|
HOW DO I SET UP A
BLOG?
Since blogs are just Web pages, all that is needed to set
up a blog is a computer, space on a Web hosting server for
your pages, and time to create the blog. There are numerous
applications created to help build a blog. One of the easiest
is Blogger.com.
This site allows you to set up a Weblog in about 10 minutes.
Radio
Userland is another popular hosted option. If you have
your own Web server, there blog tools that work with your
servers: Movable Type and Greymatter are examples.
HOW DO I POST TO A BLOG?
There are many different tools to use to post to a blog.
Many of the applications allow activities such as posting
from a desktop client (your PC), email posting, and even
posting by phone. Some people have used a cell phone with
Web access to post to a blog. There are many tools that
can be used to post to a blog. Most blog applications offer
support for the Blogger API which allows desktop and mobile
client tools to connect to the blog for posting and management.
WHY WOULD I WANT TO USE A COMPLICATED BLOG APPLICATION?
Blog application tools or assistants are used for a variety
of reasons:
|
- Easier to use but have fewer features.
- Because they are work on your desktop and are
not server tools, they allow you to work off-line
and publish once you're ready.
- Better WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
support, for those who don't like dealing with HTML
code.
- Integrate directly into your browser.
- Offer management tools that are easier to understand.
|
WHAT IS RSS?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and it is a way
to tell other people about new blog entries. Readers all
over the world can view your blog entries via content aggregators.
WHAT IS A PERMALINK?
Permalink is short for "permanent link". It is a link that
readers can use to bookmark the current blog post. This
is important, as most blogs change regularly, and without
a permanent link, the posts would be impossible to find
later. Permalinks are usually indicated by a pound-sign
(#) or the permalink at the end of the post.
WHAT IS A TRACKBACK?
TrackBack is a tool to allow you to notify other blog authors
of your blog posts. Most bloggers use it to comment on a
blog post as an entry on their site, rather than as comments
on the other blog. It's similar to linking to a permalink
but it adds the functionality where you can actually tell
the original blogger that you've linked to them. This is
called "sending a ping".
|
|
THE MODERN BLOG
Evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a
running account of their personal lives. Most such writers
called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers.
A few called themselves "escribitionists". The Open Pages
webring included members of the online-journal community.
Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal blogging
in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally
recognized as one of the earliest bloggers, as is Jerry
Pournelle. Blogs are considered to be part of the Web 2.0
phenomenon.
The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December
1997. The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz,
who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog
in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May of
1999. This was quickly adopted as both a noun and verb:
"to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's
weblog". After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in
popularity. Blog usage spread during 1999 and the years
following, being further popularized by the near-simultaneous
arrival of the first hosted blog tools.
HISTORICAL OCCURRENCES
Several broadly popular American blogs emerged in 2001:
Ron Gunzburger's Politics1.com, Taegan Goddard's Political
Wire, Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit, Charles Johnson's Little
Green Footballs, and Jerome Armstrong's MyDD - all blogging
primarily on politics. Two earlier popular American political
blogs were Bob Somerby's Daily Howler launched in 1998 and
Mickey Kaus' Kausfiles launched in 1999.
By 2001, blogging was enough of a phenomenon that how-to
manuals began to appear, primarily focusing on technique.
The importance of the blogging community and its relationship
to larger society, increased rapidly. Established schools
of journalism began researching blogging and noting the
differences between journalism and blogging.
WHAT'S NEW
Websites, including both corporate sites and personal homepages,
had and still often have "What's New" or "News" sections,
often on the index page and sorted by date. One example
of a news based "weblog" is the Drudge Report founded by
the self-styled maverick reporter Matt Drudge, though apparently
Drudge dislikes this classification. Another is the Institute
for Public Accuracy which began posting news releases featuring
several news-pegged one-paragraph quotes several times a
week beginning in 1998. One noteworthy early precursor to
a blog was the tongue-in-cheek personal website that was
frequently updated by Usenet legend Kibo.
Early weblogs were simply manually updated components of
common websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate
the production and maintenance of web articles posted in
reverse chronological order made the publishing process
feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately,
this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing
that produces blogs we recognize today. For instance, the
use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical
aspect of "blogging". Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog
hosting services, or they can be run using blog software,
such as WordPress,
Movable
Type, Blogger
or LiveJournal,
or on regular web hosting services.
In 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream,
as political consultants, news services and candidates began
using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Even
politicians not actively campaigning, such as the UK's Labour
Party's MP Tom Watson, began to blog to bond with constituents.
THE TERM BLOGOSPHERE
Was coined on 10 September 1999 by Brad L. Graham, as a
joke. It was re-coined in 2002 by William Quick, and was
quickly adopted and propagated by the warblog community.
The term resembles the older word "logosphere" from Greek
logos meaning word, and sphere, interpreted as world, "the
world of words", the universe of discourse. It also resembles
the term "noosphere", a Greek nous meaning mind. As of 2007,
a lot of people still treat the term blogosphere as a joke;
however, the BBC, and National Public Radio's programs Morning
Edition, Day To Day, and All Things Considered have used
the term several times to discuss public opinion. A number
of media outlets in recent years have started treating the
blogosphere as a gauge of public opinion, and it has been
cited in both academic and nonacademic work as evidence
of rising or falling resistance to globalization, voter
fatigue, and many other phenomena.
|
