Annotated Bibliography #10 – Final summary

The chosen extract for this annotated bibliography assessment is extract two on Blogging thoughts: personal publication as an online research tool by Torill Mortensen and Jill Walker. I have provided a brief introduction of the authors in this post to have an idea of where the author was coming from so that I could relate to the extract easier. From researching and analyzing this extract, I found out how much the web has changed, hence, it lead me to point out the limitation and strengths of this extract. The extract focused on weblogs when it was still a new phenomena, but for the current generation, weblogs has become part of our life and it is not something people would talk and get excited about these days. However, keeping a weblog is part of this Networked Media course, so I explained the relation of the extract to this course in this post to show my understanding of how the extract relates to thinking and writing in space, which is also part of our blog writing assessment. As I was slowly going deeper into analyzing the extract, I first had to identify the field of the extract and the main arguments by the authors to get a better overview where my evaluation was leading me to. Moving on, I decided to focus on certain sentences of the extract as it helped me to understand the entire extract better and helped me to relate my other close readings to the extract. I focused on this sentence ‘weblogs are densely interlinked‘ and also ‘this anchors blogs in the public arena, as part of a communal discourse‘. After having a better understanding of the entire extract, it reminded me of my experience as a blogger and how I can relate my experience with the extract here. Finally, this assessment reminded me why we were annotating this extract in the first place- as part of the research for the project! So I briefly discussed the relevance of the extract to the production of design and hypertext essay in this post.

Overall, I would say it was a bit of a challenge for me to annotate this extract into different blog entries as I find that everything I was trying to explain seems to interrelate with one another. Perhaps that was the purpose of this assessment as the extract described ‘links are like roots, tendrils, reaching out between fragments, creating a context for bits and pieces…’. To annotate this extract into different entries, we are making use of links which connects the pieces together. This extract has brought an insight of the power of links, connecting people together and thus creating a community in the blogosphere.

I have also compiled my list of Annotated Bibliography entries here for easier access:

1. Background of the authors
2. The field of the extract
3. Main arguments by the authors
4. The relation of extract with Networked Media course
5. Limitations and strengths of the text
6. Focusing on ‘weblogs are densely interlinked’
7. Focusing on ‘communal discourse’
8. Personal viewpoint relating to the extract
9. Discussion of the production of hypertext essay

References:

• Glance, NS, Hurst, M & Tomokiyo, T 2004, ‘BlogPulse: Automated trend discovery for weblogs’, Intelliseek Applied Research Center, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.118.2654&rep=rep1&type=pdf>.
• Herring, SC, Kouper, I, Paolillo, JC, Scheidt, LA, Tyworth, M, Welsch, P, Wright, E & Yu, N 2005, ‘Conversations in the blogosphere: an analysis “from the bottom up”’, in Proceedings of the 38^th Hawaii International Conference, System Sciences, pp. 1-11.
• Hogue, D 2010, ‘What is Hypertext?’ viewed 20 August 2011, <http://www.mshogue.com/ce9/hypertext/htx_essay.htm>.
• Mortensen, T & Walker, J 2002, ‘Blogging Thoughts: Personal Publication as an Online Research Tool’ in Researching Ict’s in Context. Ed. Andrew Morrison. Oslo: University of Oslo, pp. 249-259.
• Mortensen, T 2011, Torill, blogger, viewed 10 August 2011, < http://www.blogger.com/profile/07428251841060676279>.
• Walker, J 2011, Jill Walker Rettberg, Academia.edu, viewed 10 August 2011, <http://uib.academia.edu/JillWalkerRettberg>.
• Walker, J 2011, Jill Walker Rettberg, Linkedin, viewed 10 August 2011, < http://no.linkedin.com/in/jillwalkerrettberg>.
• Walker, J 2011, This season on jill/txt, jill/txt, viewed 10 August 2011, < http://jilltxt.net/>.

Annotated Bibliography #9 – Pre-production of hypertext essay

The purpose of this annotated bibliography is part of our research for the upcoming project on hypertext essay. In the post Main argument by authors, I mentioned that the authors argued that people’s way of thinking and writing changes when they use different tools. Comparing to how weblogs alters the way we think and write, producing a hypertext essay also alters our traditional way of thinking. We have to think out of the box as it is more than just writing on the web and incorporating it with links. Hogue (2010) mentioned that people read book text from top to bottom, left to right, front to back, but people don’t necessarily read hypertext in the same linear way. So reading a hypertext is different, it depends on each reader what they want to read first. In the hypertext essay, we will provide different links that will take readers to different websites, but not necessarily two readers will end up reading the same content because once they decide to click on different links, the content will be different.

Therefore, in the production of the design and the hypertext essay, we have to make use of our weblogs to document and archive our ideas. Our ideas written in the blog can be ‘single, small, insignificant ideas’ (Mortensen & Walker 2002) but that is the purpose of weblogs – it focuses on connecting our thoughts together which at the end will connect our thoughts and ideas for the production of hypertext essay. So, the emphasis of the extract that relates to the design and production of the hypertext essay is to document any thoughts that come to mind about the project. We never know how helpful a small paragraph of idea could be.

Besides that, the extract also states that ‘weblogs are densely interlinked’ (Mortensen & Walker 2002), which relates to the project because hypertext is all about incorporating the use of hyperlinks. So in the production of hypertext essay, we have to interlink the content to some of our research on this extract. In the same way of how it relates to weblogs, we are considered writing for an audience as it is publish in public for people to read, so we need to consider what information to share with the audience. These are also some other questions that came to mind when connecting the relation of the extract to the production of the hypertext essay. What words do we need to link so that it will give readers more information about our hypertext essay? How are we going to transit from one webpage to another?

References:

Annotated Bibliography #7 – Communal discourse

‘This anchor blogs in the public arena, as part of a communal discourse’ (Mortensen & Walker 2002)

This sentence in the extract has been bothering me because I couldn’t fully understand what it means. So here is my attempt to analyse this sentence from the extract:

My first interpretation of this sentence is that while weblogs are all connected through links (as I previously explained in this post), the links connects us to an online platform or search engines which forms a community. Because no matter what hyperlink we click on, it will transport us to similar information and the linking which connects one weblog to another makes us part of a certain community; A community with similar or common topic of interest.

For example, if you Google the word ‘fashion’, the search engine would find websites that has tags linked to ‘fashion’. From the Google search results, you would find websites or blogs which are related to fashion. Google is the ‘public arena’ because it links to conversations of similar interest, making us part of the community interested in fashion.

Glance, NS, Hurst, M & Tomokiyo, T (2004) states that ‘the cross-linking that takes place between blogs, through blogrolls, explicit linking, trackbacks, and referrals has helped create a strong sense of community in the weblogging world’. Hence, it is the power of links in blogs which makes blogs part of a ‘communal discourse’ where links transport you from one blog to another making you part of a community with a discussion on similar interest.

Hence, in conclusion, everyone belongs to a certain community from the moment we are on the internet. The first tag we search on Google we are already putting ourselves into a certain community of interest, only looking for information of our own interest.

References:

• Glance, NS, Hurst, M & Tomokiyo, T 2004, ‘BlogPulse: Automated trend discovery for weblogs’, Intelliseek Applied Research Center, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.118.2654&rep=rep1&type=pdf>.
• Mortensen, T & Walker, J 2002, ‘Blogging Thoughts: Personal Publication as an Online Research Tool’ in Researching Ict’s in Context. Ed. Andrew Morrison. Oslo: University of Oslo, pp. 249-259.

Annotated Bibliography #6 – Weblogs are all connected!

Mortensen and Walker’s extract states that ‘weblogs are densely interlinked’ (2002, p. 259). This statement is indeed true. Try to find one blog that does not have links in their blog entries. It is almost impossible to find one as Blood (2002, cited in Herring et al. 2005, p. 1) describes that if a person does not link to the primary material when they refer to it, it cannot be defined as a keeping a weblog.

That’s the reason why weblogs are filled with links, to the extent that you could be on three different website in less than a minute. Weblogs would usually have blogroll where bloggers link to their favourite bloggers and in their blog entries, they link to the people or subject they are writing about.

For example, just recently, I found myself reading a blog entry about MTV World Stage concert in Malaysia. The next thing I knew, I was clicking on the links that lead me to the main page of the concert and to the other bloggers who went to the concert as well.

Having said that, we can see how weblogs are closely connected to one another especially weblogs with the same interest or topic. There is always a link that connects you to another blog or related information. Just as how Mortesen and Walker describes that ‘weblogs tend to come together in clusters as they link to each other‘ (p. 271). Links will gradually grow but at the end, all the links are bonded and connected. From one link, it will connect you to another link. It is never-ending.

The picture below illustrates part of the loose cluster. See how the blogs are filled with links and they tend to combine to one another? 

References:

• Herring, SC, Kouper, I, Paolillo, JC, Scheidt, LA, Tyworth, M, Welsch, P, Wright, E & Yu, N 2005, ‘Conversations in the blogosphere: an analysis “from the bottom up”’, in Proceedings of the 38^th Hawaii International Conference, System Sciences, pp. 1-11.
• Mortensen, T & Walker, J 2002, ‘Blogging Thoughts: Personal Publication as an Online Research Tool’ in Researching Ict’s in Context. Ed. Andrew Morrison. Oslo: University of Oslo, pp. 249-259.

Annotated Bibliography #5 – Limitations & Strengths

The extract has a balance of both limitations and strengths. One of the limitations is that the reading is a bit outdated provided it was published in 2002. It has almost been a decade and the extract main focus was on weblogs. Within the period of time in between the publication of the reading and now, other blogging services has emerged and new terms like microblogging has evolved from blogs.  More people in this current generation uses microblogging compare to weblogs so people who are reading this extract now would relate more to what is more current which is microblogging services such as Twitter and Tumblr.

Another limitation of the extract is that the author did not explain the concept of ‘weblogs are densely interlinked’ and the concept of ‘communal discourse’. The author should explore and explain further the concept being said. The reason for this is because if people were to read this article back in 2002, these terms are still new and people wouldn’t understand what the author is trying to convey. On the other hand, current readers in year 2011 would have a better idea of the message but it would also be confusing as these terms have broadened out. So the weakness of this extract is not being specific enough for the readers to understand.

Despite of the limitations of the extract, the extract does have its own strength in certain ways. The strength would be how the authors manage to conceptualize the context of how linking leads to conversations. Links are now a big part of the internet. Everything we read on the internet has links which leads us to another website of related information. And once people find a link that is interesting, they would share the link to their weblogs and especially the current microblogs and from there, conversation begins as people comment on the links and exchange their thoughts. This very much relates to one of the sentence from the extract stating that ‘someone links their site to the first post, comments on it, and a conversation grows forth’.

Reference:

• Mortensen, T & Walker, J 2002, ‘Blogging Thoughts: Personal Publication as an Online Research Tool’ in Researching Ict’s in Context. Ed. Andrew Morrison. Oslo: University of Oslo, pp. 249-259.

Annotated Bibliography #4 – Relation to Networked Media

The reason this extract was chosen is because of how strongly it relates to this course. Firstly, it relates to Networked Media course as part of the assessment is to write blogs where it is being accessed on how we think and write in the public space. The main arguments that I have pointed out shows its relation to this course.

As evidence, part of this course teaches students how to blog, documenting our thoughts and ideas in the blog. Students are encouraged to blog on weekly lectures, activities in lab and also our personal thoughts related to this course. So it could be one sentence we find interesting said during lecture or it could be our thoughts on the lecture. It doesn’t have to be a long post as Mortensen and Walker state that ‘post to a blog can be very short and unpretentious’ (p. 259). The main idea is we, students learn how to express our thoughts through blogs and to reflect how our thoughts are documented when we blog.

 Besides that, students have to maintain 3-4 blog entries per week as a practice of writing in the ‘public arena’. By writing in the public space, it gives students the sense of responsibility to express ourselves and be aware of our audience (communal discourse) because our blogs are being put out in the ‘public arena’ where students can read each other blogs and comment on the blog entries. It also helps students to share and generate idea as our thoughts are put out on the internet for others to read. That is how the ‘conversation grows forth’ as students comment on each other blog’s entries to give feedback.

Reference:

• Mortensen, T & Walker, J 2002, ‘Blogging Thoughts: Personal Publication as an Online Research Tool’ in Researching Ict’s in Context. Ed. Andrew Morrison. Oslo: University of Oslo, pp. 249-259.

Annotated Bibliography #3 – Main argument by authors

The main argument expressed by the authors is people’s way of  thinking and writing changes when they use different tools. Mortensen and Walker described their experience using weblogs as a tool for research and concluded how weblogs has altered their approach in writing and thinking academically once they started to blog.

I would like to relate this main argument to the extract. The extract states that ‘posts to a blog can be very short and unpretentious…other times, the ideas grow’. Well, people blog anytime, anywhere provided they have internet connection. This article was written in 2002 where microblogging like Twitter and Tumblr did not exist but currently is very popular which allows users to post short contents of text, images or links. People tend to ‘tweet’ about their thoughts and feelings whenever they feel like sharing it to the public. Meanwhile on Tumblr, users often reblog other blogger’s content which is relevant to them. With all these microblogging services, people post several times a day, documenting and archiving every thoughts.

People no longer have to look for a pen and paper to write down their thoughts. When there’s a pen and paper in front of you, people have the tendency to structure their words before writing it down. On the other hand, blogging is very spontaneous just like how the authors summarizes ‘blogging encourages spontaneous, timely and concise expression of thoughts’ (p. 268). People could just post one or two line of thoughts and publish it as a reminder and later come back to it whenever they can connect back to the thoughts. Besides that, sometimes the idea will expand when other bloggers give feedback on the blog entries.

Hence, in relation to the authors, they admit that they blog when the ideas come to mind which could happen at anytime of the day. So as they post, they write spontaneously expressing their thoughts instead of carefully structuring the words and end up forgetting the ideas. As a result, the authors were able to focus better in their research as their thoughts were all documented in the blog posts.

So how does your writing and thinking change through the mediums below?

     Traditional way of writing – A pen and paper

 New media – Blogs

New media – Microblogging

Reference:

• Mortensen, T & Walker, J 2002, ‘Blogging Thoughts: Personal Publication as an Online Research Tool’ in Researching Ict’s in Context. Ed. Andrew Morrison. Oslo: University of Oslo, pp. 249-259.

Annotated Bibliography #2 – Fields

It is difficult to define which field the text by Mortensen and Walker is situated within as there’s a combination of field that is interrelated. From the field of social science, it could branch out to fields such as internet, communication and media in regards to this extract.

Mortensen and Walker are early adopters of weblogs and they stated in the extract that weblogs are ‘part of a communal discourse’ (p. 259). The term ‘communal discourse’ here refers to a community that has something in common and also a community that communicates with each other. Well weblogs is a form of communication as conversations are form when bloggers link to each other, referring to them in blog posts and giving feedback on each other’s blog. Hence, the communication on weblogs forms a ‘communal discourse’, an online community where the field that is related to this text here is the sociology of internet as it involves the analysis of online communities especially through new media (social networks and blogs).

It is impossible not to see the relation of this field to media and communication as they are interrelated. Without media, there won’t be internet and without media, there won’t be communication as well. Therefore, the field of study is very broad and some fields tend to interrelate with one another that it is difficult to specify exactly which field this text is situated within. However, the extract is definitely within the field of internet-communication-media.

References:

• Mortensen, T & Walker, J 2002, ‘Blogging Thoughts: Personal Publication as an Online Research Tool’ in Researching Ict’s in Context. Ed. Andrew Morrison. Oslo: University of Oslo, pp. 249-259.

Annotated Bibliography #1 – Author’s Background

The following is the chosen extract for my annotated bibliography assessment:

Extract: Two

Weblogs are densely interlinked. This anchors blogs in the public arena, as part of a communal discourse. Posts to a blog can be very short and unpretentious. The threshold for publishing a single post is very low. This allows single, small, insignificant ideas to be expressed and formulated. Sometimes these thoughts are left as they are. A paragraph is enough and there is no more needed. Other times, the ideas grow. Someone links their site to the first post, comments on it, and a conversation grows forth. The initial post, or follow-ups, are linked to a web site or a newspaper article or something else. Links are like roots, tendrils, reaching out between fragments, creating a context for bits and pieces that at first glance may seem to be unconnected fragments.

Mortensen, T, & Walker, J 2002,“Blogging Thoughts: Personal Publication as an Online Research Tool”,  Researching Ict’s in Context, Ed. Andrew Morrison, Oslo: University of Oslo, pp. 249-79, pp.259.

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Before researching and analysing the extract above, it would only be fair to research a bit background of the authors who wrote it to fully understand the purpose of the written extract.

Background of the authors

Torill Elvira Mortensen

Torill is an associate professor at the IT University of Copenhagen since 2010. She graduated from University of Bergen majoring in Media Studies and has produced a number of publications on online games since 2002. She is also an avid blogger who blogs at http://torillsin.blogspot.com/. She writes about media studies, reader-response theory, role-play games, internet culture, travel, academic weirdness and online communication. In the earlier days, Torill used her blog as an introduction to explain her research to players of games and letting them follow the development of the thesis.

Being a major in Media Studies, Torill is definitely a user of social networking websites. She can be found here on Facebook and Google+

Jill Walker Rettberg

Jill is an associate professor of Digital Culture at the University of Bergen. She is affiliated with the Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies. She has been a research blogger since 2000 where she does research on how people tell stories online particularly through blogs and social media. When Jill started her blog, she was hoping to attract people in the aesthetics of online stories and games. Then in 2006, Jill won the Meltzer Award for Excellence in the Dissemination of Research for her research work on her blog, http://jilltxt.net/. Besides that, she has published the book Blogging and co-edited the scholarly anthology Digital Culture, Play and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader.

Jill could also be found on social networking website such as  Twitter and Google+

 Similarities of both authors:

- They are researchers of online games, text and culture
- They gather their materials online.
- Their weblogs transform from digital ethonographers’ journals to a mixture of journal, academic publishing, storage space for links and site for academic discourse.
- Their weblogs are now popular channels for exchange of information about online communication and games.

How does the author’s background relate to the extract?

Both authors graduated from the same university and they came out doing research on online games, text and culture. However, somehow they came across weblogs while doing they research and published this reading about how weblogs have changed their approach in doing research.  Their background as researchers certainly give authority on how they research on weblogs as both authors wrote the extract based on their experience as bloggers.

References:

• Mortensen, T 2011, Torill, blogger, viewed 10 August 2011, < http://www.blogger.com/profile/07428251841060676279>.
• Walker, J 2011, Jill Walker Rettberg, Academia.edu, viewed 10 August 2011, <http://uib.academia.edu/JillWalkerRettberg>.
• Walker, J 2011, Jill Walker Rettberg, Linkedin, viewed 10 August 2011, < http://no.linkedin.com/in/jillwalkerrettberg>.
• Walker, J 2011, This season on jill/txt, jill/txt, viewed 10 August 2011, < http://jilltxt.net/>.