Group Project Online Documentation

Group Members: Jeremy Lantigua, Jessica Deng &  Lynn Jean

Our Online Technology/Documentation: http://librarygroup23.xanga.com/

Using blogging as a form of documentation

Besides blogging, writing, and doing minimal food photography – I also love cooking, trying new foods, and trying new restaurants. My hobby & passion is  food & cooking.I love experimenting, I love mixing ingredients and different foods. I love sharing my cooking for those who love cooking too and has interest. Cooking helps me be more open-minded, creative, and unleash  my passion and desire to create a new innovation. I document my cooking and passion by taking pictures of food I’ve made, ate or food that others have made. I share  and document my food,cooking, and restaurant experiences on my blog. I write to share my opinion, my feelings, but more importantly my experiences. I couldn’t find a better example than using my own documentation on my blog. My first very tutorial and documentation on my blog, is about making dumplings ( a traditional Chinese food).

A lot of people wondered how do I make dumplings from scratch and making dumplings is some thing I am good at. I’ve been making them since I was 17 or 18 years old. This is the first time I ever blogged and wrote so much about food in my blog. I wanted to be specific but also concise in my directions and pictures of how to make dumplings.  I feel that I did a great job with documenting on How to make dumplings and it’s an easy-to-follow documentation. A documentation on a process of how to make a product is important and should be as simplistic as possible because people may want to imitate or learn from what you’ve done. I think using photographs in a documentation is important because it allows readers to see something visual. Some people may be more visual than others and they may need an actual picture rather than words. If a foreigner was going through my blog but didn’t understand my words or English, pictures in this situation may be beneficial to him or her.

I knew beforehand that pictures were a form of documentation but didn’t know a blog was either . I do document and post up a lot of entries on my blog about the restaurants/food spots I’ve tried, a particular food I may have tired or made, and etc. Documentation is important because it records a process, a guide for people to follow. Documentation makes life slightly easier for us.

A Dumpling Entry
– Jessica Deng

Ideas and Strategies

Before working on my first draft I will read through and analyze each resource and re-read through and evaluate to make sure they are what  is expected of the criteria for resources. I will write down a list of the topics covered in the articles As I read through the resources, I will take notes and write down my own analysis based on what I read.  After gathering my notes, I will organize it based on different aspects of my research paper and how each relates to another.

Before starting on the writing the first draft process, I think it’s important to create an outline. Use the outline as a guide and any headings that may be on it to help you. I will start with an introduction and introduce what blogging is and it’s impact on people today and introduce the fact that I am also a blogger.  We are suppose to come up with a research question for this research paper. To avoid problems of confusion in my paper and research, I think reading the question carefully and keep the question in front of myself as I write and refer to it often. I would try to write quickly, to keep the flow going. Just jot whatever comes to mind that’s related to the aspect.

As for other papers I’ve done in the class, I always write down the main topic or question at the top of my set of notes and although I’ve done reading on the topic already, I will do it for at least two more times. I took notes as I’ve read and if I didn’t understand a term, I would look up the definition. I would try to use personal experiences to relate to whatever the topic may be. One thing I learned from blogging on my own, blogging here for homework assignments and readings as well as writing for school papers is that you should write from your heart and express yourself in  your own way because it will help you to say what you mean more precisely. It would be easier for your reader to hear your voice and what you’re trying to convey.

My Questions about the Research Paper:

1. If we are interviewing someone in terms of collecting information for the research we are doing, do we have to state any background information on the person ?

2. Is there a limit to how many sources we can use for the research paper?

3. Are quotations from other sources allowed and do we have to cite them?

4. Are we allowed to introduce personal experiences into the research paper and how the research topic may relate to us as an individual and personally?

– Jessica Deng

What I’ve learned

As we’ve decided what our individual research topic proposals would be, we learned many strategies on how to search for readings on it. For example, my topic is: Blogging. I never knew we would learn about more research strategies that we’ve learned in the past three classes. While I was doing my research topic proposal, I only used Google. I never knew there was such thing as “Google Scholar” or “Google Advanced Search”. While I was trying these two new websites, I noticed I’ve received more results on Blogging than on Standard Google. There were scholarly articles, journals, news and personal blogs on Blogging.

I used and looked into two library catalogs. I used our own City Tech Library’s Catalog and Brooklyn Public Library Catalog.  I didn’t have an easy time finding books that were related to my topic. Most of the books were either guides on blogging which isnt’ quite what I’m looking for. I have been reading a book and there is one section of the book related to blogging and it explains some of the benefits of  blogging and what blogging really is. I think this will be helpful for my research. I’ve found a lot of articles on Blogging but not all were what I was looking for. When I did find the articles that were relevant, I read through the abstract of each and found it very helpful. I think using these two catalogs will help me find more accurate articles to help me with my research on Blogging.

I think in terms of other classes and looking for secondary sources, the library catalog will become handy and the use of scholarly articles would definitely be important when it comes to doing papers for my classes in my major. I’m glad I’ve learned these research strategies because they will help will further studies when it comes to research papers and class assignments.

– Jessica Deng

Using strategy

I used Google Scholar as a searching strategy. I found this particular site to be helpful and useful. However, there were a few documents that seemed interesting but unfortunately required a payment or registration. There were other articles and links where I was able to view but were not relevant to my Research topic. I found many sources while using standard Google and read through a few. Google Scholar has more technical articles, whereas standard Google is a bit more cluttered and less organized. Standard Google wasn’t as technical or written in a business or academic matter.

– Jessica Deng

Strategies and Difficulties

As most of you know my topic for the research project proposal is: Blogging. There are a lot of factors involved with Blogging, what it is, how is it created, who reads them, the positive and negative aspects of blogging, and, etc.  While considering all the positive effects and negative effects that blogging may or may not cause; I am most interested in if people know what the positive effects and negative effects are to blogging,would they still be interested in continuing blogging.

So far, I haven’t had much difficulties in researching for my topic and I am currently reading a great book called “Will Write For Food – The Complete Guide to Writing, Cookbooks, Blogs, Reviews, Memoir, and More.” by Dianne Jacob. I am currently in the middle of Chapter 4 which is called “Get Published with a Food Blog” and so far this chapter is discussing the basis of beginning a blog of your own, what it should be, developing your voice, how good photos increase your views, going from blog to book and etc. I didn’t purchase this intriguing book because I love food in general but I also love blogging and writing, so a book about blogging, writing and food is very beneficial and I think I will be using this book as one of my sources.

In terms of strategies since blogging is a topic I am very interested in and involved as well, I started to look at examples of blogs such as: Dianne Jacob’s Blog or someone we’re probably all familiar with: Martha Stewart.  As a way to learn more about the mind of a blogger I am considering in interviewing any active blogger  that I am friends with and ask them questions about blogging and see what if maybe their reactions or feelings are the same as I. I think researching on any past cases or reports on blogging may be a great way to define the effects of blogging. I also  believe that by sharing my own personal feelings on blogging may be good resourcefulness towards the research project. I think my only question would be if it will be a problem if I used the book I listed on this entry as part of my resources.

A new innovation

We have all used diaries and journals before but as technology is advancing, such an innovation called a “blog” has been created. While searching for research on my research topic, I found two very helpful resources. In “An Easy Guide to Blogging” by Nathan Hamm, He expressed a lot of great tips and information on what blogging really is and the benefits of it. Blogs are more so a personal website that is easier to maintain, updated more often, and offering much of a greater opportunity for discussion and interaction. A blog enables you  to add your own personal perspective which is most likely to appeal to a broader audience.

In “Blogging as a Social Tool: A Psychosocial Examination of the Effects of  Blogging” , a survey was used  to examine the the psychosocial differences between bloggers and non bloggers over time. It was determined that bloggers would show improved perceptions of social support and satisfaction with friendship and it lowered psychological distress in comparison with non bloggers.

The differences between the two searches I found was that in the second article which is the one I found through the Brooklyn Public Library and EBSCO, was that this article depicted more of what a blog does for blogger emotionally as oppose to what a blog really is and what it allows us to do. In the first article,it was more so a general overview of What a blog is, What blogging is and the importance of it. In addition, both articles do discuss the benefits of blogging and what it does for people that are bloggers such as I.

Words I used for my search:

blog, blogging, online journal, web log, writing, what is blogging?

Thoughts on Blogging & Non-Text Media

As most of you know I am an active blogger and writer but after attending this class so far,it’s made me wonder, Where did Blogging come from?  and When did it first start?  I’ve had multiple blogs before and I’ve started blogging since I was 14 but never wondered or thought where did blogging come from? and all these questions about the history of blogging and what is this drive that makes people want to blog more & more and what makes people create blogs in the first place?

I want to find out and ask my fellow friends as well why is blogging so important and when did they start. As for non-text media, I’d like to know what kind of importance do non-text media issue?  The different types of non-text media, the advantages/disadvantage and how it’s distributed. There are questions unanswered and I hope that I will be able to conduct research and find out on the history of blogging and non-text media.

SUBJECT HEADING:

ZA – Information resources (General)

MT – Instruction and study

– Jessica Deng

Creative Work

As a student, an active blogger, and writer  I found “The Code Of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education” to be interesting and informative. One concept that is discussed in this article is the right of fair use. Simply put, fair use is defined as “the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances – especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant”

We’ve already learned about media, but there is also media literacy. Media literacy allows us to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a vast variety. Media literacy is often applied to watching television, reading a newspaper, posting a comment onto a blog, and etc. There are five principles that apply to “institutional settings” and to “non-school based program”. One of the five principles that I found interesting was, “Student use of copyrighted materials in their own academic and creative work.” Students are encouraged to strengthen their media literacy skills by forming messages and using languages, images, sound,music and digital media to express and share significance.

Fair use applies to my blog and I because it is a form of media literacy. I used quotations, my knowledge, and my experiences in my blog. I use pictures from Google and various website but I always include a “Credit To:”. As an example, I included a link to my blog with pictures I’ve used from Google and so on.By using quotations, cultural, and social aspects in a creative work you are reproducing a new piece of work like none other.

My blog*Click to access my blog*

– Jessica Deng

Preserving Digitally

In the last 20 years, digital technology has implemented us to create, use and build up by information in ways that were unthinkable generations ago.  According to Levi,he says “The same technological advances that make obtaining and sharing information so easy also pose some modern challenges.” I would agree with this because sometimes it is hard to keep up with the advanced of technology because of this idea of “reformatting”.

Many libraries and information centers now have digital asset management systems or digital archives for managing and storing digital objects. These digital objects focus on access management, or facilitating the day-to-day use of digital content for users. Levi expressed, “Digital preservation is a bout guaranteeing the future usability of and accessibility to digital content.” and I strongly agree with this because by preserving important information, we are keeping information in stability

I like the ending of this article, as Benjamin Franklin said “You may delay, but time will not.” Today’s digital preservation systems can be improved and libraries,information centers,universities and other institutions around the world are moving forward and Levi, feels it’s time to join them and I couldn’t agree more.

– Jessica Deng