Introduction to weblogs

What’s a weblog?

A blog or a weblog is not completely revolutionary - it is basically an easily updated web page. Most blogs are created and maintained through an easy-to-use “personal publishing” application - no use of HTML editors (or even knowledge of HTML) is required. The simplicity of this system is what makes blogging so attractive, and because of this, weblogs are starting to change the way we communicate and express ourselves on the web.

“A Blog is a web page that contains brief, discrete hunks of information called posts. These posts are arranged is reverse-chronological order (most recent post comes first). Each post is uniquely indentified by an anchor tag, and is marked with a permanent link that can be referred to by others who wish to link to it.” (From Essential Blogging by Doctorow, Dornfest, Johnson, Powers and Trott and Trott)

Most personal publishing systems also provide built-in ways for readers to comment and for the author to see who is linking back to their blog.

What weblogs can do

Since a blog is, at its core, just a blank web page, a blog can be just about anything you want it to be, including:

• a personal journal
• a travel log
• a collection of links
• a digital photo album
• a portfolio
• an online magazine or newsletter

It can be one or many of these things.

Since blog systems provide tools for readers and authors of blogs to interact, it can help fuel discussion - especially useful in the context of higher education. A blog could serve as a course web site, or a simple management and communication tool for communities of practice or administrative teams. Blogs could also be used as personal spaces for students, staff, or faculty to record their thoughts and experiences on work or learning, and to read the reactions of others in near-real time, regardless of geographical location.

What weblogs can’t do

As wonderful as weblogs can be, they are not necessarily suited to everyone. Like all e-learning tools they will not, for instance:

• make you a better student and/or teacher (though using a weblog as a management tool may help you organize more effectively)
• make you a better writer (though the practice will help)

While a weblog may be a clean, simple solution for one project, it may lack the robustness of other tools needed for another. Consider a course web site - weblogs do not natively support grading or evaluation the way a tool such as WebCT does. Its discussion tool is less structured than a bulletin board or the WebCT discussion tool. This may be what you’re looking for - but it may not. The best way to find out is to ask and try it out.

Why blog?

Being able to publish personal material on the web empowers even the smallest voice. Anyone can be heard, especially if their remarks are well articulated and thoughtful.

Another thing to consider is all the other bloggers out there. As Alan Levine says in his blogshop, “blogging is a social process”. You are not a rock or an island. Neither is your blog. As a result of writing publicly, you will eventually acquire readers. Some may leave comments, others may even link to your writing from their own blogs.

If you browse through a few blogs, you’ll probably notice that bloggers with common interests tend to find each other and eventually form an informal, distributed community bound together by trackbacks, links, comments, and other modes of discussion. What’s interesting is that as a community forms between blogs and their respective authors, reading other blogs becomes just as important as writing your own.

This is the social aspect of blogging. It is incredibly valuable and very powerful - you never know who you might meet, or who might be reading. A reader one day may be a collaborator the next. And while the links and trackbacks may seem small, there are real, human relationships between the members of these communities. There is loyalty there.

How to get started

If you’re intrigued and want to get started, we recommend reading a few blogs that interest you and starting one of your own.

To get your own blog with weblogs@UBC:

• email Brian Lamb at brian.lamb@ubc.ca.
• read through some tutorials.
• fire up your browser, login to Movable Type and start writing.

More details

We’re certain our Coles Notes offering on blogs and blog culture is not enough to cover all there is to know about weblogs, so we refer you to many other fabulous and highly recommended resources:

• brian’s articles
• cogdogblog
• ubc wiki
• http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2002/01/01/cory.html
• http://anvil.gsu.edu/TechNotes/stories/storyReader$14

Many thanks to…

The sooper cogdogblogger Alan Levine and his wondrous blogshop on which our UBC blogshop (both the wiki version” and the weblog incarnation) is based.

Posted by mitch at September 8, 2004 10:52 PM