MY FINAL REFLECTION

Prior to creating this blog l was very unfamiliar with blogs and forums. Not that they never peaked my interest, l just never gave them a chance. After designing my own blog and populating it with my own content l have come to the realization that blogging goes beyond expressing your ideas. This is another medium for reaching out to the public whether known or unknown.

I realized at first that my personal preference was beginning to over-cloud my judgment when blogging. In so many words, l would use font size and style that l saw as appealing, which didn’t necessary make the text visible. I would choose templates that were hard to use when different text font and color where involved. This later on changed as l began to progress as a blogger and view other professional and even personal blogs.

My growth as a blogger has not only reflected positively in my other work (i.e. essays, term papers, proposals, etc.) but has showed me that there is a subtext to any ordinary text/content. I mostly focused on the design and layout of my blog, but not really concentrating on the content of the blog. My focused then diverted to beautifying my blog, which is one of the most unnecessary features when blogging.

Overall, my most obvious changes and improvements to my blog was my style of writing. With time l understood that l was appealing to the broadest audience, and l needed to express myself clearly. Usually my writing only is seen by a few, but when blogging, anyone anywhere has access to my blog. I started viewing my fellow bloggers, blog and understood that they communicated with their readers on a one-to-one basis.

Therefore, my intent when writing is for my readers to understand my work and personally feel like they are been spoken to. I changed my style of writing by approaching a more general audience, so it speaks to those who aren’t even my direct audience. Coupled with the videos and web links l included in posts, l drew personal experiences when addressing my audience. This is because; l wanted my readers to feel like they were communicating with me on a personal level. Finally, this blogging experience has definitely improved my writing skills, l am able to understand better how to communicate with a wide audience.

defero’s Project Promotion

This post is going to discuss a social media advertising blog l have been working on for a communications firm called, defero. I decided to use a blog as my advertisement strategy because l believe that blogs create the user-friendly one-on-one relationship with customers and employees. Also, this interaction tool somewhat serves as the company’s public face, where customers can get trusted advice from the company directly. Most importantly, this blog will be a tool to facilitate defero’s presence in the 2.0 world and promote advertising.

I have decided to compose this post in a chronological order from when l received the requirements of this project until today.

The Week of November 8, 2009 – November 14, 2009

This week I’m studying the requirements of the project; my intent is to approach this project from a unique perspective. Viewing the parameters offered seem standard, therefore I’m deciding on how l can approach this by showcasing my skills but not overwhelming my client since their new to the 2.0 world. I have decided to choose either a blog or website to use as my project wrapper. This is because a blog is a growing medium in the online community and has numerous advantages in relation to one-on-one communication with the customer. In my opinion, using a blog will have to serve as some sort of external advertising social media tool with the objective of retaining current customers and attracting prospective ones. My other option is a website because I’m looking to use a medium that will easily be accessible to users anywhere and at anytime. However, defero already has a website of its own; therefore creating another website will be an extension of defero’s corporate website. Take for instance, my company AOL Inc; they have so many secondary websites for which they still provide content for Like, http://www.fanhouse.com/, http://www.politicsdaily.com/, http://www.bebo.com/c/site/index, or etc. I’m still deciding if l want to take this route by introducing defero into the online world by actually diverting? I’m still thinking of a particular route to go because creating the actual website for defero is out of the question. Also, diverting into a new factious field will probably not re-introduce defero’s products and services properly but divert them into a different arena.

The Week of November 15, 2009 – November 21, 2009

This week I’m going to decide on a medium to use for this project. I’ve weighed the pros and cons of both and more pros have fallen towards a blog. Blogs have the ability to capture more content than a regular website. I’m asking for opinions and ideas from family, friends and co-workers to finalize my results. I’m trying to get a real-world perspective to see where their interests lies if presented with both sites given the requirements for the project. I’ve finalized my results and today (November 15, 2009) l decided to go with a blog. Yes, because from research and personal experience creating a blog about a company who is looking to use their skills in the online environment is definitely a must. It wasn’t until l started working for AOL, although an already established firm did l know that they did not only own fanhouse, politics daily and the likes but they provided the content. I want to re-introduce defero like stated above as what they are and not something else or something new, so their customers can easily identify them.

The Week of November 22, 2009 – November 28, 2009

This week l have not made that much progress in my project. Although l have selected a parameter to use, l am yet to begin the actual work. I have actually created the site, but suddenly am at lost as to what to include on the site. I have decided to go with deferoonline because l want their customers to easily notice that defero has diverted into the online world. I want the site to summarize the content of my proposal but don’t know exactly how to approach the project. At the moment I’m reading this book l borrowed from my boss called “IT Project Proposals: Writing to Win” by Paul Coombs. This book has actually given me tips especially Chapter 3 and 4, on Choosing the content and Structuring the proposal. I have decided to approach this proposal by peaking the interest of my clients that this blog will serve as an effective advertising tool. Although late, l decided to round of this week my submitting my proposal pitch.

The Week of November 29, 2009 – December 5, 2009

I am working on the content and structure of my proposal, as l was advised to channel energies towards the proposal and not the blog itself – great advice. This proposal really is taking more time than l had anticipated; l am still trying to create a concise implementation plan that will trigger my clients once read. Also, l have created a logo for my consulting company Putech Consultants. I have decided not to create a logo for defero, because as an already established company they may want to retain theirs. I have also stated in my proposal that Putech consultants have an array of logos we can incorporate in their blog. At the moment l am deciding on whether to create a logo for defero or not, but unlike many other consultants we are approaching this project from a unique angle. We want defero to have the flexibility to choose from an array of logos if they so decide, that they can incorporate into their blog.

The Week of December 6, 2009 – December 11, 2009

Currently l am working on the proposal I’m rounding up the content and trying to incorporate the content into the blog itself. Also, I’m looking for relevant videos, articles and text to include to have solid evidence that creating a blog is the best option. I’m finding it very difficult to find videos, podcasts and video logs that support my decision. This is the toughest week because l am trying to finalize all my decisions, and there is no room for errors or mistakes. I’m so thorough in all decisions associated with this project, that I am now reconsidering the most irrelevant things like my proposal template. I am going to try and concentrate on content this week and make sure that it all makes sense and comes together like a story.

Overall, the creation of this project was very interesting and worrisome. Also, l slacked of at the middle of the project which made the end a little tedious but overall was a success. I was able to get my major points across and tried as best to sell the products and services as possible. I made a few mistakes along the way like worrying about irrelevant issues but crossed the line to my best ability at the end of the day.

USING ONLINE TOOLS TO SUPPORT COLLABORATION

Over the course of this blog experience, l have collaborated with other bloggers online via different means. Collaborating online today has never been easier; there are a number of options that alter collaboration in real time. These include but are not limited to sharing articles and papers, images and videos, websites and media to presentations, tasks and more. This blog post is going to consider all types of collaborative means that apply to my experiences.

This post is going to start out by discussing my experience using forum and chat room collaboration. I am a member of many different types of forums and chat rooms. In my opinion this online environment facilitates learning, collaboration and cooperation. Take for instance; school forums (like moodle and webct) which are one of the most popular e-learning technologies that encourage and support collaboration. I have always had a positive experience using chat rooms but most especially forums. A forum is an asynchronous technology; which does not require all participants to be online simultaneously. Therefore, it allows members from a variety of time zones to interact at a time that suits the individual. This is one of the major advantages l appreciate when using forums for collaboration. Another added advantage is that most forums have the option to send updates from the forum directly to your email account. This l call an added advantage because it serves as some sort of medium when others create/update/comment on topics. However, l have come across forums that are simply daunting. In other words, too many posts, feedbacks or comments completely overwhelm one when trying to get information. This only happens when one does not structure the forum accordingly or when there are to many members registered to a single forum. In reference to chat rooms, l have used it occasionally mostly for quick interaction or to send over a file. However, chat rooms l feel have not nearly benefited me as much in comparison to forums or emails. This I believe is because often time chat rooms turn to of-topic when used which eventually becomes a waste of time. Also, chat rooms can become very disorganized at a moment and confusing when one is trying to get a point across. So, moderation in chat rooms is always the best route to take.

MY REFELCTIONS WITH TSV

This post should not be seen as a conclusion to this blog but as a stepping stone to TSV (Technology Seen Visual) so far. This is going to be a reflective post that discusses my redesign efforts on TSV up until today. I prefer dark colors in anything l do whether it’s something that’s suppose to have a light-weighted visual expression or not, I’d rather go with black any day than red or pink. However, it seems a little metaphoric that l also feel it necessary to never be too dull. In other words, l like using dark and conspicuous colors together. I feel the mixture is just makes it RIGHT! It brings out both sides of the picture, a splash of seriousness and playfulness. However, in this blog from the beginning l decided to go with an unusual tone. Take a look below at my first background design used for this blog. Adjectives to describe this background that come to mind are; plain, ordinary but somewhat technological.

From the start l felt it best to approach this blog from a different angle, an angle that l have never known before. This is because l knew trying to be comfortable with other colors not to bright or to dark will bring an entirely fresh perspective to TSV. Most importantly, this blog represents technology of all kinds seen visually, therefore l needed to present somewhat of an eye catching visual which took me a while to adopt. After a while l decided to move to my comfort zone a more dark and earth-toned look. The image below shows how l was shying back to my norm.

I realized a couple of weeks later that l was diverting from my intent of the blog. My blog needed to represent the goal of TSV, so l over compensated by using an awfully conspicuous background.

It didn’t take me long to remove that and settle for what l have today. The journey of selecting a background was definitely one if taken today will be very different. Over the course of deciding what background or image l should use, time flew by without realizing content matters much more. Also, changing these backgrounds affected the font color and style, because depending on the background used l had to change the color used. Images on TSV where not a problem visually however the way the background style changed affected my layout. Take for instance the first blog background used, all images where stretched because the background was much wider than the ones l am use to. I added other objects to strengthen my blog like the about me category so visitors can have an idea who l am. Of course l wanted to see who my loyal followers are so l included that gadget as well. I added twitter and facebook pins to stay connected always and an optional newsreel to increase my blogs substance. My logo is simple and straightforward because l believe the content of the blog already says so much and it’s the readers idea to capture the information given. The reason l decided to stay with this blog background was because it was calm, technology inclined visually, but most importantly the layout visually accepted all images and colors. I’m looking forward to expanding my blog by adding more ideas, hopefully in the nearest future create a website to promote my content.