Blogs and the blogosphere Definitions and reasons to care

Definitions and reasons to care

Hello I’m an information architect and site developer at Lucent Technologies’ library An active blogger under the pen-name, jibbajabba(urlgreyhot.com, iaslash.org) Contributor in the Drupal open source blogging platform Business blog evangelist

I’m an information architect and site developer at Lucent Technologies’ library

An active blogger under the pen-name, jibbajabba(urlgreyhot.com, iaslash.org)

Contributor in the Drupal open source blogging platform

Business blog evangelist

What is a weblog? A web diary or journal A log of links to other sites or pages A publishing format

A web diary or journal

A log of links to other sites or pages

A publishing format

Some recent statistics About 11% (50 million) of Internet users are regular blog readers . (Pew) Technorati is currently tracking 22.6 million blogs * There are about 70,000 new blogs a day. (Technorati) Bloggers update their weblogs regularly; there are about 700,000 posts daily, or about 29,100 blog updates an hour. (Technorati) * As of 12/10, 2005; See: http://technorati.com/about/

About 11% (50 million) of Internet users are regular blog readers . (Pew)

Technorati is currently tracking 22.6 million blogs *

There are about 70,000 new blogs a day. (Technorati)

Bloggers update their weblogs regularly; there are about 700,000 posts daily, or about 29,100 blog updates an hour. (Technorati)

Technorati blogosphere stats http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/2005_10.html

Technorati blogosphere stats http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/2005_10.html

Why we blog Simple Direct & interactive Unmediated Based on story telling The Clue Train Manifesto http://www.cluetrain.org/ A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. ... These markets are conversations.

Simple

Direct & interactive

Unmediated

Based on story telling

A blog is really a conversation It’s a 1 to many conversation You publish People comment The conversation is recorded on the weblog

It’s a 1 to many conversation

You publish

People comment

The conversation is recorded on the weblog

More precisely, it’s a cocktail party Lots of weblogs = Cocktail party metaphor: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=5111&t=technology

The cocktail party* is the blogosphere First I’ll tell 2 friends And they’ll tell 2 friends And so on, and so on... * A conversation thread may not follow a linear flow at a cocktail party

The blogosphere Typical web sites allow 1-many one way conversations (publisher to reader) Blogs allow 1-many 2 way conversations (via commenting & trackback) The blogosphere (a system or networks of blogs) allows many to many discussions - conversations distributed over many sites and services

Typical web sites allow 1-many one way conversations (publisher to reader)

Blogs allow 1-many 2 way conversations (via commenting & trackback)

The blogosphere (a system or networks of blogs) allows many to many discussions - conversations distributed over many sites and services

How the parts connect Common XML formats used for publishing blog metadata A standard protocol used for distributing conversation (trackback) Blog-specific search engines/crawlers relationships, i.e. who links to whom Sites are connected via standard formats and processes Technologies supporting syndication XML – publishing metadata XML-RPC – for sending trackbacks Services supporting findability Search engines, aggregators & directories Bloglines Blogpulse Feedster Google Blog Search Pubsub Syndic8 Technorati

Common XML formats used for publishing blog metadata

A standard protocol used for distributing conversation (trackback)

Blog-specific search engines/crawlers relationships, i.e. who links to whom

XML (RSS) Syndication drives most of it Clients read blog feed locally Services store and process blog feed

Trackback pinging is a supporting technology

Relationships manifest in the blogosphere Relationships are observable in indirect linking -- relationship info. is fed back into the services and give depth to the blogosphere.

Democratic – openness and interactivity The pulse of the web (within a given audience) Credibility is an issue When authoritative – blogs are valuable for filtering Readership may be outpacing traditional media Do blogs matter?

Democratic – openness and interactivity

The pulse of the web (within a given audience)

Credibility is an issue

When authoritative – blogs are valuable for filtering

Readership may be outpacing traditional media

Key reasons for participating Direct communication bypassing the media discussing things the media won’t communicating directly with customers Reputation management Trend spotting

Direct communication

bypassing the media

discussing things the media won’t

communicating directly with customers

Reputation management

Trend spotting

Getting started A few popular blogging software options You install & run on a web host WordPress , http://wordpress.org MovableType , http://movabletype.org Drupal , http://drupal.org Hosted services Blogger , http://blogger.com (free) TypePad , http://sixapart.com (commercial) More: http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/Tools/Publishers/ Try some out: http://opensourcecms.com/

A few popular blogging software options

You install & run on a web host

WordPress , http://wordpress.org

MovableType , http://movabletype.org

Drupal , http://drupal.org

Hosted services

Blogger , http://blogger.com (free)

TypePad , http://sixapart.com (commercial)

More: http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/Tools/Publishers/

Try some out: http://opensourcecms.com/

Blog reading services Server-based news readers Bloglines , http://bloglines.com Kinja , http://kinja.com NewsGator , http://newsgator.com Desktop clients Omea Reader for PC, http://www.jetbrains.com/omea/reader/ NetNewsWire for Mac, http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/

Server-based news readers

Bloglines , http://bloglines.com

Kinja , http://kinja.com

NewsGator , http://newsgator.com

Desktop clients

Omea Reader for PC, http://www.jetbrains.com/omea/reader/

NetNewsWire for Mac, http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/

Blog search services Technorati , http://technorati.com Blogpulse , http://blogpulse.com/ Google Blog Search , http://blogsearch.google.com/ Feedster , http://feedster.com PubSub (subscription RSS service), http://pubsub.com

Technorati , http://technorati.com

Blogpulse , http://blogpulse.com/

Google Blog Search , http://blogsearch.google.com/

Feedster , http://feedster.com

PubSub (subscription RSS service), http://pubsub.com

Questions?