Introduction to the Blogosphere

The Blogosphere lies deep in the digital reaches of cyberspace, interconnecting common threads of thoughts and reactions to events in the physical world. This planet of ever-changing emergent commentary and insight into the human experience and collective thought is a wellspring of creativity and ideas. Like an opensource murmur of voices in the physical manifestation of the Collective Unconscious we know as the World Wide Web, the blogosphere is an integrated disseminator of information and opinion. Blogosphere, a term made popular by science fiction writer William Quick, is similar to the Greek term Logosphere, since it is also a world of words.

This digital world of human voices is constructed of weblogs, which originated in the late 1990’s in the form of bulletin boards, and later transformed into a form of personally written documents, articles and insights in weblog. A weblog, or blog, is a physical space on the internet where self-publishing, supported by the democratization of the Internet, is also interconnected by related ideas and reactions to world events forming virtual interlinked communities, or the Blogosphere. The networked public sphere of blogs is connected through hyperlinks and trackbacks, or pointers from other blogs that have linked to the original article. This allows individuals, who are detached from traditional social structural institutions by the networked society, to form a collective identity based on ideas and opinions. Yet the networked individualism found within the Blogosphere ensures the individuality of the writer, despite the attentive clusters of like-minded information producers and consumers. The Blogosphere is populated by a full spectrum of writers, from those recording their life to journalists, politicians, artists and many more. It is a space where the individual can voice opinions and ideas that collect like-minded people from around the world.

According to Blogpulse, a site that tracks the growth and development of the blogosphere, there are over 147 million blogs, with a daily growth of over 60 thousand new blogs, and 1 million daily entries. This fastest growing information creation on the Internet can be mined intensively by Technorati, which not only scours the Blogosphere for data, but also produces yearly reports of trends and growth rates of the interconnected weblogs.

Recent changes within the Blogosphere include the emerging micro-blogosphere , based on tools like Twitter which incorporate social networking and instant messaging, posting and connection services. With over 100 million registered users, this micro-blogger alone generates new interlinking capabilities for the larger blogosphere and the Internet. Other changes include the emergence of writers creating articles for interest groups along common interest lines. The incredible popularity of this style of blogging is evident in Mashable.com , a WordPress-based news blog, which, according to Alexa, reaches over 0.5% of the entire internet population every day. The Blogosphere is truly a murmur of human voices in cyberspace.

As the physical and digital worlds coalesce, the reflection and reaction of the global human community to world events send ripples of energy through the Blogosphere, thereby making it a vital source of information on the Internet for education, research, learning and self-expression.

by Kenneth Buis

Further Reading

Blumethal, Mark, M.( 2005) TOWARD AN OPEN-SOURCE METHODOLOGY:
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE. Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 69, No.5, Special Issue 2005, pp. 655–669.

Castells, Manuel. (1996) The Rise of the Network Society. Cambridge, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Winer,D.(2003) ‘What Makes a Weblog a Weblog?’,Weblogs at Harvard Law,URL (consulted Sept 2010):http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/whatMakesAWeblogAWeblog

Castells, Manuel. (1996) The Rise of the Network Society. Cambridge, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Hodkinson, Paul. (2007) Interactive Online Journals
and Individualization. New Media & Society. 2007 9: 625. DOI: 10.1177/1461444807076972. http://nms.sagepub.com/content/9/4/625

Uchida, M and Shibata, N, (2009) IDENTIFYING THE LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE OF THE BLOGOSPHERE. Advances in Complex Systems, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2009) 207–219.

Working in any creative industry, whether it is website design, animation, video game production, photography or any fine arts, can exhaust your creativity.  How can we harness our creativity, access our inspiration and work in our natural creative flow?

Transform the Negatives

In order to enter into our own creativity we need to address the emotional blocks that prevent us from producing art.  These may include issues such as:

• procrastination
• negative self-talk and fear of failure (I’ll never be good enough)
• stress from deadlines
• creating and evaluating our work simultaneously
• information overload
• poor health or lack of sleep

Rather than believing you are hindered by your own internal self-critic, begin reprogramming that destructive voice.   So, instead of saying, “I’ll never be able to learn all this.” why not restate it to say, “This project will take me some extra time now, but what I learn will be amazing!”.  There are few strategies more powerful than the daily practice of being positive and looking at challenges with excitement.

When are you most Creative and why?

As you begin to work within your creative flow and give the inner artist some room to play, notice what sparks your inspiration.  Sometimes just looking at showcases of photography, or viewing pieces of art, or going for a walk in a peaceful environment will be enough to break the emotional and mental blocks to your productivity.  Yet, as you move forward, start to find the triggers that block your creativity, work around them, be patient with yourself and your artistic growth as you take note of the way in which your inspiration and productivity integrate to produce art.  Journaling, whether it is a daily journal of ideas, a dream journal or a journal/sketchbook, will help you focus on your inner growth and embrace the artistry.

Strategies to maintain your Creative Flow

Here are a few ideas that have helped me maintain a creative flow and access my sources of inspiration over the years.

1. Library of inspiration –  build a digital library of your work, links to showcases of artwork, collections of experiments or elements you have used before, or links to your favourite artists or designers.
2. Practice being creative – do something everyday that inspires you, whether it is noticing colour and light, doing artwork, taking photos, working with graphics or writing down your ideas
3. Live in a constant flow of learning, embracing the “just-in-time” learning model and learn something new with every project
4. Take pride in your work and don’t be afraid to exhibit your talent
5. Experiment with your approaches to projects, methods you have never tried before and realize that this approach is never a waste of time, particularly if you find a new avenue to your artistry.

There is nothing like working in a flow of creativity where you apply your inspiration to projects and feel that amazing emotional fulfillment of producing something beautiful.  Today is a good day to begin your creative journey to find your inner artist and the paths to your inspiration.

Links to Showcases of Art, Photography, Websites and other great sources of inspiration:

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/best-photographer-websites/

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design-inspiration/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/category/inspiration/

http://sixrevisions.com/category/web_design/

http://speckyboy.com/category/weekly-web-design-inspiration/

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/category/inspiration/

http://www.noupe.com/photoshop/45-brilliant-examples-of-photo-manipulation-art.html

http://webdesignledger.com/category/inspiration

http://www.photographyblogger.net/photography-showcase-12/

by Ken Buis

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If you have a small business or are planning to set up a small business, do you have a social media marketing strategy in place?

Social media has become a new driving force in business and education that allows new strategies for reaching customers and providing a greater level of marketing and service.  Not only does twitter and blogging allow a business to introduce their products, it also enables a more personal approach to customer service and digital interaction.  At another level, it allows us as designers, marketers and digital communication specialists to connect to other specialists in our field to share resources, get feedback on our work and grow as a globally connected learning community of practice.

Knowing how to work on social media is also key.  It is not only posting out news or comments daily on services such as twitter, it also requires links back to your main website, your blog articles and other resources within your realm of business or work.  The ideal model is to have potential customers and viewers streaming in from various places and ending up on your website or blog where they can access your services, see your portfolio or buy your product.  To do this takes time, discipline and strategy, but if you build it into your daily routine it does get easier.

Consider using twitter and/or tumblr for about 10 minutes a day.  Don’t feel that you have to read everything that comes your way, since there simply are not enough hours in the day.  But do make meaningful connections with potential customers or business partners who could assist you in making your product/services even better.  Twitter can be used effectively to make quick announcements, broadcast new products, sales or new levels of services and even more importantly, share valuable resources.  This is an excellent guidebook for twitter and its business applications:  http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/ .  Keeping your message personal, linking to valuable resources and being positive in all your tweet is a key.

Blogging is another level of social media that you can apply at least weekly to your business strategy.  Consider posting an article about your services, people on your staff and how they contribute to your company or articles about your products and services.  Linking to your website, products, portfolio, additional information and to your other social media outlets is key.  The more links allowing the customer to discover your work, services and products you have, the better the traffic will be to your website, and the better your conversion rates will become.

Setting up any small business is something that takes thousands of hours, determination, inspiration and hard work.  Building in a social media platform to reach a global audience needs to be a key component in your marketing and information strategy.

Check out this infographic about how small businesses are using social media:  http://mashable.com/2011/02/14/small-business-social-media-infographic/

As more and more of the global community becomes interconnected through mobile technology, this instant connection layer of social media will only increase.

Don’t have a social media strategy?  It’s time to start putting energy into one to build your personal or company social image using services such as Twitter, Tumblr, blogging, Linkedin, and Facebook to build a bigger internet presence and enhance your website.

by Ken Buis