The World of Blogging – short course

I won’t go much over the history of blogging itself, nor the technology behind. What’s interesting is the nature of blogging, its uses, people behind the scenes (that’s everybody – us) and what new blogging can bring to everyone’s lives.

Some people are really into blogs. They may read tens or even hundreds of different blogs. It’s like receiving in a textual mode your favorite columnists works, for free. Even though traditional magazines are coming with on-line content, it sometimes requires payment for viewing. On the other hand, I’ve never come across a blog that would cost – even though it’s not impossible (if there’s one, please keep me updated and drop a mail or comment right here on this blog).

It’s magnificient how many blogs are being kept all over the world. Some are chronological diaries of one’s personal life, others are concentrated on certain topics ranging from a car hobby to political blogs. I started reading a book about blogging, and this article will evolve as I go through the pages and thoughts start to emerge. According to a study, about 8% of Internet users keep a blog. Much more are reading at least one blog: 39%.

Munching on new stuff
The blogosphere has bought a lot of phenomena with it. When somebody publishes a new blog entry, the end-user reaction varies a lot. People who are trying to track even hundreds of blogs, might sigh and feel overburdened – once more. Others, to whom the blog entry may represent the whole communication quota of the week, are very happy to have new content.

Quality over quantity

RSS feeds, which are closely related to blogs, are sometimes being really swallowed in the hundreds. I don’t think quantity can beat quality. By reading less but more quality blogs you will probably get more and stay focused. I’ve heard of supposedly-project leaders, who are spending 5-6 hours a day just to keep ahead of technology blogs. To be honest, it sounds creepy.
(For those of you who RSS feeds are not known, they are kind of active pointers
to new blog content. By subscribing to a feed, you can always receive the newest
snippets of your favorite blogs. The blog has to have a support for RSS, and also your web browser or other reading software).

I started keeping the PSIIC blog inspired by both the easy way the Blogger.com enables one to keep a blog, and I had some ramblings in my mind.

The salt of blogs is that people can comment on the writings. This is a whole new perspective to traditional publishing, which is quite unidirected. The comments can make hints to the writer as to what’s interesting, where people are united, where they differ in opinions, and give wholly new ideas for further writings.

Blogs cause social movement and enlightenment, sometimes way faster than any ordinary media can bring focus to things. For example, there’s the US Kryptonite lock issue, where a very famous and supposedly safe lock could indeed be opened quickly with an ordinary pen. Youtube movie: Kryptonite
I don’t know whether the blogosphere is more difficult to control than ordinary www-pages, which have sometimes been hit hard by censorship. Basically we’re talking about servers which use a network and run pieces of software that provide the outcome of a blog to the general public.

…to be continued! Any ideas and questions are really welcome.