Reflections

(source:http://www.images.google.com.my)

This is first time blogging therefore in order to create a good blog I have use the combination of images and texts to provide better understanding for my readers. According to Schriver (2006) explains that prose and graphics are integrated as a part of the body text in order to help users represent the content. Walsh (2006, p. 30-31) stated that multimodality of a document helps strengthen the message intended to be conveyed across to the audience.

Apart from that, all web-users should take concern and responsibility about the ethical issue, for example, avoid uploading unethical images and using offensive words. This is agreed by (Patterson & Wilkins 2005, p. 256-257), Web-users should abiding by the ethics line, where content should be always made neutral to avoid causing discomfort to other web-users

Furthermore, copyright infringement is also an issue to weblogging and document design. Hence, Walker (1997) implies that in addition to citing the source of texts, any graphics, audio or video files included in a student's work should include a proper citation. In this respect, I have learnt to cite if I reference from articles or websites and the images I have taken to avoid copyright issue.

In conclusion, I found that blogging is a very interesting thing to do and very useful in many ways especially when I want to share some information with my friends. Hence, I will continue to blog for my daily life and share with my friends.

References:

Patterson, P & Wilkins L 2005, 'Media Ethics: Issues and Cases', McGraw-Hill Higher Education, New York

Schriver, KA 1997, 'The Interplay of Words and Pictures', Dynamics in Document Design: Creating texts for readers, Chapter 6, pp.361-441

Walker, J.R 1997, 'Intellectual Property Rights and Fair Used’, viewed 12 November 2009,
<http://personal.georgiasouthern.edu/~jwalker/ip/ipdummie.html#special>

Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual Shifts: Examining The Reading Process With Print, Visual and Multimodal Text', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 24-37

New Genre & Political Campaigns –Audience, Purpose, Context; Personalization & Interactivity

(source:http://www.images.google.com.my)

Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign launched an iPhone application that turned the vaunted device into a political recruiting tool. (Shankland, 2008). Users can use iPhone to support Obama vote. (Davisson, 2008, p.1). Hence, social networking technology, iPhone has play a big impact on how Obama conceptualize their campaign strategy and looking at iPhone as a new technologies to spread their ideas and reach out to a new generation of voters. (Davisson, 2008, p.1).

Besides that, supporters also get to browse images, videos and propaganda from the Obama campaign, and scan their personal phonebooks for friends in states where Obama 'needs more support'. The contacts are prioritized by key battleground states, and you can make calls and organize results all in one place (Siegler, 2008). In result, Obama was successfully achieved tied among men, erasing the 55% to 45% advantage that President Bush enjoyed in 2004. (Schifferes, 2008).

According to Bear (2009), ‘function is a piece document whether it is to sell, inform, educate, impress and entertain. The purpose of iPhone launched was to allow Obama supporters to support his votes, calling their friends to get involved in the election and support Obama votes as well, and receive new updates. Additionally, iPhone enable them to accessed to news, local events, media and issues.

Context of Situation
Discourse – Informal conversation through using of iPhone.
Field (social action) – Barrack Obama election campaign.
Tenor (relationship between readers) –Barack Obama and his voters.
Mode (physical structure) – inspirational speech and influential communication.

For my personal opinion, Barack Obama election campaign has seen an incredibly increase in candidates use of social networking technologies which is iPhone to support his vote and in the same time connect to their friends to support Obama votes as well. Furthermore, Obama uses iPhone to cater to his audience, purpose and context as well.

References:

Bear, J.C (2009) Form and Function in Design and Publishing, viewed on 12 November 2009,
<http://desktoppub.about.com/od/graphicdesign/a/formfunction.htm>

Davisson, A, 2008, ‘Social Networking Technologies and the 2008 Presidential Campaign’ Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, viewed on 12 November 2009,
<http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/vmgonz/documents/smt/7DavissonPosppr.pdf>

Schifferes, S, 2008, ‘Who voted for Obama?, viewed on 12 November 2009,
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7709852.stm>

Shankland, S, 2008, ‘Obama releases iPhone recruiting, campaign tool’ viewed on 12 November 2009,
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10056519-38.html>

Siegler, M.G, 2008, ‘ iObama: The Democrats get an iPhone app’ viewed 12 November 2009,
<http://digital.venturebeat.com/2008/10/02/iobama-the-democrats-go-iphone-app>

Rise of Mobile Video Blog

(Source:http://www.images.google.com.my)

Mobile Video Blog can be defined as video blogging using a mobile device. The article discussed by Simmons (2008) stated that, "since the marriage of webcams and broadband, the videoblog has become a familiar sight." The development of technology has definitely made the web an interesting place to surf for. According to Walsh (2006), multimodal texts are those with more than one mode so meaning is communicated through a synchronization of modes,which are written or spoken language, still or moving images, they may be produced on paper or electronic screen and may incorporate music and sound. Mobile video blogging includes modes such as moving images and with spoken languages or without through mobile devices.

Before the development of mobile video blog, videos are usually being translate and written on blog. Some of it may have a picture for a better understanding but sometimes it may mislead them or the picture become a distraction to the text (Shriver, 1997). Mobile video blogging is essentially easier because it is faster and more convenient, at anywhere and anytime.

The latest technology by several mobile phones manufacturer has create video blog, editing, and live streaming compared to before. According to Nielsen (2000), if the website is difficult to handle, people will tend to leave it. Simmons (2008) describes that once an application is downloaded, it is pretty simple to "go live". In another story, Hans Cronberg, Chief Technical Officer of Play Mobile in Poland describes that "videoblog is a new service, enabling Play subcribers with YouTube account to upload movie clips by making a 3G video phone call" (Wind Mobile).

For my personal opinion, mobile video blog has become so famous due to the convenience of the mobile phone. Things that are usually being done in the computers are able to be fulfilled using the mobile phone, which is small and convenience to carry around and this is the reason that contribute to the success of mobile video blog.

References:

Nielsen, J 2000, 'Chapter 3: Content design', Designing web usability, New Riders, Indianapolis.

Schriver, K.A 1997, Dynamics in document design : creating texts for readers, p 364 – 375, 407 –430.

Simmons, D 2008, 'Rise of the Mobile Video Blog', viewed 11 November 2009, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr2/hi/programmes/click_online/7392594.stm>

Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, No.1, pp.24-37.

Wind Mobile, 'Falcon Mobile Video Blogging', viewed 11 November 2009,

<http://windmobile.com/images/WM_brochures/FalconMobileVideoBlogging_Brochure_EN.pdf>

Facebook Interface Changes Users’ Experience

Facebook is one of the popular Social Network Sites (SNS). (Lampe, Ellison, Steinfield, 2008, p.721). Some changes have occurred which might influence users’ perceptions of audience.(Lampe, Ellison, Steinfield, 2008, p.721). In 2006 Facebook introduced a significant change to the interface of the site: a “News Feed” which tracked changes to Friends’ profiles and aggregated them in one, highly visible place. (Lampe, Ellison, Steinfield, 2008, p.721). These changes in context could affect how Facebook users perceive their audience. (Lampe, Ellison, Steinfield, 2008, p.721).

According to Lampe, Ellison and Steinfield (2008, p.721), The following includes a timeline of major Facebook interface changes:
• May 2006 – Networks are expanded to workplaces as well as colleges and high schools.
• September 2006 – News Feed and Mini-Feed are added, aggregating profile changes of friends. New privacy settings are made available. Additionally, registration is expanded so anyone can join.
• May 2007 – Facebook launches their “Applications” platform.
• July 2007 – Facebook removes the profile field that allows users to list their courses.
• March 2008 – New privacy controls are added.

Example of Facebook Old Layout:

(source:http://www.images.google.com.my)

Example of Facebook New Layout:

(sources:http://www.images.google.com.my)

As participation in online communities increases, so does the necessity for flexible privacy mechanisms to protect user data. (Lipford, Besmer, Watson, 2008).Many privacy mechanisms of online social communities are purposefully weak to facilitate joining the community and sharing information. (Lipford, Besmer, Watson, 2008),In many cases, users are unwilling or unable to put forth the effort to modify and manage their privacy settings to protect their personal information. (Lipford, Besmer, Watson, 2008). By improving usability, Facebook and other sites will improve their management of structuring privacy settings around the notion of the audience to help users better conceptualize the impact of information sharing and protection. (Lipford, Besmer, Watson, 2008).

Apart from that, Shankland (2008) assert that the number of Facebook users has increased dramatically over the past 3 months and the main reason that contribute to these increasing in number of users is the ease to use the applications and the setup method that are favor to the users. This was supported by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), they stated that the composition of the webpage such as layout and framing of the webpage has make it easier for the users to navigate and user friendly. Futhermore, Walsh (2006), multimodality encourages interactivity and engages readers with the organisation itself. Users found Facebook more useful and had embedded it into their routines to a greater degree. Especially between 2006 and 2007, users experienced a statistically significant shift in attitudes about the importance of the site. (Lampe et al, 2008, p.721). Besides that, Nielsen (2000) stated that if one web site is hard to use, people will simply just leave and will not come back and this is the reason why facebook has some users didn’t bother logging in anymore after the change of format.

My personal Opinion:
Even though changes have been made by Facebook on the privacy setting for the sake of the users, the users take it lightly that they never bother to fully utilize it. A sudden change of Facebook layout might affect users, but after they get use to it and understand the improvement of new layout, they will accept it.

References:

Lampe,C, Ellison,N,B & Steinfield, C, 2008, Changes in Use and Perception of Facebook, Michigan State University, viewed on 12 November 2009,
<https://www.msu.edu/~nellison/LampeEllisonSteinfield2008.pdf>

Lipford,HR, Besmer,A &Watson, J, 2008, Understanding Privacy Settings in Facebook with an Audience View, University of North Carolina at Charlotte viewed 12 November 2009, <http://74.125.155.132/scholarq=cache:tin1pzaTBNUJ:scholar.google.com/+facebook+interface+user+experience&hl=en>

Nielsen, J 2000, 'Chapter 3: Content design', Designing web usability, New Riders, Indianapolis.

Shankland, S 2008, Facebook surges to 120 million users, ZD Net Asia, viewed 12 November 2009,<http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044908,62047943,00.htm,>

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006. Reading images. Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication.

Walsh (2006), multimodality encourages interactivity and engages readers with the organisation itself.

Book Trade Seeks a Deal With Google for Copyright Breach

(sources:http://www.images.google.com.my)

Google as the world’s most comprehensive search engine, has been facing copyright controversy. Previously, Google wanted to retrieve books from university libraries such as Harvard, Oxford and the New York Public Library, scan them and make the full texts available on the Google search engine (Toobin 2007). Hence, these leads to some copyright holders unhappy and decided to sue Google for copyright breach. According to CNet News (2009), Publishing group Le Martiniere is suing Google for "counterfeiting and breach of intellectual property rights" over the controversial book scanning and digitization project. Subsequenly, France's National Publishers' Union (SNE), which represents 400 publishers, has threatened legal action against Google over the project and publishers in the United Kingdom also have criticized Google over the plan. (CNet News, 2009). Furthermore, In the United States, the Google project faces two copyright-related lawsuits from author and publisher groups, who claim that scanning copyright protected books and making them searchable online violates their copyright. (CNet News, 2009).

Apparently, Google might deal with a continuous issue of breaching copyright. According to OUT_LAW News (2006) stated that the author and lawyer Blake Field ‘brought an action for copyright infringement, arguing that Google cache feature allowed web users to access copies of his copyrighted material’. Due to our knowledge, breaching copyright is considered a serious infringement. This is clarified by Reep (2006, p. 41) who points out that ‘it is illegal to violate the creator’s copyright by using these works for your own benefit without getting permission and paying the appropriate fees’.

Apart from the copyright issue, Google has become the world’s best search engine and the most frequently visited Web site for searches due to its popularity. Nielsen (2006) argues that ‘people have begun using search engines as answer engines to directly access what they want – often without truly engaging with the websites that provide,and pay for the services’. In my opinion, Google still is my favorite searching engine to help me find some essential information, images, and also some high quality article for my school assignment. Nevertheless, it is essential for Google to resolve their copyright issue from copyright holder to seek for their permission before Google published their books.

References:
Cnet, N, 2009, ‘Google Book project gets reprieve in Germany’ CBS Interactive Inc, viewed 11 November 2009,
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-6089897-7.html>

Nielsen, J 2006, ‘Search engines as leeches on the web’, Useit.com, viewed 11 November 2009,
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/search_engines.html>.

OUT-LAW News, 2006, ‘Google cache does not breach copyright, says court’, viewed 11 November 2009,
<http://www.out-law.com/page-6571>.

Reep, DC 2006, Technical writing: principles, strategies, and readings, 6th edn, Pearson Education, Inc., New York

Toobin, J 2007, ‘Google’s moon shot: the quest for the universal library’, New Yorker 5 February, viewed 11 Novmeber 2009, <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/02/05/070205fa_fact_toobin>

New Form Of Media Publishing

(source:http://www.images.google.com.my)

New form of media publishing that is widely used is Vlog. Vlog simply stands for video blog. A Vlog consist of video streaming community where communities are able share videos with each other. An example of a successful Vblog would be YouTube. One of the many reasons why Youtube is gaining popularity is because it provide users with wide range of videos and easy browsing feature (Why YouTube Works, 2006). According to (Arrington, 2006), Youtube can upload the video pretty fast where there are as much as 65,000 videos being upload daily and 100 millions of videos being viewed every single day.

Other than that, YouTube serves a role in the political constitution where an election candidate in America publishes relevant videos of their political point of view to draw and to convince their potential voters (Jarvis 2007). Youtube provide an official channel especially for 2008 United States presidential election (O’hear 2007).


Example of President Obama Speaks to the Muslim World from Cairo, Egypt posting in Youtube

(source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BlqLwCKkeY)

Issue with Youtube
According to Jones (2007) assert that it is common to YouTube to experience copyright lawsuit and people tend to post videos without rights to do so. This is one issue that YouTube facing due to wide video contents. In fact, it is a copyright infringement for YouTube. According to O'Brien and Fitzgerald (2006), stated that it is neccesary to consider video sharing websites like YouTube can be held legally responsible for authorizing copyright through the content they provide.

Other New forms of Media Publishing
- Moblog: mobile blogging, e.g. Jerry Ong Community Blog
- Vlog: video blogging, e.g. Lonelygirl15
- Splog: spam blog, e.g. Casino Online
- Linklog: URLs (hyperlinks) blogging, e.g. Tony Finch’s Link Log
- Sketchlog : sketch blogging, e.g. Sketch blog of the day
- Tumblelog: e.g. Anarchaia
- Online newspaper: e.g. New Straits Times
- Online magazine: e.g. Time Magazine

References:
Jarvis, J 2007, Guardian Column: The YouTube Campaign, viewed 10 November 2009,
<http://www.buzzmachine.com/2007/01/29/guardian-column-the-youtube-campaign/>

Jones, A 2007, YouTube's Legal Issues Grow, viewed 10 November 2009,
<http://econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=39887>

O'Brien, D, Fitzgerald, B 2006, 'Digital copyright law in a YouTube world', Internet Law Bulletin 9 (6&7), pp. 71-74, 10 November 2009,
<http://eprints.qut.edu.au/7505/1/7505.pdf>

O’hear, S 2007, Fox News on Second Life; YouTube Presidential Campaign; Explode Adds New Features; and More, viewed 10 November 2009,
<http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=105>

Why YouTube Works, 2006, online, viewed 10 November 2009,

<http://www.blogger.com/Why20YouTube20Works20200620http:/www.unsoughtinput.com/index.php/2006/08/21/why-youtube-works/>

M. Arrington 2006, Youtube’s Magic Number - $1.5 Billion viewed 10 November 2009, <http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/21/youtubes-magic-number-15-billion/>

Designing for Online vs. Print

Examples of same sources in different genre.

Example 1: National Geographic

Print Media

(sources:http://images.google.com.my)

VS

Online Media

(sources: http://www.nationalgeographic.com)

The two images of National Geographic above showing the difference between designing for printed and online media. It was taken from the same source but published in different genre. Nielson (1999) stressed that it is necessary to take different design approaches to utilize the strengths of each medium and minimize its weaknesses.

Print Design
In order to create a good printed document, designers should focus on the layout, to attract the readers from flipping through the pages. As Kress and van Leuween says multimodal text means a text which contains words and images which integrate in bringing up the meaning of the document. Printed materials are a form of multimodal text document which meant to be read and carried so the designers have to create a handy document with an appealing layout, whereas for online material readers are suppose to go form link to link. (Toor, 1998, p. 163).

Web Design
Web design is simultaneously 1-dimensional and N-dimensional as a web page is fundamentally a scrolling experience compare to print. Readers should be able to move around the web and feel good while visiting a website. This is agreed by Maureen Walsh (2006) that a reader should be able to choose different pathways depending on their interest. Apart from that, Nielson (2006) assert that internet users tend to scan through website in F-shaped reading pattern rather than reading through. Hence, the content in web should be more concise compare to print.

Example: Heatmaps from user eyetracking studies of three website

(sources: Nielson 2006)

References:
Education.Toor, M L, 1998, Graphic Design on the Desktop: A Guide For the Non-designer, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons., Canada.

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘chapter 6: The meaning of composition in Front Pages: Analysis of newspaper layout’.

Nielsen, J 1999, Print vs. web design, online, viewed 10 November 2009, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html>

Nielsen, J, 2006, F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content, online, viewed 10 November 2009,
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>

Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, No.1, pp.24-37.

Blogging Community

Blogging community can be defined as a group of similar interests people sharing their passion through a community. According to Kinkeldei (2007), blog communities has no borders that they are not bound by certain providers, country borders or age.

Creating a Blogging Community
According to Vinson (2006), blogging communities are created through comments left at blogs, hyperlinks connecting the blogs to other sites and shared language.

Types of Blogging Community
White (2006) illustrates that there are three forms of blog based community:

• Single Blog/Blogger Topic Community
• Central Connecting Topic Community
• Boundaried Community

Example of a Blogging Community
One of the example of blogging community that I am familiar with is Nuffnang Malaysia.


(sources:www.nuffnang.com.my)

Nuffnang Malaysia creating a protal of all bloggers to gather and discuss exchange blogging experiences. Every now and then Nuffnang will organise meet ups and event to gather bloggers together to interact among themselves.

References:
Kinkeldei, B 2007, Whitepaper Blog Communities: Forging Connections and Promoting Growth through Blog Communities, viewed 9 November 2009,

<http://21publish.com/pub/21publish/blogging-whitepaper.pdf>

Kirkpatrick, M 2006, MyBlogLog: Readers Network Around Their Favorite Blogs, TechCrunch viewed on 9 November 2009,

<http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/19/mybloglog-readers-network-around-their-favorite-blogs/>.

Vinson, J 2006, Blogging and communities, Blogspot, viewed 9 November 2009, <http://blog.jackvinson.com/archives/2006/06/26/blogging_and_communities.html>

White, N 2006, 'Blogs and community, launching new paradigm for online community?', The Knowledge Tree, edn.11, viewed 9 November 2009,

<http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-communitynity>

Blogs Classification

Nowadays people blog for different reasons, they create different types of blogs, depending on their target audience and interest (Librari*s & ‘Blogs).

Below examples is the classification types of blogs which include:

Subject matter:
1. Politics, e.g. Donklephant
2. Fashion, e.g. TANGS Malaysia Fashion Blog
3. History, e.g. Blog 4 History: American & Civil War History
4. Law, e.g. Sentencing Law & Policy

Device:
1.Moblog or mobile blogging, e.g. Jerry Ong Community Blog

Media type:
1. Vlog or video logging, e.g. Lonelygirl15
2. Linklog is URLs (hyperlinks) blogging, e.g. Tony Finch’s Link Log
3. Sketchlog, e.g. Sketch Blog Of The Day
4. Tumblelog is similar to link log but with more variations of posts, e.g. Anarchaia

Status of publishers:
1. Business blog, e.g. GuruFocus.com
2. Corporate blogs, e.g. Toyota Motor Company

Many blogs are combination of styles. This made identifying unique types difficult. According to abc.net, Funnell (2008) discussed that there are 9 types of blogs classification such as pamphleteering, digest, advocacy, popular mechanics, exhibition, gate watcher, diary, advertisement and news blogs. In my opinion, the most popular classification of blogs as discussed in abc.net would be the diary, digest, advertisements and news blogs. This is different as compared to Wikipedia as it classifies blogs through , status of publisher, genre, device and media type.

As suggested by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1998), the centre is the “nucleus” around which other information is placed. Placing the topic in the centre will capture the audience’s attention and enable them to determine its type immediately.

References:

Funnel, A 2008, 'A Taxonomy of Blogs', The Media Report, ABC Net, viewed 9 November 2009, <http://abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript>

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Approaches to media discourse, eds Bell, A & Garrett, P, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 186-219.

Librari*s & ‘Blogs, How blogs are moving into the library world, ‘Types of blogs’, viewed 9 November 2009,

<http://www.slais.ubc.ca/COURSES/libr500/0304wt2/www/JThomson/types.htm>

Wikipedia, 'Blogs' 2006, viewed 9 November 2009,

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs>

Blogs as Current Phenomenon and Benefits to the Community

As the phenomenon of the blog has become a major issue, the size of the blogosphere continues to increase. The chart by Technorati below shows the size of blogosphere per day for the past 90 days.

(sources: Technorati,2008)
Furthermore, Technorati's (2008)State of the Blogosphere Report assert that 'bloggers collectively create nearly one million blog posts each day, and half of bloggers believe blogs will be a primary source of news and entertainment in the next five years'.

Blogging trend in Europe, Asia and Malaysia.

(sources: Technorati, 2008)
Graph above showed that the North America region dominated the largest blogging phenomenon globally with 48%, followed by Europe with 27%, Asia 13%, South America 7% and America 3%.

(source: Technorati,2008)
The first Blogger Highlight showed most Asian Bloggers are Male with 73%. Asian bloggers are more to younger generation, aged between 18-34. Asian bloggers are also more concerned about their identity and they most prefer to blog to earn profits.

The second Blogger Highlight, which is European bloggers concludes that there are more male bloggers with 73%. European bloggers blogged a lot about music and computer while less focused lon monetization.

As we know there are several various types of blogs such as personal blogs, collaborative blogs, corporate blogs, and etc. Personal blogs and corporate blogs seem prevalent in Europe, Asia and Malaysia.

Benefits to the Community

Allen (2005) states that most blogs earn in tens of dollar per month range, some of the more popular blogs reportedly earn thousands of dollars a month. For example, influential blogger in Malaysia such as Kenny Sia earned thousands of dollars through blog.

Ramadass (2006) reporting the study Blogging Asia: A Windows Live Report, ‘20% of Malaysians voted for blogs focusing on politics’. Political blog itself is beneficial to Malaysians when voicing criticism against the Malaysian Government as a pattern of free speech, so is business blog, which is to instigate discussion, ideas and better business.

In these respect, blogging has contributed by creating a powerful online community. (Perera, 2008)

References:

Allen, R 2005, The Impact of Blogging, viewed 8 November 2009,
<http://rallenhome.com/essays/essay5.html>

Perera, G 2008, The Personal Benefits of Blogging, Article Alley, viewed 8 November 2009, <http://articlealley.com/article_669123_15.html>

Ramadass, V 2006, ‘Blogging phenomenon sweeps Asia’, 28 November, Lowyat.NET: Malaysia’s Tech Enthusiast Resource Community, viewed 8 November 2009, <http://www.lowyat.net/v2/latest/blogging-phenomenon-sweeps-asia.html>.

Technorati, 2008, The size of blogosphere per day for the past 90 days, viewed 8 November 2009,
<http://www.technorati.com/chart/the+size+of+blogosphere?language=en&authority=a4>.

Technorati 2007 & 2008, State of blogosphere, viewed 8 November 2009,
<www.technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere>