My original thought was to create a website for my web presence but I did not have a suitable idea and had to keep in mind that whatever I created was there for the world to see, therefore I wished to create something that had a purpose. I then came up with the concept of moving from the city to the country and the only way to really trace my thoughts and research was by using a blog as my central node as it could then be updated as and when I had a brainwave! Creating a web presence for myself that expressed who I am using the Web 2.0 tools was interesting, motivating for my cause and gave me a much needed artistic outlet. My hope is that through this blog I can create a greater positive Internet footprint for myself.
Creating a blog was fairly new to me so I originally searched on Google looking for appropriate Web 2.0 tools and found Google had Blogger which had been mentioned in the Curtin Blogging Module. “Blogger enables users to get a blog up and running within a few minutes, dramatically lowering the barriers of entry for producing up to date web content.” Leaver, T. (2010) This was the perfect tool as it allowed even a novice like me to create a wonderful looking blog without the need to pay a fee. Blogger has a variety of designs and backgrounds to choose from and as my blog is concerning a move to the country, I wanted to choose a backdrop that depicted the type of life that I wished to lead in the future. The choice for my blog therefore was a Picture Window design with the backdrop being that of a beautiful country scene with fields and blue skies, my perception of idyllic country life. I chose to adjust the colour scheme of the fonts to light pink and purple shades to compliment the background and kept the layout as symmetrical as possible as I wished to give the blog a sense of peace, fun with a touch of wit and to generally make it pleasing to the eye. Deciding on the subjects of each blog and how much information I wished to share was also very much in my mind as any plans I was making would no longer be private thoughts but be out in the public domain. As well as the main blog page, I created two further pages that hold the information about “Me” and this page the “Exegesis”, all of which are easily accessible via tabs at the top of the blog.
The three contributing Web 2.0 nodes I chose were Facebook, Twitter and Delicious. I chose Facebook and Twitter for their social networking aspect therefore I believe they are good mediums for sharing my blog and Delicious for its bookmarking capabilities using tags that could narrow down searching and point me in the direction of useful sites. Facebook, I have been using for many years therefore I created a new page specifically for City Girl, Country Girl and have linked copies of all my blogs to the site. As Facebook has many pages with information regarding places in the country and events that are going on in the regions I am looking at relocating to, it can be a fun and informative source of information sharing. Twitter was my second contributing node and until studying Web 101, I had never used Twitter so I created one account for my initial study and another to link to my blog. Twitter enables me to share blog links via tweets and also to follow specific people or places that may be of interest in my relocation search. Currently I am following job postings in the region along with general information. My final contributing node was Delicious once again I created a new Delicious account specifically for my web presence. The Delicious sites I have bookmarked include employment sites, rentals and information on regions. I found these three contributing nodes to be the most beneficial to me as they are helping to provide the required information in a very accessible way.
In conclusion, my aim was to create a blog that not only reflected the skills I have learnt so far within my Web101 studies but also a blog that has a purpose, and for me that was taking an opportunity of creating a web presence as a basis for working on a potential new life plan. I know I am only just touching the surface of the tools Web 2.0 has to offer but my hope is that I have created a web presence that is light, witty and fun that will help to build a positive Internet footprint for myself.
Reference:
Leaver, T. (2010) Blogging [Course notes] Retrieved 16 February 2011 from http://lms.curtin.edu.au/
