As pointed out on slashdot, the Washington Post today includes an article by Rick Weiss about the problem with citing Web pages in one's research. In a medium that holds accountability dear, how will blogs that analyze the news deal with disappearing pages that hold the proofs of their arguments? How are they dealing with it now? My thesis will be written and submitted rather quickly compared to scientific papers, so I'm not as concerned about my own scholarship. But I did create a Website for my Hypertext class this semester that links to various external Web pages. Some of those have been moved or have disappeared already. Does that make my project less relevant? [Link][1 comments][Karma: 13 ( + / - )]
Do you think that personal homepages and blogs help to attract women to become Web designers (amateur and professional) more than shopping and news Webpages? Much study has been done regarding women and their personal journals, which give women a voice in times when they otherwise have none. Journals are an important part of women's history. Personally, I wasn't attracted to coding HTML until I realized that I could create my own homepage and put myself out there. I realize that there are many men out there who can say the same thing, but given the fact that men still have a stronger voice in much of society, I think that blogging may be a key attraction for women's participation on the Internet. [Link][comments?][Karma: 10 ( + / - )]
An article on TechUser.Net discusses "Why Personal Websites Matter." Here here! [Link][comments?][Karma: -1 ( + / - )]
In an earlier post, I mentioned how the Society for Technical Communication (STC) created a blog in which members can discuss how the STC should react to the 21st Century needs of technical writers. People on the technical writing discussion list TECHWR-L (homepage | archive), have been criticizing the STC's blog for its structure. The posts tend to be very general and don't seem to be categorized for easy future reference. One TECHWR-L member wonders how the STC can easily use the volumnious comments to the first post, which is a general call for comments, questions, and suggestions for STC's future when the comments aren't categorized in any way. It is difficult for readers to scan for comments that fall under topics they're interested in. Another TECHWR-L member wonders why a society for technical communications can't use technology to more "effectively communicate with its members." As I'm learning from my hypertext design class that I'm taking at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), organization is very important when working with hypertext. Putting things into categories allows you to cross-reference more easily. Maybe if the postings were more specific and were posted under specific categories, the blog would be easier to use. I admit that some of my own headlines are rather vague, and in an academic blog, they should be as specific as possible for easy reference. I'm sure that in the next few months as I begin to write my thesis that I'll have to read through several of these vaguely-titled postings when they're not what I need. Of course, personal blogs don't need to be this organized. The writer can be as whimsical as he or she wants to be without worrying that someone in the future will need to refer to an old post detailing the blogger's stream-of-conscious thoughts as he or she drove into work that day. But wouldn't it be nice to compile such thoughts? |
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