Entries in "Blogging" ( for this category only)

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State of the Blogosphere 2010

Technorati every year puts out a report that discusses information and lessons about blogging and people that blog.

See: State of the Blogosphere 2010

Welcome to Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2010 report. Since 2004, our annual study has followed growth and trends in the blogosphere. For 2010, we took a deeper dive into the entire blogosphere, with a focus on female bloggers. This year's topics include: brands embracing social media, traditional media vs. social media, brands working with bloggers, monetization, smartphone and tablet usage, importance of Twitter and Facebook, niche blogging, and changes within the blogosphere over 2010.

Past reports are also available.

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Video - Twitter: discover what's new in your world

Twitter is considered "microblogging" since your posts are limited to 140 characters.

In future Learning 2.0 @ CWRU blog entries, Twitter and other status update services will be discussed and examples shared.

For now, this video provides some insights into the world of Twitter.

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CaseLearns: Understanding RSS Feeds (October 28, 2010)

Consider signing up for a CaseLearns class to learn more about web 2.0 tools, techniques, and strategies.

CaseLearns: Understanding RSS Feeds
October 28, 2010
11:00am-Noon
This class session will be offered totally online using Adobe Connect. It will consist of a presentation, including time for questions from participants. Registration will close 48 hours before the scheduled time, so that email invitations can be sent with log-in instructions. Learn about RSS and how it has changed the information world. We will explore what options are available to access RSS feeds (readers or aggregators), how KSL and Case are using RSS feeds, and look at various RSS feeds and other resources available for free on the Internet or within our library databases.

To see the full schedule and sign-up, please visit the CaseLearns webpage.

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Book: Introduction to Web 2.0

The following book is available through the Kelvin Smith Library:

Introduction to Web 2.0 / Alan Evans, Diane Coyle
Kelvin Smith Stacks TK5105.88817.E93 2010
See full catalog entry for details and holdings information.

From book description:

Introduction to Web 2.0 is part of an academic series that covers material on Web 2.0.

Blogs — Intro; Podcasting (Audio and Video); RSS Feeds; Blogs — Intermediate; Wikis; Wasting Time with Social Networks

MARKET: This presents key information on Web 2.0 and encourages hands-on learning throughout the material.

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CaseLearns: Basics of Blogging

Consider signing up for a CaseLearns class to learn more about web 2.0 tools, techniques, and strategies.

CaseLearns: Basics of Blogging
October 12, 2010
10:30am-Noon
Learn about blogs, their various uses, and best practices to implementing your own blog. Explore various examples in action. Hands-on will get you started on Blog@Case and/or other alternatives like Blogger.

To see the full schedule and sign-up, please visit the CaseLearns webpage.

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Bloggers beware: Teacher learns hard way to watch what she posts

The Cleveland Plain Dealer on June 16th shared an article called Bloggers beware: Teacher learns hard way to watch what she posts, which describes consequences of her blog posts on her employment.

This example did have other circumstances such as parental influences and other communications.

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Blog@Case

Case offers a blogging platform for all Case students, staff, and faculty, called Blog@Case. It is powered by MovableType, which is probably one of the top blogging platforms being used. In the future, the Learning 2.0 @ CWRU blog will provide additional information about MovableType such as template and tricks to customize your blog.

The Blog@Case Directory lists all existing blogs on the Case system.

Planet Case is an aggregation of all of the recent blog posts of the Case Blog system. It is a wonderful way to see what the Case community is talking about, learning, researching, etc.

At Blog@Case: Topics, you have see a "tag cloud" that represents the hot topics in the last 30 days on the Case blog system. We will talk about "tagging" and tag clouds later. For now, just realize that the larger the word is in the tag cloud means it was used more.

For additional information if you have a Case blog or are considering starting one, you can look at Blog@Case FAQ or the Case Blog Cheat Sheet.

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Blogs in Plain English

Are you a visual learner? Here is a video that demonstrates blogging.

Commoncraft has put together many of these short and easy to understand videos about web 2.0 technologies. Their videos can be found on YouTube or their own website.

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Blogger Tour

Blogger is a free service to start your own blog. They host it for you and provide a simple interface so you can get started fast. It is owned by Google.

We will talk more about Blogger later, but in the mean time consider taking a few minutes to explore their Blogger: Tour. It highlights what is a blog, why people blog, and examples of how Blogger works.

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State of the Blogosphere

Why blog?

There are many reasons people and organizations blog, such as:

• personal enjoyment,
• sharing,
• announcements or PR,
• documentation,
• collaboration,
• training,
• research,
• and many more.

If you are considering creating a blog or what to understand more about the blogging process, read Technorati's State of the Blogosphere annual reports from October 2004 to today. The reports document how people blog, why people blog, and the results of blogging through statistical data and interviews.

Technorati is a blog search engine that will be covered in more detail in a later blog post.

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What is a blog?

Blogs are still quite misunderstood by many, probably due to the original usage of blogs. When most people hear "blog", they think of reading someone's online diary that contains all their challenges, activities, and reflections on life. This is only one usage of blogs that exist today.

Lets start from scratch...

From the Oxford English Dictionary (available online to the Case community):

• Weblog was the original term and appeared in 1997 as it relates to the history of blogs.
• Weblog is "a frequently updated web site consisting of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, etc., typically run by a single person, and usually with hyperlinks to other sites; an online journal or diary".
• Blog is the shorten version of weblog and appeared in 1999.

When I teach about blogging, I often define blogs using the following common traits:

• website,
• organized by dated entries,
• contains an archives functionality,
• provides a RSS feed (RSS feeds will be explored in future Learning 2.0 @ CWRU blog entries.),
• and contains many entries with links out to elsewhere on the web.

Of course these common traits may be manipulated by the creator, but these represent the typical blog and its functionality. In addition blogs contain other traits such as:

• managed by a software application that can be installed on your own server or hosted by one of many web providers,
• little or no web programming knowledge needed depending on the choices made by the creator,
• and blog entries can be organized by categories or tags (Tagging will be explored in future Learning 2.0 @ CWRU blog entries.).

In the future, we will explore why to use a blog, how to create a blog, and many examples of blogs in action.