Springer Open

• EURASIP Journal on Information Security
• EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking
• EURASIP Journal on Image and Video Processing
• Journal of Cloud Computing: Advances, Systems and Applications
• Communications in Mobile Computing

Hindawi 

Computer sciences

• Advances in Artificial Intelligence
• Advances in Artificial Neural Systems
• Advances in Bioinformatics
• Advances in Fuzzy Systems
• Advances in Human-Computer Interaction
• Advances in Software Engineering
• Applied Computational Intelligence and Soft Computing
• Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience
• International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks

Australasian Digital Theses (ADT) merupakan program Department of Education, Science, and Training (Departemen Pendidikan Nasional) Australia untuk mempublikasikan thesis (baik Ph.D thesis maupun Master thesis, baik berformat digital maupun tercetak) secara online melalui Internet. Untuk memudahkan akses, program ADT membangun infrastruktur berupa database (pangkalan data), metadata, dan sarana penelusurannya (search tool).

ADT bertujuan mengelola  hasil-hasil riset secara lebih efektif dan mendukung gerakan open access (OA). Prinsip utama OA adalah membuka akses seluas-luasnya hasil-hasil riset dan kegiatan ilmiah lainnya (terutama yang didanai oleh public) sehingga masyarakat dunia bisa secara gratis memanfaatkan, membaca, mengkopi, mencetak, dan menyebarluaskannya (asalkan bukan untuk kepentingan komersial).

Di bawah ini adalah daftar universitas di Australia dan New Zealand yang menjadi pendukung program ADT. Thesis dari berbagai universitas tersebut bisa ditelusur melalui Trove, sebuah katalog induk online National Library of Australia (NLA).

Menu "basic search" pada katalog online Trove. Klik "advanced search" untuk penelusuran thesis.

Cara penelusuran thesis ADT:

• Penelusuran kolektif, yaitu penelususan ke seluruh pangkalan data ADT (meliputi semua universitas partisipan ADT). Caranya: [1] Buka katalog online Trove, [2] pilih “Advanced Search“, [3] kemudian “Limit your results to” pada ruas “Format” dipilih “Thesis”
• Penelusuran individual, yaitu penelusuran yang dispesifikkan ke pangkalan data thesis satu universitas saja. Caranya: [1] Klik link “[search via Trove]” atau [2] klik link nama universitas.

Menu "advanced search" pada katalog online Trove

1. Auckland University of Technology
2. Australian Catholic University  [search via Trove]
3. Australian National University  [search via Trove]
4. Bond University  [search via Trove]
5. Central Queensland University  [search via Trove]
6. Charles Darwin University [search via Trove]
7. Charles Sturt University [search via Trove]
8. Curtin University  [search via Trove]
9. Deakin University  [search via Trove]
10. Edith Cowan University  [search via Trove]
11. Flinders University  [search via Trove]
12. Griffith University [search via Trove]
13. James Cook University  [search via Trove]
14. La Trobe University  [search via Trove]
15. Lincoln University
16. Macquarie University  [search via Trove]
17. Massey University
18. Monash University  [search via Trove]
19. Murdoch University  [search via Trove]
20. Queensland University of Technology  [search via Trove]
21. RMIT University  [search via Trove]
22. Southern Cross University  [search via Trove]
23. Swinburne University of Technology [search via Trove]
24. University of Adelaide  [search via Trove]
25. University of Auckland
26. University of Ballarat  [search via Trove]
27. University of Canberra  [search via Trove]
28. University of Canterbury
29. University of Melbourne  [search via Trove]
30. University of New England [search via Trove]
31. University of New South Wales  [search via Trove]
32. UNSW@ADFA [search via Trove]
33. University of Newcastle  [search via Trove]
34. University of Notre Dame Australia [search via Trove]
35. University of Otago
36. University of Queensland  [search via Trove]
37. University of South Australia  [search via Trove]
38. University of Southern Queensland  [search via Trove]
39. University of Sydney  [search via Trove]
40. University of Tasmania  [search via Trove]
41. University of Technology Sydney  [search via Trove]
42. Universiy of the Sunshine Coast [search via Trove]
43. University of Waikato
44. University of Western Australia  [search via Trove]
45. University of Western Sydney  [search via Trove]
46. University of Wollongong  [search via Trove]
47. Victoria University  [search via Trove]

About Twitter

Twitter can be classified into free social networking and micro-blogging services. It enables users to create, send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of only up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.

Twitter entered the social networking world in 2006 and has experienced staggering growth since then. Although actual usage numbers are hard to come by, Twitter’s global unique visitor numbers have increased from 19 million in March of this year to 32 million in April (Schonfeld, 2009). Because Twitter has millions of users, it’s a good place to find and connect with people interested in any institution, company and areas of expertise.

Some notable usages of Twitter are for business, social and political campaign, legal proceedings, education, emergencies, public relations, reporting dissent, and survey.

How Libraries Are Using Twitter

In a recent feature article, Sarah Milstein (2009) makes the excellent point that Twitter is built for exchanging information. Some examples of how libraries are using Twitter include: reference service, customer service, public relations, announcement, and marketing tool.

• The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Library (twitter.com/qutlibrary) uses Twitter for library announcements and news posting such as special events, holiday hours, exhibits, new book arrivals.
• The Ada Community Library (twitter.com/adalib) use Twitter for keeping patrons up-to-date, twittering on everything from Archaeology and Historic Preservation Month, book sales, and other library events to announcing new library cards.
• Twitter has become so integral a tool that several institutions—Pasadena City College’s Shatford Library, the Missouri River Regional Library, and the Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign (UIUC) (twitter.com/askundergrad)—post updates directly on the library home page.
• In Arizona, the City of Casa Grande Library (twitter.com/cglibrary) uses Twitterfeed to post the authors and titles of new books to its Twitter profile. The service utilizes the library’s RSS feed for new titles to provide patrons with tweets concerning new acquisitions, which link back to the library’s catalog record.
• The Nebraska Library Commission (NLC) is using Twitter to put a new spin on its virtual reference (VR) service. NLC tweets all of its incoming reference questions as they are submitted through their Ask a Librarian service (twitter.com/NLC_Reference).
• Similarly, the Ask Us Now! online reference service for Maryland library patrons is also creating VR tweets (twitter.com/askusnow).
• ALSC, the Association for Library Service to Children (a division of the American Library Association), serves up tweets about news and events of interest to children’s library professionals such as children’s lit seminars, collection management, and special collections (twitter.com/alscblog).

(Twitter League, 2009)

Advantages

Many libraries believe that Twitter provides many features for marketing, promotion, collaboration, and public relations. It also provides opportunities for professional developing and networking.

Disadvantages

Twitter is not without critics. It potentially has several drawbacks with its service: its brevity, only reach certain audiences, technical problem, and spamming.

References:

• Kroski, E.  (2008). All a Twitter. School Library Journal, 54(7), 31.  Retrieved November 3, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals Database.
• Milstein, S. (2009). Twitter FOR Libraries (and Librarians). Computers in Libraries, 29(5), 17-18.  Retrieved November 3, 2009, from ProQuest Computing Database.
• Schonfeld, E. (2009). Twitter surges past Digg, LinkedIn, and NYTimes.com with 32 million global visitors. Retrieved November 1, 2009 from http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/20/twitter-surges-past-digg-linkedin-and-nytimescom-with-32-million-global-visitors/
• Steiner, H. (2009). Reference utility of social networking sites: options and functionality. Library Hi Tech News, 26(5/6), 4-6.  Retrieved November 3, 2009, from Academic Research Library Database.
• Twitter League. (2009). League: Libraries on Twitter. Retrieved November 3, 2009, from http://twitterleague.com/view_league/252

Google Docs is one of Google’s services that offer free, online, and Web-based office application (word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation). This service is originated from three different products; Writely and Google Spreadsheet, and presentation product. Writely was developed by Upstrartle, Google Spreadsheet was developed by 2Web Technologies, and presentation was designed by Tonic Systems. Google Docs, which consist of word processor and spreadsheet, was made available for all users of Google Apps on February 2007 and presentation program on September 2007 (Bodis, 2007).

Google Docs represents the core pattern four of Web 2.0, rich user experience. It combines the best of desktop and online experiences.  Google Docs provides features that the desktop application has, for example high versatility, great GUI (graphical user interface), user friendliness, and fast performance. Through the strengths of the Internet, Google Docs enriches users with collaborative actions to deal with their documents. At the same time, multiple users can share, open, edit, tag, and archive their documents both for individual or organisational purposes. By default, the documents are saved to the Google servers and revision histories are automatically kept. These features deliver the ubiquity of access to the documents.

Google Docs also employs the principle of prioritising usability and simplicity as one of the best practices. In terms of usability, Google Docs enhances the compatibility of file format with other standards, for instance the ISO standard Open Document (.odt, .odp, .ods) and standard of proprietary formats (.doc, .ppt and .xls) (Google, 2009a). Thereby, it can eliminate file format compatibility issues.

It is obvious that Google Docs always add some new features as it can be seen at New features in Google Docs (Google, 2009b). The challenge for Google Docs in providing new features is to ensure that the new features should be ‘bandwidth friendly’ that can still be accessed throughout the world, in particular in developing countries that still have inadequate internet infrastructure. Other challenge is concerning privacy and data security issues. It has ever reported that unintended access to private document has ever occurred (AFP, 2009). Google Docs services can also improved by increasing size limits. The size limits is explained in Getting to know Google Docs: Size limits (Google, 2009c).

References:

• AFP. (2009). Google software bug shared private online documents. March 10, 2009. Retrieved March 31, 2009, from http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.54c3200989573ae4c9282658f91276df.481&show_article=1
• Bodis, A. (2007). Our feature presentation. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/our-feature-presentation.html
• Google. (2009a). Create documents, spreadsheets and presentations online. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html
• Google. (2009b). New features in Google Docs. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from http://www.google.com/google-d-s/whatsnew.html

Facebook is a free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. In Februari 2004, it was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his fellow computer science major students and his roommates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while he was a student at Harvard University.

In line with the best practices covered in this pattern, in its commencement, Facebook seemed to employ the best practice of ‘scale with demand’.  Facebook, in its early development, was designed to start small and scale with demand. This is reflected in its membership. Initially, the membership was restricted to students of Harvard University, and subsequently expanded to other US and Canadian colleges then to European and Asian colleges (email addresses with .edu). Since September 11, 2006, it has been available for any email address globally (Fabernovel Consulting, 2007). Facebook claims that its general growth has reached more than 200 million active users with more than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day (Facebook, 2009).

Syndicating business model also has become Facebook strategy. It can be seen from one of its revenue model. Facebook lets Microsoft provide search and advertising listings to its users. Thereby, Microsoft is able to post advertising banners and sponsored links that appear on the left or the bottom of Facebook pages. Facebook also can benefit from the Microsoft adCenter system, which allows advertisers to filter their targets so that their ads are relevant.

The provision of outsourced infrastructure is undertaken by Facebook through developing Facebook Platform which provides a framework for developers (anyone) to create applications that interact with core Facebook features (Facebook, 2007). The platform was launched on on May 24, 2007. According to Facebook (2009) there are now more than 660,000 developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries and more than 52,000 applications currently available in the Facebook Application Directory.

From the abovementioned fact, it can be considered that Facebook has employed some best practices of the pattern eight, lightweight models and cost-effective scalability.

References:

Fabernovel Consulting. (2007). Facebook, the “social media” revolution:  A study and analysis of the phenomenon. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from  http://www.slideshare.net/faberNovel/facebook-study

Facebook. (2009). Statistic. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from  http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Facebook. (2007). Facebook Platform launches. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from

http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=21

Etsy.com is a P2P ecommerce company website which provides the general public with a way to buy and sell handmade items, including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, and toys. By limiting sales to handmate items, Etsy has defined smart focus on a niche market that can potentially gain the long tail effect. As it can be seen from the fact, only two years after its establishment June 18, 2005  by iospace, a small company composed of Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik, Etsy has grown significantly to tens of thousands of sellers and five times that in buyer accounts. In November 2007, buyers spent $4.3 million purchasing 300,000 items for sale on Etsy, an increase of 43 percent from October 2007 (Walker, 2007).

The abovementioned success of Etsy in gaining a significant number of producer and buyer is driven by Etsy’s mission, which is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyer (Etsy, 2009). This mission reflects the democratisation of production and distribution as suggested by best practice of this pattern, ‘build on the driving forces of the long tail.’ Through Etsy, everyone can produce his/her works and market them with low cost.

One of best practices reflected by Etsy is that, Etsy seems to develop open architecture of participation by frequently adding new tools and functionality to the site to help sellers gain exposure and traffic, including a taxonomy of categories with tags, and blog. These two features can capitalize on the wisdom of crowd that is generated by user product reviews and popularity ranking. Another best practice implemented by Etsy is that, Etsy provides customers a feature to manage their own account to ensure that customer can gain greater control.

The challenge that could be encountered by Etsy is that how to develop a system and policies that can assist sellers and buyer to avoid fraud. Although Etsy has stated that they have no control over the quality, safety, morality or legality of any aspect of the items listed, the truth or accuracy of the listings, the ability of sellers to sell items or the ability of buyers to pay for items, however they have to ensure users the safety and convenience of transactions.

References:

Etsy. (2009). What is Etsy?. Retrieved May 4, 2009 from http://www.etsy.com/about.php

Walker. R. (2007, December 16). Handmade 2.0. The New York Times. Retrieved May 4, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/magazine/16Crafts-t.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&ref=magazine&pagewanted=all

Development in technology and the Internet have changed the nature of digital content and its accessibility and have opened up new opportunities for publishing industry. Rear and Salo (cited in Vasileou, Hartley, and Rowley, 2009, p.173) have noted that “book-like electronic reading in particular is a rapidly growing commercial phenomenon, with a wide variety of devices, software, and distribution systems, and a wide range of content genres”.

At the present, there are several e-book formats available in the market and also devices specifically designed to read e-books or designed for other uses as well. Some commonly used formats are MobiPocket, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Reader, Palm Reader, VitalSources, Plain Text, and HTML. Each format has its own features and specific reader software is needed to enable the e-book to be read or viewed on a device. Some commonly used devices are PCs, PDAs, Blackberries, Tablets, Sony Readers, mobile phones, iPhones, iPods, and Kindle (e-book reader from Amazon).

Through Amazon Kindle, Amazon is reflecting one of the Web 2.0 patterns, software above the level of a single device. Amazon and Amazon Kindle are realising that the personal computer (PC) is not the only device to access the Internet and its applications. Therefore, Amazon Kindle is more than just a software and hardware platform for reading e-books because it is also equipped with wireless access to the Internet so that readers can read e-books, newspapers, magazines, and blog anywhere and anytime by subscribing or purchasing and downloading them via Amazon.

The Internet access for Amazon Kindle is enabled by the same technology as advanced cellular phones so users do not need hotspot. The Amazon Kindle simply connects as phone cell connect by using Whispernet which is sold as a package. Amazon (2009) states that “Whispernet utilizes Amazon’s optimized technology plus Sprint’s national high-speed (3G) data network to enable users to wirelessly search, discover, and download content on the go.” E-books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs are delivered via Whispernet.

To some extent, best practices from this Web 2.0 patterns are manifested by Amazon and Amazon Kindle. Best practice of ‘enable data location independence’ is manifested through Amazon Whispersync. It is a feature that can synchronise data so that it can be read by other device such as iPhone and iPod touch. Compatibility issues also become Amazon’s concern. Concurrently with the Kindle device, Amazon launched the Digital Text Platform, a system for authors to self-publish directly to the Kindle (Amazon, 2007). A critic for Amazon and Amazon Kindle are about hardware decision which has been questioned is the non-availability of WiFi functionality on the Kindle as they only rely on Sprint’s Whispernet service. This can influence directly Amazon’s policies for marketing their e-books.

References:

Amazon. (2007). Digital Text Platform Community Support. Retrieved 17, 2009 from http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/index.jspa.

Amazon. (2009). Kindle 2: Amazon’s new wireless reading device (latest generation). Retrieved 17, 2009 from http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Generation/dp/B00154JDAI/ref=sa_menu_kdp23_gw?pf_rd_p=328655101&pf_rd_s=left-nav-1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=507846&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0K5NV63AYHD1J09DDKZZ

Vasileou, M., Hartley, R., & Rowley, J. (2009). An overview of the e-book marketplace. Online Information Review, 33(1), 173-192. Retrieved April 17, 2009 form Emerald Database.

A social network can be regarded as a network that comprises of people who made of nodes. It could be individuals or organizations. Such networks are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as, values, ideas, visions, interest, and friendship. In a social network, the relationship among people is often analysed and related to nodes, ties, and roles. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. Gladwell (2000, p.34) states that there are three roles played by people around us: connectors, mavens, and salesmen. Referring to this perspective of social network, sales and marketing activities have always considered as their key part. In the context of Web 2.0 market, social networks are also used to drive and accelerate its growth.

Google also realises the value of such social networks so that they develop business and marketing strategy that can work through social network. Most Google applications employ viral marketing that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others and create the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence. Google Mail, for example, in its first launching, implemented viral marketing. Google Mail’s viral marketing is simple however it has been worked very effectively. This viral marketing asked for user to give referral to other people for registering and joining Google Mail. It was started with a small user base which many of them were Google employees. Then they repeatedly sent invitation to their colleagues. The result of Google Mail viral strategy is the pool of users that grow exponentially. Thus, like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions. Google Mail has been extremely successful in penetrating the ferocious competitive environment of free email that has been dominated by many older players, such as Yahoo Mail and Hotmail (MSN).

The Web 2.0 pattern that has close relationship with this Web 2.0 strategy is the pattern one, harnessing collective intelligence, in which its best practices recommend to set network effects by default and involve user explicitly and implicitly. These best practices can potentially become a strategy to optimize social network in enhancing marketing performance.

Reference:

Gladwell, M. (2000). The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. Boston: Little Brown and Company.

Harnessing collective intelligence is a phrase used by Tim O’Reilly (2005) to describe one of the Web 2.0 characteristics. This characteristic indicates that Web 2.0 enables users to participate, collaborate, and take advantages of knowledge sharing through dynamic online approach of Web 2.0. One of the most popular Web 2.0 technologies is blogs. That is why Google also want to provide its users with application for managing blog which is located at www.blogger.com.

Overview of Blogger and its relevance to harnessing collective intelligence

Overview of Blogger

Blogger.com is one of Google services that is intended as a blog publishing system. Blogger was started by a tiny company in San Francisco called Pyra Labs in August of 1999 and was acquired by Google in 2003. In terms of web-hosting communities, Blogger is one of the oldest and biggest. Blogger was a freestanding site with more than a million users long before Google acquired it in 2003. Since then, it’s only gotten bigger and better. It is undoubtedly the most famous and popular blog website today. Its user base is now well more than three million, or about 10% of all blogs on the Web. And Google says the number of Blogger blogs is doubling every six months. Blogger.com had the undistinguished distinction of popularizing the modern day blogging format. Even novices, people who know nothing of internet and have only basic computer operating skills can create a blog here and keep it updated. The instructions are simple and easy to follow. Anyone may create, edit, add photos, and customize his blog.

Blogger relevance to harnessing collective intelligence

Blogger.com has facilitated people to express their thoughts, voice their opinions, and share their experiences and ideas. Individuals experience a sense of community, a feeling of belonging, a bonding that members matter to one another and their niche needs will be met through online interactions. Its open standards and low barrier to publication have transformed information consumers to producers. This has created a plethora of open-source intelligence, collective wisdom, and collective intelligence that acts as the storehouse of overwhelming amounts of knowledge about the members, their environment and the symbiosis between them.

Blogger services have allowed the mass to contribute and edit articles publicly. Giving access to the mass to contribute or edit has increased collaboration among the people. Increased collaboration has developed collective wisdom and collective intelligence on the Internet

Web2.0 Best Practices used by Google in Blogger

Best practices covered in this pattern are reward the user first, set network effects by default, involve user explicitly and implicitly, provide meaningful context for creation, trust your users, design software so that it improves as more people to use it, and facilitate emergence (Musser, 2007, p.14-6). Some best practices are analysed to examine Blogger’s compliance with those best practices.

Reward the user first

One of the approaches of rewarding users is through minimizing barriers to adoption, thereby users can achieve primary goals quickly and efficiently (Walkenhorst, 2009). Through its features, Blogger has made easy for users as content generators to author content independent of technical challenges of internet languages and scripts. Users don’t need to worry about the low level programming details rather they focus only on the content. Millerr (2006) states that Blogger has features to customize template colours and fonts without editing HTML. This can simplify the content generation process to a great extent and attract novice or even computer illiterates to participate in blogging activities. Blogger has provided a platform where anyone can express himself or herself freely without being even restrained by their limited computer knowledge yet being able to publish content on the Internet. Blogger also facilitates the readers to comment instantly, giving Blogger users a feeling of satisfaction.

Set network effects by default

The successful implementation of ‘reward the users first’ best practice can directly influence to the successful of setting network effects. Musser (2007, p.14) states that “a corollary to paying the users first is to set network effects by default.” Network effect is the effect that one user of a good or service has on the value of that product to other people (Shuen, 2008, p.41). In other word, the value of a good or service increases as more people use it. Each new user can potentially boost the value of the network and often increase the willingness of all participants to use the network.

Blogger users also experience online network effects. This is due to a by-product of users pursuing their own interest which in turn it also builds indirectly a side effect of others self interest. There are several Blogger features that are used by Google to set network effects. Following and Google Friend Connect feature are two good examples. Following is a feature to keep other people updated on the latest activity on a blog (Google, 2009a). New Blogger users will have this blog feature enabled by default. There are two options of following; publicly (by default) and privately. When a user follows a blog publicly, his/her profile image and a link to his/her Blogger profile will appear in the blog’s Followers widget. Google Friend Connect instantly awakens and strengthens the community that visits a site, for example blog, by enriching it with social features (Google, 2009b). Through Google Friend Connect, Blogger users can engage other friends or people more deeply with the content of blog.

Involve users explicitly and implicitly and trust your users

From the abovementioned Blogger.com profile by Web 2.0 pattern, it is obvious that Blogger architecture of user participation ensures it involve users both explicitly and implicitly. Users can create content directly after simple procedure of sign in with Google ID. Then, other users can give directly comments and reviews to the blogs they are visiting and following. Not only does Blogger facilitate individual blogs, but also it can be used for community or multi-authored blogs. Individual blog sites are the ones owned and maintained by an individual. Community blog sites are owned and maintained by a group of like-minded users. In later type of blog, collaboration among group members is a form of explicit user involvement. In such context, it is also obvious that Blogger users are provided a sufficient open context to participate and interact. This means Blogger trust users to share their interest and knowledge.

Comparison between Blogger.com and WordPress.com

Both Blogger and WordPress have served as a medium that can be used for harnessing collective intelligence. To some extent, they have similar architecture for engaging users to create content and collaborate ideas. However, WordPress is regarded as much more powerful than Blogger in facilitating a community or group in developing blog. This is because WordPress has a special feature that enables one user to manage multiple blogs and multiple authors to collaborate on one blog (Hayder, 2006, p.214). It is undoubtedly that this feature, which is called WordPress Multi-User or WordPress MU, can enhance explicit user’s involvement in generating content. Blogger enables collaborative blogging by only differentiating the role of authorship into administrator and non-administrator. WordPress has more comprehensive one; administrator, editors, authors and contributors (Hayder, 2006, pp.216-9).

Gaps and Opportunities for Improvements

One of the opportunities that can be improved by Blogger is pertaining to architecture of participation that can accommodate the complexity of users participation in a large community or group blog. Such architecture can underpin multi-user blogging platform that is extremely useful for a group of people with similar interests. If that group wants to publish news on a specific topic (or on many topics in a broad sense), then there must be some facility so that they can log in as individual entities and post their content. In a multi-user blogging platform, content moderation is also very vital. There must be some sort of moderation so that content is displayed after being approved by an authorized person.

Multi-user blogging platforms can play a vital role for developers. For example, if a group of remote developers (of a specific project) share their experiences in a blog, it will prove to be very helpful for new developers who might face similar kinds of problems. This blog may then act as a knowledge base for them.

Multi-user blogs are also helpful when used as a centralized news source or a central blogging zone for the employees of a company.

References

1. Google. (2009a). What is following?.  Retrieved April 25, 2009 from http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=104226&cbid=-1qofp68sq245x&src=cb&lev=answer
2. Google. (2009b). Awaken and strengthen your community.  Retrieved April 25, 2009 from http://www.google.com/friendconnect/home/overview?hl=en_US
3. Hayder, H. (2006). WordPress complete: A comprehensive, step-by-step on how to set up, customize, and market your blog using WordPress. Birmingham: Pakt Publishing.
4. Millerr, M.  (2006). Blogging with the New Google™ Blogger. Que Publishing.
5. Musser, J. (2007). Web 2.0 principles and best practices. Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media
6. Shuen, A. (2008). Web 2.0: A strategy guide. Cambridge : O’Reilly.
7. Tim O’Reilly. (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. Retrieved April 25, 2009 from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html?page=1