My Thoughts on the Crowding Effect of the Internet
Ever since I started on this class I’ve begun to notice various things online that I never really took notice of before. For one thing I have come to the realization that the popularity of online retailers such as Amazon.com is similar to the popularity enjoyed by Wal-mart wherein their brand image and name causes more people to purchase from them as compared to other retailers. In fact I can even go so far to say that Amazon.com is similar to Wal-mart in such a way that it causes the same crowding out effect that a single Wal-mart outlet does in a particular area. Amazon.com practically dominates the online retail industry with its selection of products and services, the problem with this though is that a crowding out effect occurs wherein due to the fact that people visit URL’s of websites they know versus those they’ve never even heard of before people are more likely to purchase from Amazon.com as compared to other sites.
Expectations from Class
I can say with confidence that based on my own daily use of the internet I have already have attained a rather prolific knowledge of various internet terminologies applications and methods of networking. While I am sure that this class will give me new insights as to other methods that I could have possibly neglected I believe that what will be taught won’t be anything particularly new. While such a statement may seem that I am overconfident the fact remains that I have the experience to back up my bravado.
Experiences So Far
My experience in class so far has been rather average, I wouldn’t say that the lesson itself is boring since some parts are rather interesting however as I mentioned in my previous post most of what is being taught are concepts which I have already picked up from just using the internet. On the other hand I have to state that knowing where particular terminologies and applications originated from is indeed quite interesting. As such I can say that the class has a rough balance of the bland and the interesting wherein the interesting lectures and lessons barely make up for the bland topics that I already know and am bored of hearing.
Library wiki
The goal of this particular wiki is describe the available services, types of literature available and helpful staff at the library. As such this particular wiki can be utilized by students in the future should they want to know more about the library and what services they can obtain out of it. The library that will be served is (place name of library here) with the population to be served being the various students who come in and out of the library. A simple placard or sign can be placed near the entrance of the library with a URL of the libraries wiki in order for students to know where to go if they have any inquiries. Due to limited budget constraints the website www.wikispaces.com will be used since it has a free service for various small wiki plans that can be utilized for the libraries purposes. If expansion is needed the site also offers a $1,000 a year plan for organizations that can be utilized if the need arises.
Differences / similarities between a stand along RSS feed and RSS feed
An RSS feed (Rich Site Summary), is basically a headline, story summary or even the full contents of a particular article of written news which is taken from a site and a blog and usually has a link to the original version. Stand alone RSS feeds on the other hand are based on a type of application that gathers various RSS files from particular websites that a person can populate as needed based on current likes or dislikes in terms of topics wanted. As such a stand alone RSS feed can be considered an aggregate of various different topics from a plethora of websites combined into a single feed that a user can peruse at their leisure. A blog RSS feed on the other hand is primarily concerned only with the content on the blog itself and updates based on new entries into the blog. While both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages such as stand alone feeds at times getting buried among other feeds or blog RSS feeds rarely being read at all due to its inability to better connect with other online users it is recommended that for any person that wishes people to view the content of their blog or want access to more individuals that can peruse their work utilizing both methods is recommended in order to achieve the desired result.
Reflection
To be honest I actually found this assignment to be very interesting since I never tried to become an online blogger before. My reluctance to participate in such an activity stems from the fact that I happen to enjoy keeping my own thoughts regarding events, subjects and even people to myself. My previous assumptions regarding blogging all stem from the fact that I am a deeply private individual who enjoys solitude, silence and above all a distinct detachment from having to communicate every single facet of my life to other people. I even find the concept of twitter to be rather weird since I find very little reason to actually divulge what I do on a daily basis to people I barely know. After this particular assignment in which I attempted to broadcast my thoughts to others reading what I wrote I found myself rather enjoying having people read what I personally thought about certain circumstances and events. I guess it can be said that having people read something which you wrote and for them to actually like it brings an inexplicable feeling of joy. On the other hand, I still refuse to divulge any secrets regarding my daily life. While I have noticed that some people have started to become more deeply personally with their blogs, for me such an action just invites trouble. In the future I actually do plan to write another blog but I will not utilize the blog I created for this assignment. Rather I’ll make an entirely new one and put my own personal touches to the overall design. Right now I find myself rather grateful that such an assignment was given to us since it has give me an entirely new perspective on how I can interact with people and have them listen to what I have to say.