempt #2. Bud, I just chose to try a trackback to your post to see if I can do it correctly this time. I, too, am very much enjoying the use of Sage. It is a really nice way to quickly see what you have read and keep up to date on the recent posts. A truly valuable utility.

Student Organization Blogging

I just updated the format of my blog tonight, changed the colors, added a picture, etc. and found it to be exceedingly easy to do. There is much more customization that can be done to make it look like a truly original site. Add in a catchy, memorable domain name that points to the site, and you’ve got a truly great way to get information to and interact with members of a student organization on campus. Think about it, you could set up profiles with pictures of executive board members, and any board member could communicate new information to the membership really easily without having to go through a webmaster who has to re-publish the site (okay, I’m talking about myself here). Not that re-publishing a site is that much of a burden or anything, but it would just be a whole lot more efficient if people could publish their own information immediately. I will most definitely set up a blog for my student group once I get a bit of free time to do so. I’d imagine sooner rather than later, probably in a few weeks (after Nov. 2). I’ll be sure to post a link to it once I get it set up. Until then, check out the changes I made to my blog and consider doing it to your own if you haven’t already, it is real easy.

Presidential Debate Blog

I was surfing around the news sites after last night's Presidential debate #2 and found that CNN.com had a live blog going on during the debate itself. It was updated every couple minutes with a comment from one of three political pundits. Pretty cool stuff, but I'm not sure how many people actually read along with the postings as they were watching the debate. The posts can be found here.

Campaign Blogs

The rise of blogs in the national political scene really began with the Howard Dean campaign. While they didn't help him actually win the Democratic nomination, they did allow his campaign to grow from a virtually unknown and insignificant candidate to a leader in the Democratic primary race. Unfortunately for him, his campaign fell apart in Iowa, but political blogs live on, and now both major candidates have official blogs on their campaign sites. They allow for updated postings of daily campaign events and are pretty interesting to read:

Here is the Bush 04 Blog
Here is the Kerry 04 Blog