The Blogging Explosion Libraries and Weblogs Darlene Fichter University of Saskatchewan Computers in Libraries Washington, DC March 14, 2003

Overview What are blogs? A little history Blog dissection class Blogs & emergent information Blog features and software 10 ways to use a blog How to find out more

What is it? Blog / Weblog is A web page containing brief entries arranged chronologically Can be like A journal or diary ‘What’s New’ page Interesting links page “To me, the blog concept is about three things: Frequency, Brevity, and Personality.” Evan Williams (creator of Blogger)

Terminology Blogger – person who maintains a blog Blogging – the act of creating a blog Blogrolling – moving from blog to blog Blogrolodex – a listing of other blogs Blogorrhea – hundreds of posts per day about anything Blawgs, Klogs … See discussion of terminology on MetaFilter

A peek at the past NCSA’s What’s New page June 1993 NCSA’s What’s New page June 1993 Netscape’s What’s New Librarians' Site du Jour – Jenny Levine, 1995 Librarians' Site du Jour Dave Winer 1996 Cam World 1997 Created and coded by hand Simple chronological lists

Librarian’s Site du Jour November 30, You've used their publication manual, now visit their web site. Yes the American Psychological Association has launched PsychNET, with lots of good stuff for non- APA members … PsychNET

Blogs today Range from the simple to the sophisticated Few features to chalk full on add- ons and little wizards Interesting and useful to mundane and completely irrelevant

Blogging explosion Tools that made it easy to publish No need to know HTML No need to know FTP Add / edit content anywhere, anytime Dozens of features – dynamic, quick and easy to develop Millions?? worldwide Can you guess what South American country is a hotbed for blogs?

In the limelight Lots of media hype Google bought blogger Tripod, the Web publishing unit of Terra Lycos AOL is supposed to provide tools

Dissecting a web log beSpacific.com Accurate, focused law and technology news

Blog entry

Other features Time stamp Comments Draft mode Timed release

Blogging add-ons MyMediaList manage book, music lists AudioBlogger & AudBlog AudioBloggerAudBlog phone and leave audio clips Bloglet set up a subscribers option Blogarithm blogs that changed each day Blogrolling Bookmarklet to add links

Pop open the hood

3. Post and publish

Feature rich blogs Powered by PHP, perl or some other scripting language and back-end database Two examples: Movable Type Pmachine

Pluses Timely Get to the point Quick to skim “Human filter” Contextualized What’s “Hot”

Minuses ROT Redundant All posting the same stuff Obsolete Links expire Best before date! Trivia “my cat coughed up a fluff ball” Misinformation Rigor of validating information (rumor) varies greatly Bias

Resource for emergent information Source for “emergent information” Many times daily Often before it hits the newsstands e.g. Viruses and hacks – slashdot Biz News – Jeremy Allaire’s Talks about the fact he is leaving Macromedia Nothing official on Macromedia site where it says he’s CTO

Searching blogs Google indexes many Rise of “Google bombs” – a brilliant gag by Adam Mathes called his friend a “talentless hack”brilliant gag Directories at Blogdex (MIT) Blogdexhttp://blogdex.media.mit.edu Linkhype Popdex Linkhype Popdex Ecosystem Daypop Waypath Blogwise – geographic categorical index Blogwise

Choosing a blogging solution Lots of options Dive in and try a few for free: Blogger, Onclave,Web Crimson

Types of blogs Solo Community blogs Slashdot – news for nerds LISNews.com

Hosted locally or remotely Hosted Antville Blogger LiveJournal Onclave Local Server PMachine Movable Type Grey Matter BlogComp

Client solutions Clients FogCreek’s CityDesk, Windows Eastgate’s Tinderbox, Macintosh

Just a few of the factors Types of blog Features and functions Server platform Unix or Windows or MAC IT help Scripting languages Security and privacy Blogging Software for Intranet Applications. ONLINE, January 2003

10 ways to use blogs 1. New Stuff to Share Recommend internet sites & tools

Promote it! 2. Marketing Promote library events and programs Let visitors subscribe via Distribute headlines (RSS) My Pick: Announce movies, link to trailers, reviews

Get interactive 3. Talk back Books you like Let users post reviews and comments

10 ways … 4. Staff development Fact sheets on new electronic resources Tips and tricks 5. Share knowledge - KM Best practices – “know-how” Use for a committee, enable the “comment feature” Presentation Blogging for Knowledge ExchangeBlogging for Knowledge Exchange

IT and budget crunch? 6. Automate Managing Links Track web site links under review for adding to catalog or best sites Tips: Enable the comment button. Choose a blog that archives by “topic” and use it for your links

10 ways … 7. Professional / personal development Reflective nature, adds focus 8. Résumé Professional blog Write about your interests and what you find interesting

Solve overload 9. Project Tracking and Management Provides a record in one place for a team of decisions, next steps Points for discussion or comment

Be a leader 10. Community information Collect and syndicate local [city] news and events or university or college happenings Be everywhere.

Blogging and libraries Lots of opportunities for libraries and librarians Lightweight content management solution Easy to publish Inexpensive (free) Multiple contributors Lighten web maintenance workload

Library related blogs Gary Price – The ResourceShelfThe ResourceShelf Jenny Levine - Shifted LibrarianShifted Librarian Jessamyn West - librarian.netlibrarian.net Stephen Cohen – Librarystuff.netLibrarystuff.net Complete List of Library blogs For fun type in “librarian” in Google

Finding out more Weblogs Compendium Articles: Darlene Fichter - Blogging Your Life Away. ONLINE, May, 2001 Darlene Fichter Darlene Fichter. Blogging Software for Intranet Applications. ONLINE, January 2003

Thank you! Darlene Fichter University of Saskatchewan Library