I chose to write a book review/advice blog using wordpress. I am a member of several online book club communities on various sites such as Good Reads.  I contacted the groups and invited them to read my blog.  I also found several urban fiction blogs similar to mine on word press and I followed them and added their blogs to my blog links.  I asked them to follow me as well.  If I wrote a book review I found the author’s twitter address and told them to check out my blog.  I also joined a few blog promoting sites like The Sits Girls, and Blogaliscous.  These sites help drive viewers to your blogs if you comment on other members blogs. What worked best for me was sending twitter messages to the authors.  When I did a book review for Tamika Newhouse I sent her a message through twitter and she did a re-tweet, liked my review and then mentioned my blog on her blog site.  I had 59 views that day. Other artists that I did book reviews were not as poplar and I only recieved a few views from their readers.

I posted invitations on my personal twitter and facebook accounts for my friends to view my blogs and I only recieved a few views from those.   I noticed that blogs similar to mine had very little activity.  The bloggers had very few post over the last three weeks.  I’m thinking that they have busy schedules like mind and are finding it hard to post.

http://some1shouldhavetoldublog.wordpress.com/

https://twitter.com/some1shouldhave

Prior to this class I was always told not to use Wikapedia because it’s sources are unrealiable because any one can write the information.  However, after attempting to create a page have found that it is a very reliable source.  The information is verified. If the information is false the page will be deleted.

Last year I attempted to start a blog.  I found that I was too busy to do so. I’m still too busy to keep up but it has helped me create the blog that I said that  I wanted to a year ago.  It has been a learning experience. Right now I don’t now if I want to keep it up. I guess I will see.  If I do a good job at promoting it I will probably continue it.

I had a class a few semesters ago that used the Jenkins and the Levinson books.  I can say that this class  was more interesting.  The class I had previously talked about globalization and media. This class has  really helped to put me on a different path for my graduate research.

The Long Tail was a very interesting book and it has also given me ideas for my project.  Prior to reading this book I never really paid attention to the various Internet artists.  There are so many of them that have found a niche and are trying to get their 1000, true fans.

This class has helped me to be come familar with  audience fragmentation, collaborative production, and the pro-am generation.  I have also become familiar with a few TV shows and documentaries that I will look  at over the break on Netflix.

Technology has changed drastically over the years. It will continue to do so.  I find it funny that I am taking a class that allows me to surf the net and i can honestly say that I am not procrastinating but doing homework.

Over the years mainstream  media outlets have had a major influence over political elections. You can basically tell which candidate or political party a network supports by the number of positive and negative ads that are run for each candidate, by the type political talk shows that they air ,and the by number of negative stories they present for each candidate. These media outlets are suppose to stay neutral but their programming tells a different side.

Four years ago television and cable networks and major newspapers served as my information station to politics. I  viewed each major news station and read many articles about the different candidates in order to educate myself on each individual.  I watched  the debates, when I chose my candidates I received emails, joined their social websites. I stayed glued to the television on election night. when ever I  However, this election I was too busy to keep up with my normal avenues.

Most of my information came from twitter and facebook feeds.  I  occassionally watched the news.  I saw clips from the debates and I read a lot of political blogs.  I pretty much had my mind made up on who I was voting for before the candidates were announced. I preferred not to listen to the normal battery that candidates put the potential voters through.

I did meet a lot of new voters who used social media to gain information on the candidates. I noticed that there was a huge push to get people out to vote.  On just about every post on my news feed some one was posting about a candidate or a political party.  On the day of the election it seemed as if everyone was posting about the election. 

 One of the media outlets stated that social media was effecting the way people were voting. There were a lot of post urging people to stop posting about politics because their candidate appeared to be losing. At that point social media had no influence on the outcome because the voters had already made up there mind on who to vote for and had already voted.  

 People generally will vote how their parents vote. Social media has given new voters an opportunity to investigate and educate themselves  and make their own decisions.

The digital society has allowed  us to gain access to a variety of media outlets as well as connect to groups who share our interests.  We no longer have to follow the mainsteam news or interests groups.  Facebook, Youtube and other outlets allow us to gain knowledge about a variety of things via smartphones, laptops, and tablets  . Thru the media outlets we are able to have multiple choices. The new technology has also given brands many outlets to reach is various viewers .

Viewers have a choice as to how and when they want to interact with a brand. Brands have to decide how to interact with each audiecne. According to an article in Fobes magazine,  the televison audience and the digital media audiences are different and marketers have to find a diferent avenue to reach each.  

There  was once a  fear that the  digital would compete against television’s share of consumer attention, a study from the Harvard Review  found that, instead, consumers are  using both digital and television plat forms at the same time. The report indicated that there were spikes in tablet and mobile usage during prime-time TV viewing hours, as consumers research and interact with content related to what they are viewing.

Social media fragmentation  seems to be a problem with marketers and  businesses Mike Frey of Paradux Media Group has developed the following guide to help small business compete.

  Solving Your Social Media Fragmentation Problem

As business owners we make decisions on where to spend our time, allocate our budget and what battles to take up.  Social Media fragmentation is no different, and there is no one answer to social media fragmentation, as all businesses are different and have different needs.  So look at your social media fragmentation dilemma and try to simplify it this way.

• Facebook:  Still the family reunion, mainstream platform, best for having living room conversations, more about the continued relationships with your current customers and getting them to buy more frequently.
• Twitter:   A link building machine that can drive massive traffic to your website.  A great way to communicate and begin relationships with individuals who ARE NOT your current customers.  If your business is more regional or national than local, if you sell on-line, hard not to invest the time or money here.
• Linkedin:   A Chamber of Commerce conversation that should be relegated more towards the personal resume and achievement than your business.
• Google+:    Early adapters, geeks, IT people, individuals looking for the latest and greatest gadgets and toys.  SEO is going to play a larger role in the success of any business today.  A buzz word for 2012 is certainly going to be ‘findability’ and with Google + possibly becoming a factor in search engine results it’s worth a look from the ‘lost and found’ aspect alone.
• Pinterest:   Have a visual business where a picture can say a thousand words?  Pinterest is that platform.  With a great demographic to boot.  The individuals that I see spending time in Pinterest are some of the most difficult-to-reach individuals as well as the most coveted.

In the podcast Frannie Kelley makes a statemen that Johnathan Coulton was like a snuggie.  He was something we didn’ know we needed.  The main argument is the internet a good or bad thing for the music industry.   The podcast interviews believe that these new novelty artists are just passing. How ever, artist like Coulton have managed to make millions of dollars off of these songs.

There have been a number of artist like Coulton who have created a niche and are producing many hits on the internet.They have develop a business marketing plan that has helped to get there work out and have managed to make a living out of it.  Frannie Kelley and Jacob Ganz seems to believe that this plan will not work for everyone.  However, there are plenty of artists who have used the same method and are doing well in their niche.

Coulton has basically copied the plans of many internet artists  that produce and recieve profit from their work via the internet.  He does not have to answer to a record label.  He recieves all of his profits and he has a low overhead. He had no formal business plan, just an idea to sell his work on the internet like many others.

Coulton and his fans were offened by being called a snuggie, but as he pointed out the makers of the snuggie, some one who probably wanted a blanket that would allow them to use their hands, designed it and realized that there may be a market for it. They were right and  they have made millions of dollars from it.  They may never make another item but they have profitted from the one that they sold.   

Coulton has a large internet fan base and he will continue to create his novelty songs. The internet will continue to serve as a medium for artist to get their work to the public.  The internet does not hurt the music industry it only adds to it.  Not every artist can make it to the main stream media.  The internet allows the artist and fans to view those artist who do not make it.  It also allows these artist to keep full rights of their work.

I chose Emmanuel and Phillip Hudson. I think  these youn men are very talented and funny.  How they became poplar is very interesting.

http://ephudson.com/

The Wikipedia project was a fun experience for me. At first,  I had trouble finding a stub article that I could contribute useful information to.  I was looking up some information for a friend when I realized that one of my favorite self published authors page had been delted because the information could not be verified.  So I chose to resubmit the article for Tamika Newhouse.  I knew that she was infact an author because I own and have read several of her books.

Since I had never edited or contributed anything to Wikipedia, I looked for a few  stub articles that had mistakes.  I found a few and I made minor changes.  I then read the tutorial on how to resubmit an article. I also read the tutorials about how to use the Sandbox feature and how to cite references.  I then set up my sandbox to create my article. When creating an article you can request help from other users. I activated this function so that I could recieve help from others who were familar with her work.

The next step in my process was to look for information about Tamika Newhouse and find at least five different references. All of the information about her seem to say the same, but I was able to find information that referenced her publishing company, books, awards and interviews that she had done. The next process was to subit the article and wait to see if Wikipedia accepts or rejects the article.

I am still in the waiting process. I believe that I did provide enough references for the article that they will accept it.  However there was a lot of information about her but it all said the same things.  The article may be marked as a stub article that needs more information. I believe the article will grow in time.  The more books she writes and the more awards she wins will help increase the articles information.

I can’t wait to see the outcome.  If It gets rejected again then I will try again.  Over all as I mentioned before It was a great and fun learning experience about collective knowledge.

   Filters are a great way to block undesirable content from your emails.  Parents and  schools  use filters to block unwanted websites that may be inappropriate for children to view.  Business also use filters to block employees from looking at sites like Facebook and  Twitter while on company time. We use filters while shopping on the internet and conducting daily business.

My daughter wanted a pair of footed pajamas for her birthday.  I went on line and I did a search for footed pajamas.  One website had several categories to choose from. They had collegiate footed pj’s, costumes, animal prints and the list goes one.  I just wanted one pair I did not know that I would have to choose from so many options.

When you sign up for sites such as Netflix and Hulu Plus you are asked what type of movies and TV shows you like.  Based on you answers that you provide, a lists of recommended  television and movies are generated.  Through these filters I have run across some very good movies that never made it to the big screen.  I would have never found these movies while searching Netflix’s large database of movies.

Advertisers use filters to help drive business to their websites. I did two voice over commercial for a friends tax business in January.  She decided  to advertise on Youtube instead of placing the ad on the radio or television.  The first  ad was taken off of the website because one of the phrases chosen was caused red flags to come up.  The internet police blocked the commercial and his Google account because he used the  words tax preparation and fast money as filter words. These phrases put together would be considered to be fraudulent activity by IRS standards.

  When setting up your filters you need to be careful that you are not using words that may mislead people and cause your account to be shut down.  You also have to use a lot of phrases and words in order to draw the audience to your site. Filters can prove to be a great time saver if the proper key words are used.

Pod-casting has become one of the most easiest form to obtain entertainment. You can download a podcast on just about any topic. Pod-casts origin stems from blogging. Blogging allows people to share thoughts, frustrations  and rants about any topic via the internet.

With the development of RSS feeds, fans can subscribe to their favorite bloggers news feeds and receive alerts when they post a new entry.  Not only do fans receive news feeds about our favorite bloggers or topics they receive news feed about similar bloggers. Developers made the ability to transfer large pieces of information faster by improving internet connections. Bloggers began producing audio blogs.  Instead of writing their thoughts they recorded themselves and posted to their blog sites.  Audio blogs had to be downloaded on to an mp3, this process could be bothersome because fans had to constantly check for new post and then download them on their mp3 player.

This led developers to look or an easier way for bloggers to produce audio blogs and they created the pod-cast. Pod-cast became known as  amateur radio.  Some of the topics makes me wonder who on earth would want to listen to this.  However their seems to be a market for everything. Levinson mentions the popularity of Grammar A Girl which generates millions of hits by fans who want to improve their writing.

Topics can range from sewing to astronomy.  You can learn how to cook a gourmet meal or how to use proper grammar. You can listen to someone talk for hours about bat man or some historical event.  These topics would not make the professional radio’s programming, however there is a huge  audience that will listen to them.  If you are passionate about topic you can find it on a podcast. I personally will listen to the podcast about cooking and making crafts.

The wiki stub article that I chose was Detoxification. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detoxification I chose it because I was talking to a friend about the subject the other day.  I thought it would be a good topic to research.