Blogs

Blogs are a quintessential web 2.0 tool Source: Wikicommons Are you interested in contributing to HLWIKI International – hlwiki.ca? contact: dean.giustini@ubc.ca To browse other articles on a range of HSL topics, see the A-Z index. Last Update 6 June 2013 Introduction See also Blogging and the law | Digital liaison | Ethics and the health librarian | LibGuides from Springshare | RSS | Social media aggregators | Twitter | Web 2.0 A blog is an online diary (or website) where entries are arranged in reverse chronological order starting with the most recent. The nature of blogs is that they discuss current topics or news and may be relevant for a short period of time only. Blogs have been central to the rise of web 2.0 and are the basis of considerable social interaction on the web. According to Blogger: "...a blog is a web site where you write entries on an ongoing basis, sometimes daily. Blogs are published by individuals and their style is personal and informal." Blogs provide forms for conversation, debate and reflection. Blogs should be thought of as virtual office spaces to share stories, pictures and interesting ideas. Internationally, there is a growing community of health librarian and medical bloggers. Many popular medical bloggers started blogging in 2004 and 2005. (See Google blogsearch) Some readers say they enjoy hearing directly from health professionals and librarians, and may account, in part, for the popularity of blogs. Health librarians who blog are few in number but many use their blogs for outreach, professional development and raising the profile of the profession. In some professions, there is a move to creating resources for better blog etiquette. Microblogging is a type of mini-blogging using tools such as Twitter and Yammer. Some open source advocates view the use of blogs as a significant platform for open-source cultures. History The modern blog evolved from the online diary where users kept accounts of their personal lives. Early bloggers were called online diarists, journalists and journalers. Many initial blogs were link-driven (and a source of blogspam). Many blogs had combinations of interesting links, commentaries and personal thoughts of bloggers and consequently many became well-known. Some blogs formed within communities of bulletin board readers, usenet groups and e-mail listservs; some came into being as extensions of personal webpages and provided options for readers to leave comments. Initially, bloggers created their own spaces similar in appearance and function to webpages. Weblog editors used HTML coding to create sites, spent several off-work hours every day surfing the web and posting. Originally, the community of bloggers that had expertise to manipulate the Web to exercise their thoughts and ideas was relatively limited, but all of that has changed. According to technorati.com, there are more than 140 million blogs as of December 2009. Bloggers wield enormous influence in shaping public opinion in business, politics and even librarianship. Setting up a blog takes minutes, and does not require a lot of technical knowledge. Main parts of a blog A complete blog will encompass the following: A title, main title, or headline, of post Body, main content of post Permalink, the URL of the full, individual article Post Date, date and time the post was published ("Blog") A blog entry optionally includes the following: Comments Categories (or tags) are subjects the entry discusses Trackback and or pingback links to other sites that refer to the entry ("blog") Types of blogs Not all bloggers share the same goals, intent or objectives when starting their own blogs. It's best to be familiar with your choices so as to fully understand how to communicate by your readers/ audience. Understanding that there are more options available to you, here are some popular blog types as shown on WordPress Types of Blogs Health Librarian Online journal or diary Political Topical Blogging platforms Blogger http://www.blogger.com/start EduBlogs http://edublogs.org/ LiveJournal http://www.livejournal.com/ MovableType http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ MySpace http://www.myspace.com/ Nucleus http://nucleuscms.org/ Posterous http://posterous.com/ Tumblr http://www.tumblr.com/ TypePad http://www.typepad.com/ WordPress http://wordpress.org/ Future of blogging The future of blogging looks secure but some web experts suggest that there will be a drop in interest in blogs due to tools like Twitter. Various news reports such as this CNET report suggests that "... blogs have been credited with everything from CBS News anchorman Dan Rather's departure, to unauthorized previews of the latest Apple Computer products, to new transparency in presidential campaigns. The big question is whether blogs[...]have the staying power to become more than just online diaries." Blogs are in a process of evolution and redefinition; they started as personal accounts of one's life and evolved into useful vehicles for communication. Librarians and information specialists have taken to blogging in larger numbers and more popular bloggers in the United States include Steven Cohen, Jenny Levine and OCLC's Lorcan Dempsey. Some Canadian bloggers are also prominent on the blogosphere. References Babu RH, Gopalaswamy M. Use of web 2.0 tools and technologies for science communication in biomedical sciences: a special reference to blogs. Int J Libr Info Sci. 2011;3(5):85–91. Barsky, E. Introducing web 2.0: weblogs and podcasting for health librarians. JCHLA / JABSC. 2006;(27):33–34. Bik HM, Goldstein MC. An introduction to social media for scientists. PLos Biology. 2012;11(4):e1001535. Bogoch II, Frost DW, Bridge S, Lee TC, Gold WL, Panisko DM. Morning report blog: a web-based tool to enhance case-based learning. Teach Learn Med. 2012;24(3):238–41. Buis LR, Carpenter S. Health and medical blog content and its relationships with blogger credentials and blog host. Health Commun. 2009;24(8):703–10. Boulos MNK, Maramba I. Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. BMC Med Educ. 2006;6:41. Johnson L, Smith R, Willis H, Levine A, Haywood K. The Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: New Media Consortium; 2011. Kamel Boulos MN. The emerging web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and health care education. Health Info Libr J. 2007;24(1):2–23. Giustini D. How web 2.0 is changing medicine. BMJ. 2006;333:1283–84. Giustini D. Blog code(s) of conduct: some legal considerations for health librarians. JCHLA / JABSC. 2011;32:101–103. Giustini D. Social media for health librarians. JCHLA / JABSC. 2010;32(2):73–75. Jackson-Brown G. Content analysis study of librarian blogs: professional development and other uses. First Monday. 2013;18(2). Nan X. HPV vaccine information in the blogosphere: how positive & negative blogs influence vaccine-related risk perceptions, attitudes and behavioral intentions. Health Commun. 2012. Poonawalla T, Wagner RF. Assessment of a blog as a medium for dermatology education. Dermatol Online J. 2006;12(1):5. Richardson W. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Sage, Corwin Press; 2006. Spring H. If you cannot beat them, join them! Using health 2.0 and popular Internet applications to improve information literacy. Health Info Libr J. 2011;28(2):148–51. Stonehouse P, Keengwe J, Shabb C. Using blogs as a technology tool to promote teaching goals in education. Int J Inform Comm Tech Educ. 2012;8(1):44–52. Sundar SS, Edwards HH. Blogging for better health: putting the “public” back in public health. In: Blogging, citizenship, and the future of media. Routledge, New York; 2006. Watson J. The rise of blogs in nursing practice. Clin J Oncol Nurs. 2012;16(2):215–7.