Come On… Let’s Blog!

1. Come On…Let’s Blog! Lloyd Borrett www.borrett.id.auWednesday, 6th October 2004

2. Agenda • What’s a blog? • Why blog? • Building your blog • Melb PC member blogs • What is RSS? • What are news aggregators? • Summary • Questions and answers

3. What’s a blog? Lloyd Borrettwww.borrett.id.au

4. What’s a blog? This is not a blog!

5. What’s a blog? This is also not a blog!

6. Definitions • weblog • weblogs are frequently updated web pages structured chronologically — newest items usually listed first — often contain links to other web sites along with personal commentary • blog • short form of weblog — sometimes used to distinguish between the definition of a weblog as a list of links and more personal blogs • blog, blogging • v. to create, write, or publish a weblog or blog • blogger • person who blogs, a weblog editor

7. http://www.lazygnome.net/

8. http://www.cookingforengineers.com/

9. http://www.powazek.com/justathought/

10. http://j-walkblog.com/blog/index

11. http://pbase.com/jwalk

12. http://slashdot.org/

13. http://www.microsoft-watch.com/

14. The Banner Sidebar Blog Entry / Post Anatomy of a blog

15. Search BlogArchives Anatomy of a blog — 2

16. CalendarView RSSSyndication Anatomy of a blog — 3

17. My passions/interests blogMy musing and ideas blog Consumer Online journalNews blog Media Expert knowledge (k-blog)Project managementCustomer communication Competitive intelligence Business Types of blogs

18. http://www.google.com/googleblog/

19. www.markcarey.com/googleguy-says/

20. http://www.markme.com/cantrel/

21. http://blogs.msdn.com/bloggers.aspx

22. http://msdn.microsoft.com/blogs/ericr/

23. Why blog? Lloyd Borrettwww.borrett.id.au

24. Popular view of blogs • Radically cool • Unique to the Web • Democratising/socially transformative • Interlinked— a blog is part of the “Blogosphere” • Knowledge creating • A spreading influential “movement” with an illustrious future

25. “E-mail publishes to a select group, the content is free-form, haphazard, and unrestricted. The problem is that e-mail has little ‘memory’ (you cant refer to a previous e-mail) and no permanence (an e-mail doesn't park itself on your intranet, to be seen, shared, repurposed, etc.. for later use).” • Jordan Frank,Traction Software Blogs vs. e-mail • A mailing-list is also a great place for community discussion, but flames and noise can be a problem • Spam is making e-mailless and less valuable • E-mail can complement blogs • Blogging via e-mail • Mailing-list to weblog gateways • Comment notification via e-mail

26. Blogs vs. newsgroups • Threaded newsgroups and web forums are a great place for community discussions, but flames and noise can drive people away • Blogs provide an opt-in model — you only read, subscribe and link to blogs you like • Forums can complement blogs — a threaded forum could be used for blog comments

27. “The vanity page is dead; long live the Blog. The vanity web page has lost momentum. People who posted one have already done so, and the growth has slowed. Most are uninteresting and uninspired. Cat pictures dominate too many of them.” – John Dvorak Blogs vs. web pages • Project and group web pages always seem to grow stale • Generally speaking, web pages are static and difficult to update • This is true even in a web savvy group with great web design/editing tools • Blogs are easy to keep up to date and require no special publishing tools • Blogs replace “home pages”

28. Blogs vs. Wikis • Wikis provide: • A collaborative space for a community • Anybody can edit or add any page via web interface • Super simple syntax means no need for knowledge of HTML • Wikis can function as blogs and can produce RSS feeds • Wikis and blogs are easily integrated

29. Blog E Blog B Easy Community Publishing Blog C Blog A Blog G Blog D Blog F Primary community Secondary community Aggregator Blogging is cool • Easy publishing • Community formation • Aggregation

30. Blog as community “It’s this multitude [of separate sites] that gives the weblog community model it’s strength. Because a person has control over his own piece of community landscape, he feels a powerful ownership of his space that’s lacking in traditional community sites.” Design For Community, Derek Powazekhttp://www.powazek.com/

31. Blogging is easy • Building a blog is as easy assurfing the web • You don’t have to learn HTML • An e-mail can become a web page • And… it is FREE! So… setup a blog as apersonal or business web site

32. Requirements to blog • Access to the Internet • Time to write • Something to say?

33. Building your blog Lloyd Borrettwww.borrett.id.au

34. What you need to blog? • Hosted • Blogger / Blogspot — www.blogger.com • Typepad — www.typepad.com • Desktop • Radio UserLand — radio.userland.com • Server • Moveable Type — www.movabletype.org • PHP Nuke — phpnuke.org • WordPress — wordpress.org

35. browseror e-mail Your Blog Hosted blog — basic

36. Setup your blog / web sitein 5 minutes using Blogger www.blogger.com

37. http://www.blogger.com/start

38. Create a Blogger account

39. Name your blog

40. Choose a template

41. Creating your blog

42. Your blog created!

43. Create a blog post

44. Basic blog example

45. http://www.lisa-aus.blogspot.com

46. http://ash-nallawalla.blogspot.com/

47. browseror e-mail FTP Your Blog Hosted blog — advanced AdvancedBlogSetup Web site — index.htmlBlog — blog.html

48. Advanced blog setup

49. “Set up your own blog using Blogger”by Lloyd Borrett • Print:PC Update, August 2004 • Online:PC Update web site • Download:1.2 Mb Adobe PDF fileat www.borrett.id.au

50. Melb PC member’s Blogger based advanced blogs Lloyd Borrettwww.borrett.id.au