Weblog

See also: Weblogs | Internet | Collaborative writing systems

Shortform: Blog

Entries (articles) that usually link to other websites placed in a sequential list. Weblogs are subjective annotations written in order to share experiences. Most weblogs allow users to post comments on each entry posted, and many weblogs allow visitors to submit stories, or even vote on submitted stories. “Blogging,” in its short form, can be a good way to develop writing abilities and relay opinion. Weblogs are dense hypermedia which expand the public sphere, similar to the moblog and flash mob.

They can be a highly social form of frequent, brief and personal message exchange used for recording thoughts, for sharing memes and for participating in filtered dialogue. Weblogs allow people to speak for themselves and present their experiences, share professional or academic knowledge, discuss original concepts, or current events, environments and many other random expressions.

With weblogs, thoughts can be analysed in an open collaborative manner. A blogger can make a lot of noise or may be a trailblazer, that is, a person who links separate documents on the web together, creating a trail for others to follow if they so choose. This process is described as automating referral chaining.

Other weblogs are run by individuals with little or no outside feedback. These are usually combinations of weblogs and personal journals, where a typical entry might consist of a link or links the person running the weblog finds interesting as well as notable experiences of the day. Such personal weblogs are often also referred to blogs, a term coined by sites such as blogger.com. It is perhaps wisest to use the term weblog only to refer to collaborative endeavors, and the term blog for individual ones.

Weblogs provide a chronologically ordered means for connections to be made between distributed documents. Unlike scholarly articles, the web lend itself to quick reflections on many topics. This is due to the fragmented and decentralised structure of the web. Weblogs are not expected to be flawless or even complete with some write-ups requiring further fleshing out. Weblogs are written continuously and often published without being revised. Recent thoughts are always at the top of the page and the older ideas are harder to get to. Many weblogs appear to be disorganized brain-storming, somewhat like zuihitsu.

Examples are found in the Weblogs page.

Related Topics

TakeDown.NET -> “Weblog