Blogging Communities

‘Online Community’ indicated a world without boundaries, where people can share and interact with each other. (White, N. 2006) In this case, the term ‘blogging Community’ is defined as the sphere where bloggers gather and involve in activities within or beyond their blogs, (Denise, 2009) where blogging itself is a communication of experiences and cultures. (Taricani, E. 2007)
To start a blogging community, first is to always read and explore different blogs to get inspirations and know new bloggers. (eHow.com 2008) Always comment on other blogs and leave your blog URL, these will help in people to find your blog easily, not to forget reply comments to interact with the visitors. (eHow.com 2008) Hence putting in comment boxes is important to get connected with others. (Webitect 2009)

screenshot of comment box
source: www.webitect.net

The usage of permalinks is to link posts to other browsers, as well as other bloggers to link their blogs to yours, thus this is a way to create good relationship with other blogs. (WordPress.org 2010)

screenshot of permalink
source: www.artofblog.com

It is important to have tags in every blog posts to ease readers to navigate clearly and categorize similar post contents. (WordPress.org 2010) This is an example of tag column of a music blog. It shows the different genre of music so that visitors know where to go for their music choices.

screenshot of tag column
source: www.favourite-tune.blogspot.com

The three main types of blog communities are One Blog Centric, where the blog is managed by one blogger, thou there might be several bloggers posting in it; Topic Centric, demonstrated by group where the blog is passed down from one to another, lots of subcommunites are built in between; Boundaried Communities, where a series of blogs and readers gathered under a similar stand. (White, N. 2006) Looking at Global Voices as an example, the blog consists of features like social sites features and other technology tools. Bloggers contributing to Global Voices are within the blog itself, with limited links to the outside world, thus Global Voices is said to be a Boundaried Community.

screenshot of Global Voices
source: www.globalvoicesonline.org

Reference List:

1. White, N. 2006, 'Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community?' viewed 27 September 2010 < http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community >

2. Denise. 2009, 'How do you build community?' 9 March, viewed 27 September 2010 < http://www.blogher.com/how-do-you-build-community >

3. Taricani, E. 2007, 'Communities of Blogging: Extensions of Our Identities,' American Communication Journal, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://www.acjournal.org/holdings/vol9/fall/articles/blogging.html >

4. eHow.com 2008, 'How to Build a Blogging Community,' viewed 27 September 2010, < http://www.ehow.com/how_2152382_build-blogging-community.html >

5. Webitect 2009, 'Create a Community Blog with 10 Wordpress Plugins,' viewed 27 September 2010 < http://webitect.net/blogging/create-a-community-blog-with-10-wordpress-plugins/ >

6. WordPress.org 2010, 'Codex - Using Permalinks,' viewed 27 September 2010 < http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks >

Classification of Blogs & Most Appropriate Classification Approach

In recent years, the term ‘blog’ is no longer enough to group everything in as more varieties of blogs are being introduced. (Simons, M. 2008) Taxonomists are commencing the right term to organize and classify the contents of blogs, thus grouping them in specific categories. (TaxonomyBlog 2010)

Subject Matter:
1. Food – A Whiff of Lemongrass
2. Sports - Caught OffSide
3. Music - Favourite Tunes
4. Visual Arts - AccmStudio Blog

Device:
Moblog - MoBlog Online
combination of the word ‘mobile’ and ‘web log’, Moblog is a blog whereby posts are publish directly from mobile devices like iPhones or Blackberry. (Webopedia 2010)

the new iPhone 4
source : www.apple.com

Media Types:
1. Vlog - Youtube
2. Photolog - Photobucket
3. Sketchlog - Rob Sheridan SketchBlog
4. Tumblelog – Anarchaia

Status of Publishers:
1. Business & corperate blogs - Redfin

As stated by Margaret Simons, blogs are being classified to different categories with their own specific style, format, layout, topic and target audiences. (2008) Looking at a sketchlog for instance, Rob Sheridan's SketchBlog, it is easy to recognize the site as a sketch log by just looking at the blogging style that consists of various sketch portfolios and also the visitors, who mostly are art lovers or sketchers. Margaret Simons categorized it as an Exhibition Blog because the sketch log is presenting art works and maintained by an artist. (2008) The difference is that, sketch log is more specific with only hand-drawn or digital artworks, whereby an exhibition blog can be more than just artworks, it can also be a presentation of writing documents like poets. (Simons, M. 2008)

Reference List:

1. Taxonomy Blog 2010, 'Skills of a Classy Taxonomist,' 10 August, viewed 26 September 2010 < http://thetaxonomyblog.wordpress.com/ >

2. Simons, M. 2008, 'A Taxonomy of Blogs,' The Media Report, 25 September, viewed 26 September 2010 < http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm >

3. Simons, M. 2008, 'Towards A Taxonomy of Blogs,' Australian Policy Online, 11 September, viewed September 2010 < http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0 >

4. Webopedia 2010, 'What is Moblog?' viewed 26 September 2010, < http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/moblog.html >

Blog as current phenomenon & benefits to the community

Ever since the introduction of blogs in internet, more and more internet users starting to join various of blog sites, such as xanga, blogger and wordpress. No doubt the size of the blogosphere is increasing as time goes by. According to data provided by Technorati, since 2004 they have been studying the increasing rate of the size and the trend of the latest blogosphere. In the latest report, which is the State of Blogosphere 2009 report, it stated that the photosphere today made out of hobbyists (72%) and professional bloggers (10%), while 2/3 of the bloggers are male. (2009) Since 2002, the amount of blogs indexed by Technorati raised up to 133,000,000 blogs. (Singer, A. 2009) Below is a chart from the State of Blogosphere 2009 report, showing the statistics of bloggers’ age and gender.

stats of bloggers' age and gender

source : www.technorati.com

stats of time spent on blogging
source : www.technorati.com

According to Autumn Morris, the latest blogging trends around the globe are such as Blogger and Wordpress, who’s bloggers increase rapidly in years. She also stated that new sites like Tumblr and Posterous are gaining audiences rapidly too. (2010) In 2008, most Malaysians are blogging at Wordpress with more than 1.5 Million users. (Santosa, L. 2009)

average percentage of blog types.
source : http://modernl.com/article/leading-average-top-blog-trends

Based on the statistics by Stuart Brown in 2006, the top 3 prevalent blog types are technology, politics and general blogs. In Malaysia, the most prevalent blog will be personal, technology and politic blogs. (2007) Taking political blogs as example, the beneftis from prevalent blogs to the community is that, bloggers are free to voice out freely regarding political issues without restrictions. (Catone, J. 2008) Besides, politicians are also free to give opinions on blogs, where internet is a world without boundaries, news can spread faster.

Reference List

1. Sussman, M. 2009, 'SOTB 2009 Day 1: Who are The Bloggers?' Technorati, 19 October, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-1-who-are-the-bloggers1/ >

2. McLean, J. 2009, 'SOTB 2009 Introduction.' Technorati, 19 October, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009-introduction/ >

3. Singer, A. 2009, 'Social Media, Web 2.0 And Internet Stats,' 12 January, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/12/social-media-web-20-internet-numbers-stats/ >

4. Morris, A. 2010, '2010 Blogging Trends: There's Only Enough Room in the Blogosphere for the 144 Million of Us,' 5 August, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2010-blogging-trends-blog-growth-statistics/ >

5. Santosa, L. 2009, 'Malaysia: Emerging Trends in Social Media,' 15 November, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://comm215.wetpaint.com/page/Malaysia%3A+Emerging+Trends+in+Social+Media >

6. Brown, S. 2006, 'Leading Average: Top Blog Trends,' 12 November, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://modernl.com/article/leading-average-top-blog-trends >

7. Catone, J. 2008, 'In Malaysia, Bloggers Become Politicians,' 26 February, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/malaysian_bloggers_become_politicians.php >