Information Environment

Assignment # 9

Identify an information environment of your choice and write an essay to address the following questions: (3000 words)

• What should be your role within this environment?
• How can the principles of information organization and representation help you in performing this role?
• What are the challenges facing you in performing the role? How will you address these challenges?

-------------------------------------------------

If you would ask me how would I define an information environment, the first thought that come up to my mind is that an information environment is an environment where information is shared, exchanged and distributed to a certain audience. Aside from the internet, the other environment that came to my mind is Blogging.

So maybe you’re wondering why I chose Blogging as my information environment, well I chose blogging for one reason. The reason is that, this is the information environment that I’m already quite familiar with and I am now starting to explore for more possibilities thanks to the encouragement of our professor.

Before anything else I would first define what is Blogging.

According to this WEBSITE:

“ A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.” Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.”

Well its quite obvious what would be my role in the blogging environment. The automatic response would be of course a blogger. However, the role as a blogger in an environment circulating in the internet holds a deeper meaning and responsibility.

But what does being a blogger really mean? To deliberately specify what should be the role of a blogger here is an excerpt from this BLOG :

“ * I will try to offer up viewpoints that perhaps you hadn’t thought of in order to get people talking and open a conversation.
* I’ll do my best to be useful, creating resources worth your bookmarks. I’ll tie events together to create a story you perhaps didn’t see.
* I’ll take a polarizing stand if it’ll get you to think about things differently and question yourself for good, not just because I’m bored or because I can.
* I’ll craft posts in a tone most appropriate for the subject matter, even if it means I’ll be written off as “sensational” for my choice of language. I’ll use my language as a tool to open people up, not a weapon.
* I will never make links or fake debate my end goal.
* I’ll bring attention to causes, issues and news that I think are important or that will benefit you.
* And I’ll do it while being responsible and accountable for my words.”

In an organization of mass number of networked computers such as the internet, there is practically no concrete rules that govern what goes out for the public to see. In general, you can write everything you want and the judgment will be left in the reader’s side. This leniency and freedom would help in the overflow of ideas and inspiration to write more for your readers.

From the entries above, I can safely say that being a blogger is not as easy and should take a little effort and responsibility for your sake and the benefit of the whole community in general.

As bloggers, (especially beginner bloggers) there are some challenges that we may encounter along the way while we are in this environment. Here are some concerns that we could encounter:


What should you Blog About?


This question is probably one of the most mind boggling question that a blogger especially beginner bloggers could stumble upon. Questions like ‘would this topic interest someone?’ or ‘How big would be the impact of this topic to my community’ can pop in your head that can increase the pressure to write something interesting for the public to read. Just remember that our world is filled with interesting topics which you can get from simple activities, ordinary happenings or random experiences in your life that some people may relate with. Updating yourself with the latest news can also give you ideas to write about. Brainstorming can also be a tool in order for you to generate interesting topics from different points of view.


Finding Readers


This is the part that I find to be the most challenging in blogging. Well, you need audience for your blogs. And getting them is never an easy job with thousands of blogs being created every other day. With so many new blogs started every day it takes a lot of effort to build your readership. The very first thing you should do is make it easy for your readers to subscribe to your blog feed, so they keep coming back. Have both an email and an RSS version available. Not everyone knows about RSS even if they use it in their My Yahoo or other reader, so give them the options. Then get the word out. Comment on other blogs. Good comments, not just "Great post" as every blogger sees all too often. Many sites will just delete such comments, as they add nothing to the conversation. And the conversation is a big part of what makes a blog interesting.


Start building traffic to your blogs by link exchanges, directory submission etc. You can also try out social networking and bookmarking sites likes stumble upon friendster , twitter, myspace , face book etc to build targeted traffic to your blog. They are really very useful sources to generate traffic. But the most important is traffic from search engines called organic traffic. It is tough initially as there is heavy competition among all the bloggers to appear on the front page of search engines. You can try out Google adwords not advertise your site. You need to be very serious with this. Once your blog gets popular and as time passes by you can expect loads of traffic to your site.


Handling criticisms and negative feedback

Negative feedback will happen, no matter how good your posts are. It doesn't matter what you do, you cannot please everyone. And that's a key thing to remember.

There are also people who simply delight in saying horrible things to people online just because it can all be anonymous. It can be ridiculous, but there it is. Don't let yourself be drawn into heated exchanges with people. It's better to keep your temper and learn to dismiss the people who are only trying to make you angry.

Genuine criticism, on the other hand, can be quite useful. If someone catches you with incorrect information, thank them. Hopefully they will at the same time point you to a better resource for information.


How Often Do you have to Blog?


Well that’s another major area which some bloggers tend to neglect. You can not simply start a blog and do a few posts and then stop. Your readers also forget your blog soon after that. So you need to post regularly some unique, fresh and interesting content on your blog to keep your readers interested. The frequency may differ from blogs to blogs and niche specific too. For example news blogs need to update content on their blogs very often than any technology blog. Prepare your posts in advance and after that you can post as when you need them.


Search Engine Optimization: Do you really need it?


SEO or search engine optimization is the art and science of building and designing sites in such a fashion that they appear on search engines for a niche specific search by anyone. You cannot simply ignore the importance of SEO. It will bring lots of traffic to your blog on a constant basis. There are many SEO techniques which can be followed like on-page optimization and off-page optimization. You can slowly learn the fundamentals of SEO and then start applying them. You can even think of hiring an SEO expert and get the job done. A good frequency of posting along with SEO would do wonders for your blog in long run.


How Do you Monetize your Blog?


Many people start blogging to monetize them and earn from them. But that is not possible over night. First your blog needs to get popular and generate regular traffic. Only then you can think of monetizing your blog. There are many options like Google adsense, bidvertiser, Kontera ads, link selling, paid reviews, affiliate marketing etc which can be used on your blogs. Have a reasonable target in your mind, so that you don’t get upset later on. There are bloggers who make their living through blogs and blogging. Even you can too.


Finally sometimes you might you might not find enough time to blog. So you can plan things in advance and have some sort of back in place. It will avoid disappointing your regular readers of your blog. You can even think of outsourcing the content writing work to someone and get the job done by paying them. It might look a bit costly but is a good way of keeping your blog up when you don’t have sufficient time to take care of your blog. You can also constantly the look and feel of your blog to suit the contents of your blog keeping the readers interest in your mind.