My Very First Blog Post!!

Hello Fellow Bloggers and Blog Readers!

I am now the owner of a new exciting Blog Page, Hooray! I am a Media and Communications student at QUT in Brisbane Australia. Since I began my studies, I have learnt lots of information on how the media landscape is changing. Ever since I first herd the terms Web 2.0 and Citizen Journalism, my interest on how the Internet is changing has grown. I used to think that the Internet was just a good time waster and helpful when writing assignments. Things have now changed. Citizen Journalism and Web 2.0 has opened up opportunities for many amateurs and professionals in various fields such as journalism, business and arts. Peter Bihr is a blogger who writes on these topics.
I have chosen to make my very first blog-post focus on the web 2.0 and net-working sites that I am participating in. My aim is to give more personal and subjective incite on these. Feel free to click the links and check my web-pages.

Last.fm-Click here access my Last.fm Profile
Last. fm is probably the best site on the Internet for music lovers who want to find more music to listen to. I first joined the site when I was getting bored of listening to the same music over and over again. What is unique to last.fm is their downloadable "scrobbling" software which tracks down what music you listen to in whatever media player you use and then displays it on your user-page. Last.fm then gives you recommendations and "neighbours" (people who have similar taste to you) and creates a 'recommendations radio" (a radio of artists you do not listen to that you may like according to the other artist you listen to) and "personal radio" (a radio which features the artists you do listen to). I am free to view anyones user pages and listen to their radio and their recommendations and any they can do the same. Radio's are not the only thing about last.fm, the rest of last.fm is very much user-created. Each music artist has their own page which is created by the users themselves. This can be changed and edited by anyone else which is a perfect example of web 2.0. Users can tag the artists, join forum groups and post blog posts as well. If it weren't for last.fm I would not have found as many interesting artists who are now my most listened to artist.

MySpace- Click here to access my MySpace Profile page
If you went to my high school and you said you didn't know what Myspace was people would look at you more shocked than if you told them you didn't know which country you live in. The site was first created for musicians so they could promote their own music and gain a fan-base. Since then, it has turned into one of the most popular social networking sites around the world. What I love about it is that I can personalise it by having my own pretty background, upload photos, write blog-posts. My friends can write me comments and they will appear on my page for everyone to see. I have also found some long-lost friends on MySpace, seeing how everyone has changed is always fun! MySpace has proved to be an enjoyable socialising site.

Facebook- Click here to access my Facebook Profile page
It would be fair to say that Facebook is the "New MySpace". Along with many people I know, I created a Facebook account after my MySpace account. The two bare many similarities in the sense that they are both social networking sites that allow people to communicate with one another. Facebook however has more of a conservative and professional look though which appeals to more mature people (MySpace has more of a youthful appeal). Something else which Facebook has that Myspace doesn't is applications such as a picture of your favourite Starbucks drink that can be added to your profile page. Facebook has proved to be very popular as well as MySpace.

Flickr- Click here to access my Flickr Page
I share a hobby with many people around the world,that hobby is photography. Ever since I joined this site, I have learnt that I have a lot to learn to become a good photographer. There are some truly amazing photographic artworks from millions of people around the world found on this site. The basic concept is this- upload photos, give them titles and tag them so that anyone can see them, make friends, join groups and leave comments on photographs. This concept works well as it combines social networking with art. I find Flickr not only a great place to talk to people who share my interest but also a great place to find inspiration.

Del.icio.us- Click here to access my Del.icio.us Page
I had never heard of Del.icio.us until earlier this year however, I do find the concept very innovative and helpful for finding resources for University assessments. Inspired by the "Favourites" tool bar, This website offers an easier and more organised way to adding favourites. With Del.icio.us users can tag their resources therefor everything is organised according to how they've been tagged. Not only that but you can join networks through del.icio.us and look at their tags and resources. Del.icio.us has simplified the "favourites" system and added social networking with it.

and now... Blogger!
There isn't much I can say about blogger since I only recently joined the 'blogging world'. I herd about this site a while back but it wasn't until I was assigned to create one for a University assessment that I actually started using it. So far I find it very easy to use for a first time blogger such as myself. I was amazed to see how simple it was to create a blog, best of all, its free so anyone can use it! I am hoping I will get to learn more about blogging from using this site.



Thanks for reading my first blog post and feel free to comment.