Blog

toc =What is a Blog?=



Short for **Web log**//,// a blog is a frequently updated website consisting of entries arranged in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first. Most blogs are personal, informal and vary in quality and content. Blogs have grown in popularity enormously since their first appearance in the Web in 2000. Blogging is a way for individuals to publish material on the Internet for everybody to read. However, the person writing and maintaining the blog can also choose to hide the entries from the general public and allow access only to a certain few. The end of 1997 Jorn Barger coined the term ‘Weblogs’ to describe his website of links to short descriptions on a steady, frequent basis. All through 1998 on the Internet, thirty other Weblogs came into being. During 2001, the explosion in Weblog growth and popularity continued and in 2002 growth among Weblog authors were now journalists, hobbyists, and other professionals in different backgrounds and industries (Bausch, P., et al. 12).

There are two types of Weblogs where information about any topic can be found. Thematic Weblogs are focused on specific topics. Link – based Weblogs provide an important means for readers to find news and information online ((Bausch, P., et al.30).

Blogs are more personal than journals. For one to use this technology, they do not need any technical knowledge. It is very quick and easy to use. Users maintain a blog to share information and form opinions about certain topics being discussed. The most famous blog sites and one of the first to appear is [|blogger.] It offers a free, automated weblog publishing tool that sends updates to a site via [|FTP].

Another very famous blog site that has emerged over the past year months has been [|MSN Spaces]. This space can only be accessed if you have a passport (registered account) with MSN. Once people register their passport, they can use that to access MSN messenger. Once inside messenger they can access, add, change, and manipulate their space (blog).

The tools for editing, organizing, and publishing weblogs are variously referred to as "content management systems" ([|CMS]), "publishing platforms", "weblog software", and simply "blogware". The latest headlines, with hyperlinks, and summaries are frequently offered in weblogs in the **RSS** or **[|Atom XML]** format, to be read with a feed reader.

=Types of Blogs=

Political
Blogs are sometimes effective when used for political reasons. During the American Elections, Blogs were used and the blogs were effective enough to make an impact on the elections.

Business
Businesses and corporations also use blogs internally and externally. Internal blogging is directed towards the employees and cannot be accessed by anyone outside the corporate network. It is a private space. On the contrary, external blogs allow others to have access to the blogs, not only office workers. The dangers of business blogs are when an employee has his/her own blog and defames the company she/he is working for. It is likely that his/her employeer will track them down and fire them.

Product Information
Blogs can also be used for product information. There are websites where users discuss the new technologies being introduced to the market. Bloggers also discuss the quality and the problems with the product.

Education
Blogs are also used for educational purposes. In order for students to communicate, share personal experiences and innovative ideas, learn from each other, write thoughts and share knowledge to help others learn and learn from others.

Faux Blogs
There is also something called a 'faux blog' wherein a web log is attributed to a certain person but it is actually written by another. This is similar to a ghost writer, who would write a book or article for someone else. An example would be if George Bush had a blog on bushrules.com, and all the entries were signed with his name and look as if they were written by him, but they were actually written by someone else. Faux blogs are also used for collaborative role playing purposes. Users choose a character and write their day-to-day lives in a blog as that character. If, for example, I was in a role playing blog for the TV show the OC, I might write in a blog as Marissa, while other users maintain a blog for the other character. Role playing blogs can be seen as collaborative writing because each blog depends on the other blogs to advance the story line. For example, if Marissa and Ryan were dating, then their blogs would probably be closely linked sinced their day-to-day activities would include the other person.

Personal
Perhaps the most important blogs are the personal blogs. These are usually blogs created and maintained but average people with no real intention or agenda in mind. All the entries are usually about current events which the blogger felt were interesting, personal information about the blogger and so forth. Also most personal blogs are open to the general public, but many a times the only people accessing those blogs are friends, family and associates of the blogger or the actual blogger himself. Personal blogs are also very unique because each individual is different and has different views about different topics and so the way a person sees something and describes it in his blog is usually different from the way someone else might in his blog.

Media Possibilities with Blogs

 * text
 * documents
 * audios/videos
 * attachments
 * links
 * images

Other Types of Blogs Include

 * Cultural (popular culture, arts, etc.)
 * Topical Blog (Health, Human Rights, Travel, Law, Religion, etc.)
 * Science
 * [|Moblog] (for mobile users)
 * Spam
 * Directory

=Problems with Blogs=

Blogs allow people to express their opinions freely and because of this, they sometimes forget who has access to these blogs and how they can affect other people. An example of this is posting false information about a person. Done intentionally or unintentionally, it can affect their life negatively. This is not just limited to people, but also includes businesses and services. Also, people might unknowingly send out hidden messages in their blogs. Because of the various cultures, likes/dislikes and outlook of people, a message in one country might not always translate the same way in another and if the message has a deep cultural and religious message then it can at times create unimaginable chaos. Also in this day-and-age, with all the cyber crimes and identity theif going about, it can be very dangerous to give out private information. A person should always be careful about the types of things they include in their blogs.

=Findings=

Tracy Kennedy, a PhD candidate and lecturer at the University of Toronto and Brock University says the internet is becoming domesticated, much like the telephone; "What we are seeing is that daily internet use is quite pervasive to the point where itâ€™s almost invisible". Kennedy's research investigates the household internet, and what the effects are on both individual and families; "Given the diversity of families in the East York area, we see the internet is changing the way household members carry out their daily tasks, whether work, school or leisure related; it's becoming increasingly integrated into people's everyday lives with households utilizing the internet in different ways from paid work, to communication with family and friends and general information to more context specific tasks such as seeking health information for children, looking for recipes for dinner and planning family vacations", says Kennedy.


 * Crosstabs testing for significance
 * Total comments coded n=404
 * 49% of comments on all blogs were made by males
 * 35% of comments on all blogs were made by females
 * 16% of comments on all blogs ambiguous/unknown
 * Type of Comments || Female Author Blogging || Male Author Blogging ||
 * Gender of COmmenter || 51% women; 40% men; 9% unknown || 56% Men; 22% women; 22% unknown ||
 * Includes Others || Women 88% || Men 50% ||
 * Cooperative || Women 68% || Men 55% ||
 * Expressive || Women 75% || Men 57% ||
 * Assertive || Men 75% || Men 70% ||
 * Competitive || Women 64% || Men 59% ||
 * Instrumental || Men 56% || Men 73% ||
 * Displays 'both' || Men 56% || Men 68% ||

What does this mean?
 * Type of Comment || Who? ||
 * Cooperative || No statistical Difference ||
 * Expressive || Women ||
 * Assertive || Men ||
 * Competitive || Men ||
 * Insatrumental || Men ||
 * Displays 'both' || No statistical Difference ||


 * People’s blog comments are ‘gendered’
 * Consistent with Herring (2000), there is a “tendency for Internet users to display features of culturally-learned gender styles in their typed messages…”
 * Gender is socially constructed, expressed and reproduced through language & interaction in weblogs comments

=Examples=


 * 1) [|Torontoist]
 * 2) [|Not Martha]

=Online Blog Providers=


 * 1) **[|Blogger]**
 * 2) **[|Typepad]**
 * 3) **[|Xanga.com]**
 * 4) **[|BlogDrive]**
 * 5) [|LiveJournal]
 * 6) [|MySpace]
 * 7) [|Blogsome]
 * 8) [|Wordpress]
 * 9) **[|Zorpia]**
 * 10) [|Movable Type]
 * 11) [|Greymatter]

=Works Cited=

Bausch, Paul, Haughey, Matthew and Hourihan. __We Blog Publishing Online with Weblogs__. Wiley Publishing, Inc, 2002.