Transcript Weblogs An Intro and Tour

Weblogs
An Intro and Tour
October 5, 2002
Who am I?
What’s a weblog?
“frequently updated webpages consisting
of dated entries, generally listed in
chronological order from the top down”
Paul McCann, KIPlog
What’s a weblog?
A weblog (sometimes called a blog or a
newspage or a filter) is a webpage where
a weblogger (sometimes called a blogger,
or a pre-surfer) 'logs' all the other
webpages she finds interesting.
Jorn Barger, Robot Wisdom
What’s a weblog?
A weblog is a coffee house conversation
in text, with references as required.
Rebecca Blood, The Weblog Handbook
What’s a weblog?
Weblogs are often-updated sites that
point to articles elsewhere on the web,
often with comments, and to on-site
articles. A weblog is kind of a continual
tour, with a human guide who you get to
know.
Dave Winer Scripting News
What’s a weblog?
Is there a difference between a
Weblog and a Blog?
“Also, mark me in the column that recognizes and uses
a distinction between a "weblog" and a "blog". To me,
the former is links to Internet resources with occasional
personal commentary and the latter is the opposite,
nearer a diary or journal. There are subtle gradations
between the two, naturally.”
Bradley Graham, Bradlands
In a post to Metafilter
What’s in a weblog
Archives
A Link
A Post
Links
How many weblogs are there?
“Please note: This page is no longer being updated, as
grabbing the data was just sucking down too much of my
bandwidth. I'm retaining the last figures here as a bit of
weblog history.”
Take these figures with a big lump of salt...
Date
Weblogs
6/17/2000
1294
…
2/1/2000
485
Mike Gunderloy, Larkfarm
How many weblogs are there?
Blogger boasts a total registered user base of over
750,000 that grows by approximately 1,500 to 2,000
people per day.
UserLand has approximately 50,000 users and grows
by 4,000 each month, according to Dave Winer,
UserLand president.
Its impossible to count the number of Movable Type,
Greymatter and other roll-your-own blogs.
What kinds of weblogs are out there?
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Links (Robot Wisdom, Larkfarm)
Topical (FoodBlog, KM, etc.)
Current Events (Political, Warblogs)
Self-expression (Absenter)
Group (MetaFilter, Plastic)
ThinkBlog (AKMA, Wood S Lot)
What kinds of weblogs are out there?
Link driven
• Larkfarm
• Robot Wisdom
• Rebecca’s Pocket
Every post is a link. Although you can determine
some things about the blogger’s personality by
the links he chooses and the commentary he
makes on them, there is very little personal
information.
Robot Wisdom - Jorn Barger
Rebecca’s Pocket - Rebecca Blood
What kinds of weblogs are out there?
Topical
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Bacon
FoodBlog
You Grow Girl
Catalogblog
These weblogs stick to a topic, usually linking to news or other
information on the Web about the subject they cover. Also used to
share information and knowledge about that subject that the author
has learned offline. Here’s my list of topical weblogs
What kinds of weblogs are out there?
Current Events
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Matt Welch
LakeFX
Liberationism
Palestinian
Israeli
These weblogs are heavy on news links and
commentary. Commonly with a heavy bias and
definite stance or agenda.
Lake Effect - Dan Hartung
What kinds of weblogs are out there?
Group
• Metafilter
• Blogroots
• Thirteen Labs
These weblogs have multiple authors and
commonly resemble discussions or
conversations. Other topical group blogs offer a
valuable source of varied knowledge that can
only be had from multiple sources.
MetaFilter
Blogroots
A Post
Comments
What kinds of weblogs are out there?
ThinkBlogs
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AKMA
GolubBlog
Reading and Writing
Eclogues
These weblogs tend to have a more literate,
thoughtful quality to them. Posts tend to
resemble well-thought out essays, rather than
quick “what I had for breakfast” lines.
How do you find weblogs?
Weblog Directories and Portals
• Eaton web portal
• Globe of Blogs
• DMOZ
Blog rings
• Chicago Bloggers
How do you find weblogs?
Eaton Web Portal
• Sorted by category,
language, country,
alphabet
• 7182 blogs
How do you find weblogs?
Globe of Blogs
• Sorted by title,
topic, age, gender,
birthday, name
and location
• 1820 weblogs
How do you find weblogs?
DMOZ
The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive
human-edited directory of the Web
Top: Computers: Internet: On the Web: Weblogs (2,945)
How do you find weblogs?
By Relationship with other bloggers
• Blogging ecosystem
• Blogtree
Other Methods
• Blog Birthdays
• Thumbnails
• Reviews
How do you find weblogs?
By Relationship with other bloggers
• Blogtree
How do you find weblogs?
Other Methods
• Blog
birthdays
How do you read all these
weblogs?
Weblogs.com
Daypop
Blogdex
Other rating systems
• BlogHop!
How do you start your own?
Blogger
Radio
Xanga
Salon blogs
Pitas
LiveJournal
Grey Matter
Movable Type
Roll your own
How do you start your own?
What does Blogger do?
“Blogger gives you a way to automate
(and greatly accelerate) the blog
publishing process without writing any
code or worrying about installing any
sort of server software or scripts. And
yet, it still gives you total control over
the look and location of your blog.
More specifically, instead of handcoding your blog posts and frequently
uploading the newest version of your
page, you make posts to your blog by
submitting a simple form on the
Blogger web site, and the results
immediately show up on your site,
with your design.”
How do you start your own?
Blogger
Radio
Xanga
Salon
Pitas
LiveJournal
Grey Matter
Movable Type
Roll your own
How do you start your own?
Business Blogs and Blogs for your clients
Another interesting application of the weblog model would be
within corporate intranets. Where I work, much of the
company-wide memorandums and communication is done
via email, with some emails containing numerous
attachments that sometimes weigh in at a hefty one-to-two
megabytes. It'd be so much better if these emails only
referenced documents somewhere on the intranet instead of
including them via attachments. The intranet page for each
department could be a regularly updated weblog of
information currently being circulated. This would solve so
many problems with disk space and deleted emails, it
puzzles me that some corporate intranets haven't adopted
these simple concepts for the easy distribution of
information.
Cameron Barrett
How do you run your own?
Post.
Read.
Write.
Link.
How do you run your own?
How do I build traffic?
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Post and link
Register with the portals
Get yourself into Blog rings
Stimulate discussion
Make some friends
How do you run your own?
More Advice
• How to write a better blog
Why Blog?
Increase your knowledge
Make friends
Improve your writing
Formulate your opinions
Do something good
Why Blog?
Increase your knowledge
Make friends
Improve your writing
Formulate your
opinions
Introduction
to Panel Members
Do something good
Our Panel
Lake Effect Dan Hartung
Our Panel
AKMA
Our Panel
KIPlog Paul McCann
Our Panel
McGee’s
Musings Jim McGee
Our Panel
Absenter
Naz Hamid