Welcome to ODU 366 Class Blog!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Rachel Dennett "Wachovia = Fail"
After the group grew in size and popularity, it transformed into the cooperation stage. In this stage, people were joining the group and making comments about their perspective on the matter. Additionally, they could invite more friends to join the cause.
Eventually, the facebook group got attention from many facebook users, in addition to the media. Wachovia's reaction was to stop, and reverse the charges. This collective action shows the people that real action can be taken just by the creation of one facebook group!!
I think that this is rather impressive!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
April 29th in class writing.
Slashdot claims in its tagline "NEWS FOR NERDS. STUFF THAT MATTERS", and has stories surrounding digital technology and the internet, ranging from legal and moral issues to trivial and entertaining subjects. Ohmynews international is a spin-off of the original Korean based site, and runs off of UGC, in this case, news stories and editorials.
Slashdot's submission process entails linking to others content mostly, many don't actually write longer stories, the only exception being if you wish to write an editorial, in which case you e-mail Slashdot your idea and they'll tell you if they're even remotely interested in it. This is much different than Ohymnews' process, which runs off article's the users have written themselves, so it differs from something like Huffington post, which does gate watching as well. Ohymynews has one dedicated editor for their standard site, and one for their international site.
Ohmynews has a clear list of 10 ethical requirements of "citizen reporters", here's a few:
"1. The citizen reporter must work in the spirit that "all citizens are reporters," and plainly identify himself as a citizen reporter while covering stories."
"4. The citizen reporter does not damage the reputation of others by composing articles that infringe on personal privacy. "
"6. The citizen reporter does not use his position for unjust gain, or otherwise seek personal profit. "
as well a list of conditions they must agree to when submitting a story, some more examples:
"4. When an article I submit has or will be simultaneously submitted in another medium, I will clearly state this fact to the editorial staff."
"8. Legal responsibility for defamation in articles lie entirely with the citizen reporter."
Slashdot will not post every story that is submitted, unlike Ohmynews, which as two sections, 'Ingul' is for stories formally accepted by the Ohmynews staff, and 'Saengnamu', which wasn't officially approved by the staff or considered an 'article'. Slashdot stories are handpicked by the editors, their FAQ page states :
"Slashdot gets hundreds of submissions every day. Every day our authors go through these submissions, and try to select the most interesting, timely, and relevant ones to post to the homepage. There are probably as many reasons for stories to get rejected as there are stories, but here are some of the more common ones:
- Badly worded subjects
- Broken or missing URLs
- Confusing or hysterical sounding writeup
- It might be an old story
- It might just be a busy day and we've already posted enough stories
- Someone already submitted your story
- Your story just might not be interesting!"
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Technorati vs. Digg
Both Technorati and Digg are blog sites made up of different stories floating around the internet.
The difference between the two however is that the blogs on Digg are popular because of the users rating the blogs while Technorati pulls blogs that have been the most popularly viewed through the different sites.
The topic that I chose to compare was country music.
For Digg the first three blogs were
1.Hank Williams wins Posthumos Pulitzer Prize. 310 Diggs
2.File Shareres Save until Muisc Biz changes laws 566 Diggs
3.Crazy County Fair Food: The Pork Parfait. 310Diggs
Technoratie
1.The Boot (Taylor Swift Flys to Auburn for Hugs) 729 Down
2.TwnetyFour Bit (Mark Ronson Produced Album) 661 up
3.Aquarium Drunkard (Music Blog) 865 Down
I think after checking both sites out it was definitely easier to follow Digg then it was Technorati.
I wasn't sure how users really rated technorati. There were a lot of hits on the first and third blog but they were red, and arrows down. But then the second blog had the least hits (out of the three) but had a green arrow.
Then as far as the content was concerneced, honestly on both sites for all three blogs I didn't really find the content useful. I didn't really care about the content so I wasn't intersted in what was being discussed.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Andy Hamm - Wachovia = Fail
Once Heather put the information out there, it was only a matter of time before other users began to spread the word. A perfect example of cooperation, people saw what Heather had to say, agreed with it and spread the news on to other friends.
After enough people found out about Wacovia's unjust actions and the rally finally gained Wachovia's attention, it was time for a change. Wachovia was forced to reavaluate their fees and through collective action, many voices were heard and an unexpected conclusion was reached.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Brenton Sharpe – Wachovia=Fail
People then started to join and inviting other friends to join along with them by commenting and telling others of their own experiences with the bank. This in turn was the start if the (Cooperation Stage).
After the Facebook page “Wachovia = Fail” started gaining attention from several users and other news outlets, Wachovia decided to wave and refund the fees that it had charged customers through donations. Through (Collective Action), users made a difference by making a stand therefore making Wachovia retract its policies.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Megan Morrow - Wachovia=Fail
After several people joined the "Wachovia=Fail" group, it turned into the cooperation stage. People initially acted by joining the group, and then continued to cooperate by commenting and inviting friends to join.
After gaining attention from not only several users via Facebook, but also news outlets, Wachovia decided to save face and reverse their charges. Through collective action, Facebook users were able to see real action being taken. It all started with one group created by one Facebook user.
April 6th Nicole Meraviglia
In Class Writing - M. Owens Simpson
When Heather Lynn's credit card was charged an extra .30 cents for donating to a Haiti relief fund, she channelled her anger and disappointment into a "group activity" in protest against Wachovia bank. Just as the author Shirky would say, Heather's group activity evolved in three stages to achieve its peak effect. She shared (stage 1) her frustrations with the world by creating a facebook group called "Wachovia = Fail" detailing what happened and what she thought about it. Heather then, of course, sent out friend requests, in order to rally people around the cause and educate them on the matter. As her friends and peers accepted the friend requests, and forwarded the group page to even MORE friends (cooperation, stage 2), knowledge about Wachovia's extra fees and Heather's cause grew. Wall posts and comments added in the cooperation for expanding the group and creating a group focus. Finally (stage 3 - collective action) the focus was born, which was that Wachovia should get rid of this fee when people are merely donating to a relief fund. Eventually, Wachovia could not ignore the growing protest, and the story was picked up by other online sites and news organizations. All of this combined, forced Wachovia to change its policy, after the three stages of Shirky's group activities was successful.
Kenneth Applegate 4.6.10 In-Class Writing
ODU Student protests Wachovia
Heather Lynn's Anti-Wachovia Facebook Page, How it relates to group activites
In Class Writing April 6 - Thomas Raines
jillian baylor in-class writing
William Viola In Class Writing April 6th
By posting her argument on a facebook group page she was able to get her story out to many people and allow them to share it with others throughout the social networking site. As it got bigger and bigger the cooperation spread the story on to other sites and was able to gain major support. With all of these people feeling the same about the issue they were able to collectively act as a force to get the changes they wanted. In the end if Wachovia had not made new policies then they would have lost many valuable customers.
This is a great example of how people are able to work together much easier now with social networking groups than ever before.
Victoria Croffie April 6th in class writing assignment
The first stage is sharing and this is seen in the Wachovia article when Lynn made a Facebook page describing her disagreement with the bank. By setting up the page and sending it to her friends she allowed her thoughts and views to be shared with the rest of the world.
The second stage is cooperation and this is done by Lynn when people after becoming privy to her Facebook group and Wachovia's doing they band together to show their own disapproval against the bank via posting to the group discussion and joining the Facebook group.
The final stage, collective action is more clearly seen with better resultys when supporters of Lynn closed their accounts with Wachovia and voiced their opions to the bank. Enough of a complaint was made against the bank that they reversed their policy. If it wasn't for the sharing that Lynn originally did none of this would have come into fruition and therefore the policy would never have changed.
In-class writing assignment
Megan Byerly - In Class Writing Due April 6th
In Class Writing due April 6th
Ina Chandler- Writing Assignment April 6th
The cooperation stage started, when people saw others thoughts on the fee because they wanted to respond and be heard. So when others saw that many people had joined the facebook page more and more people joined. And more and more poeple expressed their opinions in response to other people's opinions.
Lastly, the collective action stage started when Wachovia saw the responses from the many people on the facebook page. They then decided to drop the fee so they would not lose members. So the collective action from all the people on the facebook page made Wachovia drop the fee because they saw the responses from others. Therfore, Heather Lynn made a facebook page to share her thoughts, many people started cooperating beause they saw others cooperating, and collective action resulted in the change that Heather protested for. And the change was made from so many people responding to something that they felt was wrong.
Monday, April 5, 2010
In Class Writing- April 6th
In-Class Writing: April 6
Danielle Bevacqua: In Class Writing: Due April 6 2010
Shirky's three steps can be seen in the event of Heather Lynn's activism against Wachovia, starting with the sharingstage. This first stage would be when Lynn decided to make the Facebook page, "Wachovia = Fail." This is the stage that is the most minimal, in which the information is just getting out. During the second stage, cooperation, would have been when people started joining her Facebook group and changing their behaviors to mimick hers. Lynn removed the majority of her money and moved it to another bank. Once others joined the group, it was said that they too moved all of their money out of Wachovia and closed - in some cases- multiple accounts. This stage would continue as more and more people joined the group and shared the same actions. The last stage, collective action, actually would be as previously mentioned where people actually moved their money to other banks. This collective action- the movement of multiple accounts all around the same period of time- by many different people, would be the collective action of the group.
April 6th Writing Assignment
With sharing, she made a facebook page to vent her frustration with Wachovia's policy of charing an international fee for a donation and then sent the page to all her friends so they could be aware of the situation.
For cooperation and collective action her friends (once they had recieved the request to join) then shared the page with their friends. People who heard or read the story soon started closing their accounts. The controversy surrounding Wachovia became so huge that Wachovia Spokesmen Edward Terpening had to address the issue.
Wachovia was going to change its policy regarding charging international fees on donations made and was also going to refund everyone including Heather Lynn, the 30 cents which was charged on the donation.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
In-class Writing by April 6
- Go to http://www.odu.edu/ao/news/index.php?todo=details&id=20610 and read the news “ODU student’s facebook campaign causes bank to reverse fee policy.”
- Read two follow-up stories by the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/29/transaction-fee-on-haiti_n_442462.html#postComment and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/02/facebook-page-pressures-w_n_446677.html.
- Take a look at the comments on the news as well as the news story.
- If you have a Facebook ID, you can refer to a Facebook page called "Wachovia=Fail" which Lynn initiated to protest Wachovia.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Hey Class: Here's my Wikipedia article
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
IN-CLASS WRITING
In Class Writing 2/25 - Thomas Raines
Digg.com and Technocrati.com are both blog sites that link in other sites as a way to collect and view the most popular things on the internet. These range from news stories, to videos, to simply pictures. The subject of content varies greatly, and as a result, each site is broken down into categories beyond the main page (which showcases the top links out of the entire site).
So format is very similar between the two, but how do they gather said information?
They rely solely on user generated content, which requires free site membership to participate in. A user links in something interesting and posts it in the correct category within the site. It is at this point that the similarities stop. Thankfully, otherwise they would just be copies of one another.
Digg relies on its users to rate the link as either good or bad. If it's good they "digg" it, and the link lives on. The more "diggs" it receives, the longer it stays on the main page and visible to traffic.
Technorati relies on its users for content, but as to how the content is distributed is based on site-analytics. What does that mean? Well, the traffic of the think posted over a period of time determines the relevance and popularity. The more traffic the more likely you'll see it featured on the main page, and in view of the most people.
Why does this matter? Well, digg popularity is totally dependent upon member participation. So if the digg community doesn't like it, it doesn't get seen. Technorati, regardless of user input, shows the links that have been viewed the most. So if there is a link that has an eye-catching title, regardless of content, it will be pushed to the top. Which, as a result, I enjoy digg over the competition.
Top stories at time of posting:
Digg:
1. Google is very smart these days (pic)
2. Think your life sucks? Think again....
3. Color Wheel [comic]
Technorati:
1. Senator Jim Bunning Gone Rogue
2. From Real Housewife to Desperate Housewife
3. World's Richest Soccer Clubs Revealed
Friday, February 26, 2010
Mark Owens Simpson In Class Writing 2/25/10
On Digg, the top 5 "Offbeat" blogs are:
1) 6 Soldiers Who Survived That Would Kill a Terminator
2)Sex Poll: Women Want Sex More Than You Think
3) Top 5 Ways to Not Be Annoying on Twitter
On Technorati, the top 5 "Political" blogs include:
1) The Huffington Post
2) Think Progress
3) The Corner on National
Determining the overall quality of the both top 3 blogs, I came to the conclusion that Technorati seemed to have more authority in blogs as a whole, whereas Digg may be able to decipher the most interesting individual posts, which users rate as good. Although I think the Technorati top blogs were appropriately rated, I believe that Digg.com's rating system is more effective, as it is more user oriented.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Megan Morrow In-Class Writing 02.25.10
The top three Entertainment: Celebrity blogs for Technorati are:
1. Just Jared
2. Cele|bitchy
3. popbytes
The top three Entertainment: Celebrity blogs for this month on Digg are:
1. That's Right, Firefly > Twilight
2. Amazing Morgan Freeman Impression
3. Heart Attack-inducing Pic of Christina Hendricks
The main difference between Technorati and Digg is that Technorati rates whole websites/blogs, while Digg rates individual features, such as images, videos, and pages. The quality of the celebrity blogs rated by Technorati was high, and seemed to be very valid sites. However, Digg seemed to be more about entertainment.
Megan Byerly
The rating systems of digg.com and technorati.com are very different. Each post on digg.com is rated based on the number of "diggs" it receives. Technorati Authority is calculated a bit differently. It is based on the sites linking activity. Depending on what is going on in the blogosphere and what topics are being discussed, will make the popularity of certain sites on technorati rise and fall.
After looking at top three posts under entertainment on digg.com which were Conan O'Brien is now on Twitter!, Jon Stewart Sums Up Everything That is Wrong with America, and the top three under entertainment on technorati.com which were Kotaku, Joystiq, and Just Jared, it seems to me that digg.com has a much more effective blog. I liked the top three posts on digg.com much more than I did the top three posts that I found on technorati.com. I found the quality of the posts on digg.com to be much more informative and effective. The rating system on digg.com seems to be much more effective than that of technorati.com, but it also greatly depends on the type of posts you are interested in. People do not all like the same things, so a post that I find interesting make lack diggs because other people find that post boring.
jillian baylor
Technorati evaluates their content by which blogs are the most popular based on how many hits they get over the internet. They also feature the top 5 "moving" blogs, which are the top 5 blogs that have recently gained popularity and rapidly moved up the top 5 blogs list. Technorati also features the latest articles regarding your topic.
Digg evaluates their content based on user opinions. Their users can "digg" something they like, the more diggs an article has the higher it is on the Most Recent article list. You can choose to view the popular articles based on Most Recent, Top in 24hrs, 7 days, 30 days, and 365 days. After you select an article to read that interests you, after you click the link Digg takes you to the article on the actual blog it came from.
My topic of interest was Music. On the Technorati website the top 3 music blogs were CMT, Consequence of Sound, and Pop & Hiss. On Digg, the top 3 music articles were "I-Tunes Sells 1 Billion Songs" from the Billboard website, a video on youtube "Rickroll Removal Was a Mistake" from mashable.com and "Stories This Amazing Only Happen Once Every Four Years" from diggtheolympics.com.
I think the articles I found from the Digg website would be more interesting to me rather than the blogs recommended from the Technorati search engine. I also feel as though I wouldn't want to be necessarily forwarded to a website without a purpose or article to read. I need something that will draw me into that website rather than browsing around on the blog without a motive. In reality, that takes up too much time. I also feel as though since the first blog that came up on Technorati was a commercialized (CMT) blog anyway I could have used google to get those results. I think the results Technorati gives are only helpful for those unfamiliar with the internet, like for an older crowd. I think its more effective for a website to sort their content based on user opinions rather than based on hits, then filtering and editing that information.
In-Class Writing on Feb. 25
2. Compare the rating system of each site. In what ways does each site evaluate content (or blog)?
3. On the top menu, click the area in which you are most interested. (Technology, business, entertainment…). Find out the top three posts (or blogs) in the area.
4. What do you think about the quality of the top three content on Technorati and Digg. Discuss the effectiveness of the rating systems.
5. Post your writing on the class blog. (odu366.blogspot.com)
6. If you don’t finish in class, you can post your writing by Friday, Feb. 26.
Rachel Dennett In-class writing assignment comm 366
The main difference between the rating systems on the site are that technorati uses a computerized rating system, in comparison with Digg, which makes use of a interaction between the consumers and the site for an also very effective rating system. Technorati uses the topical authority system to allow for quick, fast ratings of the posts. It is very effective, but less interactive in my opinion. I would much rather see a post that is ranked by another person, in comparison is a computerized post.
The topic I chose on Technorati is gaming. The top three posts on gaming are:
- Kotaku
- Joystiq
- Xbox Live's Major Nelson
The topic I chose on Digg is also gaming. The top three posts on gaming are:
- Modern Warfare 2 -Top 10 luckiest kills
- MoProUSA shows off fully integrated Wiimote pistols, tempts investors (video)
- What to do if your accelerator pedal sticks??
All of these blogs are extremely interesting and the main difference that I notice are that the rating systems are extremely different, but both very effective.
I prefer Digg.com's rating system because it is humans rating the posts. I like to see the comments to see what people have to say about the posts. Both of these websites are great and informational.
Katy Townsley
"Stephen Colbert Takes on the Russians in Bubble Hockey"
"Batman and Superman Battle for Highest Price Comic"
"Students Teach Target Stores to Improve Energy Efficiency"
Technorati authority chose their top stories based on a 0-1000 scale. Digg chose their top stories by the number of "diggs" or positive ratings. Since Technorati has a computer based system to chose their stories, I think they are more accurate. Public opinion is not the best way to decide which stories to display on the front page.
Michael Galoppa
Digg and Technorati highlight popular links and make it easy for people to recognize what is the current trend in popular internet links. I like both of them, but I would be more intrested in Technorati, because it tallies without the need to "Digg." On the other hand, Digg makes it content more reliable, because people must "Digg" a topic for it to receive points. Technorati may show us what subjects are popular, but Digg shows us what people like.
Danielle Bevacqua
Digg.com's rating system is user driven. The amount of "digg's" a post gets, the more attention and higher up on their list it becomes. This system is not computer-based, making it all about the users of Digg to have their opinions at the forefront.
After viewing the first three sites on Digg.com, I chose the Lifestyle category, and the top three stories were (in order), "The Decline in Pop Culture in Two Photos," "Astonishing Illusion of Cave in Middle of London," "Breaking: GM to shut down Hummer; sale of brand canceled."
I also chose the Lifestyle category on Technorati, and the top three stories were: "Meditation Helps You Grow Inside and Out," "Students Protest AT&T Coverage," and "Hannah Teter's Charity Set up for Long-term Good."
Out of both sets of Top 3, I liked Digg's more. I also personally like the system Digg has- it is more user-interaction. Although I think Technorati's system is rather intersting, and I would be interested in learning the coding for it, I find that I like Digg's system more, simply due to the fact that it is more user involved.
In-Class Writing 2/25 Brenton Sharpe
Technorati: Sports- Football Channel:
1) LaDainian Tomlinson Released by the San Diego Chargers
2) 10 Small School Players to Watch at the NFL Combine
3) Your AFC East pre-comine mocktacular
Digg: Sports- American & Canadian Football:
1) Admiral Ackbar as Ole Miss Mascot: It's Not a Trap!
2) Eagles Release RB Brian Westbrook
3) Former Patriots Standout Mosi Tatupu Dead at 54
The main difference between Technorati and Digg is that Technorati rates whole websites/blogs, whereas Digg rates individual blogs. Both were very streamlined and easy to navigate and read- each with a unique color scheme, but overall both sites were interesting.
Andy Hamm
Based on the two rating systems, I personally prefer the "Digg" rating system. I find that just because many people have visited a website doesn't necessarily mean that the information is quality. With Digg I am able to more effectively discern the interesting articles from the lame.
With Technorati Authority I found that the top 3 articles on the 2010 Winter Olympics were found on these websites...
1. The Huffington Post
2. Engadget
3. Gizmodo
Kenneth Applegate
Right off the bat, I notice that Sports on both isn't exactly laid out the way I'd like it to be. Pretty sure there's a picture of BASKETBALL that remains top on the technorati section even after clicking the Baseball sub-heading, and on digg there's a remedy for toyota floor-mats smack in the middle. The ratings on Technorati seem to be out of 1000 pts, but the top 3 blogs at the moment are shy of a couple points, still respectable though. The ratings on Digg seem to be more sporadic as readers can 'digg' the item and boost its credibility.
I feel that the Digg rating systems are a lot more legit than the Technorati system, seeing as the Digg rating is for EACH blogpost, not the writer as a whole. By looking at it this way, if the author on technorati has a good reputation, then posts a faulty article, not many first-glancers will notice because the average rating will only be altered so much. Technorati starts at 1000 and works its way down, while Digg starts at 0 and works it's way up.
right now the top 3 on technorati are
Bleacher report, mlb rumors and deadspin
and on digg, which is olympic-flooded right now is
That Is Just Cold, Canada... (Pic)
NBC's Broken Olympic Coverage Annoys Absolutely Everyone
USA Beats Canada in Men's Hockey Showdown
Matthew McCracken
When it comes to Digg.com, the way an individual rates a story is simply by either liking or disliking. They label it as a "Digg" if an individual enjoys the story while if you dislike it, you may click "bury" to the story. On the other hand, Technorati is rated by a term called Technorati Authority. This is where stories and blogs are rated by "calculation of a site's linking behavior, categorization, and other associated data over a short, finite period of time."
Comparing the two rating systems and the top content on both sites, I feel as if Digg's rating system is more simple, but yet more effective. Although Technorati authority is not difficult to understand, I feel as if there is too much thought going into it. I feel that once you are on top as an author on Technorati, you are there to stay whether or not your articles are good or not. When reading an article or blog, one can usually tell within a minute whether or not they are interested in the topic at hand, or if they feel that reading the rest of it would be a waste of time. With Digg, any individual can respond to an article or blog simply by "digging it" or "burying it" based off their own interests while Technorati is based off a system's calculations of visitation to the site. I just feel that both are good websites, but Digg is more convenient for more individuals around the world.
Digg top 3:
James Cameron discusses Na'vi boobs
Guy dumps his cheating girlfriend live on radio
Stay classy Canada
Technorati top 3:
Conan O Brian begins tweeting
Yahoo and Twitter Team up for Content Sharing
American Idol Down to 20
Ina Chandler
On Technorati the top three posts for entertainment section are Kotaku, Joystiq, and Just Jared. The top three posts for the entertainment section on Digg are Conan O'Brien on Twitter, Jon Stewart sums up everything that is wrong with America, and I experience numbers as fails.
The quality of the top three in the entertainment section on Technorati is less important entertainment to me than Digg. Technorati's top three are about video games, Nintendo and Saturday night live so I feel those are not very interesting in entertainment. Therefore, I feel Digg has a more effect rating system because the posts are more related to entertainment. Celebrities are more interesting to people because they are entertaining. So Digg is more effective because the content in the entertainment section is more related to popular entertainment.
William Viola
Technorati Sports:
1. Figgy, Takahashi kick off Grapefruit League
2. Michigan, Rich Rodriguez and AD David Brandon Address the NCAA Investigation into Alleged Extra Practice Violations
3. Jets take a LaLook at LaBoy
Digg Sports:
1. Cubs Manager Lee Elia's Famously Profane Tirade
2. Lassila's comeback ends with gold in aerials
3. Germans Take Surprise Gold In Giant Slalom
After visiting both sites it feels as though both work very well in their own ways. Both site seem to have a high level of quality for their articles. I seem to prefer the Technorati site more than the Digg site due to the fact that it seems to have less of an opportunity for user error. The Tehnorati Authority system seems to have a well placed formula for establishing the most important information based on quality content where as Digg uses a system based on what is most recently added.