This exegesis is part of an academic assignment that required me to
create a web presence and expressing the reasons for the choices I have made in
generating it. The web presence required a theme that showcased a part of who I
am, so I selected a theme that was about one of my passions in life and that
was regarding books, reading them, and sharing anything and everything about
books that perk my interest. I will also explain in this exegesis the reason
for choosing to remain anonymous by using a pseudonym, and why I chose the Web
2.0 platforms for my central node, which is a blog, and the subsidiary nodes
that connect to it which are Twitter, Goodreads, and Delicious.
For my main central node, I chose to create a blog as my “central
identity hub” which will become the “centralising force within the distributed
network” of my “distributed online presence” (Helmond, 2010). I opted to remain
anonymous by using a pseudonym of ‘Celestial Cate’. Since “blog services
typically offer users a number of options in terms of anonymity” by choosing to
“be totally anonymous, pseudonymous, or identifiable”, my main reason for using
a pseudonym was to protect my offline identity and “take a somewhat cautious
position” as I still do not trust my “personal information” being made public
on the Web (Qian & Scott, 2007). Therefore I chose to generate my blog
using Blogger as it afforded the option for anonymity, and I also found it “simple”
and “really was easy to use” (Blood, 2004) when it came to customising its
features and look to my preference. As described by Blood, “blogging is less
about creating links and references to sites and sources, and increasingly
about [the] bloggers’ own comments and personal interests” (2004). Hence the
theme I chose for my blog and overall web presence was about one of my passion
and interest which was my love of books, reading them, and sharing my views. In
keeping with this theme, I selected a Picture Window blog template customising
it with an image by Louman of a bookshelf filled with books. To keep abreast
with my theme and anonymity, I selected a picture avatar of books sourced
through Google Images, attributed to the website http://www.radionorthland.org/featured/new-books-at-trf-library/
which had the image in its site, and for what I assume is available for public use under the “Fair Dealing” (Review & Critic) policy under Australian Copyright Law. Links and widgets are situated on the left and right hand side columns of the main blog posts informing readers what the other subsidiary nodes are connected to this blog.
I selected Twitter as one of my subsidiary nodes because it “fulfills
a need for an even faster mode of communication” and I wanted to have a
platform that I could use as a “sharing information” tool, sharing links and my
blog posts URL as well as an “information source” to other Twitter users, and
as an “information seeker” platform to source out information from the Twitter
users I follow (Jave et al, 2007). Because
Twitter also encourages shorter posts the “time and thought investment for
content generation” (Java et al, 2007) that I would need to update my followers
on Twitter is much faster than having to write a longer blog post if I wanted
to share my passion or brief information about a certain book in a moment of
spontaneity. In keeping with the theme of my web presence, I customised the
Twitter design by changing the background and inserting the same blog template
image by Louman, sourced from the www.iStockphoto.com website and I also used the same pseudonym and picture avatar from my
blog.
The second subsidiary node I selected is the platform called Goodreads
which “is a bookoriented social network where a lot of people spend a lot of
time talking about a lot of books” (O’Leary, 2012). With this description in
mind, Goodreads as a Web 2.0 tool I believe is definitely appropriate for the
theme of my web presence which is all about books. This platform has the ability
to show publicly the books I have read, am currently reading and to-read; rate
and review the books I have read; make recommendations to friends; plus many
other features I am still discovering. The only setback to this node is it does
not allow my profile description to be shown fully unless the viewer is a
member signed in to the social network however it does show to the general
public a hyperlink back to my main central node. Using my pseudonym, I also inserted
the same picture avatar used across all the other nodes which clearly identify
the shared theme of the web presence I have created in this node.
The last subsidiary node that I have selected to connect to and from
my main central node is the Delicious platform, again using my pseudonym as my
profile name and the same picture avatar that I use for all the nodes to
identify my theme. I chose this platform because “Delicious is the place to
collect and showcase your passions from across the web” and it is a tool where
you can “save, sort, and search through your own personal collection of links”
and where you can “find new websites you'll love, and follow the latest
discoveries from people who share your interests” (Delicious, 2012). Whether it
is a website of a favourite author; information, reviews and titbits about a
book; or other blogs that share my interest of reading and love of books,
Delicious is a useful platform that will collate all the websites I wish to
save in one place that relate to my web presence theme. The links can also be ‘tagged’
which is a “classification process” that offers “users pragmatic means of
content navigation that are close to their concerns and their own spontaneous
classifying practices” (Glassey, 2007), making viewing and searching specific
group of website links easier to locate.
Creating this web presence and embodying a theme that is close to my
heart has been educational and fun. Utilising Blogger to generate a blog as my
central node along with Twitter, Goodreads, and Delicious as my subsidiary
nodes, I have expressed in this exegesis my choices for why I have selected
these Web 2.0 platforms to represent my theme regarding books. Although I have
used a pseudonym, I have utilised the same picture avatar across all the nodes
which clearly shows my identity is one and the same on all the platforms used.
References
Blood, R. (2004). How Blogging Software RESHAPES THE ONLINE COMMUNITY.COMMUNICATIONS
OF THE ACM, 47(12), 53-55. Retrieved from http://siti-server01.siti.disco.unimib.it/itislab/uploads/2007/11/how-blogging-software-reshapes-the-online-community.pdf
Glassey, O. (2007). When Taxonomy Meets Folksonomy: Towards Hybrid
Classification of Knowledge?. ESSHRA International Conference Berne,
Switzerland, Retrieved from http://www.euresearch.ch/fileadmin/documents/events2007/ESSRHA07/Glassey_paper.pdf
Helmond, A. (2010). Identity 2.0: Constructing identity with cultural
software. Retrieved from http://www.annehelmond.nl/wordpress/wp-content/uploads//2010/01/helmond_identity20_dmiconference.pdf
Java, A., Finin, T., Song, X., & Tseng, B. (2007). Why We Twitter:
Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities. Joint 9th WEBKDD and
1st SNA-KDD Workshop ’07, Retrieved from http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/_file_directory_/papers/369.pdf
O'Leary, M. (2012). Reading dead? No way! See Goodreads. Information
Today, 29(1), 22(2). Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=28720662-7ac0-4ae2-bc25-bdaae778ec60%40sessionmgr111&vid=5&hid=125
Qian, H., & Scott, C. R. (2007). Anonymity and Self-Disclosure on
Weblogs. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4),
1428–1451. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00380.x Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00380.x/pdf
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