A Blogger's Code of Ethics

Sorry, been a while since my last post. Been very very busy at work. Damn! Now I really know why teaching is called a vocation! Haha!

Anyways, I thought of dropping by now because a co-teacher of mine placed something on my table. Now, I've been familiar of this Blogger's Code of Ethics before, still, it was a nice thought that he shared it with me. So here I am, sharing it to the world. Just wanna let you know that this list came from Cyber Journalist.

Here we go:

A BLOGGERS' CODE OF ETHICS

Be Honest and Fair

• Bloggers should be honest and fair in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
• Bloggers should:
• Never plagiarize.
• Identify and link to sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources' reliability.
• Make certain that Weblog entries, quotations, headlines, photos and all other content do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.
• Never distort the content of photos without disclosing what has been changed. Image enhancement is only acceptable for for technical clarity. Label montages and photo illustrations.
• Never publish information they know is inaccurate -- and if publishing questionable information, make it clear it's in doubt.
• Distinguish between advocacy, commentary and factual information. Even advocacy writing and commentary should not misrepresent fact or context.
• Distinguish factual information and commentary from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.

Minimize Harm

• Ethical bloggers treat sources and subjects as human beings deserving of respect.
• Bloggers should:
• Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by Weblog content. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.
• Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
• Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of information is not a license for arrogance.
• Recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone's privacy.
• Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.
• Be cautious about identifying juvenile suspects, victims of sex crimes and criminal suspects before the formal filing of charges.

Be Accountable
Bloggers should:

• Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.
• Explain each Weblog's mission and invite dialogue with the public over its content and the bloggers' conduct.
• Disclose conflicts of interest, affiliations, activities and personal agendas.
• Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence content. When exceptions are made, disclose them fully to readers.
• Be wary of sources offering information for favors. When accepting such information, disclose the favors.
• Expose unethical practices of other bloggers.
• Abide by the same high standards to which they hold others.

Nice list, eh?

I'll try to update The Human Side of Technology, at the same time, my Ateneo de Iloilo Computer Teaching blogsite.

Learn How Not to Use Powerpoint!

Here is a presentation by Don McMillan, called The Life and Death by Powerpoint. I know This has been posted everywhere in the internet, but go check it out.



Funny, yet many of us still commit most of the mistakes that were mentioned in the presentation. Haha, can't stop laughing every time I view this video.

The main lesson of the presentation that it is always best to simplify your presentation. A good presentation does not need too many animated figures or illustrations. You do not need to over emphasize things by putting excessive bullets, or unnecessary font styles and unlikely color background.

Keep your presentation simple, use light color schemes, formal font styles, use bullets only when you want to emphasize important key point, do not over crowd your graphical presentations and lastly, avoid distractive animations. The content of your presentation must also be relevant and focused on the topic, needs to be direct (except on times needed not to) and must easily be understood. After all, that is the objective on making a presentation. To be understood.

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Don McMillan graduated last 1982 from Stanford University with a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering. He is famous for his works on making Corporate Comedies. Learn more of Don McMillan.

My 5 Best Websites (and those that didn't quite fit...)

As of today, almost all of the business and companies owns a site, ranging from small and single entrepreneur to large corporations. Regardless of the fact that sites are made to attract people, many sites just simply do not hit the target. Well, there are just few that stand out. I am not saying this is the best sites on the net, but here are the ones that tops my list:

5. Harvard University (http://www.harvard.edu/)


One doesn't need to be a genius to go and navigate in the site, plus the graphics are very simple yet simply outstanding!

4. Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/)


Online shopping has never been this inviting. Shoppers who would log on to this site would be dazzled by the choices it gives to its users. The navigation is very user friendly plus search engines love to display Amazon pages on its first SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) which only proves the post that is well optimized for marketing.

3. National Gallery of Art (http://www.nga.gov/)


An art website cannot be more artistic and could go no better with the NGA website. Simple, elegant, great interface, quality content, and in other words, simply outstanding!

2. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)


Their content maybe unreliable, but people, internet users and even students often go to Wikipedia to go and research information. This is simply one of the best sites wherein people can go and share ideas, opinion, trusted links. The website has outstanding interfaces, very categorized content and great design, it wouldn't be a big surprise that most visitors would remember where things, information and links are located after just one look!!!

And the best site for me is.... drumroll please... tada!

1. Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/)


Hands down, this is the best site for me. Very cool interface, great design and great overall content. This site contains valuable information for stars, television shows and movies. It also contains spoofs and trivia that would leave its users more reasons to go back and revisit the site again. User friendly, and contains comprehensive information supplied by both producers and users alike. It also has a forum for that certain program or person that is very optimized that even users with very low connection can still go with the hype. Definitely the best website for its category.

There you have it. The 5 Best Sites for me. You may disagree with me but these for me are the best sites that I have encountered. If you have any comments and suggestions, feel free to post it in here... yadda...

How about those on my bottom five? Here it goes:
5. NBC (http://www.nbc.com/) - Such a big network for such a bad website. It's interface are most of the time covered by the adds, takes forever to load(on all its pages!), there are adds everywhere, and lastly more adds everywhere!
4. Guitar Tabs (http://www.guitartabs.com/) - Great potential, went into waste.
3. Uncyclopedia (http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page) - See my second best site and then negate it...
2. Haven Works (http://havenworks.com/) - Doesn't contain any qualities a good site should have, take a look and be astounded!
1. 5 Safe Points (http://www.5safepoints.com/) - See above, only worse.

DISCLAIMER: The following are just my personal information. These websites may update their pages but these are just my findings as of today. I do not own any images posted in the article. The images belong to the specific sites it was posted. Thanks...
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Keywords are Searcher's Best Friend

People often look at things not in a direct manner, I mean, not in a straight line. I myself seldom look at things permanently. I take many things into consideration before diving into decisions and actions that I will take.

The same goes to searchers in the web. They do not just go and search by the use of a certain keyword and then click the first organic result of a search engine. They first think and consider their needs why they are trying to make a search. They also take into consideration how enticing and how unique the certain title of a page. And is they find nothing interesting, they go ahead and make another search in another search engine with the use of the same keywords. Current events also trigger changes on the searcher's needs. Yet, when your site is being displayed on the top portion of the search engine results pages, you have better chances of enviting users to view and visit your site.

In order for one to to rank high on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), one must take into consideration the most keywords that are being used on a certain period of time. In other words, use the most popular ones. Befriend keywords because they, too, are the searcher's best friend. The internet offers great tools that would be able to predict and analyze the projection of a certain keyword popularity. Use these to take advantage of the situation. Use the most recent and the most used keywords to be put into your site. By doing so, one would have more chances of showing up in the high ranking positions in the SERPs.

It is also a great advantage to put human touch in your pages. Most people are not just searching for information, most people wants to connect with the information. Thus, be careful of the words and the content that you use.

Always remember, consider the searcher's needs as your consider your needs. Yadda!!!

Quality Content Always

An old woman, in search for different kinds of apples, went to Google and made a search. To her surprise, the search engine has given a lot of search results for a single website alone. Nothing seems to be wrong with the title that appears but when she clicked on it, voila!, crappy and useless text were posted on her monitor. After that, the old woman, as vengeful as she is, vowed never to visit that site again.

Sounds unreal, but, well, it could happen.

To optimize a website to be able to rank high on search engines, there are a lot of things that needs to be done. Build quality links, submit related articles, submit site to online directories, etc. Being too busy of taking care of these task, oftentimes, search engine optimizers and internet marketers forget one of the important, if not the most important, concepts and ideas to build traffic into the web pages. First things first. Offer quality content on your site.

Along with quality content ofcourse is the correct link building process. Links should only be given and provided to related websites. Another is to put in the correct and updated title tags and meta keywords and description is also part of providing quality into the site. By building good links and optimizing the website, one can get better shot at the search engine result pages.

But the main point is, what is the purpose of bringing in people to visit your site and creating traffic into it, if one the first place, there is nothing there that would be of interest to them. For example, for an information-driven website, it must offer something that would help the target searchers or if not, give them information in which they would need. Thus, giving them the reason to trust your website and visit it the next time that they would need to search related topics. Another instance is for the online shops, one must provide good details of the products or services that they offer to prevent shoppers to ask questions to themselves and to avoid that they would search on a competitor's site because the lack of information on your side.

To sum it up, the content is the most important part of search engine optimization. It allows users to give their trust and like your website. Who knows, they could even refer it to their friends! It may take a long time to drive traffic because one is limited on the structure of the pages for web crawlers, but don't worry, the wait is very much worth.