Ali's Blog

Friday, May 19, 2006

Summary of Wiki Edits

As this semester comes to an end and I look back on the work I did to the Wikipedia articles that I chose, I see the value that Wikipedia offers. Because it is constantly changing, it is always up to date and has input from so many users so it is usually more extensive than any other encyclopedia or site on the internet. If at any time a user adds information that is wrong, it is spotted right away and deleted, so it does have some sense of validity. These are the articles that I edited:
  • Drew Lachey: All of the edits that I made on this article are still there now, although other people have added to the page since then. The article changed a lot recently as Drew got further and further in the competition Dancing With the Stars.
  • Hollywood Video: The first edit that I made on this article was deleted shortly after I wrote it when someone else completely changed the whole page. Apparently the mission statement wasn't important to that guy. After that person made such a big edit, more people began adding things that he left out. My last 2 edits are still there.
  • Wantagh: This article was not as busy as the others I edited, all of my edits stayed the way I wrote them and the article changed only a few times since I started editing it. I guess maybe Wantagh isn't really a hot topic to search in an encyclopedia.
  • Rent: I was so mad about the first edit that I made to this article because I completely rewrote all of Act I, and the edit never showed up under my name. I don't know if it was because I wasn't logged in or maybe I am just a tool and didn't save it right, I don't know. But this was a really interesting artice to watch change. Since the movie came out this summer and was released on DVD in February, the number of Rent fans keeps rising. One of the most interesting things about this article was the fact that a lot of people kept writing about things that happened in the movie but weren't part of the play, but there are always people watching on Wikipedia to correct those mistakes. The edits that I made have all stayed, thats quality right there.

The articles that I picked were pretty well developed already when I picked them so most of my edits were just small pieces of information added in. It was really cool to see how the articles changed and developed in just a few months. It was also really interesting to get to see how Wikipedia works, and even though I had never heard of Wikipedia before this class, I know I will definitely use it for research in the future.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Online Marketing to Women

I just read Keith's Blog and his latest post was in response to an article from ClickZ about online marketing to women. As a female myself, I have to say that I completely agree with the article. The majority of online adverstising that I come in contact with is geared towards men. Even the spam e-mails that I get hardly ever apply to me. Marketers have to realize that 50% of the world is women. And we use the internet too! It baffles me to think that some people don't even realize that... not only the fact that women actually use the internet just as much as men do, but women shop more.. so why not gear advertising to us? Not to mention that women can multi-task soooooooo much better than men, so online shopping while checking e-mail while chatting with friends while checking myspace while updating a blog is really no biggie. I actually do get e-mails from Victoria's Secret and I actually read them and check out their sales, unlike most of the other pointless junk mail I get.
I think its even crazier that there is such little online marketing geared toward mothers of young children. This market is sure to be a gold mine. Think about it... a working mother with a bunch of kids. She's online during the day, probably all day, at work. Comes in contact with hundreds of advertisements. Why not an ad for online grocery shopping? Won't that make life easier for her? Now think about a stay at home mom with young kids. What a hassle to take them out of the house to the mall or to go grocery shopping. But these things still need to be done. Mom probably spends a good amount of time online while the kids are taking naps or after they go to bed at night. Why not send some ads her way to entice some online shopping action?
I liked Keith's idea for having companies work together in advertising.. banner swapping would be a great idea for them if they have the same target market. The only problem with that, as mentioned in class, is that it may deter the consumer from looking at the original site they intended on viewing because they got distracted by the banner. But if the link opened up a new browser window (or tab), I think that might eliminate the problem since the first window will still be open so the consumer won't forget the reason why they were at the site in the first place.
As the internet continues to grow, I hope to see more marketing efforts made to women. And I think mastercard will be happy when that happens.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Last Wiki Edit!!

Just made my final Wiki edit on the Rent page, I added some information that was left out in Act I in the Over the Moon scene.. the fact that there was a riot, that Mark caught it on film, and that the footage was shown on the local news.

Now I'm done with all my Wiki edits!! yay!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Wiki Edit and Site Counter

I just made a third edit on the Wantagh page at Wikipedia. I added some more information about the school district that I found from Wantagh.Li. I also added a site counter that I got from Keith's page.

Monday, May 08, 2006

How much do you know about blogging?

I found this quiz online and it's kinda pertinent to this class so I'll post it here:

You Know a Lot About Blogging
You got 5/8 correct!
Your not a total blogging geek yet... give it time.




I wonder what Professor Brown would get on this quiz.....

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Youngest Blogger?

I am writing in response to the post by Shel Isreal in the Naked Conversations Blog about the possible world's youngest blogger, Rohan. His blog was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. I almost cried in his post about war, when he said that if he was ruler of the world he would make sure that there was no more wars. I forgot what it was like to have such an innocent mind and reading his blog made me feel like I was looking at the world through a child's eyes again. I am very impressed with his writing skills, even though it's obvious that it was written by a second grader and not someone pretending to be one. I think it would be a smart idea for elementary school teachers to get their students writing in blogs. It would certainly help improve their writing skills and they could even peer edit each others blogs. It would also prepare students for the future because, as this class has emphasized, blogging is the future of the business world.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Wikipedia Edits

I just edited each one of my Wikipedia topics and I was happy to see that no one has changed or deleted anything that I wrote since the last time I edited.



In the Hollywood Video article, I added the trade-in policy that was introduced last year.

In the Rent article, I clarified some information about Benny's character.

In the Wantagh article, I added the names of the schools in the school district.

In the Drew Lachey article, I added that he guest starred on Hollywood Squares in 2001.



Only 2 more to go to complete the required 12 edits!