What is a Good Document Design?

It is an obligation for an author to provide a good Document Design for simplifying reading process of readers. In fact, readers would not be attracted by a poor Document Design.

Reep (2006, p. 135) suggests design principles to be considered for most designers in all documents which are balance, proportion, sequence and consistency. According to Nielsen (1997), Document Design considered as good if it provides short texts, scannability and hypertext structure. Meanwhile, these design principles would not be well explained without an example. Therefore, an example from our group presentation slides which was presented earlier would be given in this part. The discussion or criticism will be provided for a better understanding and hope for some improvisation can be done in the future.

Slide 7 shows that it has a sequence which leads readers to understand the slide in the best order for the use of document. According to Reep (2006, p.136), readers for document are usually read from top left corner to the end at the bottom right corner. A good document design could bring readers from one to another important points. This slide is capable of attracting readers because it is simple, straight to the point, verbal and visual are explaining each other and would not invite confusion for readers.

On th other hand, slide 8 does not fulfill the requirement for a good Document Design because it is too wordy and readers would get bored while reading it. Bernhart (1986) states that a balance, harmonious and attractive text could get readers' attention and also make it easier for them to digest the information given.

From my opinion, a good Document Design must be able to get readers' attention by combining the design principles in order to deliver messages effectively.

Reference List

Bernhart, SA 1986, 'Seeing the Text', College Composition and Communication, vol. 37, no.1, pp. 66-78

Nielsen, J 1997, Writing for the Web, viewed on 17 April 2010, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html

Reep, DC 2006, 'Document Design', Technical Writing, ch. 6, 6th ed, pp. 133-172

New forms of Media Publishing

Naughton (2006) states that our communications environment has changed, an old media was new media once. The existing situation has something special to be presented at the beginning of the 21st century; for instance, the usage of personal computing, digital convergence and global networking. These usage has brought a radical shifts in environment.

Youtube is newest form of Media Publishing?

Yes, YouTube is the newest form of Media Publishing. It allows the registered member to upload or post up videos according to their purposes and needs. Other registered members have the access to open every videos that have been posted up by another members and they are allowed to give comments about the videos. Different kind of videos are posted up from different purposes and perspectives.

Wikipedia (2010) states that there are several issues about YouTube:

• Copyright Material - English Premier League claims that YouTube has done little work on prevent the uploading of copyrighted material. Even though in every videos that has been posted up always shows a statement of do not upload any TV shows, commercials or music videos without permission, members always use it wrongly.
• Privacy - Some privacy can be shared among friends but it is not for public.
• Inappropriate content - YouTube also faced the criticism for an offensive content in some of its videos.

YouTube has taken over the roles of journalism?

YouTube has altered the roles of journalism by cooperating with CNN to discuss about the "Most Democratic" presidential debate ever in USA. O'Brien (2007) says that a new debate has been created between YouTube and CNN to connects voters with would-be-commanders-in-chief in televised forums form.

(Example of Presidential debate by YouTube and CNN)

Naughton (2006) suggests an old media will have to accommodate themselves or even creating a beneficial relationships to newcomer media that has arrived in our media ecosystem. The new comer in ecosystem will be more diverse, richer and complex because it has numbers of content and also the interactions between them.

Reference List

Naughton, J. 2006, Blogging and the Emerging Media Ecosystem,Blogging and the Media Ecosystem, pp. 1-10.

O'Brien, L 2007, "YouTube and CNN discuss "Most Democratic" presidential debatesever, viewed on 16 April 2010

Wikipedia 2010, 'YouTube', viewed 16 April 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

Types of Blogging Communities and ways to build it

What is Blogging Community?

Online Community directs us to a community that interacting with each other through online. Early years, forums and chats were tools to connecting people in sharing the same purpose. These communities had an interdependency relationship which makes them thought of growing wider (public). The idea of getting wider to public has became a realism through Blogging Community. They considered Blogs as a personal publishing platforms where public could read it as well. Blogging Community connects one to another Blogger, they are allowed to share their minds or the same interest.

Ways to create Blogging Community

According to White (2006), the tool to link from one to another blog is hyperlinks in a form of Blogrolls. It links to different blog by using tagging, RSS (aggregated feeds), blog posts and comments. There is a key word named tagging to be used by blogger for attaching their individual posts or mark a post that is relevant to a community. By using tags, blogger who blogs for many issues could guide people to find what they want.

Types of Blogging Community

White (2006) divided Blogging Community into three types:

• Boundaried Community - it is a traditional forum based communities. This type provides compilation of blogs concentrated in a single site. Also known as social networking.
• Topic Centric Community - this community is created to provide a collection of blogs that share the same interest. For example, political bloggers, food bloggers.
• Single Blogger Centric Community - The identity of this community is the blog owners. It is owned by one owner or organisation where other blogger could give comments and also getting to know the blogger and the commentators.

Global Voices Community is an example for Topic Centric Community.

(Topic Centric Community)

The diagram shows that when Blogger 1, 2 and 3 connected to each other by having the same interest, Topic Centric Community is formed. Apparently, these communities are doing the issue identification and it is more to network like rather than community like. White (2006) says that the communities do not have a single technological platform because each blogger has their own tool. Power and identity are distributed over Topic Centric Community, the interaction does not happened in one blog but it has grew into subcommunities.

Reference List

White, N 2006, Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community, viewed on 16 April 2010, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community

Classification of Blog

The booming of Blog as a phenomenon has actually reaches old and young generation. There are so many different type of Blogs globally but the most common one are personal, entertainment, politics, technology and fashion. Wikipedia (2010) classifies a Blog:

By Genre:

• Travel Blogs
• Political Blogs
• Education Blogs
• Project Blogs

By Media Type:

• Vlog (Video Log) : Blog consists of videos
• Linklog (Link Blog) : Blog consists of Link
• Sketchblog : it contains sketch inside
• Tumbleblog : Blog with mixed media types
• Photoblog : Blog that provides pictures

By Device:

• Moblog (Mobile Phone Blog): Blogs that is written from mobile devices, such as PDA

By Status of Publisher:

• Corporate Blog: It is for business purposes, it could be private.

Examples

Vlog

Linklog

Sketchblog

Tumbleblog

PhotoBlog

Moblog

Simons (2008) categorizes Blog as follow:

• Pampheleteering Blogs - Blogs for individual or groups of individual to argue about many different issues by putting their thoughts inside.
• Digest Blog - This type of Blog is providing guides or summaries about things that readers might want to excavate about certain things. It also provides commentary.
• Advocacy Blog - This Blog concerns more on a single topic and it is created by advocacy group or profit oriented organisations.
• Popular Mechanics Blog - Blogs that are created for hobbyist; for instance, photography, gardening. It is becoming a business blog because creator earns money from advertisement.
• Exhibition Blog - This Blog serve differently from others, the creator are mostly writer, artist, craft people. The purpose is to widen their audiences.
• Gatewatcher Blog - Blogs that are created by experts, it allows experts to show a particular acknowledgement.
• Diary Blog - This Blog is more to a personal Blog, it is meant to friends or family of an individual.
• Advertisement Blog - Blogs established by a company, it is more on advertise their products.
• News Blog - Blogs that is used to cover or even break about an important issues.

Simons herself owned a blog, her Blog could be classified as exhibition and gatewatcher Blog. She mentions that her taxonomy of Blog is not final because there are many types of Blog out there. Therefore, it leads to the difficulties in identifying unique types of Blog.

There are some difficulties in classifying the combination for blogs' styles; for instance, readers need to do some study for a certain Blog about identifying the types, style and its format. In fact, Vlog (Video Blog) provides a better understanding to readers by presenting videos in it. From my opinion, creator of a Blog should be able to classify their blogs for readers to simplify their reading process. Blogger would not write about which types of Blog that they are presenting; therefore, there are some cases about genre of Blog that overlap to one another.

Reference List

Simons, M 2008. Towards a taxonomy of blogs, viewed 16 April 2010, http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-o

Wikipedia 2010, 'Blog', viewed 14 April 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Current phenomenon: Blog? How it benefits you?

According to naughton (2006), Technorati claims that they are monitoring 56.9 million blogs that were created at a rate of two per second. Hundreds of thousand of blogs are updated every day and it consists of thoughts. BlogWorld (2010) states that 120 thousand blogs are created every day and 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs.

Techcrunch (2009) says that 72% of blogs globally are meant for hobby purposes and less for profit orientation purposes; Technorati took a deeper look into the entire blogosphere and focus on professional blogger in year 2009. 28 % of Malaysian Top 50 Bloggers write about personal stuff, 16% politics and 16% technology (thristhan, 2010). The Star Online (2006) states that most of Malaysia's bloggers are women because they tend to express and share their feelings more than men.

(Techcrunch, 2009)

Benefits of Blogging

Blogging has been a typical medium for politicians to express their thoughts and build communities. One of the examples in Malaysia is JeffOoi.com who created his own blog with the purpose of building his communities and promoting his campaign.

Therefore, Malaysian could take an advantage for themselves through blogging by expressing their thoughts and interact by leaving comments in an interactive format. They may also express opinions and do some argumentation about their own opinions. Therefore, blogging phenomenon has brought a significant change in the media world, its usefulness and popularity has impacted some degree of people.

Reference List

BlogWorld 2010, Important Blogging Statistics, viewed 14 April 2010, http://www.blogworldexpo.com/general-information/important-statistics

Naughton, J. 2006, Blogging and the Emerging Media Ecosystem, Blogging and the Media Ecosystem, pp. 1-10.

Techcrunch 2009, State Of The Blogosphere: The Full Blog World Presentation, viewed 14 April 2010, http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/16/2009-state-of-the-blogosphere-the-full-blogworld-presentation/

The Star Online 2006, "Most Bloggers are women", viewed 14 April 2010, http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=2006/11/30/nation/16180914&sec=nation

Thristhan 2010, Top Bloggers in Malaysia, viewed 14 April 2010,

http://www.thristhan.com/top-bloggers-in-malaysia/

Purpose of my Blog

This 'serious weblog' is created for the intention of fulfilling the requirements of the final assignment for the 'Issues in Publication and Design' subject. The main topics that will be discussed here are aimed at exploring the bloggers' community in Malaysia and its publishing and design issues.

This blog is directed towards tertiary level students who are interested in the field of document design and publication. Finally, I hope it would grab the attention of other readers, regardless of age, race, and religion. Therefore, feel free to leave comments behind and do not hesitate to argue upon any topics that i have included.

Happy reading :)