week 3 - readings

This week's readings fell into three categories for me: marketing a blog, creating a usable blog and ethical blogs. I found the articles on marketing and creating usable blogs interesting and helpful. If I were trying to ensure that the messages in my blog were seen by a specific audience and was more usable by that audience, then I would definitely consider customizing my "about me" page, adding a picture of myself and ensuring that the titles of my entries were sufficiently on point and conveyed the content of the posts as suggested in the article found at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html. I did find, however that it was assumed that I was publishing a blog to promote something and myself as opposed to just reflecting or recording thoughts on significant events or interests.

Rebecca Blood's article (http://www.rebeccablood.net/handbook/excerpts/weblog_ethics.html) and the article from the library journal (http://libraryjournal.com/article/CA515805.html) concerned me just a little. I agree that librarian's who are publishing blogs with the library's name on it or who promote their blogs by stating that they are expert researchers on a particular topic should be careful not to disclose confidential information, breach copyright or publish information which is not verified. However, I think it's a bit much to impose a "code of ethics" on bloggers who just want to express an opinion. Freedom of expression is an important right. If works are intended for a scholarly community then obviously certain standards need to be met, but sometimes people need a place to rant maybe even at each other. I don't quote the editorial section of a newspaper when looking for facts and the same goes for blog. In addition, not everyone has a university education. I don't think these people are unethical for posting blogs without proper citation. ( I guess that's my rant)