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| AWACS UP BLOG IMAGE |
Here are a few very simple definitions that can get you started. If you find these to be good enough for you then you’re done reading this post!
- A blog originally came from the word “weblog” or a “web log”.
- You can think of it as an online journal or diary, although blogs are used for much more now, like online journalism.
- A blogger is someone who blogs, or writes content for a blog.
- Blogging is the act of writing a post for a blog.
Intermediate Definitions:
Want a little more “meat” on your blogging-knowledge bones? Try these definitions on for size:- A blog is a type of website which has posts (or entries) appearing in reverse chronological order.
- Blog posts typically appear with the most recent blog post (or entry, post) first, just like a diary or journal.
- A blog is typically updated frequently and regularly, although there are some who are considered “slow bloggers”.
- Blogs typically have an area for people to comment or respond to the blog post.
- Blogs may also have other areas of content and links to other websites.
- Blogs can have individual authors or be a collection of authors.
- Blogs have a history or an archive of previous blog posts.
Advanced Definitions:
If you’d like to complete your education of what a blog is then you can read some of the following “advanced” definitions:
- A blog is a collection of content that is organized repetitively. This content can take the form of basic words (copy) as well as rich media (audio, video, and embeddable objects).
- A blog typically focuses on a particular subject matter for clarity, focus, and
- A blog can be built by hand, manually through writing the post, uploading to a website via FTP, and then publishing.
- A blog can also be managed by software, sometimes called a CMS (Content Management System), where a lot of the features are automatically created and populated.
- A blog typically can be read in a number of different formats including the homepage, single post page, categories, tags, and also via RSS and other such syndication technologies.
- Readers and visitors can subscribe to the blog so that they can consume the content in a variety of different means, tools, devices, and applications.
- A blog today could take the form of microblogging (like Twitter, Posterous, Tumblr), vblogging (video blogging), and more which can focus on a particular type of content or technology.
Blogs Aren’t Necessarily Personal
The main misconception regarding the definition of blogs comes from people that associate blogs with their content. More specifically from people that associate blogs with the content from one particular type of blog: personal blogs.In other words, those people think that blogs are online diaries where people share their opinions, ramblings and personal events.
Wrong!
That is just one of the things that you could do with a blog.
Today blogs are being used for all sorts of purposes. You have companies that use blogs to communicate and interact with customers and other stake holders. Newspapers that incorporated blogs to their main website to offer a new channel for their writers. Individuals that created a blog to share with the world their expertise on specific topics. And so on.
Separate The Content
If you separate the content from the website, it becomes much easier to work with the definitions.Consider a person that wants to publish a Questions & Answers column online. She could use several types of websites for that purpose.
She could create an online forum, for example, where each thread would be an answer to a specific question. She could create a static HTML website and publish all the questions and answers on a single page. She could create a wiki where users would be able to edit the questions and answers directly. Finally, she could also create a blog where each post would contain a question and its answer.
As you can see, the content is not attached to the website. The picture below illustrates that (note that only four types of websites were used, but there are many more).
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| Image from Dailyblogtips |
So What Is A Blog?
A blog is basically a type of website, like a forum or a social bookmarking site. As such it is defined by the technical aspects and features around it, and not by the content published inside it.The features that make blogs different from other websites are:
- content is published in a chronological fashion
- content is updated regularly
- readers have the possibility to leave comments
- other blog authors can interact via trackbacks and pingbacks
- content is syndicated via RSS feeds
What Is Your Definition?
As I mentioned on the beginning of this article, blogs represent a social phenomenon, so they are in constant evolution. The Internet itself is changing very fast, so pin pointing a single definition for blogging is a hard task.The definition above is my personal one, and I am sure that other people will want to add or remove details to it. Some might even completely disagree.
That is why I decided to turn the mic to the readers. I want to hear what you think a blog is. What characteristics define it? Is the definition changing over time?
I am looking forward to reading your definitions of blogs!
Super Geek Definitions:
Finally, if you’re just bored, have too much time, or are exceptionally curious, here are a few super geeky definitions that I came up with:
A blog can be whatever you want it to be; it’s not about the what but the why.
A blog is a collection of strategically-placed 1′s and 0′s typically called software.
Everything is a blog and nothing is a blog, at the same time.
Blogging is what you do, what you do not do, and what you wish you had done when you did it.
Finally, one person in particular puts it this way when asked to define a blog:
I don’t care.
There is no need to define ‘blog.’ I doubt there ever was such a call to define ‘newspaper’ or ‘television’ or ‘radio’ or ‘book’ — or, for that matter, ‘telephone’ or ‘instant messenger.’
A blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from change the world to share your shopping list. People will use it however they wish. And it is way too soon in the invention of uses for this tool to limit it with a set definition.
That’s why I resist even calling it a medium; it is a means of sharing information and also of interacting: It’s more about conversation than content … so far. I think it is equally tiresome and useless to argue about whether blogs are journalism, for journalism is not limited by the tool or medium or person used in the act.
Blogs are whatever they want to be. Blogs are whatever we make them. Defining ‘blog’ is a fool’s errand.
