The Blogging Revolution

At the forefront of the Web 2.0 experience is blogging. Blogs are generally more personal than traditional media outlets. Many times the author is not writing to deliver information, but merely to state their views. With the creation of the web and specifically open source programming making your point of view known has become extremely easy.

Blogging has become a pastime for many want to be journalists. A blog is basically an online diary, sometimes public, sometimes private. The term “blog” is generally considered to have been coined by Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune in an article making fun of another writer in a competing paper.

Anyone can have a blog. All that is required of you generally is a username, password, and an email address. Within minutes you will be blogging. Most blog sites are free, giving just about anyone with an internet connection a voice.

This voice is main point of controversy about blogging in general. Since there is no censorship on the internet, unless you are professionally blogging for a news outlet or other business means that anyone can say anything about anyone or anything else. Many political activists feel that the opposing parties use blogs to either bash their views or corrupt the truth. Blogs that are “amateur” by nature many times do not take the time to check their facts. They simply post their own views and that is where the point of contention comes from. Many opponents of a given blog will cite incorrect information as their main defense.

Blogs have also started to creep into office politics. Some employers are now writing amendments to their employee handbooks stating that among other things that using company emails in personal blogs are an offense punishable up to and including termination.

Blogs have many everyday uses. Teachers can use them to keep students up to date on class scheduling. Dad’s Club and Little League can use them to keep everyone in the league informed of standings, results and rule changes. Families that are separated by large distances can use blogs to keep other members of the family updated on current events. Business can capitalize on blogs to keep employees current on rapidly changing situations, or post job openings. Of course, people can also use them as diaries, a place to vent their personal feelings about many particular subjects, or work on their skills as a writer.

Many media outlets are also using blogs as editorial pieces. This allows reporters to give more of their own personal opinions about stories than they would be afforded either on the newscast or in an article. It also allows more reporters to give opinions on current events.

Blogs have been around since the mid-1990s. Justin Hall of Pennsylvania is generally regarded as one of the earliest bloggers. In July of 1999 Andrew Smales launched the first blog site Pitas.com. Then in August of 1999 Blogger.com was developed by Evan Williams, Paul Bausch, and Meg Houriham.

In 1999 there were mere dozens of bloggers on the internet, while today there are several million. Blogging’s popularity has mushroomed recently thanks to sites like Myspace and Blogger. Blogs are not just limited to a computer either. Blogger.com now offers a service that allow you to keep up with you blog through your cell phone.

Written blogs are merely one way people record their thoughts. Video blogs, such as YouTube allow people who are more visually oriented the same type of expressive freedom. Audio blogs, known as podcasts are also widely available. Podcasts will be discussed more at length in next week’s article.