Friday, July 7, 2006
What is a weblog (blog)?
A weblog - blog, for short - is a way for a person to communicate thoughts, ideas and information to others (i.e. family, friends, colleagues, the profession, etc.). Joan again has a very concise definition in ODLIS. The Wikipedia has a very nice entry about blogs providing history, types, legal issues, etc.
Why are they useful?
A blog can give you a place to record and publish your random thoughts and ideas, and sometimes solicit feedback and response. A person who would not have access to the general public normally can reach the entire world with the click of a button. Reading blogs - especially those written by visionaries or leaders in their fields - can be an easy way of keeping up-to-date with issues, technology, ideas. Blogs can be produced at a moment's notice and are much less formal than published/printed information, and therefore, they are much more timely.
Reading blogs
It's easy! Just find the ones you are interested in, point your browser and you are off! Libdex maintains a fairly comprehensive list of library-related blogs all over the world, and you can search for blogs on other topics by simply adding the word "blog" to your search.
Writing blogs
This is also pretty easy. We can set up a local blog here for you, or you can use one of the commercial sites such as Blogger or Wordpress to get started. Once you get your free account with one of these sites, you can choose a layout and just start typing!
What is RSS?
RSS has a number of possible translations... real simple syndication, rich site summary, RDF site summary. All mean basically the same thing: RSS provides a format through which you can get "feeds" from your favorite blogs or news sites. So, if you find yourself overwhelmed with the number of blogs you want to read, you can get yourself an aggregator (or reader) and have the newest entries delivered to you on your desktop.
Getting an RSS reader
There are two possibilities: download an RSS client, or use a web-based client. Below are listed some of the most popular web-based, and we will begin with those.