In Class Today

In class today, students will briefly present the sites they examined in detail for the OPJ in Kazakhstan assignment. Using the computer at the front of the room, show us the site you examined and tell us what you discovered. In particular, show us what about the site makes you think makes it more or less and example of online participatory journalism.

Question for class today

Throughout this course we have been trying to understand the internet as a socio-technical system–a system that is defined both by technologies and what they enable people to do, and by social relationships, conditions, and expectations of people.

In asking whether there is or could be online participatory journalism in Kazakhstan, we also need to consider socio-technical issues. Many have come up in our recent readings.

Today in class we will brainstorm ideas, drawing on and hopefully going beyond the readings. The question I want you to consider: What social or technical factors influence the opportunity for OPJ to work effectively in Kazakhstan?

Some ideas from class:

•  Personal motivation
• Fear of punishment
• Atmosphere of free speech
• Atmosphere in which people speak out
• Lack of unity–need for sense of social cohesion
• Trust
• Economics

Today in class: Bloglines and Google Blog Search

Today in class I will introduce two tools that you can use in gathering information online:

• Google Blog Search
• The Bloglines feed reader

Please visit this link: http://www.bloglines.com/

At that site, follow the “register” link (in the upper right corner) and set up a subscription to Bloglines. You will need to check your email a couple of times for confirmation emails.

Once your account is set up, subscribe to our course feed by clicking the “add” button, pasting this URL in the popup window (http://newinfotechs3.wordpress.com/feed/) and filling out the form.

Finally, try subscribing to each of the weblogs (both group and individual) of the other students in the course.

Today in Class

Today in class we will look at some of the ways to use graphics on your site. We will also discuss some issues related to managing your group projects.

Most people have given me their group project links, titles, and names. (Check our Links page to see yours and others.) If you have not given me the information yet, please do so right away.

Some requirements for the group project:

• Each group member must use his or her own individual login when posting on the site (otherwise you won’t get credit for your work);
• Choose a theme for the site that has a sidebar and also creates an “authored by” and “authored on” line for each entry.

<h2>Our Feed</h2><br><a href=”http://newinfotechs3.wordpress.com/feed“><img src=”http://newinfotechs3.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/grin.jpg” width=”100%” alt=”smile!” /></a>

In Class Today: Setting Up Group Weblogs

In class today we will set up the group weblogs you will use for your final projects.

At this point, you should know:

• The names of the members of your group;
• A title for your publication (this can change, but you should settle on a final title very soon in order to promote your site identity);
• Some ideas for your URL (_____.wordpress.com) (once set this cannot change, so choose carefully–try to pick something that is related to your site idea, is short, and is easy to remember).

Once you have settled on the information, choose one person from the group to create the site. The initial steps of setting up the site will be done by this person only, and are exactly the same as setting up an individual site.

1. Go to wordpress.com and login;
2. From the initial screen, click the “register another blog” link;
3. Follow the menu items to set up your new group weblog;
4. Once the new site is created, navigate to that site’s dashboard and click the “Users” button;
5. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and enter one of your groupmates’ email addresses in the box (this must be the same email he/she used to join wordpress) and, in the dropdown box below, select “administrator,” then click “Add User”
6. Repeat step 5 above for each group member.

As each new member is added, he/she should receive an invitation that makes it possible to contribute to the site.

Once you have permission to contribute to more than one side, you will see upon your initial login to WordPress a box with links allowing you to select which site you work on. Always be careful you are working on the site you intend to work on. Check the top you your dashboard, which will always tell you which site you are logged in to.

Once your site is set up (and no later than 1 pm Friday), provide the name of your project, the names of your group members, and your project URL as a comment on this entry.

Once we have done this, I will give you a chance to post some test entries. If there is time available, we will also look at posting graphics to your wordpress sites.

Exercise: Participatory Journalism Online

In class on Monday we discussed participatory journalism as it is described in the We Media report. Today in class we will do a group exercise. Each group will look at one of the following sites (you will have about 20 minutes). Working together, look at your site and try to determine what might (or might not) make it “journalism” and how the site does (or does not) promote participation. Consider both technical and social issues.

I will consult with each group as you work. Be prepared after 20 minutes to share what you found in a brief presentation to the class.

1. neweurasia.net
2. The New York Times
3. OhMyNews
4. The Guardian
5. Baristanet

Today in Class–Friday 7 September

Due Monday: A blogroll on your site with links to our main course weblog and to all the student weblogs from this course, and an aggregator feed from a site of your choice. (This should be different from our in-class example.)

On Wednesday we got through most of our tasks to make sure your weblogs have their interactive features enabled. At this point you should have set your weblog so that users can leave comments and “pings” on your site without need for you to approve comments.

Someone should have tested your site and left at least one comment, someone else one ping. Please check your site and make sure you see these things. If not, ask a neighbor to try to leave a comment and a ping now so you can be sure your site works properly. If there are problems, please check with me.

Today we will set up a blogroll and an aggregator feed on your site.

A blogroll is a list of links to other blogs that sits in your sidebar. It is usually used to provide you and your visitors a way to find information you find useful (for whatever reason).

An aggregator feed is a specially formatted part of a weblog that allows other people to capture and republish what someone else is posting on their website.

We will talk in more detail about each of these tools later on. For now I want to show you some examples and to show you how to set up these tools on your own site.

Here are some example sites:

neweurasia.net

Teaching Online Journalism

In Class Today: Enabling Interactive Features

Today in class we will enable some of the interactive features on your weblogs. I will demonstrate:

• Enabling open commenting (Options, Discussion, Allow people to post comments–Comment author must fill out name and email–and save)
• Enabling trackback/pings (Options, Discussion, Allow link notifications from other weblogs–and save)
• Finding a syndication/RSS feed (Teaching Online Journalism as an example)
• Posting someone else’s syndication feed on your weblog (Find the feed and copy the link, then Presentation, Widgets, Drag “RSS” widget into sidebar, copy link into widget, and save)

For Friday, your weblogs should have:

1. Your entry on interactivity completed and published
2. Open commenting enabled (i.e. comments are posted without need for moderating)
3. Trackback pings enabled
4. At least one published RSS feed from another website of your choice on your site

If you need more instruction on doing these things, be sure to consult the WordPress online documentation.

29 August: In class today

I have created a page with links to all the weblog addresses students have posted on this site. Please take a moment to check the page and be sure the link to your site is there and that it is working properly. If it is missing or there is a problem with the link, please let me know so it can be corrected. If there is no link to your site on this page, then you haven’t completed the first assignment due by 1pm today.

What are “new information technologies”?

Today in class we will discuss some important terms for the course as we give a preliminary answer to the question, “What are New Information Technologies?” We will begin with a brief definition:

New information technologies (NITs) are digital, networked, interactive, socio-technical systems for gathering, producing, and distributing information.

• Digital: Information is converted into computer-readable formats consisting of electronic signals. Digitization makes information compact (meaning it can be transmitted quickly and stored easily), easily duplicated, and uniform (information formats are the same as far as the computer is concerned).
• Networked: Linked in an inter-connected and inter-dependent system.
• Interactive: Communication is generally two-way rather than one-way.
• Socio-Technical: The characteristics of the system are based both on technical elements (what tools can do) and on social elements (what people choose to do or to allow).

The internet is one of the most obvious examples of an NIT we will explore. In our discussion today, we will compare the internet to some “old” information networks: wired telephone and wireless broadcast radio and television.