Keeping a blog at university

In regards to the debate over students being encouraged to keep a blog whilst at university course studies and after they have graduated, I tend to agree with what Paul Bradshaw said and what Neil McIntosh said last month in their own respective blogs. I think it is more than obvious that whilst you are studying online journalism that you have to keep a blog of some sort. Otherwise, you're sort of defeating the objective of the course itself.

There's also other reasons to keeping a blog during the course. If you maintain a blog well over the typical three years at uni then you will:

1. Get regular feedback and suggestions to improve it.
2. The writing quality will get better and better.
3. As you find a placement, you will have a portfolio blog with lots of entries that show off your skills as an online journalist.

That's what I would like to get out of the course I am doing anyway - the oppurtunity to improve my skills and to be in a position a couple of years down the line where I am in an employable position. People like Dave Lee have put hard work into their blogs and have found ultimately found a new career, whilst studying at university. That is because they used their time at university effectively, and have thus built quite an extensive portfolio, which would easily impress any potential employer.

As for what employers look for, I still think that the actual writing side is the most important aspect. At least, that's what I'd like to think anyway. But other skills that they look for is:

1. Use of the media that is available to them (video, podcasts etc)
   
2. How aesthetically pleasing their blogs look
3. Blog maintenance skills (and by that I mean updating regularly, making sure everything on the blog works and isn't broken).

Internet statistics

From Internet Stats

• 1,319,872,109 thousand people use the Internet.
• 38.7% of users are from Asia.
• The word growth average of users across the world from 2000-2007 is 265.5%.
• 20% of users around the world use the Internet regularly.
• 71.7% of North American users use the Internet regularly.
• In Europe, Germany is the country that uses the Internet the most, followed by the United Kingdom and then France.

In the UK, according to National Statistics:

• 84% of households have a broadband connection.
• 65% of men and 55% of women use the Internet.
• Whilst a slightly higher proportion of men use the Internet for shopping, women buy clothes and groceries over the Internet more than men.
• Most UK users use the Internet to check their e-mail. Other main uses include shopping and just general browsing.

The net population has definitely grown considerably in the last decade, making the potential audiences for blog sites extremely substantial. However, the stats also show that the Internet is used for various reasons.

First ever blogger?

This site was created in 1987 and but the same site also claims that in 1983 'Mod.ber' was created by Brian Redman...

The Chicago Reader was created in 1985 according to this post...

This article claims that the blog is 10 years old, so, in effect, Dave Winer created the longest-running web log (Scripting News).

Halo research

Bad review
Bungie and Microsoft split
Church using Halo as incentive
Fastest selling game
First week sales
GameSpot review
Game rankings data
Halo in Japan
Halo Wiki page
Halo 2 Wiki page
Halo 3 Wiki page
Industry perspective
Video games as art

Lewis Hamilton article response

Hamilton Zeroes In On Greatness

This was an article I found on BBC Sport's website. It's a poor title for article in my opinion (when did 'zeroes' become a verb?!?). It is, however, like every other sports/motorsports website I would safely assume, in full praise of Lewis Hamilton. It got me wondering whether Lewis Hamilton is over-praised, or whether he is indeed the real deal.

Make no mistake about it, I do think Lewis Hamilton is the best British Formula 1 driver of recent times. His talents are clearly there for all to see; a brave, skillful and confident driver who isn't afraid to take risks and really go for it when the odds are against him.

When compared to Jenson Button and David Coulthard, drivers who were both really overly-hyped at times by the British media, it is refreshing to see a driver come from complete obscurity to become one of the newest sporting heroes of this country.

There is also no doubting that his success will get more people into the sport. If any sport needed more interest, it's Formula 1. It has long been without a role model who could not only win championships but perform at the top level consistently, something of which he has the potential to do. Even the last British world champion, Damon Hill, has only won the World Championship once.

He has also been frankly honest about his own thoughts, and the psychological effect in some of his thoughts could be evident. All last weekend he was bashing Fernando Alonso, saying that he doesn't want to be his team mate next year.

Mr Benson makes a fair suggestion in his report that maybe it is right to speculate whether his comments did have some effects on Alonso's mindset. Before the weekend, Alonso had all the momentum in the paddock. Now, one race, and one crash later, Alonso has slowly resigned himself to the fact that the title is out of his grasp.

But Formula 1 nowadays isn't just an individual sport. Results can be affected by other factors. Hamilton's skills as a driver is only one part of his success story. The fact that he has been with McLaren effectively since he was a pre-teen is the best kick-start to a career you could have hoped for. Not only that, McLaren have recovered well from the disappointing season beforehand and are now once again a competitive team...

And yet they go and ruin it all by involving themselves in such drama as 'spygate' and lose all their constructor's points.

Lewis Hamilton can thank his lucky stars that he and Fernando Alonso didn't get stripped of their driver's points. It's a debate that in the fickle and political world of F1 will never go away. My view is that the driver's points should have been stripped with the constructor's points and that McLaren should have been denied the chance to compete in the remaining four races of the season. But then again, when was the last time you saw anything in F1 that had no traces of farce? I can't remember either.

The reliability of other teams have also helped McLaren. If Ferrari had been consistent in their challenge to McLaren all season, a driver like Kimi Raikkonen, who proved last weekend what an immense talent he is (he started the race in 21st position and finished a brilliant 3rd) might have had a real chance to make the title race much more interesting.

But, for the meantime, we'll have to wait until next season to see if this championship was just a rookie fluke or not. Whatever you may think about the factors that have almost helped Hamilton make his mark in the sporting history books, he should still be congratulated; not just for winning a championship, but getting through the year without being embroiled too much in politics and for not losing his nerve.

The one thing I do hope for though is that the Lewis Hamilton doesn't turn into a one-man version of the Ashes cricket team and/or the England Rugby World Cup winning team and suffer one massive hangover.

Who Ate All The Pies

Who Ate All The Pies is a football blog, although it's not a serious one. It posts frequently each weekday - on the 24th September, there were 14 entries posted up to 'What was Marco van Basten doing at the Chelsea game?' - and the blog is written by more than one person. Every post is tagged so if someone wanted to search for a story about Chelsea, they could just click the tag link, which would then take them to a list of stories under the tag. There are also sister blogs for certain football teams like Arsenal, Manchester United etc. The entries that are posted have a varied subject matter, ranging from news and rumours to match reports to more humorous posts. The tone of most of it's posts seem to be very light-hearted.

Users can interact with the site in a variety of ways. It has permalink, allowing users to see the blog post on it's own. Users can also comment on posts, although to do that they must also enter a security code for security reasons, and they can also rate the article via other social networking sites like Digg. Users can also become a member of the site by signing up to the community. They can set up their own profile and they can submit videos.

The layout of the site is good. Whilst, compared to other football blogs, it offers a lot more in the way of features, it doesn't appear cluttered; instead it is tiny and efficient. The variation of the posts is also a plus point as is the humourous side to the writing.

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