The WeBLOG Handbook (Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining your Blog) by Rebecca Blood has been a long time staple in blogging community, and for good reason. From my research I have found that nothing compares to this book, in terms of general basic blogging terms, benefits and blog history. Rebecca Blood is one of the original bloggers, with her blog -Rebecca's Pocket. I have read her blog on several occasions and recognize her as one of the blogosphere's very best bloggers. She really IS the Queen of the Blogging Scene, IMHO. She has been blogging for almost 8 years now - making my 4 months seem like a drop in the bucket. But reading her really gives me, the "newbie" a lot of confidence in WHAT I am doing and WHY I need to continue doing it.
This book may seem a bit outdated in some respect, as it was written in 2002 ... almost 5 years ago. A lot has changed in the blogosphere in that time, it's true. But there are some fundamental facts about blogging that will remain consistent throughout the development of the new blogging world. In just the 3 chapters that I have read so far, I have learned so much!
I found the book to be a very easy read, infused with Rebecca's vibrant personality. This seems to be a theme with blog-based books... they read like blogs ... which offer way more life and character than traditional GeekSpeak terminology books and manuals.
For this review I will be touching on what I found to be most interesting in Chapter 1... the History and a few mechanics of the WeBlog.
WeBlogs began before "WeBlogs" existed. Huh?
The concept of a web based log of "whatever" was born, according to Rebecca Blood, in 1993 with Mosaic's "What's New Page" which gave surfers an updated source of sites that may be of interest.
Once the web began bursting at the seams with millions of new webpages, a few people began "posting" collections of sites that they found interesting... kind of like a "Web on the Web" for others to read and enjoy.
From there, web "filters" were created, that were basically "links with a brief commentary" about the site linked.
Then one day Cameron Barrett (a prominent weblogger in 1999) posted a list of "sites like his" in a column on the right of his site, and POOF ... a "movement was born" and "weblogs" became the accepted term for these new sites. Soon the term "weblog" morphed to "wee-blog" and immediately shortened to the term we all know and love... BLOG.
Six months later (July1999) a new service enabled "anyone with access to a computer with a web browser" to create and maintain their own blogs. One of the very first service providers was Blogger.
Now the scene changed again, as blogs extended beyond lists of links and became daily and weekly portals to the personal and professional lives of every blogger.
This book explains the early distinctions between blogs, notebooks and filters. Nowadays, those distinctions are less clear, as the term "blog" crowned itself as king to any site that contains links, is frequently updated, and the newest additions are on top.
Rebecca Blood does an amazing job at describing how blogs...
- Provide Context. A bloggers opinion can be defended or offended by the links that are provided. This creates a nice bed of "context" for the reader.
- Promote Media Literacy. Bloggers provide different views of a single story- views that can be critical in the full understanding of what really IS going on.
- Provide Alternate Points of View. There are as many points of view as there are people in the world. With a new blog created every second... there are plenty of points of view to ponder.
- Encourage Evaluation. Comments. Need I say more?
- Invite Participation. Comments. Again... Need I say more?
She continues to explain some of the unique, and quite social features of a blog.
The most blatant being how "linking" is sewn into the core fiber of the blog. The referencing of different sites and other blogs has now reached beyond the term paper bibliography and into real time "click and read the source" technology. It is an unwritten, yet fundamental core of blogging that is really only noticed when the blogger links incorrectly... or worse, not at all.
In addition to linking, the other social break-through is what Rebecca calls "journalism"- where eye witness accounts and personal opinions of event and prominent people are put into "print" via a blog, in a way that engages a reader in many positive ways- much different than the dry, mechanic, over-edited columns in a newspaper. Information is now being SHARED, rather than being REPORTED ON. Sniff.... Sniff... I smell Web 2.0...
I look forward to reading the rest of this very insightful book, written by a master of what you and I have grown to love so much. I highly recommend making the time to read this 195 page book. It will give you a concrete knowledge base on blogging, and some great details and considerations that cannot be overlooked.
current Active Rain Addiction?? do these books comes with a disclaimer that blogging can be addictive?!
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