What Is a Weblog?
The term "weblog" was coined in December of 1997, but key elements of the genre go bacsome time. A weblog is an easy form of web publishing for anyone with access to the web. You don't need to be a programmer or a designer in order to be a blogger. You log in, click a button, type something in a box, push another button, and you've posted to a weblog. (see "A History of the Blog" for more information about the development and history of the blog.)
Basically, a blog consists of short chunks of text— from a few lines to a few pages long—sorted in reverse-chronological order, with the newest material at the top. Bloggers might post a few short items each day, once or two longer posts each week, or only a few lines every once in a while—whenever they feel inspired.
In terms of content, a blog can be anything, and with thousands of blogs online and new comments added at almost every moment, blog-reading can become addictive and anyone who is hooked can quickly find that there is little time left for anything else. The world of weblogs seems to be having a significant impact on digital culture, communication, education, and publication. The best proof of impact at the moment is the proliferation of Election and Political Blogs that have sprung up around presidential candidates, parties, and news agencies.
Weblog Terminology
The basic unit of a weblog is the post—a single, discrete entry, roughly analogous to a paragraph in traditional prose. Individual posts typically invite readers to post comments, which are then archived along with the rest of the site's content. The post often includes a link to an off-site document, such as a recent news article. A typical blog entry might post a few lines commenting on a current event, along with hyperlink to a news story about that event. The content of the blog will change, as fresher material appears at the top of the page and older material falls off the bottom into archives; so most blog entries feature a permalink(a URL that will not change as new material arrives).
Jill Walker's definition of a weblog is the most comprehensive I've seen. A weblog, she notes,
A weblog, or blog, is a frequently updated website consisting of dated entries arranged in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first... Typically, weblogs are published by individuals and their style is personal and informal. Weblogs first appeared in the mid-1990s, becoming popular as simple and free publishing tools became available towards the turn of the century. Since anybody with a net connection can publish their own weblog, there is great variety in the quality, content, and ambition of weblogs, and a weblog may have anywhere from a handful to tens of thousands of daily readers. |
Walker also observes that blogs are serial and cumulative. Readers, she suggests, tend to read small amounts at a time, returning hours, days, or weeks later to read entries written since their last visit.
Click here for some more definitions of blogs and here for some selected blogs.
Weblogs.Com News: The History of Weblogs
“The first weblog was the first website, http://info.cern.ch/, the site built by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN. From this page TBL pointed to all the new sites as they came online. Luckily, the content of this site has been archived at the World Wide Web Consortium.”
From Dave Winer.
essays: weblogs: a history and perspective
“In 1998 there were just a handful of sites of the type that are now identified as weblogs (so named by in Jorn Barger December 1997). Jesse James Garrett, editor of Infosift, began compiling a list of ‘other sites like his’ as he found them in his travels around the web. In November of that year, he sent that list to Cameron Barrett. Cameron published the list on Camworld, and others maintaining similar sites began sending their URLs to him for inclusion on the list. Jesse’s ‘page of only weblogs’ lists the 23 known to be in existence at the beginning of 1999.”
From what's in rebecca's pocket? (Rebecca Blood)
What makes a weblog a weblog?
“At Berkman we're studying weblogs, how they’re used, and what they are. Rather than saying ‘I know it when I see it’ I wanted to list all the known features of weblog software, but more important, get to the heart of what a weblog is, and how a weblog is different from a Wiki, or a news site managed with software like Vignette or Interwoven.”
From Dave Winer at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.
Deep Thinking about Weblogs
“Weblogs are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore for those of us who spend much time reading the Web. Also known by the inscrutable nickname ‘blogs’, weblogs are something of a hard nut to crack. Compounding the difficulty is the fact that a great deal of weblog content today is about weblogs and weblog technology. What are weblogs? What’s the big deal? Why should we pay attention?”
From Andrew Grumet.
Media Matters. Blogosphere | PBS
“Once Upon a Blog. A long time ago, in the hazy middle years of the decade nineteen-hundred-and-ninety, between the darkest reaches of dial-up and the Ethernet, a creature was born. It was not of this earth but, rather, the first-born child of the Internet. Its name was ... blog.”
From PBS Online.
Halley's Comment
“1. A weblog (or blog) is a daily online diary on the Net where you write and publish at the near-same moment to a few million of your closest friends, except only about 20 people actually read what you write. Each entry is called a ‘post’ and the person writing a weblog (or 'blog') is called a ‘weblogger’ or ‘blogger.’”
From Halley Suitt’s Weblog Halley's Comment.
Samizdata.net — Blog Glossary
“This is a glossary of blog terminology, including obscure words directly related to blogging and expressions commonly encountered in the blogosphere (qv) which might be obscure to the uninitiated.”
How to Write a Better Weblog:
“After posting my own short list of things that ought to be banned from weblogs, I realized that a list of things to be encouraged would be more useful. Some people are new to weblogging. Others want to raise the bar. In the end, everybody wants better sites, and some of these suggestions might help.”
—Dennis A. Mahoney
10 Tips on Writing the Living Web
“Every revision requires new writing, new words that become the essence of the site. Living sites are only as good as today’s update. If the words are dull, nobody will read them, and nobody will come back. If the words are wrong, people will be misled, disappointed, infuriated. If the words aren’t there, people will shake their heads and lament your untimely demise.”
—Mark Bernstein
The Weblog Handbook: Weblog Ethics
“Weblogs are the mavericks of the online world. Two of their greatest strengths are their ability to filter and disseminate information to a widely dispersed audience, and their position outside the mainstream of mass media. Beholden to no one, weblogs point to, comment on, and spread information according to their own, quirky criteria.”
—Rebecca Blood
• Encourage daily writing, which can ignite your creativity
• Improve your writing by writing....
• Find readers for your work and receive respones to your ideas and writing...
• Organize/extend your responses to other texts (websites, magazines, books)
• Receive respones to your ideas and writing...
• Share reflections and insights
• Create a dialog over texts
• Archive URLs, readings, and online resources
• Experiment with a new genre of communication
• Become comfortable writing online, using links, images, and talk-back features