Exegesis

This exegesis explains the general theme behind my web presence, choices that I have made in reference to the creation of my web presence, and why I have chosen WordPress as my central node as well as my reasons for choosing my contributing nodes. To expand on this, I will refer to material from the WEB101 Unit provided by Curtin University WA and also alternate material from secondary sources.

The idea or theme behind my web presence is to basically introduce myself to the world, firstly as an individual and secondly as the person I am striving to be, in becoming a web site designer and creator. I have chosen this theme as I believe it is a great way to inform internet users, which according to the Internet Usage World Stats web site is around 26.6% of the world population, (World Internet Usage Statistics News and World Population Stats, 2010) about me personally and to also show people what I can do in regards to designing and creating fantastic web sites. This will hopefully assist me in developing a long and lustrous career in this forever growing and evolving field.

I have chosen to publish my information using the blogging tool called WordPress. I chose to use WordPress.com as my central node for reasons such as its ease of use, its customisation and diversity through the use of themes and widgets and also because according to the WordPress.com web site, there are over 22 million WordPress publishers and 10.6 million blogs hosted as of February 2010. (Stats – WordPress, 2010). Other impressive statistics include the signup of over 50,000 new users over the past 2 weeks alone and also over 250 million people worldwide visit one or more WordPress.com blogs  every month and they also view over 2 billion pages on those blogs. (Signups – WordPress, 2010). I have tried to stick with a layout that is easy to read as well as simple to navigate and the template I have chosen to aid me in achieving this is Notepad by Nick La. I feel its font style and size combined with its simple colour scheme is ideal for what I am trying to achieve and by the use of relevant widgets such as Delicious and being able to have links to my other Web 2.0 tools and applications such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr right there in my header, I felt was a great advantage and a very easy way to promote my other homes on the web.

In regards to my contributing nodes for my web presence, I decided to use Twitter, Delicious and Flickr. As I have already written an essay on Twitter through a previous assessment in WEB101 this semester, I wanted to choose Twitter for at least one of my contributing nodes as I feel Twitter is one of those tools that can only become bigger and better as it seems to be the latest craze. Everybody from mobile phone users, people using laptops in the park and even celebrities are taking full advantage of this tool and updating their fans and followers on events such as traffic information, weather and even what they feel like for dinner! So in saying this, I have posted a tweet on my Twitter account linking to this blog and I have also setup my WordPress blog to update both my Twitter and Facebook accounts as soon as I create a new post so people that follow me through Twitter or who are friends of mine on Facebook, see my latest posts almost instantly. I have also been able to display links to web sites relevant to my theme of promoting myself as a web designer through the use of my Delicious account through a widget on my blog. It displays links to sites about topics relating to web site design such as HTML, CSS, tutorials and even links users back to my WordPress blog. It is through here that I have also been able to include the link to my web site that I have done for an assessment task for my NED11 unit this semester and with the help of also adding Flickr to my blog, I have been able to display screenshots of this web site and my coding for all to see.

I have been introduced to Twitter and Flickr through the What is Web 2.0 module as well as the Social Networking module and have learnt what the term blog means through reading through the Blogging module. I have also taken advice from my tutors in regards to my WordPress blog by implementing actions that were mentioned on the discussion board.

In conclusion to this, I feel that I have been able to demonstrate my understanding and competency of certain ideas and topics discussed throughout the WEB101 unit by creating my WordPress blog. In addition, I feel that blogging is a small stepping stone into the future of where the web is leading us and to the point where eventually we all will have a place to call home on the internet. I support this with what Seth Godin said in 2008, “The word blog is irrelevant, what’s important is that it is now common, and will soon be expected, that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the world.” (Leaver, 2010).

Biography

Leaver, T. (2010) Topic 2.1 – Blogging. Retrieved from http://lms.curtin.edu.au

Miniwatts Marketing Group, (2000-2010). World Internet Usage Statistics News and World Population Stats. Retrieved on May 23rd 2010 from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Stats – WordPress.com. Retrieved on May 23rd 2010 from http://en.wordpress.com/stats/

Signups – WordPress.com. Retrieved on May 23rd 2010 from http://en.wordpress.com/stats/signups/

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