Exegesis

Web 2.0 offers numerous kinds of blogging tools for users to choose. I have chosen Blogspot.com as the platform of my web presence creation assignment. I had tried a few websites before, but I found that Blogspot.com is easier and more convenience for users. Blogspot.com provided many gadgets and widgets for their users to enhance their blogging experience.

Besides that, Blogspot.com enabled html and java script for users to customize their blog templates and layouts. I had chosen pink and white templates as my blog template to match my blog theme – Just a piece of Cake. Basically, my blog is about baking especially focused in cake. I have posted photos in every post to make my blog looked interesting. The photo background is going to make my blog looked messy and complicate. The combination of pink and white is comfortable and soft. I think it is suitable for my baking blog.

My blog is divided into two-columns. The left column’s width is larger for posts and the right column is known as sidebar, which all of my gadget will be displayed on the sidebar. I chose to put the sidebar on the right side because most people are right handed. It is smoother for readers to click on my gadgets.

I had set my font size on 12 and in dark pink color to match my theme. As I mentioned above, my background is in pink color. I found that light pink was not easy to read, so I decided dark pink for my font color. Spacing was set to make sure my readers are comfortable while they are reading. Elegant blog site is also one of my objectives to use the templates. So I had set my font to Italic to make my blog looks more elegant and special.

Meanwhile, I added some gadget to enhance reading experience of my readers. Below my header, I placed the link ‘Home’ so that reader can go back to first page easily. Some basic gadgets were added to my sidebar. For instance, ‘popular posts’ is added to showcase the most viewed post. In addition, a pink color clock widgets with date was added to my sidebar.

I have also included a follower box at my sidebar. Follower box is actually for my readers to follow my blog. My followers can link to my blog easily if they are also blogspot.com users. Other than that, I added a gadget “Follow by Email”. This gadget is especially for those who are not blogspot.com users; they can follow my blog by email. My update notification can be seen in their email account. Above the two follower gadgets, I had place an html gadget called button. “Do you Follow?” is written on it. The reason I put the button was to attract my readers to follow my blog. A comment box was available at the end of all of my posts. Readers can comment on my post or give feedback. It allows me to communicate with my reader easily.

The first contributing node that I used is Facebook. Facebook is one of the well-known social networking website that allows people to update their profile, share information, knowledge, and update their status. According to Strickland (n.d.), in January 2009, Facebook has earned No. 1 on the social networking site and turned out to be the most visited social networking site throughout the world as they beat Myspace with more than 10 million supporting visitors. Moreover, Facebook has a wide range of application such as updating profile, playing with games and it allows me to create a marketing strategy such as posting my link on my status for my friends to see and support my blog. Since it has great beneficial facilities, there is no reason for me not to use Facebook as my contributing node.

The second contributing node, which I have applied, is Twitter. The function of Twitter is a bit similar to Facebook such as creating new profile, update status, share information and knowledge. Twitter can also allow other people to “follow me” so that they become my friends and often see my updates. There are a lot of people started using Twitter as well and this social networking site gradually become famous. When we sign up for an account, we are able to follow different people like celebrities or well-known people such as writers, actors, athletes, astronauts, scientist and musicians (Jonathan n.d.). Since Twitter has the function of sharing or updating post, I could use Twitter to share out my blog post so that my own friends or other people who follow my Twitter can see my blog. This can help me to increase advertising of my blog.

Finally, RSS is the third contributing node that I used. The full term for RSS is Really Simple Syndication. “An RSS reader is a small software program that collects and displays RSS feeds, it allows you to scan headlines from a number of news sources in a central location,” (USA.gov 2012). Whenever we search for information, RSS makes it easier to be up-to-date with all the provided information. By using RSS, I can deliver all the information about my blog on the website with everything well organized by the program.

In conclusion, I think that Web 2.0 is very convenient to us because we can publish anything that we want on the Internet. Furthermore, social networking sites have become more and more popular for everyone to use. We can keep in touch with friends and family, share information and knowledge, and also creating blog to share our own knowledge and experience with others.

References:

What is RSS? (n.d.). Retrieved from USA. gov: http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference-Shelf/Libraries/RSS-Library/What-Is-RSS.shtml

Strickland, J. (n.d.). TOP 10 Social Networking Websites. Retrieved from Discovery News: http://news.discovery.com/tech/top-ten-social-networking-sites.html