Reddit

I have just been writing for 45 minutes and the stupid blog just came up with an error message when I tried to post my comments. This scumbag 2.0 technology lost all my work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and now I am reinventing the wheel and it won't be as good as my first draft - but you'll have to take my word on that.

All I can remember that I said was I came, I saw and I reddit.
This is a forum for people who wish to draw attention to stuff. There is social, political and radical information and news links. The readers get to vote for stories and comment on stories. But in this anon world we ask, who is reading and who is commenting?

There is anti Bush, anti Palin and even anti these anti's. Which is fair, it is a forum for people to express themselves. Reddit is a testament to the fact that people feel powerless about what is going on in the world around them. By commenting and expressing an opinion they can at least feel they are contributing to the discussion and that their little voice may provoke a reaction.

Then there is Lego man - Un immense porte-avions en Lego!! and several pictures devoted to his naval aircraft carrier built out of lego. Very accurate and quite cute if you are into that kind of thing. It raked up 147 comments. One comment: "never seen a navy ship with everyone smiling like that... rather odd and creepy." and this: "Anyone else have the urge to go dress up like a Japanese reptile and smash the **** out of this dude's creation...or am I being unamerican?"

So people can express themselves and if you have time on your hands you can read a lot and comment a lot. Ok, so it is not my cup of tea, it is too US centric and too much of the old US of A can be overwhelming. But if you have something to say post it and see what others have to say. Why not? But who is reading and who is commenting?

Lunge 8

Ah ha

Well, according to the experts, the list in Google reader is indeed the way to go. Yay for technology.

I think I am now ready to move on to the next bit.

Community 2.0: A Run down.

Times have indeed changed and it looks as if it is for the better. We are now obsessed with comunicating online - the newer it is and the more exciting the more likely we are to latch on and go with it. The more we use it, the more we discover the variety of ways in which we can use it - work, social, self publishing, commercial, environmental, education and creativity. And of course for general fun and doing stuff just because it is there. (See a reference I made to octopuses in an earlier post.) We can see what has been written, what others are saying about it, edit it, comment on it, send a poke to it and even list our ten favourite bits of it.

Information is all around and consumers and users are putting anything and everything out there and it is bouncing all over the place and back again.

Is is quality information? Some of it is, some of it is educational and some of it peer reviewed. Some of it is a bunch of stuff we like, cause we do. Web 2.o technologies are being harnessed for good, evil and for all those people who like the Muppet Show, so they can chat about it. Mind you, all those list of the amazing facts about Chuck Norris are really annoying!

After all, my gentleman now has a Facebook friend living in New York purely on the basis that they both like Phillip K. Dick the author. Is this a bad thing? No, it saves joining a bookclub and going to meetings. and you can wear your pj's if you want to.

The possibilities are endless - providing the server is up and running!
(Ed: Lunge 7)

homework

So for your homework: explore RSS and feeds by asking two people for their blog URL from your work group and subscribe to their feeds.

Arrgh! I have no idea whether I did this right. I have two feeds for blogs in google reader. Is that what I should do? Or should it somehow link to my blog?

Technology is too much for me I must confess. I think I should quit now.

(Ed: Lunge 3)

Ooops

hmm, yes it has been a while and I have a confession to make. I have been looking at Facebook. But I still don't really get it. I send plants and gifts to people who send them back. Is this real communication or just letting people know that you are aware that they exist?

What ever happened to writing letters?

What ever happened to face to face communication?

Excuse me, I have to go and throw an octopus at someone.