Blogs
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Contents |
Introduction
See also Social networking and Web 2.0
The term blog refers to a frequently updated site of entries arranged in reverse chronological order. Blogs have been central to the rise of web 2.0 technologies. They form the basis of social activity and knowledge exchange 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 forums for conversation, debate and reflective practice. Blogs can be thought of as virtual office spaces for health librarians and help to collect and share stories, pictures and interesting ideas. Internationally, there is a growing community of health librarian and medical blogs. Many of the most popular medical bloggers started blogging in 2004 and 2005. (See Google blogsearch)
Some blog readers say that they enjoy hearing directly from health professionals and libarians; this may account, in part, for the popularity of blogs. Health librarian blogs are relatively few in number but many are used for outreach, professional development and raising the profile of librarians. In some professions, there is a move to create resources for better blog etiquette. A more recent phenomenon is called microblogging using Twitter, Jaiku and Yammer.
History
The modern blog evolved from the online diary where users would keep accounts of their personal lives. These bloggers were called online diarists, journalists and journalers. Many initial blogs were link-driven (and a source and promulgator 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 many provided options for readers to leave comments for the bloggers.
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 eighty million blogs as of May 2007. 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, the main title, or headline, of the post.
- Body, main content of the 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) - subjects that 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 Wikipedia on Types of Blogs
- Health
- Librarian
- Online journal or diary
- Political
- Topical
Canadian context
A number of health librarians consult, read or write blogs.
Future of blogging
The future of blogging looks secure but some web experts suggest that there will be a drop in interest in blogging and reading blogs in 2010 due to tools like Twitter.
Interestingly, various news reports such as this CNET 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 have evolved into useful vehicles for communication.
Librarians and information specialists have taken to blogging in larger numbers in 2006, and some of the more popular bloggers in the United States include Steven Cohen, Jenny Levine and OCLC's Lorcan Dempsey. Canadian bloggers are also prominent.
References
- Barsky, E. Introducing Web 2.0: weblogs and podcasting for health librarians. JCHLA/JABSC 2006 (27): 33-34.
- Boulos MNK, Maramba I, Wheeler S. Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. BMC Medical Education. 2006;6:41.
- Kamel Boulos MN, Wheeler S. The emerging Web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and health care education. Health Info Libr J. 2007 Mar;24(1):2-23.
- Giustini D. How Web 2.0 is changing medicine. BMJ 333(7582): 1283-84.
- Richardson W. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Sage Pub/ Corwin Press; 2006.
- University of Michigan, School of Information - Social Computing Specialization
- Walker, Jill. "Final version of weblog definition.", Jill/txt. 22 Sept 2005.
