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Blogosphere

By Ed

Abstract

Every day I read at least three blogs. One belongs to a close friend, another is social commentary/journal of a famous conservative evangelical and the third is a blog that I use as a posting board for one of the student groups I am in. I of course also have my own blog as well which I update semi-frequently. It doesn’t stop there. All the blogs I read are interlinked through me. And certainly not to me alone. Every person who reads and blogs regularly is a connection point within the network of web logs. The connections that are made can either be responses to things blogged about, links posted on blogs, blog rings which rally under a common purpose or interest, and the list goes on. So here we find that what began as something personal, as a journal becomes a door into another universe. This is better known as the Blogosphere.

Background

The History and Technology of the Blogosphere. To reach back to the history of the blogosphere we need to first reach back to the history of blogging in general. What was the first blog? Who was the first blogger? The following time line should give a short history of blogs and subsequently the progression and growth of the blogosphere. The weblog had many precursors which included radio logs, internet forums, online journals (the most famous being Justin Hall) and others. However in time communities began to form around these outlets of opinion and social commentary. What eventually happened was companies such as Xanga, online journaling, appeared giving rise to the popularity of “blogging.” It was during this time, in 1997 that the term “weblog” first was coined. Later on it was shortened to “blog” by Peter Merholz in April of ‘99. In the same year the term “blogosphere” was first coined originally as a joke by Brad L. Graham, I suppose, upon the pervasiveness and immersiveness of blogging community. The term however was later taken and used seriously by William QUick in 2002. During this time Live Journal was also published online as well as Open Diary. Blogspot found its way in as well further increasing the community of online journal/commentaries. The types of blogs generally fall underneath the following categories:

  • political
  • personal
  • cultural
  • topical
  • business
  • science
  • moblog
  • collaborative
  • educational
  • spam/splogs

The technologies used for online blogging are varied though they usually gravitate towards the PHP language and the like where the user can easily update his own information or post and publish online articles (i.e. ColdFusion, CGI, pure Ruby, Rails, J2EE, JSP, ASP/ASP.NET, PHP, Python). There are also many kinds of weblog client softwares which stand alone and can function independently from the web. Most blogs these days feature the use of RSS feeds which give readers a convenient way to boil down articles and blogs by multiple authors and read them as short summary sentences. Blogs today also give users the option of calendars and event planners such as Xanga and also allow users to post pictures, however these are censored if they are too explicit or inappropriate web material. Readers can also leave comments for posts and articles which leads to more networking connections. The blogosphere then expands through a variety of means, through comments,through word of mouth, through blog rings (communities built around a specific interest) or even just through search engines. The list of course goes on.

Description

The definition of blogosphere is essentially this. It is the interconnected world of blogs. That is, the all encompassing network and community for bloggers and blog readers. To reach back to the history of the blogosphere we need to first reach back to the history of blogging in general. What was the first blog? Who was the first blogger? The following time line should give a short history of blogs and subsequently the progression and growth of the blogosphere.

  • Precursors to the weblog were in the forms of radio logs, internet forums, online journals (the most famous being Justin Hall, the “founding father of personal blogging”
  • Xanga is launched in 1996, starting with just 100 diaries in 1997, and expanding to over 50,000,000 as of December 2005
  • the term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger on December 17, 1997
  • The shorter term “blog” coined by Peter Merholz April 1999
  • The term blogosphere was coined on September 10, 1999 by Brad L. Graham, as a joke
  • Brad Fitz publishes livejournal.com.
  • It was re-coined in 2002 by William Quick (though this time, seriously) and was spread around and used by the warblog community
    • by this time, the blogging community has grown innumerably.

Analysis

In the context of our class, the blogosphere is very important for a variety of reasons. First, the “blog” is a shining example of how PHP can be used to produce a dynamically operated site. Second, our class is about networking and the blogosphere is a massive international network which goes beyond our imagination in its reach. Third, it is important for us to be aware of the sort of online communities which exist on the net as both a resources as well as a way to plug ourselves in to the digital world around us. The blogosphere as I see it is invaluable as a tool to open up our minds to the happenings of the world as well as a source of inspiration and information. The blogosphere is a network where information flows and is transferred from one place to another and we need to learn to understand how that works in order to create successful websites which can transfer data from one place to another with the least amount of problems.

Conclusion

THe blogosphere is great. It makes what seems like an infinite digital world seem closer than your neighbor’s door. The network and community created through the internet is powerful in its way of linking people together and allowing quick and clear ways of communication. However that is all not to say that the blogosphere and blogging itself is not problematic. I realize that often times people blog not so much to be honest but to be exciting. They want to say somethign significant or controversial so they say it, not really meaning it or having conviction for it. I imagine that does quite a bit of harm to the already deteriorating honesty of the American people. The journal which is meant to be epitome of genuine reflection and secrecy has become a proverbial loudspeaker with which millions announce their daily thoughts and secrets to the world. Through the means of a massive network which we know as the world wide web, we have surrendered our privacy willingly all for the sake of being exciting or original. Nobody writes to change or better other’s lives anymore. Deep and probing essays have become sensational ramblings as the entertainment of blogging becomes more and more prevalent. The blogosphere is great for connecting people, but what’s the use when all their connecting to is a dishonest article about something the author doesn’t truly have deep convictions about. As the community grows, superficiality follows.

Sources

References

http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogosphere Wikipedia. Blogosphere.(28 January 2006)
http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging Word Press. Skype. (28 January 2006)
http://www.xanga.com/ Xanga. The Weblog community.(28 January 2006)
http://www.opendiary.com/ Open Diary. Read life write life. (28 January 2006)
http://www.blogger.com/start Blogger. (28 January 2006)
http://www.iblogs.com/ Iblog. weblog network.(28 January 2006)
http://google.blogspace.com/ Google blog. (28 January 2006)

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