Exercise 3.1 -- Introduction

It is easy to set up a Blog using Blogger, as users can generate content with little technical knowledge beyond that required to write an e-mail. Anyone with an Internet connection and a basic level of computer literacy can use Blogs to disseminate information, however being a democratic tool, Blogs are often created without consideration of their underlying architecture. If this is the case, their presentational elements may not work well with their organisational elements, and they cannot to satisfy the information needs of their readers. (Morville and Rosenfeld, 2006)

The in-built information architecture of Blogs gives rise to organisational problems as posts are frequently organised chronologically. This is not a germane organisational method for blogs containing a diverse range of topics as users can only browse by date and title. I added a tag cloud to my Blog to allow users to browse serendipitously by topic, allowing them to find information quickly and easily. Though my Blog is not broad in scope, I have aided users in finding and sharing information it contains through including a Google search box and an AddThis widget for users to share my entries on Web 2.0 sites like Twitter, Delicious and Digg.

When creating my Blog, I included an 'About Me' section at the top of the page to inform readers who I was, what I was writing about, and the purpose of my Blog. Lastly, I added a blogroll to provide links to sites readers might find relevant and interesting, and to ensure my Blog did not operate in isolation from the rest of the World Wide Web.

This week's exercise taught me that while Blogs are a democratic tool, anyone creating one needs to be solicitous when devising strategies to organise and present information. Blogs with poor underlying information architecture are of little practical use.