PerthNorg

PerthNorg: not a bad place to blog.

PerthNorg: not a bad place to blog.

 

I stumbled onto PerthNorg and felt immediately at home. I identified with their reason to be and felt comfortable with their rules and regulations. If I was to make a contribution to the World Wide Web, I might as well start in my own backyard.

Three weeks ago I had no idea what a blog was. Oh, I’d heard the word and seen it on websites that I’d visited, and had the good sense to guess that it was one of those catch phrases that came with the advance of information technology, but was too ashamed to admit my ignorance. Then, as my guardian angel would have it, I had to create a graphic for a newspaper depicting that and other online activities. Thank goodness for Google; knower of all things. A blog (a  portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order. Thanks Wikipedia, the free enclopedia.

At about the same time, I had finally made the decision to enrol in the Certificate IV in Communication and Media course now available online through Seek Learning (Oten TAFE). Guess what one of the assessment tasks was? Set up a weblog. I had to research and establish a blog of my own.

My first instinct was to ‘phone a friend’. He was with Big Pond and was dabbling with not too much success and couldn’t really help much. IT blokes weren’t much help either: “A waste of time” one said. “Bloggers use phoney names to promote products” said another. Back to Google I went, where gold was waiting to be panned. There was a labyrinth of choices, however.  I clicked away on the mouse for hours, visiting and attempting to join scores of different sites, then backing off, not wanting to commit.

What did I want the World Wide Web to know about me?

Some sites were too trashy for me, or too faceless, too global. Some were even too professional or too remote and most did not seem to be relevant to my needs. I wasn’t even sure what my needs were, but I really didn’t want to read and compete with “ShirlyGirlie” in Chicago, who had an unfortunate childhood with some parental misadventures. (Fictitious example to demonstrate flippant sensationalism found on some sites)

When I joined PerthNorg, it felt like home. This quote from the home page: “PerthNorg is a news site with a twist - you are in control. By becoming a Cit J you can link, write, record or take a photograph of the stories that matter to you. You then vote for the stories you feel are important. It is your news, your views. So, join the media evolution now.”

 I identified with their reason to be and felt comfortable with their rules and regulations. If I was to make a contribution, i might as well start in my backyard. If I have to invite comment it might as well be from my neighbours. Parochial? Nah!

 

Blog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order. ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog