Blogging becomes a buzz-word [Archives:2005/882/Education]
BY TUSHAR SHRIVASTAVA
[email protected]
RAMKRISHNA MISSION ASHRAM SCHOOL
KATIHAR, BIHAR (INDIA)
The term weblog, or blog, was first used by Jorn Barger of the Robot Wisdom Log in 1997 to describe personal sites that are continuously updated with commentary and links. However, the first weblog on the Internet was launched by Scripting News in 1994. This longest-running blog has industry news, interesting tidbits, and a good deal of entertaining fare. Now, Blogs, or online personal diaries, are going mainstream. Although it is still a relatively small piece of total online activity, blogging has caught on with cyber savvy netizens. “Blogs are enabling people to have a conversation with a much wider audience,” says Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney with a group that monitors internet use and privacy rights. ” They are saying the same things that people would routinely say around the water cooler, only now they're saying them in a forum that can be read by millions of people.” With a new Google specialty search engine which sifts through millions of frequently updated personal journals on the Internet,. 'blogging' has come into the cultural mainstream.It was a long-awaited cyber innovation. The new tool, which got going recently at http://blogsearch.google.com, focuses exclusively on the material contained in the journals known as weblogs, or blogs.
Who are webloggers or bloggers? They are online journal writers and readers. They share their views and interests with all who have access to the Internet.A weblog is a Web site used for personal purposes. The site writer gathers information from different sources as well as web pages about a subject or a variety of subjects. Web surfers also add to the information. Thus the information is regularly updated with new entries. This unconventional resource centre is user-friendly. It provides links to information on a particular subject in a way and on a scale which traditional media can't do.The Weblogs run by noted writers have formed e-communities. For example, Metafilter.com maintained by Matt Haughey selects information from the day's main story on the web. The items packaged include graphic content too.
Blogging has begun to revolutionise the media world.It has empowered journalists and independent writers.The cost of publishing is incredibly low.The information supplemented by the readers makes the blogged entries a real mine of information.Never before could one's views and comments reach so widely. Never ever could the readers have access to so many sources just with the click of mouse.While reading the blogs, the readers are not away from the writers . They can respond, react to the items instantly in black and white. If comments are invited, the writer and the online audience become like seminar participants. Blog portals offer productive and enabling opportunities to creative writers. Through this widely accessible platform they can experiment, refine and assess their inputs. Of course, the opinions on the weblog are not always vetted and carefully posted. None the less, there is variety.
With the Blogger software launched in 1999, weblogs have become increasingly popular among the Internet users. The Filter-style weblogs offer glimpses of the content on the web, while the blogger-style weblog is like a personal diary which the blogger shares with the online audience. The growth of Blogging requires adequate net infrastructure and data-carrying communication cables. The growing blogging community in India has a directory of its own at Blogspot.com, where Indian bloggers and geeks post a mass of interesting and useful information.Although the Indian blogs are still limited in their reach, they display more variety with local colour and flavour as compared to the American ones.
The day is not far when blogging will overtake traditional media.
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