Computer-Mediated Communication

Studying Blogs

Each phase of the expansion of the Web brings communication structures and communities. Each structure seems to motivate a group of enthusiasts to adopt particular forms, culture, and practices. Blogs are no different.

Definitions

A blog is simply a set of Web pages that are usually written in a diary-like form and usually updated frequently. People who write blogs can use a Web browser to create blog entries. A Web server runs the blog management software and serves the pages, so there is no need for a specialized client or server.

The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger, editor of robotwisdom.com in December 1997. By 1999, the term was shortened to "blog" by Peter Merholz. Today, the term blog seems the most dominant, and it is used as a noun or verb.

Blog writers create entries on a range of topics. Typical are comments on current news events or news coverage, personal narratives, opinions, or diary-like accounts. Hypertext linking from blog to blog or other Web content is a very popular practice, as is forming cliques of bloggers who refer to each others' blogs or groups of bloggers contributing to the same blog. The term "blogosphere" refers to the community of all bloggers.

You can see the Blogosphere Index for a compact set of links to explore the blogosphere.

Blog pages often appear uniform in layout and design because some are created using blog software which often employs a template technique for generating each page. As a result, blogs usually don't suffer from the problems new users can have with formatting Web pages.

Like in Usenet news groups, the blog article or post is a unit of communication. Also like Usenet, linking among blog posts creates threads in which posts cross-reference each other. Unlike Usenet, each blog owner controls who posts to his own blog. However, allowing free-for-all comments attached to a blog post is possible (but can lead to comment spam) as is allowing a select set of other users to post articles. Unlike Usenet, blogs are not under any strict naming or subject hierarchy or creation control other than the restrictions that may be on individual blog hosting sites. People can host blogs on their own Web site under their own domain name using blog software. Also, unlike Usenet posts, archived blog posts provide a static URL for linking or searching. Practices such as syndication (for example, using RSS, Really Simple Syndication) of blog posts make it possible for aggregators to show syndicated blog content, increasing the visibility of the syndicated blogs.

Like the MUD/MOO/MU* trend of the mid 1990's, blog culture has its own norms, expectations, traditional forms, and culture. Blogs share the the static structural nature of MOOs (blog content is on Web pages which unless deleted by the creator or blog hosting service, stays there for later viewing) and and the collaborative characteristics of Usenet threads (because of the high amount of cross-linking among blogs). The sites which provide space for users to set up their own blogs share the similar kind of range of quality and content reminiscent of the homepages of sites like GeoCities in the early days of the Web. And, like in those ancient days, some blog authors compete for attention and/or popularity for their blogs.

Contemporary blogging includes commentary and criticism of traditional media (see, for example, "Online Uprising" or "The Crowd That Didn't Boo").

References

• Weblog definition from Wikipedia.
• The History of Weblogs, by Dave Winer. Weblogs.Com News.

Articles Examining Blogs

• Special report: weblogs, Guardian Unlimited (United Kingdom), special report. A variety of newspaper articles about blogs, blogging, and bloggers. Notable coverage of blogs moving from a social pheonomena to business applications.
• Psychology of Weblogs: from Dr. John Grohol's Psych Central
• Weblog Theory: examines weblogs and other activities
• "Online Uprising," by Catherine Seipp. American Journalism Review, June 2002. Traces the focus of blogs on news coverage to September 11, 2001 events.
• Weblogs: a history and perspective, by Rebecca Blood, author of The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog
• The Hyptertext Project, examines the thought and rhetoric of hypertext behind blogs; includes "Blurring the Borders of Rhetoric and Hypertextuality in Weblogs."

Sites

• Blogger.com: Example of a blog hosting service in which users can sign up to create their own free blog. Blogger is a unit of Gooogle.com.
• Blogarama: a directory of blogs
• BlogPulse: tool to discover trends in the blogosphere; search by people, keyword, phrases, trend tool
• Using Weblogs and RSS in Education
• Glossary: blog terms
• Blog HOT or NOT: an offshot of the hotornot.com Web site which provides a way for users to vote whether a person (or blog, in this case) is "hot" or not. Interesting way to browse blogs.