Blog
Encyclopedia
A blog is a type of website
or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Although not a must, but most good quality blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.
Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries
; yet still others function more as online brand advertising
of a particular individual or company. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web page
s, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blog
), photographs (photoblog
), videos (video blogging or vlogging), music (MP3 blog
), and audio (podcast
ing). Microblogging
is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.
, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.
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 1999. Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams
at Pyra Labs
used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger
product, leading to the popularization of the terms.
, commercial online services such as GEnie
, BiX and the early CompuServe
, e-mail lists
and Bulletin Board System
s (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum
software, created running conversations with "threads." Threads are topical connections between messages on a virtual "corkboard."
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, journalist
s, or journalers. Justin Hall
, who began personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College
, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers, as is Jerry Pournelle
. Dave Winer's
Scripting News is also credited with being one of the oldest and longest running weblogs. Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap
device to a web site in 1994. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance
, and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters.
Early blogs were simply manually updated components of common Web site
s. 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, or on regular web hosting service
s.
Some early bloggers, such as The Misanthropic Bitch
, who began in 1997, actually referred to their online presence as a zine
, before the term blog entered common usage.
Since 2002, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning
news
stories. The Iraq war
saw bloggers taking measured and passionate points of view that go beyond the traditional left-right
divide of the political spectrum
.
An early milestone in the rise in importance of blogs came in 2002, when many bloggers focused on comments by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott
. Senator Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senator
Strom Thurmond
, praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president. Lott's critics saw these comments as a tacit approval of racial segregation
, a policy advocated by Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign. This view was reinforced by documents and recorded interviews dug up by bloggers. (See Josh Marshall
's Talking Points Memo
.) Though Lott's comments were made at a public event attended by the media, no major media organizations reported on his controversial comments until after blogs broke the story. Blogging helped to create a political crisis that forced Lott to step down as majority leader.
Similarly, blogs were among the driving forces behind the "Rathergate" scandal. To wit: (television journalist) Dan Rather
presented documents (on the CBS show 60 Minutes
) that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's military service record. Bloggers declared the documents to be forgeries
and presented evidence and arguments in support of that view. Consequently, CBS apologized for what it said were inadequate reporting techniques (see Little Green Footballs
). Many bloggers view this scandal as the advent of blogs' acceptance by the mass media, both as a news source and opinion and as means of applying political pressure.
The impact of these stories gave greater credibility to blogs as a medium of news dissemination. Though often seen as partisan gossips, bloggers sometimes lead the way in bringing key information to public light, with mainstream media having to follow their lead. More often, however, news blogs tend to react to material already published by the mainstream media. Meanwhile, an increasing number of experts blogged, making blogs a source of in-depth analysis. (See Daniel Drezner
, J. Bradford DeLong
or Brad Setser
.)
and Wesley Clark
.) Even politicians not actively campaigning, such as the UK's Labour Party's
MP
Tom Watson
, began to blog to bond with constituents.
In January 2005, Fortune
magazine listed eight bloggers that business people "could not ignore": Peter Rojas
, Xeni Jardin
, Ben Trott
, Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz
, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble
, and Jason Calacanis
.
Israel
's was among the first national governments to set up an official blog. Under David Saranga
, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs became active in adopting Web 2.0
initiatives, including an official video blog and a political blog
. The Foreign Ministry also held a microblogging
press conference via Twitter
about its war with Hamas
, with Saranga answering questions from the public in common text-messaging abbreviations during a live worldwide press conference. The questions and answers were later posted on IsraelPolitik
, the country's official political blog.
The impact of blogging upon the mainstream media has also been acknowledged by governments. In 2009, the presence of the American journalism industry had declined to the point that several newspaper corporations were filing for bankruptcy, resulting in less direct competition between newspapers within the same circulation area. Discussion emerged as to whether the newspaper industry would benefit from a stimulus package by the federal government. President Barack Obama acknowledged the emerging influence of blogging upon society by saying "if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding”.
Personal blogs: The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life, or works of art. Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Few personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream but some personal blogs quickly garner an extensive following. One type of personal blog, referred to as a microblog, is extremely detailed and seeks to capture a moment in time. Some sites, such as Twitter
, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family, and are much faster than emailing or writing.
Corporate and organizational blogs: A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business
purposes. Blogs used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation
or externally for marketing
, brand
ing or public relations
purposes are called corporate blog
s. Similar blogs for clubs and societies are called club blogs, group blogs, or by similar names; typical use is to inform members and other interested parties of club and member activities.
By genre
: Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blog
s, travel blogs (also known as travelogs), house blogs, fashion blog
s, project blog
s, education blog
s, niche blogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. Two common types of genre blogs are art blog
s and music blogs. A blog featuring discussions especially about home
and family
is not uncommonly called a mom blog and one made popular is by Erica Diamond
who created Womenonthefence.com which is syndicated to over two million readers monthly. While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog.
By media type: A blog comprising videos is called a vlog
, one comprising links is called a linklog
, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog
. Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs. Blogs that are written on typewriters and then scanned are called typecast or typecast blogs; see typecasting (blogging)
.
By device: Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone
or PDA
could be called a moblog. One early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap
device to a web site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance
. Such journals have been used as evidence in legal matters.
: The collective community of all blogs is known as the blogosphere. Since all blogs are on the internet by definition, they may be seen as interconnected and socially networked, through blogrolls, comments, linkback
s (refbacks, trackbacks or pingbacks) and backlink
s. Discussions "in the blogosphere" are occasionally used by the media as a gauge of public opinion on various issues. Because new, untapped communities of bloggers can emerge in the space of a few years, Internet marketers
pay close attention to "trends in the blogosphere".
BlogDay: Blogday.org was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. The designated date is August 31, because when written 3108, it resembles the word "Blog". On that day, bloggers recommend five new blogs to their visitors, so that readers discover new, previously unknown blogs.
Blog search engines: Several blog search engines are used to search blog contents, such as Bloglines
, BlogScope
, and Technorati
. Technorati, which is among the most popular blog search engines, provides current information on both popular searches and tags
used to categorize blog postings. The research community is working on going beyond simple keyword search, by inventing new ways to navigate through huge amounts of information present in the blogosphere
, as demonstrated by projects like BlogScope
.
Blogging communities and directories: Several online communities exist that connect people to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers, including BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog
. Interest-specific blogging platforms are also available. For instance, Blogster
has a sizable community of political bloggers among its members. Global Voices
aggregates international bloggers, "with emphasis on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media."
Blogging and advertising
: It is common for blogs to feature advertisements either to financially benefit the blogger or to promote the blogger's favorite causes. The popularity of blogs has also given rise to "fake blogs"
in which a company will create a fictional blog as a marketing tool to promote a product.
The blogdex
project was launched by researchers in the MIT Media Lab
to crawl the Web and gather data from thousands of blogs in order to investigate their social properties. It gathered this information for over 4 years, and autonomously tracked the most contagious information spreading in the blog community, ranking it by recency and popularity. It can therefore be considered the first instantiation of a memetracker
. The project is no longer active, but a similar function is now served by tailrank.com
.
Blogs are given rankings by Technorati
based on the number of incoming links and Alexa Internet
based on the Web hits of Alexa Toolbar users. In August 2006, Technorati found that the most linked-to blog on the internet was that of Chinese actress Xu Jinglei
. Chinese media Xinhua reported that this blog received more than 50 million page views, claiming it to be the most popular blog in the world. Technorati rated Boing Boing
to be the most-read group-written blog.
, while others are members of that media working through a different channel. Some institutions see blogging as a means of "getting around the filter" and pushing messages directly to the public. Some critics worry that bloggers respect neither copyright
nor the role of the mass media
in presenting society with credible news. Bloggers and other contributors to user-generated content
are behind Time
magazine naming their 2006 person of the year
as "You".
Many mainstream journalists, meanwhile, write their own blogs — well over 300, according to CyberJournalist.net's J-blog list. The first known use of a blog on a news site was in August 1998, when Jonathan Dube
of The Charlotte Observer published one chronicling Hurricane Bonnie.
Some bloggers have moved over to other media. The following bloggers (and others) have appeared on radio and television: Duncan Black
(known widely by his pseudonym, Atrios), Glenn Reynolds
(Instapundit
), Markos Moulitsas Zúniga
(Daily Kos
), Alex Steffen
(Worldchanging
), Ana Marie Cox
(Wonkette
), Nate Silver
(FiveThirtyEight.com
), and Ezra Klein
(Ezra Klein blog in The American Prospect
, now in the Washington Post). In counterpoint, Hugh Hewitt
exemplifies a mass-media personality who has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media" by being an influential blogger. Equally many established authors, for example Mitzi Szereto
have started using Blogs to not only update fans on their current works but also to expand into new areas of writing.
Blogs have also had an influence on minority language
s, bringing together scattered speakers and learners; this is particularly so with blogs in Gaelic languages. Minority language publishing (which may lack economic feasibility) can find its audience through inexpensive blogging.
There are many examples of bloggers who have published books based on their blogs, e.g., Salam Pax
, Ellen Simonetti
, Jessica Cutler
, ScrappleFace
. Blog-based books have been given the name blook
. A prize for the best blog-based book was initiated in 2005, the Lulu Blooker Prize
. However, success has been elusive offline, with many of these books not selling as well as their blogs. Only blogger Tucker Max
made the New York Times Bestseller List. The book based on Julie Powell
's blog "The Julie/Julia Project" was made into the film Julie & Julia
, apparently the first to do so.
Blogs have led to some disintermediation
and a breakdown of the traditional advertising model where companies can skip over the advertising agencies (previously the only interface with the customer) and contact the customers directly themselves. On the other hand, new companies specialised in blog advertising have been established, to take advantage of this new development as well.
However, there are many people who look negatively on this new development. Some believe that any form of commercial activity on blogs will destroy the blogosphere’s credibility.
. U.S. payouts related to blogging totaled $17.4 million by 2009; in some cases these have been covered by umbrella insurance
. The courts have returned with mixed verdicts. Internet Service Provider
s (ISPs), in general, are immune from liability for information that originates with third parties (U.S. Communications Decency Act
and the EU Directive 2000/31/EC).
In Doe v. Cahill, the Delaware Supreme Court
held that stringent standards had to be met to unmask the anonymous post
s of bloggers and also took the unusual step of dismissing the libel case itself (as unfounded under American libel law) rather than referring it back to the trial court
for reconsideration. In a bizarre twist, the Cahills were able to obtain the identity of John Doe, who turned out to be the person they suspected: the town's mayor, Councilman Cahill's political rival. The Cahills amended their original complaint, and the mayor settled the case rather than going to trial.
In January 2007, two prominent Malaysian political bloggers, Jeff Ooi
and Ahiruddin Attan, were sued by pro-government newspaper, The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad, Kalimullah bin Masheerul Hassan, Hishamuddin bin Aun and Brenden John a/l John Pereira over an alleged defamation. The plaintiff was supported by the Malaysian government. Following the suit, the Malaysian government proposed to "register" all bloggers in Malaysia in order to better control parties against their interest. This is the first such legal case against bloggers in the country.
In the United States, blogger Aaron Wall was sued by Traffic Power for defamation and publication of trade secrets in 2005. According to Wired Magazine, Traffic Power had been "banned from Google for allegedly rigging search engine results." Wall and other "white hat
" search engine optimization
consultants had exposed Traffic Power in what they claim was an effort to protect the public. The case addressed the murky legal question of who is liable for comments posted on blogs. The case was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, and Traffic Power failed to appeal within the allowed time.
In 2009, a controversial and landmark decision by The Hon. Mr Justice Eady
refused to grant an order to protect the anonymity of Richard Horton
.
In 2009, NDTV
issued a legal notice to Indian blogger Kunte for a blog post criticizing their coverage of the Mumbai attacks. The blogger unconditionally withdrew his post, which resulted in several Indian bloggers criticizing NDTV for trying to silence critics.
Delta Air Lines
fired flight attendant
Ellen Simonetti
because she posted photographs of herself in uniform on an airplane and because of comments posted on her blog "Queen of Sky: Diary of a Flight Attendant" which the employer deemed inappropriate. This case highlighted the issue of personal blogging and freedom of expression versus employer rights and responsibilities, and so it received wide media attention. Simonetti took legal action against the airline for "wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages". The suit was postponed while Delta was in bankruptcy proceedings (court docket).
In early 2006, Erik Ringmar, a tenured senior lecturer at the London School of Economics
, was ordered by the convenor of his department to "take down and destroy" his blog in which he discussed the quality of education at the school.
Mark Cuban
, owner of the Dallas Mavericks
, was fined during the 2006 NBA
playoffs for criticizing NBA officials on the court and in his blog.
Mark Jen was terminated in 2005 after 10 days of employment as an Assistant Product Manager at Google
for discussing corporate secrets on his personal blog, then called 99zeros and hosted on the Google-owned Blogger service. He blogged about unreleased products and company finances a week before the company's earnings announcement. He was fired two days after he complied with his employer's request to remove the sensitive material from his blog.
In India, blogger Gaurav Sabnis resigned from IBM
after his posts exposing the false claims of a management school, IIPM, led to management of IIPM threatening to burn their IBM laptops as a sign of protest against him.
Jessica Cutler
, aka "The Washingtonienne", blogged about her sex life while employed as a congressional assistant. After the blog was discovered and she was fired, she wrote a novel based on her experiences and blog: The Washingtonienne: A Novel. Cutler is presently being
sued by one of her former lovers in a case that could establish the extent to which bloggers are obligated to protect the privacy of their real life associates.
Catherine Sanderson, a.k.a. Petite Anglaise
, lost her job in Paris at a British accountancy firm because of blogging. Although given in the blog in a fairly anonymous manner, some of the descriptions of the firm and some of its people were less than flattering. Sanderson later won a compensation claim case against the British firm, however.
On the other hand, Penelope Trunk
wrote an upbeat article in the Boston Globe back in 2006, entitled "Blogs 'essential' to a good career". She was one of the first journalists to point out that a large portion of bloggers are professionals and that a well-written blog can help attract employers.
and authoritarian
regimes often seek to suppress blogs and/or to punish those who maintain them.
In Singapore
, two ethnic Chinese were imprisoned under the country’s anti-sedition law
for posting anti-Muslim remarks in their blogs.
Egypt
ian blogger Kareem Amer
was charged with insulting the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak
and an Islam
ic institution
through his blog. It is the first time in the history of Egypt that a blogger was prosecuted. After a brief trial session that took place in Alexandria
, the blogger was found guilty and sentenced to prison terms of three years for insulting Islam
and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mubarak.
Egyptian blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud was arrested in April 2007 for anti-government writings in his blog. Monem is a member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood
.
After expressing opinions in his personal blog about the state of the Sudanese armed forces, Jan Pronk
, United Nations
Special Representative for the Sudan
, was given three days notice to leave Sudan. The Sudanese army had demanded his deportation.
In Myanmar
, Nay Phone Latt, a blogger, was sentenced to 20 years in jail for posting a cartoon critical of head of state Than Shwe
.
, author of the innocuous blog "Creating Passionate Users", was the target of such vicious threats and misogynistic insults that she canceled her keynote speech at a technology conference in San Diego, fearing for her safety. While a blogger's anonymity is often tenuous, Internet trolls
who would attack a blogger with threats or insults can be emboldened by anonymity. Sierra and supporters initiated an online discussion aimed at countering abusive online behavior and developed a blogger's code of conduct
.
for blog
gers to enforce civility on their blogs by being civil themselves and moderating comments on their blog. The code was proposed due to threats made to blogger Kathy Sierra
. The idea of the code was first reported by BBC News
, who quoted O'Reilly saying, "I do think we need some code of conduct around what is acceptable behaviour, I would hope that it doesn't come through any kind of regulation it would come through self-regulation."
O'Reilly and others came up with a list of seven proposed ideas:
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Although not a must, but most good quality blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.
Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries
Online diary
An online diary is a personal diary or journal that is published on the World Wide Web on a personal website or a diary-hosting website.-Overview:...
; yet still others function more as online brand advertising
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...
of a particular individual or company. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web page
Web page
A web page or webpage is a document or information resource that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a monitor or mobile device. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext...
s, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blog
Art blog
An art blog is a common type of blog that comments on art. More recently, as with other types of blogs, some art blogs have taken on 'web 2.0' social networking features...
), photographs (photoblog
Photoblog
A photoblog is a form of photo sharing and publishing in the format of a blog. It differs from a blog through the predominant use of and focus on photographs rather than text...
), videos (video blogging or vlogging), music (MP3 blog
MP3 blog
An MP3 blog is a type of blog in which the creator makes music files, normally in the MP3 format, available for download. They are also known as "musicblogs" or "audioblogs". MP3 blogs have become increasingly popular since 2003...
), and audio (podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
ing). Microblogging
Microblogging
Microblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...
is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.
, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.
History
The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn BargerJorn Barger
Jorn Barger is an American blogger, best known as editor of Robot Wisdom, an influential early weblog. Barger coined the term weblog to describe the process of "logging the web" as he surfed...
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 1999. Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams
Evan Williams (blogger)
Evan Williams is an American entrepreneur who has founded several Internet companies. Two of the internet's top ten websites have been created by Evan Williams' companies: Blogger, weblog-authoring software of Pyra Labs, and Twitter, where he was previously CEO.-Early life and education:Williams...
at Pyra Labs
Pyra Labs
Pyra Labs is the company that coined the word Blog, creating the service Blogger.The co-founders were Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan, and the company's first product, also named 'Pyra', was a web application which would combine a project manager, contact manager, and to-do list...
used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger
Blogger (service)
Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows private or multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. It was created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003. Generally, the blogs are hosted by Google at a subdomain of blogspot.com. Up until May 1, 2010 Blogger allowed users to publish...
product, leading to the popularization of the terms.
Origins
Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including UsenetUsenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
, commercial online services such as GEnie
GEnie
GEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business - GEIS that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around 350,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users...
, BiX and the early CompuServe
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
, e-mail lists
Electronic mailing list
An electronic mailing list is a special usage of email that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users. It is similar to a traditional mailing list — a list of names and addresses — as might be kept by an organization for sending publications to...
and Bulletin Board System
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
s (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
software, created running conversations with "threads." Threads are topical connections between messages on a virtual "corkboard."
The modern blog evolved from the online diary
Online diary
An online diary is a personal diary or journal that is published on the World Wide Web on a personal website or a diary-hosting website.-Overview:...
, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
s, or journalers. Justin Hall
Justin Hall
Justin Hall , is an American freelance journalist who is best known as a pioneer blogger , and for writing reviews from game conferences such as E3 as well as the Tokyo Game Show....
, who began personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers, as is Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
. Dave Winer's
Dave Winer
Dave Winer is an American software developer, entrepreneur and writer in New York City. Winer is noted for his contributions to outliners, scripting, content management, and web services, as well as blogging and podcasting...
Scripting News is also credited with being one of the oldest and longest running weblogs. Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap
Eyetap
An EyeTap is a device that is worn in front of the eye that acts as a camera to record the scene available to the eye as well as a display to superimpose a computer-generated imagery on the original scene available to the eye....
device to a web site in 1994. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance
Sousveillance
Sousveillance refers to the recording of an activity by a participant in the activity typically by way of small wearable or portable personal technologies.Sousveillance has also been described as "inverse surveillance", i.e...
, and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters.
Early blogs were simply manually updated components of common Web site
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s. 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, or on regular web hosting service
Web hosting service
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet...
s.
Some early bloggers, such as The Misanthropic Bitch
The Misanthropic Bitch
The Misanthropic Bitch was a personal blog maintained by a person who referred to herself by the same title. Although originally referred to as a zine, TMB represented one of the earliest online personal "blogs," having originally appeared in 1997...
, who began in 1997, actually referred to their online presence as a zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
, before the term blog entered common usage.
Rise in popularity
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:- Bruce Ableson launched Open DiaryOpen DiaryOpen Diary is an online diary community, an early example of social networking software. It was founded on October 20, 1998 by Bruce Ableson, known on the Open Diary website by the title of his diary, The DiaryMaster...
in October 1998, which soon grew to thousands of online diaries. Open Diary innovated the reader comment, becoming the first blog community where readers could add comments to other writers' blog entries. - Brad FitzpatrickBrad FitzpatrickBradley Joseph "Brad" Fitzpatrick , is an American programmer. He is best known as the creator of LiveJournal and is the author of a variety of free software projects such as memcached....
started LiveJournalLiveJournalLiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....
in March 1999. - Andrew Smales created Pitas.com in July 1999 as an easier alternative to maintaining a "news page" on a Web site, followed by Diaryland in September 1999, focusing more on a personal diary community.
- Evan WilliamsEvan Williams (blogger)Evan Williams is an American entrepreneur who has founded several Internet companies. Two of the internet's top ten websites have been created by Evan Williams' companies: Blogger, weblog-authoring software of Pyra Labs, and Twitter, where he was previously CEO.-Early life and education:Williams...
and Meg HourihanMeg HourihanMeg Hourihan is the cofounder of Pyra Labs, the company that launched the Blogger personal blogging software that was acquired by Google. She published weblogs at and...
(Pyra LabsPyra LabsPyra Labs is the company that coined the word Blog, creating the service Blogger.The co-founders were Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan, and the company's first product, also named 'Pyra', was a web application which would combine a project manager, contact manager, and to-do list...
) launched blogger.com in August 1999 (purchased by GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
in February 2003)
Political impact
- See also: Political blogPolitical blogA political blog is a common type of blog that comments on politics. In liberal democracies the right to criticize the government without interference is considered an important element of free speech...
Since 2002, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning
Spin (public relations)
In public relations, spin is a form of propaganda, achieved through providing an interpretation of an event or campaign to persuade public opinion in favor or against a certain organization or public figure...
news
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
stories. The Iraq war
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
saw bloggers taking measured and passionate points of view that go beyond the traditional left-right
Left-Right politics
The left–right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions, political ideologies, or political parties along a one-dimensional political spectrum. The perspective of Left vs. Right is a binary interpretation of complex questions...
divide of the political spectrum
Political spectrum
A political spectrum is a way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes symbolizing independent political dimensions....
.
Trent Lott
Chester Trent Lott, Sr. , is a former United States Senator from Mississippi and has served in numerous leadership positions in the House of Representatives and the Senate....
. Senator Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Strom Thurmond
Strom Thurmond
James Strom Thurmond was an American politician who served as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes...
, praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president. Lott's critics saw these comments as a tacit approval of racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
, a policy advocated by Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign. This view was reinforced by documents and recorded interviews dug up by bloggers. (See Josh Marshall
Josh Marshall
Joshua Micah Marshall is an American Polk Award-winning journalist who founded Talking Points Memo, which The New York Times Magazine called "one of the most popular and most respected sites" in the blogosphere...
's Talking Points Memo
Talking Points Memo
Talking Points Memo is a web-based political journalism organization created and run by Josh Marshall, journalist and historian covering issues from a "politically left perspective,". It debuted on November 12, 2000...
.) Though Lott's comments were made at a public event attended by the media, no major media organizations reported on his controversial comments until after blogs broke the story. Blogging helped to create a political crisis that forced Lott to step down as majority leader.
Similarly, blogs were among the driving forces behind the "Rathergate" scandal. To wit: (television journalist) Dan Rather
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...
presented documents (on the CBS show 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
) that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's military service record. Bloggers declared the documents to be forgeries
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
and presented evidence and arguments in support of that view. Consequently, CBS apologized for what it said were inadequate reporting techniques (see Little Green Footballs
Little Green Footballs
Little Green Footballs is an American political blog run by web designer Charles Johnson.Media observers in the United States long described the site as "right wing", but since 2007, the site's emphasis has changed, such that "LGF has become better known for the various fights it picks with many...
). Many bloggers view this scandal as the advent of blogs' acceptance by the mass media, both as a news source and opinion and as means of applying political pressure.
The impact of these stories gave greater credibility to blogs as a medium of news dissemination. Though often seen as partisan gossips, bloggers sometimes lead the way in bringing key information to public light, with mainstream media having to follow their lead. More often, however, news blogs tend to react to material already published by the mainstream media. Meanwhile, an increasing number of experts blogged, making blogs a source of in-depth analysis. (See Daniel Drezner
Daniel Drezner
Daniel W. Drezner is currently a professor of international politics at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, the author of several books, the author of many Op-Ed pieces in major publications, a blogger, and a commentator.In 2005, he was denied tenure by the University of...
, J. Bradford DeLong
J. Bradford DeLong
James Bradford DeLong commonly known as Brad DeLong, is a professor of Economics and chair of the Political Economy major at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration under Lawrence...
or Brad Setser
Brad Setser
Brad Setser is an American economist and blogger. A former staff economist at the United States Department of the Treasury, he worked at Roubini Global Economics Monitor, along with Nouriel Roubini...
.)
Mainstream popularity
By 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. Blogging was established by politicians and political candidates to express opinions on war and other issues and cemented blogs' role as a news source. (See Howard DeanHoward Dean
Howard Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from Vermont. He served six terms as the 79th Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009. Although his U.S...
and Wesley Clark
Wesley Clark
Wesley Kanne Clark, Sr., is a retired general of the United States Army. Graduating as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and later graduated from the...
.) Even politicians not actively campaigning, such as the UK's Labour Party's
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Tom Watson
Tom Watson (politician)
Thomas Anthony Watson is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East since 2001. Watson was a Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from 2008 to 2009...
, began to blog to bond with constituents.
In January 2005, Fortune
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
magazine listed eight bloggers that business people "could not ignore": Peter Rojas
Engadget
Engadget is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. Though on appearance Engadget functions much like a blog and may be defined as such, much of its editorial content takes the form of an online magazine...
, Xeni Jardin
Xeni Jardin
Xeni Jardin is an American weblogger, digital media commentator, and tech culture journalist. She is known for her position as co-editor of the collaborative weblog Boing Boing, as a contributor to Wired magazine and Wired News, and as a correspondent for the National Public Radio show Day to Day...
, Ben Trott
Benjamin Trott
Benjamin Trott, born , is a co-founder of Six Apart, creator of Movable Type and TypePad. In November 2010, he became Chief Technical Officer of , a new online advertising and software company formed by a merger of ad network VideoEgg with Six Apart.Before joining SAY Media, Trott was also CTO of...
, Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz
Jonathan I. Schwartz
Jonathan Ian Schwartz is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Picture of Health. He was formerly the President and CEO of Sun Microsystems prior to its acquisition by Oracle, and previously the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lighthouse Design, Ltd., a software company focused on...
, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble
Robert Scoble
Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble is best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technology evangelist at Microsoft. He is married to Maryam Ghaemmaghami Scoble. He has three children; one from a previous...
, and Jason Calacanis
Jason Calacanis
Jason McCabe Calacanis is an American Internet entrepreneur and blogger. His first company was part of the dot-com era in New York, and his second venture, Weblogs, Inc., capitalized on the growth of blogs before being sold to AOL....
.
Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's was among the first national governments to set up an official blog. Under David Saranga
David Saranga
David Saranga is an Israeli diplomat and former Consul for Media and Public Affairs of Israel in the United States. Saranga was responsible for Israel’s image in the United States and was the liaison person of Israel to the American media...
, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs became active in adopting Web 2.0
Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
initiatives, including an official video blog and a political blog
Political blog
A political blog is a common type of blog that comments on politics. In liberal democracies the right to criticize the government without interference is considered an important element of free speech...
. The Foreign Ministry also held a microblogging
Microblogging
Microblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...
press conference via Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
about its war with Hamas
2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict
The Gaza War, known as Operation Cast Lead in Israel and as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world, was a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and hundreds of rocket attacks on south of Israel which...
, with Saranga answering questions from the public in common text-messaging abbreviations during a live worldwide press conference. The questions and answers were later posted on IsraelPolitik
IsraelPolitik
IsraelPolitik is an official blog of the Consulate General of Israel in New York, and the second blog to be administered by the Israeli Consulate’s media and public affairs team. It was initiated by David Saranga, Consul for Media and Public Affairs, following the launch of isRealli, which was the...
, the country's official political blog.
The impact of blogging upon the mainstream media has also been acknowledged by governments. In 2009, the presence of the American journalism industry had declined to the point that several newspaper corporations were filing for bankruptcy, resulting in less direct competition between newspapers within the same circulation area. Discussion emerged as to whether the newspaper industry would benefit from a stimulus package by the federal government. President Barack Obama acknowledged the emerging influence of blogging upon society by saying "if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding”.
Types
There are many different types of blogs, differing not only in the type of content, but also in the way that content is delivered or written.Personal blogs: The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life, or works of art. Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Few personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream but some personal blogs quickly garner an extensive following. One type of personal blog, referred to as a microblog, is extremely detailed and seeks to capture a moment in time. Some sites, such as Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family, and are much faster than emailing or writing.
Corporate and organizational blogs: A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
purposes. Blogs used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
or externally for marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
, brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
ing or public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
purposes are called corporate blog
Corporate blog
A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads....
s. Similar blogs for clubs and societies are called club blogs, group blogs, or by similar names; typical use is to inform members and other interested parties of club and member activities.
By genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
: Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blog
Political blog
A political blog is a common type of blog that comments on politics. In liberal democracies the right to criticize the government without interference is considered an important element of free speech...
s, travel blogs (also known as travelogs), house blogs, fashion blog
Fashion blog
-Definition:A fashion blog can cover many things such as specific items of clothing and accessories, trends in various apparel markets , celebrity fashion choices and street fashion trends...
s, project blog
Project blog
A project blog is a type of weblog that records a project or a deliverable task, detailing the end goal, procedures and status updates. They promote sharing of tacit knowledge by narratively recording projects' research and development process on the Internet...
s, education blog
Edublog
An edublog is a blog written by someone in education. Examples might include blogs written by or for teachers, blogs maintained for the purpose of classroom instruction, or blogs written about educational policy. The collection of these blogs is called the edublogosphere by some, in keeping with...
s, niche blogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. Two common types of genre blogs are art blog
Art blog
An art blog is a common type of blog that comments on art. More recently, as with other types of blogs, some art blogs have taken on 'web 2.0' social networking features...
s and music blogs. A blog featuring discussions especially about home
Homemaker
Homemaking is a mainly American term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping or household management...
and family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
is not uncommonly called a mom blog and one made popular is by Erica Diamond
Erica Diamond
Erica Diamond is a Canadian blogger and television personality. She is the founder of WomenOnTheFence.com, a blog known for posts covering women, interviews and an arena referred to as the mom blog and is syndicated to over two million monthly readers...
who created Womenonthefence.com which is syndicated to over two million readers monthly. While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog.
By media type: A blog comprising videos is called a vlog
Vlog
Video blogging, sometimes shortened to vlogging or vidding or vidblogging is a form of blogging for which the medium is video, and is a form of Web television. Entries often combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one take...
, one comprising links is called a linklog
Linklog
A linklog is a collection of URLs that the maintainer considers interesting enough to collect.Like a weblog, entries are listed in reverse chronological order. Unlike a weblog, though, postings are limited to just one link per posting and a title...
, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog
Photoblog
A photoblog is a form of photo sharing and publishing in the format of a blog. It differs from a blog through the predominant use of and focus on photographs rather than text...
. Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs. Blogs that are written on typewriters and then scanned are called typecast or typecast blogs; see typecasting (blogging)
Typecasting (blogging)
A typecast is a form of blogging by media type and publishing in the format of a blog, but differentiated by the predominant use of and focus on text created with a typewriter and then scanned rather than text entered directly into a computer...
.
- A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher ProtocolGopher protocolThe Gopher protocol is a TCP/IP application layer protocol designed for distributing, searching, and retrieving documents over the Internet. Strongly oriented towards a menu-document design, the Gopher protocol was a predecessor of the World Wide Web.The protocol offers some features not natively...
is known as a PhlogPhlogA phlog, also called an rlog, is a type of daybook, similar to a blog, that runs off a Gopher protocol server. These phlogs are typically hosted off home servers running some sort of UNIX operating system, because a user account on the server is usually required to update the content...
.
By device: Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
or PDA
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
could be called a moblog. One early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap
Eyetap
An EyeTap is a device that is worn in front of the eye that acts as a camera to record the scene available to the eye as well as a display to superimpose a computer-generated imagery on the original scene available to the eye....
device to a web site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance
Sousveillance
Sousveillance refers to the recording of an activity by a participant in the activity typically by way of small wearable or portable personal technologies.Sousveillance has also been described as "inverse surveillance", i.e...
. Such journals have been used as evidence in legal matters.
Community and cataloging
The BlogosphereBlogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
: The collective community of all blogs is known as the blogosphere. Since all blogs are on the internet by definition, they may be seen as interconnected and socially networked, through blogrolls, comments, linkback
Linkback
A linkback is a method for Web authors to obtain notifications when other authors link to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to, their articles...
s (refbacks, trackbacks or pingbacks) and backlink
Backlink
Backlinks, also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links, are incoming links to a website or web page...
s. Discussions "in the blogosphere" are occasionally used by the media as a gauge of public opinion on various issues. Because new, untapped communities of bloggers can emerge in the space of a few years, Internet marketers
Internet marketing
Internet marketing, also known as digital marketing, web marketing, online marketing, search marketing or e-marketing, is referred to as the marketing of products or services over the Internet...
pay close attention to "trends in the blogosphere".
BlogDay: Blogday.org was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. The designated date is August 31, because when written 3108, it resembles the word "Blog". On that day, bloggers recommend five new blogs to their visitors, so that readers discover new, previously unknown blogs.
Blog search engines: Several blog search engines are used to search blog contents, such as Bloglines
Bloglines
Bloglines is a web-based news aggregator for reading syndicated feeds using the RSS and Atom formats. Mark Fletcher, former CEO of ONElist, founded the site in June 2003 and sold it in February 2005 to Ask.com/InterActiveCorp. In 2005, it hosted more than 200 million searchable blog articles. On...
, BlogScope
BlogScope
BlogScope is a search engine for the blogosphere with advanced analysis and visualization technology.BlogScope is outcome of an ongoing research project at the University of Toronto...
, and Technorati
Technorati
Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media...
. Technorati, which is among the most popular blog search engines, provides current information on both popular searches and tags
Tag (metadata)
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
used to categorize blog postings. The research community is working on going beyond simple keyword search, by inventing new ways to navigate through huge amounts of information present in the blogosphere
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
, as demonstrated by projects like BlogScope
BlogScope
BlogScope is a search engine for the blogosphere with advanced analysis and visualization technology.BlogScope is outcome of an ongoing research project at the University of Toronto...
.
Blogging communities and directories: Several online communities exist that connect people to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers, including BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog
MyBlogLog
MyBlogLog was a social network for the blogger community that was based in part on interactions facilitated by a popular web widget that many members install on their blog. Bloggers signed up for free accounts on MyBlogLog and can initiate a blog community for one or more blogs they authored...
. Interest-specific blogging platforms are also available. For instance, Blogster
Blogster
Blogster is a blogging community that features specific-interest blogs. Blogster maintains an online community of users who publish content, images, video and more. Blogster members can network and collaborate by creating a blog, building a personalized profile, creating friend lists, commenting...
has a sizable community of political bloggers among its members. Global Voices
Global Voices Online
Global Voices Online is an international network of bloggers and citizen journalists that follow, report, and summarizes what is going on in the blogosphere in every corner of the world...
aggregates international bloggers, "with emphasis on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media."
Blogging and advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
: It is common for blogs to feature advertisements either to financially benefit the blogger or to promote the blogger's favorite causes. The popularity of blogs has also given rise to "fake blogs"
Fake blog
A fake blog is an electronic communication form that appears to originate from a credible, non-biased source, but which in fact is created by a company or organization for the purpose of marketing a product, service, or political viewpoint...
in which a company will create a fictional blog as a marketing tool to promote a product.
Popularity
Researchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blogs become popular. There are essentially two measures of this: popularity through citations, as well as popularity through affiliation (i.e. blogroll). The basic conclusion from studies of the structure of blogs is that while it takes time for a blog to become popular through blogrolls, permalinks can boost popularity more quickly, and are perhaps more indicative of popularity and authority than blogrolls, since they denote that people are actually reading the blog's content and deem it valuable or noteworthy in specific cases.The blogdex
Blogdex
Blogdex was an online resource for understanding hot topics of discussion in the blogosphere.The site offered a time-weighted list of links to online content cited by more than one monitored blog in the recent past...
project was launched by researchers in the MIT Media Lab
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
to crawl the Web and gather data from thousands of blogs in order to investigate their social properties. It gathered this information for over 4 years, and autonomously tracked the most contagious information spreading in the blog community, ranking it by recency and popularity. It can therefore be considered the first instantiation of a memetracker
Memetracker
A memetracker is a tool for studying the migration of memes across a group of people. The term is typically used to describe websites that either:#analyze blog posts to determine what web pages are being discussed or cited most often on the World Wide Web, or...
. The project is no longer active, but a similar function is now served by tailrank.com
Tailrank.com
Tailrank.com was a site that provided a feed of content on the World Wide Web that's being discussed across the blogosphere. The site continuously scanned blogs that had been registered with it, and composed an index of "top stories" that had been cited by the various blogs it had scanned.The focus...
.
Blogs are given rankings by Technorati
Technorati
Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media...
based on the number of incoming links and Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...
based on the Web hits of Alexa Toolbar users. In August 2006, Technorati found that the most linked-to blog on the internet was that of Chinese actress Xu Jinglei
Xu Jinglei
Xu Jinglei is an actress, director and editor most famous in her native mainland China. Xu graduated from the prestigious Beijing Film Academy in 1997. Along with Zhao Wei, Zhou Xun and Zhang Ziyi, the mainland Chinese media considers her a member of the Four Young Dan actresses...
. Chinese media Xinhua reported that this blog received more than 50 million page views, claiming it to be the most popular blog in the world. Technorati rated Boing Boing
Boing Boing
Boing Boing is a publishing entity, first established as a magazine, later becoming a group blog.-History:...
to be the most-read group-written blog.
Blurring with the mass media
Many bloggers, particularly those engaged in participatory journalism, differentiate themselves from the mainstream mediaMainstream media
Mainstream media are those media disseminated via the largest distribution channels, which therefore represent what the majority of media consumers are likely to encounter...
, while others are members of that media working through a different channel. Some institutions see blogging as a means of "getting around the filter" and pushing messages directly to the public. Some critics worry that bloggers respect neither copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
nor the role of the mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
in presenting society with credible news. Bloggers and other contributors to user-generated content
User-generated content
User generated content covers a range of media content available in a range of modern communications technologies. It entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles...
are behind Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine naming their 2006 person of the year
Person of the Year
Person of the Year is an annual issue of the United States newsmagazine Time that features and profiles a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year."- History :The tradition of selecting a Man of the Year...
as "You".
Many mainstream journalists, meanwhile, write their own blogs — well over 300, according to CyberJournalist.net's J-blog list. The first known use of a blog on a news site was in August 1998, when Jonathan Dube
Jonathan Dube
Jonathan Dube is a prominent digital media executive and a pioneer and leader in the online journalism world.He currently serves as Senior Vice President and General Manager, AOL News & Information...
of The Charlotte Observer published one chronicling Hurricane Bonnie.
Some bloggers have moved over to other media. The following bloggers (and others) have appeared on radio and television: Duncan Black
Atrios
Duncan Bowen Black , better known by his pseudonym Atrios , is an American liberal blogger living in Philadelphia. His weblog Eschaton is one of the most popular political weblogs, receiving an average of over 100,000 hits every day...
(known widely by his pseudonym, Atrios), Glenn Reynolds
Glenn Reynolds
Glenn Harlan Reynolds is Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee, and is best known for his weblog, Instapundit, one of the most widely read American political weblogs...
(Instapundit
Instapundit
Instapundit is a United States political blog produced by Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee. The blog began in August 2001 as an experiment, and a part of Reynolds' class on Internet law...
), Markos Moulitsas Zúniga
Markos Moulitsas Zúniga
Markos Moulitsas Zúniga , often known by his username and former military nickname "Kos" , is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos, a blog focusing on liberal and Democratic Party politics in the United States. He is also a weekly columnist at the Washington, D.C...
(Daily Kos
Daily Kos
Daily Kos is an American political blog that publishes news and opinions from a progressive point of view. It functions as a discussion forum and group blog for a variety of netroots activists, whose efforts are primarily directed toward influencing and strengthening the Democratic Party...
), Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen is an American writer, editor, public speaker and futurist most noted for his bright green ideas.Steffen co-founded and ran the online magazine Worldchanging from its start in 2003 until its closure in 2010...
(Worldchanging
Worldchanging
Worldchanging is an American non-profit online magazine and blog about sustainability and social innovation. At 19/09/2011, it was taken over by Architecture for Humanity....
), Ana Marie Cox
Ana Marie Cox
Ana Marie Cox is an American author and blogger. The founding editor of the political blog Wonkette, she is currently the Washington correspondent for GQ and is The Guardian's lead blogger on US politics. She previously worked at Air America Media.-Early life:Cox was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico...
(Wonkette
Wonkette
Wonkette is a left-leaning American online magazine of topical satire and political gossip, established in 2004 by Gawker Media and founding editor Ana Marie Cox, and edited by Ken Layne from 2006 to 2011...
), Nate Silver
Nate Silver
Nathaniel Read "Nate" Silver is an American statistician, psephologist, and writer. Silver first gained public recognition for developing PECOTA, a system for forecasting the performance and career development of Major League Baseball players, which he sold to and then managed for Baseball...
(FiveThirtyEight.com
FiveThirtyEight.com
FiveThirtyEight is a polling aggregation website with a blog created by Nate Silver. Sometimes colloquially referred to as 538 dot com or just 538, the website takes its name from the number of electors in the United States electoral college...
), and Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein is a liberal American blogger and columnist for The Washington Post, columnist for Bloomberg, a columnist for Newsweek, and a contributor to MSNBC...
(Ezra Klein blog in The American Prospect
The American Prospect
The American Prospect is a monthly American political magazine dedicated to American liberalism. Based in Washington, DC, The American Prospect is a journal "of liberal ideas, committed to a just society, an enriched democracy, and effective liberal politics" which focuses on United States politics...
, now in the Washington Post). In counterpoint, Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, lawyer, academic, and author. An outspoken Republican, evangelical Christian, he comments on society, politics, and media bias in the United States. Hewitt is also a law professor at Chapman University School of Law.-...
exemplifies a mass-media personality who has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media" by being an influential blogger. Equally many established authors, for example Mitzi Szereto
Mitzi Szereto
Mitzi Szereto is an author, blogger, and web TV entrepreneur. She has written novels and short stories, edited fiction and non-fiction anthologies, has her own blog "Errant Ramblings: Mitzi Szereto's Weblog", and is the creator/presenter of "Mitzi TV," a Web TV channel that covers the quirky side...
have started using Blogs to not only update fans on their current works but also to expand into new areas of writing.
Blogs have also had an influence on minority language
Minority language
A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities.-International politics:...
s, bringing together scattered speakers and learners; this is particularly so with blogs in Gaelic languages. Minority language publishing (which may lack economic feasibility) can find its audience through inexpensive blogging.
There are many examples of bloggers who have published books based on their blogs, e.g., Salam Pax
Salam Pax
Salam Pax is the pseudonym of Salam Abdulmunem , aka Salam al-Janabi , under which he became the "most famous blogger in the world" during and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Along with a massive readership, his site "Where is Raed?" received notable media attention. The pseudonym consists of the...
, Ellen Simonetti
Ellen Simonetti
Ellen Simonetti is a former flight attendant who was fired after documenting her life and work experiences on a blog in the early 2000s...
, Jessica Cutler
Jessica Cutler
Jessica Louise Cutler is a blogger, an author, and former congressional staff assistant who was fired for detailing her active sexual life, including receiving money for having sex, in her blog.-Education:...
, ScrappleFace
ScrappleFace
ScrappleFace is a U.S. website run by Scott Ott that satirizes the news from a conservative perspective.The name ScrappleFace was coined by Ott's grandmother, Jessica McMaster , who cared for Ott and his brothers from the age of five...
. Blog-based books have been given the name blook
Blook
A blook is printed book that contains or is based on content from a blog.The first printed blook was User Interface Design for Programmers, by Joel Spolsky, published by Apress on June 26, 2001, based on his blog Joel on Software...
. A prize for the best blog-based book was initiated in 2005, the Lulu Blooker Prize
Lulu Blooker Prize
Lulu Blooker Prize is a literary award for "Blooks" , awarded in 2006 and 2007.It was sponsored by Lulu.com, a print on demand publisher, the name being a pun on the long-established Man Booker Prize....
. However, success has been elusive offline, with many of these books not selling as well as their blogs. Only blogger Tucker Max
Tucker Max
Tucker Max is an American author and public speaker. He chronicles his drunken and sexual encounters in the form of short stories on his website TuckerMax.com, which has received millions of visitors since Max launched it for a bet in 2002, making him an Internet celebrity.Max's book I Hope They...
made the New York Times Bestseller List. The book based on Julie Powell
Julie Powell
Julie Powell is an American author best known for her book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.- Biography :...
's blog "The Julie/Julia Project" was made into the film Julie & Julia
Julie & Julia
Julie & Julia is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Nora Ephron starring Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Amy Adams, and Chris Messina...
, apparently the first to do so.
Consumer-generated advertising in blogs
Consumer-generated advertising is a relatively new and controversial development and it has created a new model of marketing communication from businesses to consumers. Among the various forms of advertising on blog, the most controversial are the sponsored posts. These are blog entries or posts and may be in the form of feedbacks, reviews, opinion, videos, etc. and usually contain a link back to the desired site using a keyword/s.Blogs have led to some disintermediation
Disintermediation
In economics, disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in a supply chain: "cutting out the middleman". Instead of going through traditional distribution channels, which had some type of intermediate , companies may now deal with every customer directly, for example via the Internet...
and a breakdown of the traditional advertising model where companies can skip over the advertising agencies (previously the only interface with the customer) and contact the customers directly themselves. On the other hand, new companies specialised in blog advertising have been established, to take advantage of this new development as well.
However, there are many people who look negatively on this new development. Some believe that any form of commercial activity on blogs will destroy the blogosphere’s credibility.
Legal and social consequences
Blogging can result in a range of legal liabilities and other unforeseen consequences.Defamation or liability
Several cases have been brought before the national courts against bloggers concerning issues of defamation or liabilitySlander and libel
Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander , and libel —is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image...
. U.S. payouts related to blogging totaled $17.4 million by 2009; in some cases these have been covered by umbrella insurance
Umbrella insurance
Umbrella insurance refers to a liability insurance policy that protects the assets and future income of the policyholder above and beyond the standard limits on their primary policies...
. The courts have returned with mixed verdicts. Internet Service Provider
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s (ISPs), in general, are immune from liability for information that originates with third parties (U.S. Communications Decency Act
Communications Decency Act
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the first notable attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In 1997, in the landmark cyberlaw case of Reno v. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court struck the anti-indecency provisions of the Act.The Act was...
and the EU Directive 2000/31/EC).
In Doe v. Cahill, the Delaware Supreme Court
Delaware Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Delaware is the sole appellate court in the United States' state of Delaware. Because Delaware is a popular haven for corporations, the Court has developed a worldwide reputation as a respected source of corporate law decisions, particularly in the area of mergers and...
held that stringent standards had to be met to unmask the anonymous post
Anonymous post
An anonymous post is an entry on a bulletin board system, Internet forum or message board, blog, or other discussion forum without a screen name or more commonly by using a non-identifiable pseudonym....
s of bloggers and also took the unusual step of dismissing the libel case itself (as unfounded under American libel law) rather than referring it back to the trial court
Trial court
A trial court or court of first instance is a court in which trials take place. Such courts are said to have original jurisdiction.- In the United States :...
for reconsideration. In a bizarre twist, the Cahills were able to obtain the identity of John Doe, who turned out to be the person they suspected: the town's mayor, Councilman Cahill's political rival. The Cahills amended their original complaint, and the mayor settled the case rather than going to trial.
In January 2007, two prominent Malaysian political bloggers, Jeff Ooi
Jeff Ooi
Ooi Chuan Aun , better known as Jeff Ooi, is a Malaysian IT consultant by profession, blogger, photographer and politician. He is currently the Member of Parliament for Jelutong in the 12th Malaysian Parliament.He is a well known for his criticism of Muslims and Islam in Malaysia...
and Ahiruddin Attan, were sued by pro-government newspaper, The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad, Kalimullah bin Masheerul Hassan, Hishamuddin bin Aun and Brenden John a/l John Pereira over an alleged defamation. The plaintiff was supported by the Malaysian government. Following the suit, the Malaysian government proposed to "register" all bloggers in Malaysia in order to better control parties against their interest. This is the first such legal case against bloggers in the country.
In the United States, blogger Aaron Wall was sued by Traffic Power for defamation and publication of trade secrets in 2005. According to Wired Magazine, Traffic Power had been "banned from Google for allegedly rigging search engine results." Wall and other "white hat
White hat
The term "white hat" in Internet slang refers to an ethical hacker, or a computer security expert, who specializes in penetration testing and in other testing methodologies to ensure the security of an organization's information systems...
" search engine optimization
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid search results...
consultants had exposed Traffic Power in what they claim was an effort to protect the public. The case addressed the murky legal question of who is liable for comments posted on blogs. The case was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, and Traffic Power failed to appeal within the allowed time.
In 2009, a controversial and landmark decision by The Hon. Mr Justice Eady
David Eady
Sir David Eady , styled The Hon. Mr Justice Eady, in legal writing Eady J, is a High Court judge in England and Wales. As a judge he is known for having presided over many high-profile libel and privacy cases....
refused to grant an order to protect the anonymity of Richard Horton
Richard Horton (blogger)
Richard Horton is a detective constable with Lancashire Constabulary, and blogger who lives in Lancashire. He is the author of the Orwell Prize-winning anonymous blog NightJack which commented on his work as a police officer....
.
In 2009, NDTV
NDTV
NDTV is an Indian commercial broadcasting television network founded in 1988. It was founded by Prannoy Roy, an eminent journalist and current chairman and director of NDTV Group. NDTV currently has more than 1,000 employees producing news from over twenty locations in India...
issued a legal notice to Indian blogger Kunte for a blog post criticizing their coverage of the Mumbai attacks. The blogger unconditionally withdrew his post, which resulted in several Indian bloggers criticizing NDTV for trying to silence critics.
Employment
Employees who blog about elements of their place of employment can begin to affect the brand recognition of their employer. In general, attempts by employee bloggers to protect themselves by maintaining anonymity have proved ineffective.Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
fired flight attendant
Flight attendant
Flight attendants or cabin crew are members of an aircrew employed by airlines primarily to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers aboard commercial flights, on select business jet aircraft, and on some military aircraft.-History:The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar...
Ellen Simonetti
Ellen Simonetti
Ellen Simonetti is a former flight attendant who was fired after documenting her life and work experiences on a blog in the early 2000s...
because she posted photographs of herself in uniform on an airplane and because of comments posted on her blog "Queen of Sky: Diary of a Flight Attendant" which the employer deemed inappropriate. This case highlighted the issue of personal blogging and freedom of expression versus employer rights and responsibilities, and so it received wide media attention. Simonetti took legal action against the airline for "wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages". The suit was postponed while Delta was in bankruptcy proceedings (court docket).
In early 2006, Erik Ringmar, a tenured senior lecturer at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, was ordered by the convenor of his department to "take down and destroy" his blog in which he discussed the quality of education at the school.
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban is an American business magnate and investor. He is the owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres, and Magnolia Pictures, and the chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet....
, owner of the Dallas Mavericks
Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks are a professional basketball team based in Dallas, Texas. They are members of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association , and the reigning NBA champions, having defeated the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals.According to a 2011...
, was fined during the 2006 NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
playoffs for criticizing NBA officials on the court and in his blog.
Mark Jen was terminated in 2005 after 10 days of employment as an Assistant Product Manager at Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
for discussing corporate secrets on his personal blog, then called 99zeros and hosted on the Google-owned Blogger service. He blogged about unreleased products and company finances a week before the company's earnings announcement. He was fired two days after he complied with his employer's request to remove the sensitive material from his blog.
In India, blogger Gaurav Sabnis resigned from IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
after his posts exposing the false claims of a management school, IIPM, led to management of IIPM threatening to burn their IBM laptops as a sign of protest against him.
Jessica Cutler
Jessica Cutler
Jessica Louise Cutler is a blogger, an author, and former congressional staff assistant who was fired for detailing her active sexual life, including receiving money for having sex, in her blog.-Education:...
, aka "The Washingtonienne", blogged about her sex life while employed as a congressional assistant. After the blog was discovered and she was fired, she wrote a novel based on her experiences and blog: The Washingtonienne: A Novel. Cutler is presently being
sued by one of her former lovers in a case that could establish the extent to which bloggers are obligated to protect the privacy of their real life associates.
Catherine Sanderson, a.k.a. Petite Anglaise
Petite Anglaise
Petite Anglaise is the pseudonym of Catherine Sanderson, a British blogger living in Paris, whose blog articles caused her to be sacked from Dixon Wilson Chartered Accountants...
, lost her job in Paris at a British accountancy firm because of blogging. Although given in the blog in a fairly anonymous manner, some of the descriptions of the firm and some of its people were less than flattering. Sanderson later won a compensation claim case against the British firm, however.
On the other hand, Penelope Trunk
Penelope Trunk
Penelope Trunk is an American writer and blogger who examines the life of people in their 20s and their interaction between work and life. Her blog has appeared in the Boston Globe and Yahoo! Finance. Trunk claims her blog has appeared in more than 200 publications...
wrote an upbeat article in the Boston Globe back in 2006, entitled "Blogs 'essential' to a good career". She was one of the first journalists to point out that a large portion of bloggers are professionals and that a well-written blog can help attract employers.
Political dangers
Blogging can sometimes have unforeseen consequences in politically sensitive areas. Blogs are much harder to control than broadcast or even print media. As a result, totalitarianTotalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
and authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
regimes often seek to suppress blogs and/or to punish those who maintain them.
In Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, two ethnic Chinese were imprisoned under the country’s anti-sedition law
Sedition Act (Singapore)
The Sedition Act is in Chapter 290 of the Statutes of Singapore. It was last revised in 1985.In September 2005, the Sedition Act was first used on individuals when three men, including a teenager, were charged for making seditious and inflammatory racist comments on the Internet.-Seditious...
for posting anti-Muslim remarks in their blogs.
Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian blogger Kareem Amer
Kareem Amer
Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman Amer is an Egyptian blogger and former law student. He was arrested by Egyptian authorities for posts on his that were considered to be anti-religious and insulting to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak...
was charged with insulting the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
and an Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic institution
Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University is an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.It is...
through his blog. It is the first time in the history of Egypt that a blogger was prosecuted. After a brief trial session that took place in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, the blogger was found guilty and sentenced to prison terms of three years for insulting Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mubarak.
Egyptian blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud was arrested in April 2007 for anti-government writings in his blog. Monem is a member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
.
After expressing opinions in his personal blog about the state of the Sudanese armed forces, Jan Pronk
Jan Pronk
Johannes "Jan" Pieter Pronk is a Dutch politician and diplomat. Currently, he is a Professor of Theory and Practice of International Development at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague....
, United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Special Representative for the Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, was given three days notice to leave Sudan. The Sudanese army had demanded his deportation.
In Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
, Nay Phone Latt, a blogger, was sentenced to 20 years in jail for posting a cartoon critical of head of state Than Shwe
Than Shwe
Senior General Than Shwe is a Burmese military leader and politician who was chairman of the State Peace and Development Council from 1992 to 2011. During the period, he held key positions of power including commander-in-chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces and head of Union Solidarity and...
.
Personal safety
One consequence of blogging is the possibility of attacks or threats against the blogger, sometimes without apparent reason. Kathy SierraKathy Sierra
Kathy Sierra is a programming instructor and game developer.She is the co-creator of the Head First series of books on technical topics, along with her partner, Bert Bates. The series, which began with Head First Java in 2003, takes an unorthodox, visually intensive approach to the process of...
, author of the innocuous blog "Creating Passionate Users", was the target of such vicious threats and misogynistic insults that she canceled her keynote speech at a technology conference in San Diego, fearing for her safety. While a blogger's anonymity is often tenuous, Internet trolls
Troll (Internet)
In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response...
who would attack a blogger with threats or insults can be emboldened by anonymity. Sierra and supporters initiated an online discussion aimed at countering abusive online behavior and developed a blogger's code of conduct
Blogger's Code of Conduct
The Blogger's Code of Conduct is a proposal by Tim O'Reilly for bloggers to enforce civility on their blogs by being civil themselves and moderating comments on their blog. The code was proposed due to threats made to blogger Kathy Sierra...
.
Behavior
The Blogger's Code of Conduct is a proposal by Tim O'ReillyTim O'Reilly
Tim O'Reilly is the founder of O'Reilly Media and a supporter of the free software and open source movements.-Life and career:...
for blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
gers to enforce civility on their blogs by being civil themselves and moderating comments on their blog. The code was proposed due to threats made to blogger Kathy Sierra
Kathy Sierra
Kathy Sierra is a programming instructor and game developer.She is the co-creator of the Head First series of books on technical topics, along with her partner, Bert Bates. The series, which began with Head First Java in 2003, takes an unorthodox, visually intensive approach to the process of...
. The idea of the code was first reported by BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, who quoted O'Reilly saying, "I do think we need some code of conduct around what is acceptable behaviour, I would hope that it doesn't come through any kind of regulation it would come through self-regulation."
O'Reilly and others came up with a list of seven proposed ideas:
- Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.
- Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
- Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
- Ignore the trollTroll (Internet)In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response...
s. - Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so.
- If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.
- Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person.
See also
- Bitter LawyerBitter LawyerBitterLawyer.com is a legal humor and news blog targeted at disgruntled lawyers. The site features a webshow titled Living the Dream, created by Rick Eid, which follows the bumblings of fictional big law junior associate Nick Conley . Accompanying blog posts describe the real-life inspirations...
- Blog awardBlog awardA Blog award is an award for the best blog in a given category. Some blog awards are based on a public vote and others are based on a fixed set of criteria applied by a panel of judges....
- Blog search engines
- Blog trafficBlog traffic- Measuring blog traffic :Blog traffic is measured to see the popularity of blog sites and individual pages or sections within a site.Blog traffic can be analysed by viewing the traffic statistics found in the blog server log file, an automatically generated list of all the pages served. A hit is...
- Blogskin
- BROGBROGBROG is the acronym for , a project based in the .The BROG project is an informal research collaboration dedicated to the conduct of empirical, social science research on weblogs...
- (We)blog Research on Genre project - Citizen journalismCitizen journalismCitizen journalism is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information...
- Collaborative blogCollaborative blogA collaborative blog is a type of weblog in which posts are written and published by more than one author. The majority of high profile collaborative blogs are based around a single uniting theme, such as politics or technology....
- Customer engagementCustomer engagementCustomer engagement refers to the engagement of customers with one another, with a company or a brand. The initiative for engagement can be either consumer- or company-led and the medium of engagement can be on or offline....
- Dream blog
- EdublogEdublogAn edublog is a blog written by someone in education. Examples might include blogs written by or for teachers, blogs maintained for the purpose of classroom instruction, or blogs written about educational policy. The collection of these blogs is called the edublogosphere by some, in keeping with...
- Glossary of blogging
- Interactive journalismInteractive journalismInteractive journalism is a new type of journalism that allows consumers to directly contribute to the story. Through Web 2.0 technology, reporters can develop a conversation with the audience.The digital age has changed how people collect information...
- IsrablogIsrablogIsrablog is an Israeli Internet blogging service, where Hebrew speaking Internet users can keep weblogs, photoblogs and have social networking features. With over 50,000 active bloggers, It is considered the biggest blogging service in Hebrew. It is operated by Nana10, based in Giv'atayim,...
- Bernando LaPalloBernando LaPalloBernando LaPallo is an American supercentenarian and author of “Age Less/Live More: Achieving Health and Vitality at 107 and Beyond.” At age 110, LaPallo is the world's oldest blogger...
- the world's oldest blogger - List of blogs
- List of family-and-homemaking blogs
- Mass collaborationMass collaborationMass collaboration is a form of collective action that occurs when large numbers of people work independently on a single project, often modular in its nature...
- Prison blogsPrison blogs-Examples of prison blogs:New Zealand* Tim Selwyn in Mount Eden Prison, New Zealand, ca.2006United Kingdom* written by Ben Gunn, emprisoned in Erlestoke , Wiltshire, England, 2009-present....
- SideblogSideblogA sideblog is a feature on a website, particularly a blog, that allows one to communicate smaller snippets of information than an actual blog post. The reasoning is that a blog post will require thought, argument and some semantic structuring of the post, while a sideblog typically displays "brief...
- Social blogging
- WebmasterWebmasterA webmaster , also called a web architect, web developer, site author, or website administrator is a person responsible for maintaining one or many websites...
Further reading
- Alavi, Nasrin. We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs, Soft Skull Press, New York, 2005. ISBN 1-933368-05-5.
- Bruns, Axel, and Joanne Jacobs, eds. Uses of Blogs, Peter Lang, New York, 2006. ISBN 0-8204-8124-6.
- Blood, Rebecca. "Weblogs: A History and Perspective". "Rebecca's Pocket".
- Kline, David; Burstein, Dan. Blog!: How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture, Squibnocket Partners, L.L.C., 2005. ISBN 1-59315-141-1.
- Michael GormanMichael Gorman (librarian)Michael Gorman is a British-born librarian, library scholar and editor/writer on library issues noted for his traditional views. During his tenure as president of the American Library Association , he was vocal in his opinions on a range of subjects, notably technology and education...
. "Revenge of the Blog People!". Library Journal. - Ringmar, Erik. A Blogger's Manifesto: Free Speech and Censorship in the Age of the Internet (London: Anthem Press, 2007).
- Rosenberg, ScottScott Rosenberg (journalist)- External links :**...
, Say Everything: how blogging Began, what it's becoming, and why it matters, New York : Crown Publishers, 2009. ISBN 978-0-307-45136-1
External links
- Blogging, personal participation in public knowledge-building on the web (PDF file) by Mark Brady, Chimera Working Paper 2005-02 ColchesterColchesterColchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
: University of EssexUniversity of EssexThe University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965... - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VB3-4JH47F6-5&_user=10&_handle=V-WA-A-W-AB-MsSAYZW-UUA-U-AAVYYUUEZC-AAVZBYADZC-YBADCWEZW-AB-U&_fmt=summary&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2006&_rdoc=5&_orig=browse&_srch=%23toc%235915%232006%23999779997%23619171!&_cdi=5915&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&;_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=3a78d26b9ff73d0a9c37060c8bed6dbcComputer Law and Security Report Volume 22 Issue 2, Pages 127-136] blogs, Lies and the Doocing by Sylvia KierkegaardSylvia KierkegaardSylvia Mercado Kierkegaard is a leading international authority in computer law. Her articles are widely published in top international journals and books. Professor Kierkegaard covers a wide range of topics, such as comparative contract law, alternative dispute resolution, intellectual property...
(2006) - Legal Guide for bloggers by the Electronic Frontier FoundationElectronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...