When is a blog an ad?

Following on from my previous blog about the EU directive on flogging. I came across an interesting blog….http://www.globaltravelblog.com/

A very sophisticated blog with RSS feeds, podcasts, videos, tag clouds, categories and very well managed content (possibly too well managed when you read some of the posts).  The posts and members are currently dominated by Flight Centre consultants with email links back to a Flight Centre.

In my quest to understand Web 2.0 and the implications for the travel industry and how word of mouth is spread about destinations and products I found this site quite intriguing.

My first thought……is this a community of practice I should be  a part of?

It looks a lot better than the Travelzine (the site I have chosen to study) and definitely has a comparatively improved technological framework.  I was keen to find out more about this site so I clicked on the “about us” section and yes it definitely belongs to a commercial operator perhaps on the biggest in Australia …Flight Centre. 

The Flight Centre Group Product Ads which exclusively dominate the site should have given it away plus if you read the conditions - you will see some interesting conditions of advertising which the owners of the site have clearly decided does not apply to them.

Look the site is a clever use of Web 2.0 and is a great way for Flight Centre to engage with their customers and build customer loyalty.  I am however suspect at the efforts to profile the site as a global travel blog when it really is one big advertisement for Flight Centre and the community primarily consists of travel agents of the company. 

Happy that I have chosen my community the Travelzine.   I go back to my previous blog where trust is a key element in Web 2.0 and that people will trust their community when taking recommendations for products and services.

I suspect Advertising blogs will face the fate of TV advertising, similar to the power of the remote control, Net users have the power to selectively filter out the “ads” with the click of the mouse.

Commercial Travel blogging – an offence in the EU

A recent blog on Travel Mole outlines the interesting consequence of misuse of Web 2.0 by commercial tourism operators trying to buy favour with consumers by fake postings to sites such as Trip Advisor.  

Commercial blogging – ‘flogging’ – becomes an offence in Europe – March 28 2008 by Dinah Hatch 

“The end, it seems, could be nigh for those cheeky hoteliers who pretend to be customers on TripAdvisor and write themselves glowing reviews. As of April 6, Brussels will be banning such underhand activities as the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive comes into force, making commercial blogging, or flogging as it’s known, an offence.

The new law includes two categories of unfair commercial practice – misleading practices and aggressive practices. Whether a practice is deemed unfair will be judged in light of the effect it has on the average consumer’s consequent decision to purchase. The law means companies, no matter how small (and that includes sole traders), will not be able to post online themselves or pay anyone else to post reviews or blogs about their own companies that are misleading.

The law comes into force at a time when the public are beginning to make their disapproval about flogging heard.In the US, the recent Travel 2.0 Consumer Technology Survey which was commissioned by Phocuswright revealed that when travel purchasing decisions are being made, most Americans said they would rather make their own minds up than follow the views of people they didn’t know (and therefore, by implication, could not trust). “ 

My initial thoughts are

1) How are they going to police and track it – that will be interesting to see

2) Once they work that out people will find a way to get around it

3) Trip Advisor is a commercial site – you have to take it on face value and understand that (apologies to the Americans and anyone else who didn’t see the mass advertising that dominates the site)

More importantly, it gives support to the notion that non-commercial social networking sites where people build relationships and communities of “trust” may have greater impact on people’s purchasing decisions.  This is something I am interested in and one of the reasons I have chosen the Travelzine as my learning community to study. 

Assignment 1 powered by “The Digital Age”

Press Play on my Voki and then Click Here ..... ASSIGNMENT ONE

Press Play on my Voki and then Click Here ..... ASSIGNMENT ONE

Anyone out there? Weblogs – A one-way conversation?

In his article , Blogging as pedagogic practice: artefact and ecology Marcus O’Donnell answers a lot of questions I have been thinking and experiencing about blogging and how we are integrating it into our learning.  

“In the simplest case, a weblog post is fully and only embedded into “a conversation with self”, a personal narrative used to articulate and to organise one’s own thinking. A single blogger could have several of such conversations simultaneously, returning to ideas over time. Next, each of the posts can trigger a conversation with others that can take several rounds of discussions as well.” (p5)  

So far my experience has primary been personal, a discussion, reflection and dialogue with myself (thanks to John , an experienced blogger, I have had one comment and was able to reply!) but that has been about it.  Not sure what is happening with others but on observation the comments have been few and far between….. (it goes without saying that I completely understand I must have something of relevance or interest to solicit a post…will try!) 

Marcus O’Donnell goes on to say

“The personal conversation or the monologic aspect of blogging can be simply left to grow spontaneously or we can learn to work with a blog as an evolving hypertext essay by thoughtfully linking backwards and forwards to our own as well as other’s posts. In fact new software plug-ins encourage this type of practice by allowing authors to display a series of related-post-links with each entry.”  (p5-6)

Ok so it got me thinking…. I will start linking and replying to others blogs as I way of saying “Hi I dropped by….or I like what your doing or agree or disagree with what you are saying…and here is a link or two!.”

Oh yeah…great distraction to getting the assignment done!

Happy Easter  

Observations of the speed of learning

Can’t quite believe it was only just over a week ago I sat in the E-Learning Experience Block Class as a Newbie. I was excited but definitely worried about how/if/what I was going to learn. 

In the last week I have:

- Participated in a Collaborative Web space – Ning

- Set up this weblog from scratch – Edublogs

- Learnt a whole new range of technologies I didn’t know existed 

My learning style has been definately influence by immersion and trial and error. I have completely thrown myself into the online space by spending time and concentrated effort on acheiving some tangible outcomes to show progress and have little milestones to remind myself of how far I have come.

For example, this Weblog is tangible evidence to me that I have acheived a certain level of competency in mastering the edublogs software.

Each day I would go back and re-look at my weblog and think of ways I could improve it. 

I would add a widget here, delete a widget there and rearrange pages and categories.  I am sure it will be forever a work in progress.

The readings have supported and reinforced my learnings however I realised I much prefer playing in the online space. I prefer to search for videos and slideshows which discuss and visually represent the theory.

Part of what is working for me is understanding my own learning style and finding knowledge and information in the online space which engages me and is relevant to my current learning focus. 

I am still amazed  it has only been 7 days…..

Early Reflections of Learning with new technologies

Some observations so far:

Wanting to reach for instructions/help manuals or someone to guide the learning process 

Reinforcement that we are on the right path or doing the right thing. Not really knowing what the norms or online social conventions are.

Support of the Ning community with profiles/faces and dialogue feels like an extension of a classroom (although meeting everyone F2F in a block class helped reinforce this)  

Extended periods of time spent online as opposed to reading journal articles is a new phenomenon for most of the group (feelings of guilt are interesting – however it would be interesting to speak to younger generations who probably would not have those feelings) 

Is there a perceived less value in the learning that is occurring with your weblog experiences than reading a journal..?

Perception would certainly be there as learners of a generation where this was the norm. It is about breaking these beliefs and perceptions with awareness and achievement.  However at the moment definitely feel I am achieving more and learning more through the weblog experience.

Is that the tension between formal vs informal learning? Or between structured vs unstructured learning?

Threads of “feeling guilty” or words such as “playing” seem to denote this.

Is it informed by your expectations of University study – which is supposed to be about copious readings and formal essays?

University and particularly Masters study does conjure up images of being locked in a library with a maze of bookings/journals and trying to remember how to use the Dewey Decimal system or the latest technology “microfiche”.  

Sigh of relief that times have changed….. 

The Future Of Social Networks » SlideShare

The Future Of Social Networks » SlideShare
[slideshare id=290646&doc=the-future-of-social-networks-1204575046606033-5&w=425]

Three Tags for Me

 View from my window at home – Gold Coast Hinterland

Tourism - being in the tourism industry for nearly 20 years means I find it hard to separate myself from the inherant nature of the job. I look at things through the eyes of a tourist – I love to travel and have made a career combining work and travel.

Gold Coast – The pic above shows the view from my deck at home – what is there not to love about the Gold Coast. Surrounded by rainforest and waterfalls I am lucky to call this home.

Newbie - This whole experience is new. This is my first blog and I have not studied since 1993 so feeling a bit rusty. I am looking forward to learning from others through our shared online community

First Postings of a virgin blogger

Diaries of a nervous blogger… 

OK its not that bad really…time to step through the looking glass to the other side.

Keep posted as I discover:

 a) How to use and navigate this site

b) How to blog

c) Hopefully contribute to experience of E-Learning 1 – write something meaningful and pass the subject

 Any advice welcome

DM

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