Sharing Your World
Vinny Labash, Sarasota PCUG, Florida - www.spcug.org
If the thought of overcoming technical hurdles has deterred you from creating
your own web-based journal, stop fretting. Modern web tools make creating
your own blog easier than it’s ever been. The term blog is nothing more than
a shortened version of weblog. The term "weblog" was created by Jorn
Barger in December 1997, and Peter Merholz introduced the short version
“blog” in 1999. Blog came to be interpreted also as a verb, to blog, meaning
"to edit or post to one's weblog."
Electronic communities existed long before people discovered the internet.
The AP wire was similar to a large chat room where there were electronic
discussions. Another pre-web electronic community, ham radio, allowed
individuals who set up their own broadcast equipment to communicate with
others directly. Ham radio also had logs called "glogs" that were personal
diaries. The concept is hardly new.
Most individuals who use the internet have been like audiences watching TV,
passive consumers of content, not active creators. Those who wanted to
become content authors either hired someone to do it for them or went the
professional design route, involving applications such as Dreamweaver and
FrontPage. Those with little technical background also had to cope with the
complexities of File Transfer Protocol. These proved to be formidable
barriers. Not only did this remove web publishing from most of the people, it
created a high priesthood of webmasters and web designers. Even those with
strong technical abilities were faced with content management headaches as
their sites grew larger.
The only tool an ordinary person had to communicate with others on the web
was email. Since web browsers are totally unsuitable for content creation,
alternate tools such as Outlook and Eudora were fashioned. Email was the
force that made the web the playground of the common folk. Its very
success may be the cause of its undoing because email is in danger of being
strangled by spam.
The world’s most gigantic digital conversation was born six years ago when
blogger.com was started. At first, hardly anyone noticed. Thousands of web
sites come and go all the time, but blogger.com offered something unique.
Anyone who wanted one could have a free blog. There was no charge to
access the blog creation tools, and the site provided free space to anyone who
wanted to host a blog. Once discovered, millions logged on and created their
own web logs.
Blogs have changed the way educational institutions do research. Traditional
journalists have been blasted out of their comfort zones, being continually
challenged to defend their printed statements. They are now being held to
the same standards of accountability they have long demanded from others.
Families are using blogs to keep in touch in ways that were never before
possible. Politicians and political organizations are using blog sites to raise
funds.
September 2005 ● pc news ● 13 of 18
Manymanuals.com
Manymanuals.de
Manymanuals.fr
Manymanuals.it
Manymanuals.pl
Manymanuals.cz
Manymanuals.es
Manymanuals-pt.com
Kommentare zu diesen Handbüchern