Topic 2.1 Blogging

We all need to Blog

Blogs are probably one of the most valuable Web 2.0 social networking applications. A blog is the ‘shortened from of weblog” (Leaver, 2010b). Blogs started in the 2000s. One of the first blogs ever created was by a guy called Justin Allyn Hall. He recorded his everyday life activities and thoughts on his blog. In actually fact, his blog was more like a Diary of events. Back then, it was difficult to update information on your blog. In most instances, the ‘blogger’ had to know how HTML worked. It was “only those people who knew how to code a web page could make their voices heard” (Blood, 2000). However, this was not what Berners-Lee had in mind – the Web was supposed to be interactive.

Today, there are more that 150-200 million weblogs. There are more than 1.6 million legitimate posts per day and more than 67,000 post per hour or then 18.6 posts per second (Leaver, 2010a). When considering these figures, it is amazing how blogs have changed our way of communication and interaction with people online. Blood (2000) puts it more in perceptive, stating that weblogs transforms both the “writer” and the “reader” from “audience” to “public” and from “consumer” to “creator”. Blood (2000) further states that “The promise of the web was that everyone could publish, that a thousand voices could flourish, communicate, connect”. Therefore, blogs can be created by anyone, anywhere. People moved away from the non-interactive Web 1.0 to the more inter-active Web 2.0.

One of the earlier blogs was written by Salam Pax. In my opinion, this is one of the most significant blogs ever. Salam Pax lives in Iraq and he was caught up in the Iraqi war everyday life. From inside Bagdad (Iraq), Pax could portray his views and ideas about the Iraqi war by writing on his blog. He wrote in a humorous manner and pretty soon his blog became very popular world-wide - from 200 readers per day to thousands. In a way, Pax became the ‘Gatekeeper’ or ‘Gatewatcher’ for the Iraqi community. According to Leaver (2010a), “Citizen Journalism [Blogging] doesn’t replace mainstream media, but examines, refines and filters it through gatewatching”. In saying this, blogs also influence by the media. Because everyone can become journalists. 

Most blogs have RSS feeds, which is a great feature. This means you can link important and interesting websites back to your own blog. You have to subscribe to the links and up-to-date information will be added on to your blog.

Blogging is not limited to the English language. From 2004, there were more blogs created in other languages. In 2006 the Time Magazine named the Blog (You) the ‘Person of the Year’. Clearly, blogs are here to stay. Johnson (2006) states that there are many blogs today, “But diamonds in that rough will be abundant as well”.

References

Blood, R. (2000, September 07). Weblogs: A history and perspective [Weblog post]. Rebecca's Pocket. Retrieved from http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html

Johnson, S. Five things all sane people agree on about blogs and mainstream journalism (So can we stop talking about them now?). Retrieved from http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/2006/08/five_things_all.html

Leaver, T. (2010a). Blogs [Lecturer]. Retrieved from http://dbs.ilectures.curtin.edu.au/lectopia/casterframe.lasso?fid=387344&cnt=true&usr=not-indicated&name=not-indicated

Leaver, T. (2010b). Topic 2.1 – Blogging [Course notes]. Retrieved from http://lms.curtin.edu.au/