The Exciting World of BLOGS!!!!! By, Aaron Armston

What Is a Blog? The term Blog, is actaully short for web log. Blogs are frequently updated web pages on which authors post short comments about news items, interesting websites, their thoughts and more.

Terminology Blogging- The actual activity of updating a blog. Blogger- The individual who keeps the blog. (as pictured on the left)

Where It All Began Essentially the first weblog seems to be the first web site created in 1993, this was at http://info.cern.ch, created by Tim Berners-Lee. It is considered so because it had updated links to websites, it was not what we would today consider a blog website. What appears to be the first site dedicated to blogs was created in 1996 by a man named Dave Winer. His posts could be found on the 24 hours of democracy website.

Where It All Began (cont.) Before 1999 the blogging community mostly consisted of internet savvy people who would provide their own posts and updated links to others. In 1999 blogging became more user friendly Pitas, the first free build-your-own-weblog tool is launched Later that year Blogger and Groksoup were also launched and they too provided more opportunity for the lay person

Blogging Today Today blogs are used for a multitude of reasons Political watch dog Media oversight Sports talk Mindless banter Ect.

Political Watch Dog Recently Joshua Marshall from talkingpointsmemo.com along with other bloggers made a big enough deal over Tent Lott’s racist remarks, that they essentially ended his political career. During the debates for the 2004 Presidential elections, bloggers would begin their fact checking as soon as any comment would come out of either candidate’s mouth. This subsequently made the opponents more wary of what they said.

Media Oversight Bloggers keep the media in line now a days. They are responsible for fact checking Dan Rathers memo leak that resulted in his resignation. One website, www.newshounds.us, claims that they watch Fox news so that you don’t have to.

Sports Talk Many sports blogs site provide the viewer with the most up to date news and rumors. http://www.yankeesbaseballblog.com/2005/01/ While others provide fans with an opportunity to express their most passionate and quite understandable emotions. http://weblogs.upei.ca/node/view/676

Mindless Banter Some blogs are placed on the internet purely for the enjoyment or recreation of those who create them and have if anything a negative impact on society by dumbing it down. http://joyofsox.blogspot.com/

Popular Blogging Sites

The Future of Blogs Increased Awareness Amazing Growth A CNN poll discovered that despite the fact that over 75% of Americans use the internet, only 26% are familiar with the term blog. Amazing Growth Two years ago, there were just 100,000 blogs on the internet, as of Monday there are now over 8,000,000! A new blog is estimated to be created every 7.4 seconds! One small step for man, one giant leap for bloggers Earlier this month, 23 year old Garrett Graff, a blogger for fishbowldc.com was the first in his field to be granted access to the White House’s daily press briefing.

Any Questions? April 3 the world will return to normalcy!