Canvas- Web 2.0 stratigy

The key here is to include interactivity- to be able to allow the readers to include their own content and to allow them to discuss and be involved in the news stories that are involving them. Probably the best way to do this would be to include an online forum- a place where people can impart their opinions.

It's a counterpart for the actual newspaper. But something that is updated more regulary.

Competitor Analysis- Pluto (UCLan)

Pluto is the free uni paper of the University of Central Lancaster. Their online site is pretty much an extention of this.

Setions on the site include: News (which in itself covers Student, Local, National and International news) Sport, Entertainment, Features and Comment.

The content of the site has not been updated since March. It seems that they are relying heavily on the stories that are produced from the paper itself for content, which does not indicate a site that is updated regularily. This is not necessarily a problem, unless they had intended it to be in the first place.

There is a section ready for comment- perhaps a message board or forum of some sort, however no content has been put on there yet.

PDF versions of the actual newspaper are avaliable to be downloaded off the site and there is an RSS feed option too.

The unique feature on the site is that there is a link to the editor's blog. The rolling news bar at the top of the page features links to different articles on the blog. However, this too has not been updated recently.

Overall, there is actually a lot on content on the site itself, but the lack of updated and recent news lets the site down. It is seemingly a side project for the main newspaper and nothing else.

www.pluto-online.com

Web 2.0 on News Sites- The Guardian

The Guardian Website is one of the more user friendly newspaper sites out there. It's interface is clear, clean and simple to navigate, if a bit text heavy. It has scrolling headlines at the top of the page which keeps the reader up to date with the news that is currently taking place.

The main thing that I am looking for is the amount of interactivity that the site actually offers. Along with comment section, the are blogs on the site, a vital part of web 2.0- however, it is unclear whether that these blogs are maintained by the everyday reader of actual writers and contributors for the Guardian. On closer inspection, it seems like the latter. Perhaps it was an initiative that wasn't very successful and therefore they have left it to actual journalists to partake in blog keeping on the site.

However, there is still the opertunity in commenting on the blogs and the comment sections of the site, which does allow some form of interactivity. Also, one can obtain RSS feeds from the site for up to date news from the site. It seems like The Guardian's Web 2.0 stratigy is more along the lines of immediacy than interactivity.

Online Features- Time Magazine

I decided to do the feature that was on the Time Magazine's website because Top lists generally do interest me, whatever they may be- if it is the Top Ten Worst Hairstyles in Pop or The Greatest Cartoons Ever Poll.

By looking at the page I was directed to by looking at the link I straight away knew that this was not going to be anything different from perhaps a counterpart that could have been quite easily included in an end-of-year 6 page special in the actual magazine. The only difference being that each specific part of the chart has its own page (I choose this particular page as I am a big "Heroes" fan and I am very dissapointed that it was ranked so low down their Top Ten TV list- below "Lost", I ask you!) but even then, you can only move onto the next part of the list by clicking in the generic 'next' button- numbers cannot be jumped, which could make the article more tedious to read online.

Another online-specific feature its that you could jump from one topic to the next through the use of links. However, this is something not particulary revolutionary- more like a necessity for a webpage.

Time.com haven't actually done something specific to Online journalism. They have uploaded a feature that could have pretty much been copied and pasted onto a webpage from a word document destined for the magazine.

The Dilpazier Aslam Issue

Dilpazier Aslam was the controversial journalist who got sacked from the Guardian after writing an article about the July 7th bombings in London. The problem was that he was a member of the banned Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, a piece of information that he negleted to tell his readers and/or the Guardian.

The information was discovered by Scott Burgess, a world-reknowed conservative blogger who is an American living in London. What he picked up on was the language that Mr Aslam used to describe his opinion of the London bombings. After a range of topical posts on his blog, Mr Aslam was finally confronted about the issue.

The Hot Librarian- Work Blog

I'm doing this now because I forgot that we actually had to talk about our comments :O

The Hot Libriarian is a weird sort of work blog- mainly because she hardly talks about her work, but about her seemingly mad life and the events that happen therein. All her housemates are bloggers to, and must get a lot of hits because she talks about them alot (whether this is significant or not, all her housemates are male... maybe that gives a clue to why she is how she is?)

She has been blogging since 2004 which means she has been doing this for quite a long while in internet terms plus in thats time she has been able to build a large fanbase of readers with simular mindsets.

I commented on her blog not only because I found it hilarious but because I felt like if I joined into the discussion, I could have fit into a small community all thinking the same thing. Also, her style of blogging and storytelling is simular to my style and to other people's work that I take interest in (the author Louise Rennison, for example, in her Georgia Nicholson diaries, and Ros Asquith)

The Hot Librarian may not be a typical work blog and does not give any insight into the world of Librarians, but it does show an interesting style of blogging that does interest people.

Critical Evaluation of LDNY

The whole idea of a London/New York blog for young metropolitan business people was something that was different and very niche. Yet, it was also one of the things that caused us issues. None of the group were between 25-40 or business people, so we weren't entirely sure on how to target our particular audience. In my case, some of the things that I reviewed that would have interested me (Avenue Q and Wicked for example) might not appeal to others.

Another problem that we encountered was that none of us currently live in London or New York so we couldn't give our own personal opinion about the things that we were reviewing. Pictures and other people's opinions could only give you so much information. For London, it wouldn't have been such a problem as the city centre is only a short train ride away, but for NY it's more difficult to venture to another city across the Atlantic.

In the case of the blog itself, the layout that we had to work with hindered our aim a bit at the title of the blog was in lowercase when we wanted it to be in Capital Letters. Also, the blog's caption was tucked away in a corner in the right of the page nowhere near the title so it's association was lost. The layout itself could have been more eyecatching and appealing to our audience but it seemed a bit plain to look at which may have put off people visiting the blog.

For my personal post, I thought I did quite well. I was able to stick to the style required for the blog, which was very close to my own style. The only problems were a few spelling mistakes but apart from that, it was good.