This exegesis will explain the choices made while creating my web presence and the reasons behind those choices. I will discuss why I decided to create a blog instead of a webpage and the process I took in establishing this public representation of my identity. I will then focus on my chosen connecting nodes and how each is uniquely relevant to my blog and in what way.
The concept behind my web presence was possibly the hardest and most personally confronting issue I had to face during this process. I found it extremely hard to judge what there was about me that was worth writing let alone worthwhile an audience reading. Through my recent online travels I began noticing a trend to the pages and sites I visited which focused mainly on books and authors of urban fantasy and paranormal romance genre. Walker-Rettberg (2008) refers to establishing a theme closely linked to personal values and as such this became my main focus. I decided a blog based on the concept of reading and discussing books of this genre would offer an intimate view into my most favoured daily ritual - the late night read- and therefore my personal values. The idea that my words could influence someone and there-by increase awareness of a particular author was a quite romantic notion and for such a sad romantic as myself what more could I ask for.
A weblogs ‘infinitely malleable format’ (Blood, 2000) and opportunities’ for growth through contributions and collaborations is what first drew me to creating a blog for my central node. I liked the idea of public interaction made through people’s comments which would in turn provide a dynamic social content. The evolution of regularly updated posts provide a glimpse into me and my personality offering an opportunity for self-development, something I have been working on since beginning my tertiary education in 2011. I decided to use Blogger when creating my central node for its simple, flexible user-friendly approach. I chose a ‘simple’ template opting to use my own sourced image (www.picsdesktop.com) as I felt the templates and images provided did not suit the theme I wanted for the blog. I believe my choice of font and colours blended easily into the theme while not creating a distraction for the audience when reading the posts. I contemplated changing the background image with each book review (using the cover of each book) but felt that it would create an unfamiliar ‘home’ to my audience so I will just insert an image into the post of each review instead.
Linking to Goodreads was my first connecting node as a site that centres on ‘social cataloguing’ and allowing individuals to register books and create their own library catalogue or reading list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodreads ) it was an important contribution to the page. It allows users to create their own group or book club and discuss individual book suggestions and I believe it will help increase traffic to my site along with offering me a pool of centralised authors and novels to focus future posts on.
Facebook was my next choice; with a diverse group of individuals that are not directly associated with me I felt I will be able to enhance my own reading experience as well as others. A popular social networking site Facebook offers a similar experience to a weblog although more purposely directed at individuals already willing to interact online through their own pages. The Facebook page was simple to create and completely straight forward. Since I was already an avid user I was familiar with the layout and navigating my way around status updates, friend requests and photo uploading was easy. Again I feel that Facebook provides similar opportunities for growth and public awareness for my blog as Goodreads does and I am already seeing traffic and follows from this page join my blogs followers list.
Twitter was my next choice for a connecting node although, I was reluctant to start a feed having no previous interest in joining multiple social networking sites that essentially offered the same thing. This changed with the prospect of using it as an advertising tool to promote my blog. I soon realised it was a much simpler and more direct way to provide my audience with quick regular updates regarding my progress with each book as well as being something I could essentially do via mobile phone (IPhone app) or computer directly linking Tim Burners-Lee’s (1996) hope that the internet and World Wide Web would be used as a personal information system able to be accessed from any device that could connect to it.
Although we were only required to provide three connecting nodes I believe the option to include Delicious offers not much for my blog but introduces its readers to new and interesting sites or pages that may normally go unnoticed. I have included all my links via delicious as well as including other blogs, pages and websites I enjoy and feel best represent the theme I am delivering through this web presence. I will continue to add to this list regularly and invite others to offer suggestions via the blog.
I have used the same image (provided by: www.picsdesktop.com) to produce a consistency throughout each of my connecting nodes and believe this helps create instant recognition and ties each site together with one theme. The process from conception to fruition at times has been hard but overall has been an amazing learning experience. I believe the choices I have made throughout this process enhance and expand my web presence identity providing a positive and more controlled vision of me. I am now beginning to understand Bloods (2000) own personal growth in beginning to value her unique and often important opinions and ideas and think that I can see those qualities evolving within myself even in this short time going public.
References:
Berners-Lee, T. (1996). The World Wide Web: Past, Present and Future. Retrieved from: http://www.w3.org/1996/ppf/html
Blood, R. 2000. Weblogs: A History and Perspective. Retrieved from: http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
Walker- Rettberg, J. (2008). Blogs, communities and networks. P: 57-83. Retrieved from: http://edocs.library.curtin.edu.au/eres_display.cgi?url=dc60263770.pdf
