Task 1: My experiences with Webpublishing

New Interactive Environments

My first experience with Webpublishing dates back to high school when I built a personal website using basic HTML as part of the Computer Science class. As this was also the time when I strarted travelling abroad, my personal homepage included flashbacks and photos of (school) trips. Photos, of course, were scanned and then uploaded, digital camera became part of my life several years later.

I created my first weblog for the same reason, i.e. travelling, when I set off for a year in Australia after my bachelor studies in 2006. Blog was the best way to keep in contact with my family and friends back home and those around the world, as time difference and limited Internet access made it difficult to call or chat online. The blogs we regularly updated with my close friend and travel companion blaze the trail to a real publishing experience. Our travel book 'Austraalia - Down Under' was published in September 2008, in collaboration with Pegasus. If it hadn't been for the blogs we frequently updated with a great passion and will, writing a book would have been difficult.

As for my current jobs, I'm employed part-time at two companies where I'm responsible for the content of two websites. One of them is a travel portal Turism.ee and the other one includes information on advertising in different publications of AS Eesti Ajalehed.

As many of you, I'm actively involved in social networks (mostly Facebook and travel communities). I follow RSS feeds through Feedreader, use communication tools (mainly Skype and MSN), Google Docs and Google Desktop. I'm interested in photography and recently bought a digital SLR camera, but haven't really used any photo publishing applications (apart from my personal blog and Facebook albums) as yet.

However, the breakthrough in my Webpublishing experience seems to be taking place now. Within the first 3 weeks at IMKE (Interactive Media and Knowledge Environments), I have created another personal blog for study purposes, set up Dropbox on my computer, downloaded and used IHMC CmapTools software, held weekly Skype conversations, used Flashmeeting tool for a videoconference, registered to a course on IVA, browsed social bookmarks on delicious.com, subscribed to Scribd, peeked into the 3D virtual world of Second Life, etc. I'm new to many of these tools and services, but I'm getting there!

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Terje's overview of our group's Webpublishing experience can be found on NIE's weblog.