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A Brief Introduction to Blogging
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A Few Days Back I Wrote a ‘Brief Introduction to Blogging’. This is in Beta Stage and is supposed to go out to a couple of Media Students (freshers). I’ve tried not to make it too ‘technical’. Need to send this out soon so your additions would be invaluable.
If you’re one of those 35 Million Indians who access the Internet more than once a month, then you probably already know what a blog is – or you have probably visited one at least. According to the Juxt Consult India Online Report for 2008, On an average, net users take 15 odd activities which includes chatting, emailing, downloading music and movies, sharing videos and pictures, checking cricket score, job and matrimonial search. Social networking, picture and video sharing, online communities and Internet chatting and blogs are significant for 81% of the users. So blogs definitely are extremely important with respect to them being mediums that attract the interests of content consumers.
When I was about 16 – I probably read my first blog. A friend had started to pen down his daily rants against the World at large. The Blog (an abridgement of web log) at that point of time fist struck me as nothing more than a personal diary. I went on to read many (similar and not so similar) blogs. At 16, my sense of imagination was (ironically) probably restricted and I never thought of the fact that blogs could be used to portray a ‘guru’ status, as tools for internal communication within organisations, as mediums to facilitate exchange between external entities such as stakeholders and organisations. Blogs, in my opinion probably work because they form a personal connect between the reader and the writer and need not necessarily be journalistic or formal with respect to tone.
Over time, if you analyse the content on blogs, you would notice that they have moved from text to multimedia. Because of a tendency of netizens to move towards User Generated Content (UGC) and the development of platforms such as YouTube and Flickr by some of the Internet Superpowers, one has seen that the web is becoming more ‘updateable’, ‘linkable’ and ‘portable’. So its relatively easy for a consumer to create a video, or click a photo and find a place to host it online and at the same time it is relatively easy for other consumers to share those videos and photos with other consumers on social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicious, Stumble Upon or even within their own social networks such as Facebook. All this content can either be linked back to from a blog or it can even be embedded on a blog! So effectively you could watch a YouTube video along with a photo and some text on a blog – which gives you a holistic mass media experience (or atleast it has the potential to).
The really good thing about Blogs and Social Internet Related Media in general is the fact that consumers are creators as well as consumers of content (UGC again). This is also significant because sociologically it is altering the power relations that existed in the media in particular. Previously, one could only voice an opinion, or broadcast an interest etc. if one had access to a mass media vehicle. Today, its easy for just about anybody to set up a blog on platforms such as Wordpress and Blogger for free and write whatever they feel like. Couple that with the fact that people are constantly searching (1 Million plus Searches per Minute on Google Alone) for topics of their choice. If someone is looking for what you are writing about there’s a high chance that your content will be discovered. If your content impresses the individual, then there is again a high chance that it will be shared, and so the cycle continues. So in a sense, blogs (and indeed all of social media) – make polarized sections more discoverable.
Here are what I think are the Most Key Technical Developments in the Blogging Scenario:
- Content Management – making it easier to upload content, making it quicker, enabling, the posting of video, photos, and other value adds that make the user hooked.
- Google AdWords – A Platform that integrates publishers (bloggers) for advertising Quality MUST be paid for.
- RSS Feeds – Synchronize what you read. Get more from one location. Know what blogs are doing without taking the time to actually visit them.
- Trackbacks – people who link to your article can be tracked down – you can connect with people who think on similar lines. Creating a virtual mesh of individuals.
In the future, I think there will be a few changes in the Blogging Scenrio:
- Blogging as we currently know it may have a complete overhaul. There will be less text – theres a certain amount of tediousness with text – I see more multimedia related content.
- We already are seeing ‘video blogs’ on platforms such as YouTube where people have their own shows.
- One may also see a lot of MoBloggers – people blogging from their mobiles as mobiles generate capability – random observations, pictures, videos perhaps. I also think that with the advent of MoBlogging, blogs will become even more personal and interactive than they ever were.
- I think there will be 2 ends of the spectrum. 1 of the casual mobile bloggers or casual internet bloggers, and 2nd of the Specialized bloggers such as WATBlog, TechCruch, Alootechie etc. So that differntiation between specialist and generalist will be even more clear in the future and you may even have tools to differentiate the two.
I think the trends of team blogs for specialized blogs will multiply. Blogs may replace books as the World moves digital and that may not necessarily be a good thing. While low barriers to entry are great, one needs to keep in mind and respect all the effort, hard work, and deep contemplation that goes into the creation of a book. Books have often created the foundation of society as we know it today. A tendency towards ad-supported writing can kill objectivity and a willingness to write a certain kind of content, which is probably not the best thing for our generation.
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“its easy for just about anybody to set up a blog …and write whatever they feel like.”
This is so true, and in my opinion its all the more a reason to point out that blogging should be done a bit responsibly. The idea is not to curb freedom of expression, but if you express something you have to be ready to take the ownership of that.
A lot of people blog without realizing that the thoughts they have expressed will remain online forever and they will be another part of their identity.
Your earlier post on a youth being arrested for posting nude pics of his girlfriend may be an extreme case, but I do know that a lot of employers research potential employees online nowadays, so they should be aware that blogs are not just personal diaries anymore.
Great introduction for people unaware of the happenings in blogs, especially for the ket technical developments.
Fully agree with the medium that blogging will be heading towards and the issue of “advertorials” that specialed bloggers will have to face in the future. However, as to blogs replacing books, I’m not too sure if that would be the path blogs will take, but who knows.
Great post!
An Awesome pillar post! I guess, now on, all an ignorant needs to do is look up this post. Great stuff!
I believe that blogging has 2 ways:-
1. what you wanna write.
2. what poeple wanna read.
The above words are short but, have a deep meaning. A blogger should decide at the very beginning of the blogging life, which one to opt. At times, it seems we are diverted from the path chosen initially.
@ chica - completely agree with you.
@ Mark - Thanks. You’re probably right with the fact that blogs will not replace books. But the lines will definitely blur. With that happening, in a few years, we will not be able to draw the line between serious, well researched content and speculative opinionated content that is sugarcoated in a consumable semi intelligent form. In India - i know a lot of people who read the newspaper and think that they have engaged themselves in something ‘intellectual’ - bloggers will seek to capitalize on that kind of a mentality (which exists all over the world probably) - and some will take short cuts, i am sure.
@ Shayon - thanks buddy - look forward to your posts soon!
@ Rupesh - yea - if someone wants to become a blogger focus is important - for practical, and psychological reasons
@ Mark & Harshil
Talking about blurring the lines…why don’t you give a little dekko on Wikipedia? How many of us actually know that everything that’s been put up on Wiki is basically written off by people like you and me? I myself have been an engineering student just a few weeks back and I’ve seen people copying and pasting literature off Wiki, shamelessly, to get their final year project work done. I have also seen people actually creating national level quiz questions based on the “facts” given on Wiki.
I know, today, Wiki has evolved a lot and probably most of what’s there is actually right. But what I am trying to point at is the ignorance of a general consumer about the level of authenticity of Wiki articles.
Wiki has almost blurred the lines between user generated content and deeply researched data off encyclopaedia.
Coming back to blogs, who knows, things just might turn out the way Harshil predicted.
A couple of years ago I had posted my theory on why Blogging works:
http://gauteg.blogspot.com/2006/03/why-blogging-works.html
Your take on what the future holds for blogging is interesting. I personally think most static websites would give way to some kinds of CMS that are blogging inspired. Like the newly released Google Sites.
Video is going to be the killer app. If broadband is going to be cheap. Soon
Personally am not hoping too much for mobile blogging unless the platform changes a lot. Currently as Joi Ito says phones are too linked to service providers and subject to regulatory approvals.
@ Gautam - agree with you. The nature of blogs will change to a large extent. They currently are too static (eg. WATBlog and even your blog for that matter). Google Friend Connect will also be one of those things that might change blogging - open social applications on blogs. So blogs will be more social/ interactive/ be coupled with more multimedia, more engagement - and those will transform into new metric mechanisms as well.. probably.
I get where you’re coming from when you say that moblogging wont be to big .. .some concerns with respect to value of content also exist primarily due to the nature of the mobile and its connotation in people’s minds.
@ Sayantan - yea the lines between everything on the web is blurring!