Final Exam

Here's a list of my top 5 favorite sports teams:

1. Washington Wizards (Basketball)
   
2. AU Eagles (Basketball)
3. Manchester United (Soccer)
4. Walter Johnson Wildcats High School Softball
   
5. D.C. United (Soccer)

Here's a list of a few of my favorite athletes:

• Etan Thomas (Basketball)
• Jenny Finch (Softball)
• Juan Dixon (Basketball)
• Ronaldinho (Soccer)
• Lebron James (Basketball)

Since many people have no idea who Etan Thomas (my favorite basketball player) is, I provided a picture of him at the top of my blog entry.

If you want more information on all of your favorite sports teams, you should probably just watch Sportscenter or login to ESPN.

Here is a map I created of some of my favorite Museums, and where they are in case you wanted to go and check them out!

View My 5 Favorite Museums in D.C. in a larger map

Here's a really cool chart I created:

Are You Searching Me?

Can you believe it, we're at the end of the road in Multimedia Media Production Skills. One more class left!

This could potentially be my last blog post for this blog, but on a positive note, I might actually start my own blog. I feel like this class has inspired me to do so. Now that I have these blogging skills, it's a good idea to put them into good use.

So our last topic of discussion will be SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO is the process of making your web page easy to find through search engines. It not only increases the traffic for your web page, but also your archives are benefitted. It actually gives more value to your archives, and SEO allows people to further search specifically into your stories.

What does the SEO "spider" look for? Well, it looks for keywords, titles, and search friendly text. However, there are bumps and walls that make your web page difficult to find. Walls are blockages. They don't allow access to a webpage without a certain login and/or password. Speed bumps are just poorly structured web pages that are so removed from the actual site you visited.

Here are the factors to improving search:

• Link value
• Diversity of links - linking different sources
• Keywords/headlines/titles

So why is all of this important? Well, it's actually pretty to understand why. If you create a website, you want as many as you can get to visit the site right? Well, SEO helps increase the traffic to your webpage because through the use of keywords, it allows your webpage to come up in searches conducted through search engines such as Google.

Think about it. Would you rather have a couple people reading your blog? OR Would you want to be like me and have as many people possible read your blog? Frankly, it's a bit more exciting.

NBA Playoffs ... LEBRON LEBRON LEBRON!

Here's a chart of the chances these teams have of winning the NBA Playoffs.

Are you Lost?

Are you really lost? Looking for a game to go and see? Here's a map of where the four stadiums in the D.C. area are.


View Sports Stadiums Around the Area in a larger map

Are You Ready To Start Blogging?

We have officially gotten to writing for the web and blogging! Come'on people it's the moment we've all been waiting for!

Let's start off with Blogs -- since hey what do you know I'm currently writing on a blog. There are three main characteristics of a blog that are important to note:

• The ability for readers to post comments
• The frequency of blog posts
• The ability of blogs to link to other content

These three points are what make blogs different from anything else we see on the web. Now when one writes a blog, one needs to know how to write for the web. This is where the second part of our class lecture comes in.

When writing for the web, we must write in a way that benefits "scanning". People normally don't read EVERYTHING you have, they usually scan/skim through it. In order to benefit scanning we must use subheads, short paragraphs, lits, etc. We should also use media. Keep in mind that it should be media that best illustrates what we're trying to describe in our posts. Remember to write actively and not passively. And of course, let your ideas flow logically from one point to the next. We readers don't want our eyes jumping around from point to point (it's a little stressful on the eyes.)

Once you've got this all down, you're ready to get blogging. Just think about it...the speed of publishing, easy access, flexible time component...who wouldn't want to start blogging!?

CSS ... I'm Seeing Style Sheets Everywhere!

So I have survived yet another week of my Multimedia Production Skills Class. That means we've only got another 2-3 weeks to go? I'm not sure. Anyways, the focus for this week was HTML and CSS. Excited? You should be!

There are two kinds of addresses/links -- absolute and relative. An absolute link is a link in which there is only one way to get to that site where you are. The relative link is based on your present location in a site. An example of an absolute link would be www.american.edu/admissions and a relative link would just be visits.html.

Today's focus in class was mainly on CSS. There are three types of CSS:

• Inline -- Focuses only on one section of a page. Overrides embedded.
• Embedded -- At the top/only on the one page. Overrride external.
• External -- Applied to multiple pages.

Again, I propose a question -- Why is CSS important? Why does it exist?
The good news is I actually have a legitimate answer for you. HTML has limited design capabilities; it can't really handle what CSS can do. Also, CSS separates design from content. That's the key right there. I personally think it is important to separate design from content when creating a web page. It makes the process of creating a web page a whole lot easier because you don't need to worry about the two at the same time. I guess the one thing I'm still a little skeptical about is why anyone would create a style sheet for the "little things" like a paragraph of text. I know it's because HTML has limited design capabilities, but I think maybe we should start working on a new technology for creating web pages where the content and design are not separated. A new way to do these things easily without have to worry about all of these codes and style sheets. I don't know. What do you think?

Welcome to the World of Online Journalism ... Dun Dun Dun

Yay for Blog Post #2!

We had our first "official lecture" Tuesday morning for my Multimedia Production Skills class. We discussed the basics of the internet and the world wide web. The one important thing we discussed was the actual difference between the internet and the world wide web; which to be honest I thought were the same thing. According to Online Journalism, "The internet is the worldwide network, or connection, of computers that allows any user on the network to access information from anywhere else on the network. The World Wide Web refers to the set of technologies that places a graphical user interface on the Internet."

We also discussed how each individual computer has its own IP (Internet Protocol) address, numbers based, which is used as an identification tool. On the other hand, Domain Name Systems (DNS) are text based and are usually used to identify comptuers on the Internet as well. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a program that allows users to transfer files to and from computers. To further understand these things and how the Internet works, one needs illustrations. Unfortunately, I cannot provide those to you here, so you will have to rely on my words.

Our class did conclude on a rather "intense" note as we got into a heated discussion on the credibility of blogs. It is important to know that not all Blogs are opinion driven, and that some of them are actually in fact pretty credible. A blog is just another publishing platform. It is the content of a blog that determines whether it is credible.

What does this all mean? Why is it important to us?
Well as hopefully future journalists, it is important for us get familiar with new technology mediums; especially the internet. The concept of online journalism is rapidly growing, and it is becoming a way for people to get their news. For journalists, we need to know and understand how the internet and the world wide web works because eventually we will all at some point be publishing our work on the internet. In addition, at some points in our career we will be sent out to the field and be required to send footage and/or our written story to our employers almost immediately after we've finished it. FTP is essential because it specifically works with transfering files. Not only this, but backpack journalists also use the internet to publish their work. Knowing how to create a webpage, and maintain is essential in being a successful backpack journalist.

I guess the most important thing to keep in mind about all of this is that our world is changing rapidly. The way we get our news is changing. The way we get our information in general is changing. Technology is changing. The more we educate ourselves in these new technologies and how they work and what they do, the closer we are in being better journalists.