Introduction: Blogging

The trend of blogging
The trend of blogging increasingly drives majority of the internet users so passion. The word is so familiar that you shout out, 9 out of 10 have their own blogs. A blog monitoring site Technorati reported that about 1.4 blogs created every second. To date, around 70 million blogs existed. According to WordPress (2007), "blog" is an abbreviated version of "weblog," which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. It's all started since April 1997 when Dave Winer posted the first blog entry on Scripting News and big growth in American blogs after the September 11 terrorist attacks, where people express their sorrow and commemorate the victims.

Thanks to Blogger.com which popularises the trend of blogging. Blogger.com stated that "A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world." (Blogger.com in http://www.bbc.co.uk/) In other words, blog is usually known as a personal website featuring diary-type commentary or online journals or provides various relevant links to articles or other websites.

Microsoft's MSN and Windows' Live Online had carried out a research last year, result analysed and shown that Asians blog to share their daily routines or experiences with families and friends, also to express their feelings and 56% of the Asian blog space belong to users under 25 years. However, the blogging phenomenon is becoming a complex issue in Malaysia. (will be further discussed on future postings)

Classification of Blogs
Blogs can be classified from the personal journals to specific topic such as fashion, sports, technology, political subjects, etc. Some are classified as moblog (a.k.a mobile weblog) where users use mobile devices to post texts, video clips, photos, etc. Some of the examples are Moblog UK (http://moblog.co.uk/), Moblog Singapore (http://www.moblog.com.sg/), Camera Phone Moblog Community (http://www.textamerica.com/), etc. Vlog (Video Weblog) is also considered as a classification of blogs. I would recommend the Vlog Blog (http://www.vlogblog.com/) as you can find out some interesting topics.


Blogging Communities
Bloggers are free to choose which communities they belong to and there are many blog communities available. For personal journals, there are Xanga, Multiply, Blogspot, Wordpress, etc. Or too moody and need some funny blogs? Or even the celebrities' gossips? There are all available on your preferences, such as http://todaypictures.blogspot.com/, http://perezhilton.com/, etc.

"Each weblogger creates a personal version of the weblog format, dictated by purpose, interest, and whim" (Blood, 2002, p. 8). The purpose of your blog eventually determines the format.

Bloggers need to belong to a blogging community as people share similar interests and they exchange opinions on certain topics. This eventually opens up your network by linking each others, don't you think so?

Check this out! The listing of all best blogs http://www.forbes.com/lists/2003/04/14/bestblogslander.html


Purpose of blogging
Generally people blog depends on their interests or particular purposes. For corporations or professional, they own blogs to maintain favorable opinion by getting feedbacks from end-consumers while other interest groups or common bloggers are so 'into' the passionate hobby as it serves as a tool to share ideas or experiences.

A fashion fanatic will share the latest trend by linking to other fashion fanatics or other recommended links. Others may express their feelings, thoughts or comments through blogs, e.g. the newly opened restaurant, etc. Besides that, blog is also an excellent communication tool to keep in touch with family members and friends.


Blogging- a waste of time?
I personally think that personal blogging is a waste of time. Put it in this way, as a person who rarely shares my experience, blogging to me is too 'open'. I afraid the facts that people around me know what happen to me on daily basis.

To keep a diary? Sound too vague for me, I always believe that people tend to remember happiness and forget sadness. I don't want the blog acts as a reminder of my sadness. And do you honestly write 'everything' on personal blog?

To some extent, I think that blog is useful to find out information, such as fashion tips, political issues, etc. We get to know what other people think about the certain issues. Furthermore, bloggers especially students, can earn extra pocket money through blogging-advertising.


Tutorials by Jakob Nielsen 'Be Succinct!'
Writing for the Web sounds easy yet Nielsen has stated three main guidelines (1997)
(a) Be succinct - Keep it short and preferably write 50% less then hardcopy publications.
(b) Write for scannability - Highlighted headlines, colored keywords, etc
(c) Make use of hypertext structure


Jakob Nielsen: The Top Ten Design Mistakes(2005)
- No Author Biographies
- No Author Photo
- Nondescript Posting Titles
- Links Don't Say Where They Go
- Classic Hits are Buried
- The Calendar is the Only Navigation
- Irregular Publishing Frequency
- Mixing Topics
- Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss
- Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service


Differences of online and print designs
Dimensionality
Print design is 2-dimensional while web design can be 1-dimensional or N-dimensional. Readers can flip through printed pages while internet users can't.

Navigation
The hypertext is the main navigation for web users while in print, the page-turning acts as navigation.

Response Time
Bandwidth allows users to download a Web page as fast as one can turn the page in a newspaper (Jakob Nielsen, 1999)

Multimedia and Interactivity
Print emphasizes high-impact visualization whereas in web, multimedia elements are included to engage the users and allow interactivity.

Reference

BBC, 'What is Blogging', viewed on 2 June 2007, URL:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/askbruce/articles/browse/blogging_1.shtml

Blood, R. (2002). The weblog handbook: Practical advice on creating and maintaining your blog, Cambridge, MA: Perseus Pub.

Johnson, B. 2007, 'Blogs mark the first 10 years', viewed on 2 June 2007, URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2051882,00.html#article_continue

Morkes, K. & Nielson, J. 1997, 'Concise, Scannable, and Objective: How to Write for the Web', viewed on 2 June 2007, URL: http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html

Nielson, J. 1997, 'Be Succinct! (Writing for the Web)', viewed on 2 June 2007, URL: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html

Nielson, J. 1999, 'Differences Between Print Design and Web Design', viewed on 2 June 2007, URL: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html

Nielson, J. 2005, 'Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes', viewed on 2 June 2007, URL: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html

Wordpress 2007, 'Blogging', viewed on 2 June 2007, URL:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging#What_is_a_.22blog.22.3F