Some weblogs are also places where people can gather to ask questions and discuss.
Personal Weblogs
Weblogs, aka blogs, are usually thought of as online diaries or web journals where the author comments day-by-day on news and topics of personal interest. These are personal publishing ventures. The last year (2002 - 2003) has seen a tremendous growth in their numbers - easily into hundreds of thousands - boosted even more during the War on Iraq. There are blogs written by journalists, lawyers, librarians, educators, doctors, politicians, students, and all the regular jos. Some have a good following. These blogs have an immediacy and in some case an expertise that can be quite valuable.
Not all weblogs are first person singular. There are collaborative versions where many people can participate, adding comments and asking questions. These may still be controlled by an editor and won't be as free-wheeling as message boards.
Group Weblog
The group weblog might also be called collaborative news site, peer-to-peer news portal, or an open blog.
Poynter Online has an E-media Tidbits weblog. As they say -- "A group weblog by the sharpest minds in online media/journalism/publishing" from a group of journalists" . Contributors are listed on the side panel. Readers may post feedback to a message board.
MetaFilter is a "community blog", "self-policing since 1999". It has over 17,000 members. Everything is discussed here. People do seem to try to stick with "intelligent and civil".
Kuro5hin (pronounced corrosion) is also very popular. It has "technology and culture from the trenches".
Exercise: Find Group Weblogs
A few key terms combined with your subject will likely find a weblog, and possibly a open blog where you can participate too.
Directory
Daypop.com lists the Top Blogs and Big Blogs by analyzing links to the blogs. Many of these are the community type.
Google Web Directory has a list of collaborative weblogs under Computers > Internet > On_the_Web > Weblogs > Collaborative
Yahoo Directory has a similar list -- Computers and Internet > Internet > World Wide Web > Weblogs > Collaborative Weblogs.
Web Search
However, you can also simply search Google for "community blog" OR "group weblog" OR "open blog" <your topic> and get some good hits.
Personal Blogs - Examples Lawrence
Lessig Professor of Law at Stanford University Dave Barry Blog Humourist (davebarry.blogspot.com) Northern Iraq and
Beyond - By Stuart Hughes during the War on Iraq Pepys Diary - the
re-created diary of Samuel Pepys from the 1600s in England. For an overview of weblogs and how to find them see the WSG newsletter Weblog Power |
More Group Blogs Boing
Boing - A Directory of Wonderful Things Sci-Fi
Today - Fiction becomes reality WebMasterWorld - News and discussion for the advanced web
professional - covers many subjects and imports feeds from other blogs. |
Personal Knowledge Publishing Personal Knowledge Publishing and its Uses in Research
Sebastien Paquet - 2 parts (Jan 2003) - describes weblogs and their uses
including personal knowledge publishing, communication and networking. |
Where to next?
Review the main points about conferences in this Quiz.