The Exegesis explains the choices in making this web presence.
This Web presence is an accumulation of newly acquired knowledge of Web 2.0 tools and their ability ‘to easily generate and publish content’ for communicating and collaborating on the World Wide Web (Leaver, 2010). It forms part of the assessment for Curtin University’s Web Communication 101/501 unit and as such, is required to have one central node and three contributing nodes with a consistent theme presented across all nodes. Each of the nodes are set up to take advantage of Web 2.0 characteristics by being user-driven, collaborative, consisting of bi-directional linking and real time interactivity. Content of each site is vastly extended through the links. In order to explore as wide a range of Web 2.0 participatory applications as possible, one of each of the four more significant emerging technologies – ‘blogs, wikis, social networking and content sharing’- were selected to create this web presence (Leaver, 2010).
The theme ‘Kaz’s Creatures’ was selected based on my passion for “creatures” and desire for others to see them in a positive manner. “Loving butterflies, slugs and all things creepy crawly” was added as a tag line to reinforce this message. Having a strong pictorial element was the purpose behind choosing the photo of the monarch butterflies feeding on xanthorrhoea flowers. The photo was chosen for its bright, cheerful complementary colours (predominately blue and orange) . In order to create a consistent web presence the photo was incorporated wherever possible as a background, avatar and/or graphic element across the main node and three contributing nodes. The dominant blue background was also selected for being considered ‘the safest global colour’ (Nicholson, 2002). Alterations to adjust the orientation of the photo and the addition of typographical features were made using Adobe Photoshop CS5. Colours taken from the photo were used on the type, borders and backgrounds, where the applications allowed, tying all elements together. A simple sans-serif font was used as the main title for further consistency of the theme across all applications.
A blog was chosen as the main node as it allows for a dynamic, interactive site with the ability to share a range of content and link to the three contributing nodes. Interaction with other users is encouraged through the RSS feeds, by the ability to add comments and reactions, search the blog and follow links. Blogging applications Blogger, Wordpress and Wix were examined, with Blogger being selected due to the ease of adding gadgets and the “Travel” template permitting the ‘Monarch Butterflies’ photo to be incorporated as the background image ("Blogger," 2010; Wix, 2010; WordPress," 2010). This layout has the added advantage of the photo sliding behind the semi-transparent blog when viewed on a smaller screen. Blogger was relatively easy to set up and easy to add a brand identity without requiring any prior programming knowledge, taking full advantage of the read-write-publish application. Menu tabs were placed under the main header making them easy to locate without impacting on the left hand pictorial element. The widgets/gadgets/links were added to the right hand column for the same reason. Feeds of the latest three ‘Tweets’ and three photos, selected at random from the Flickr album, are added for interest and interactivity.
The reason for choosing a Wiki* as one of the contributing nodes is that it has the potential to add breadth and depth to the topics discussed in the Blog. Communication is enabled through the capacity to discuss topics in greater depth (including adding scientific terms and definitions) and holding conversations on the discussion pages. With an emphasis on collaboration the wiki allows others to assist with ‘seeing a mistake or a hole and making a contribution to address it’ (Anthony, Smith, & Williamson, 2007). Wiki’s are a great example of Web 2.0 technology with their internal and external links. Wikispaces was selected with the assistance of Wikimatrix’s ‘Wiki Choice Wizard’, which ‘narrows down the list of available Wikis matching … special needs’. (WikiMatrix, 2010; Wikispaces," 2010). Some of the criterion used to select Wikispaces was: a hosted offer, what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) editing and a page history. The decision to lock the home page was made in order to keep control of the purposeful web presence for the Kaz’s Creatures theme. Links have been created back to the main node and other contributing nodes. Blog feeds were added with the assistance of rssinclude, an easy-to-use tool to create a feed box that graphically matched the twitter feed widget without requiring the need to write my own code.("rssinclude," 2010)
Flickr, a content sharing site was selected as the second contributing node as it supports uploading, storing, sorting and sharing of photos and videos ("Flickr from Yahoo!," 2010). Collaboration has been enabled through the use of “Sets”, “Tags” and “Map” locations on many of the photos making them easier to locate. “Favourites” and “Galleries” have been utilized to link to the work of other photographers of interest. As more than one photographer has contributed photos (with permission) Creative Commons Licenses vary across the range of photos. ("Creative Commons," 2010)
Twitter was selected as the third of the contributing nodes for its popularity as a form of micro-blogging while also being a social networking technology (Leaver, 2010). This application forces conciseness, communicating in less than 140 words, making it a good choice for extending interaction to mobile and small screen technology ("Twitter," 2010). Pointers to the main node and contributing nodes have been incorporated into the background graphic (Schawbel, 2009).
A variety of user-friendly, interactive, portable and free Web 2.0 tools were examined to create one central node, Kaz’s Creatures Blog, and three contributing nodes Twitter, Flickr and Wikispaces. Interaction and collaboration is invited by other users on each of the nodes both in the text conversations and the bi-direction linking of the nodes. Each of these nodes complement each other, with their links and graphic elements working together to create a dynamic, positive, distinctive and consistent web presence on the selected theme ‘Kaz’s Creatures’.
References
Anthony, D., Smith, S. W., & Williamson, T. (2007). The Quality of Open Source Production: Zealots and Good Samaritans in the Case of Wikipedia. Dartmouth College, Computer Science, Technical Report TR 2007-606 (September 2007).
. Blogger. (2010), from http://www.blogger.com
. Creative Commons. (2010). License your work, from http://creativecommons.org
. Flickr from Yahoo! (2010), from http://www.flickr.com
Leaver, T. (2010). Introduction to Module 2: What is Web 2.0. [Course notes], from http://lms.curtin.edu.au
Nicholson, M. (2002). Graphic Design. Lesson 13: Colours and Moods, from http://iit.bloomu.edu/vthc/design/psychology.htm
. rssinclude. (2010). Enrich your website with fresh RSS feed content. , from http://www.rssinclude.com/
Schawbel, D. (2009). How to: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter. Mashable/Social Media, from http://mashable.com/2009/05/20/twitter-personal-brand/
. Twitter. (2010), from http://support.twitter.com
WikiMatrix. (2010). WikiMatrix: Compare them all, from http://www.wikimatrix.org/wizard.php
. Wikispaces. (2010), from http://www.wikispaces.com
Wix. (2010). Build Your Free Website: Dazzling Websites in Minutes, from http://www.wix.com/start/wfree
. WordPress. (2010). Blog Tool and Publishing Platform, from http://wordpress.org/
* Note: The Wiki node was removed late 2015
