What is a Weblog?

A weblog (aka Blog) is a live online journal that can be easily and instantly updated. A Blog can be a frequently posted list of interesting web sites, or a personal diary of events and thoughts, or a combination of the two (among many other things.) The newborn publishing world of weblogs seems to be having a significant impact on digital culture, communication, education, and publication. The best proof of impact at the moment is the proliferation of Election and Political Blogs that have sprung up around presidential candidates, parties, and news agencies.

Bloggers are constantly defining and debating the definition of a weblog, as well as presenting their reasons for keeping a blog. Read on.

“2. A blog is a love letter, scribbled on three-hole paper and scrunched up all sweaty in your hand that you try to pass to the cutest looking guy in class and he drops it and walks on it and then your friend goes to retrieve it and bring it back to you, unread while you die a thousand deaths.”

Halley Suitt

What is a Weblog? Links

jill/txt: final version of weblog definition
“Right, this is my final draft of my entry on weblogs for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory.”
This is an entry From Jill Walkerís weblog jill/txt.

What makes a weblog a weblog?
“At Berkman we're studying weblogs, how they’re used, and what they are. Rather than saying ‘I know it when I see it’ I wanted to list all the known features of weblog software, but more important, get to the heart of what a weblog is, and how a weblog is different from a Wiki, or a news site managed with software like Vignette or Interwoven.”
From Dave Winer at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

Deep Thinking about Weblogs
“Weblogs are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore for those of us who spend much time reading the Web. Also known by the inscrutable nickname ‘blogs’, weblogs are something of a hard nut to crack. Compounding the difficulty is the fact that a great deal of weblog content today is about weblogs and weblog technology. What are weblogs? What’s the big deal? Why should we pay attention?”
From Andrew Grumet.

Media Matters. Blogosphere | PBS
“Once Upon a Blog. A long time ago, in the hazy middle years of the decade nineteen-hundred-and-ninety, between the darkest reaches of dial-up and the Ethernet, a creature was born. It was not of this earth but, rather, the first-born child of the Internet. Its name was ... blog.”
From PBS Online.

weezBlog: First Person Narrative
“This is what I’ve come up with... Blogs are a first person narrative in real time.”
From Elouise Oyzonís weezBlog.

An introduction to terms for weblog readers
“So, here’s my brief guide to weblog terms for readers, not webloggersÖ”
From Phil Gyford: Writing.

Halley's Comment
“1. A weblog (or blog) is a daily online diary on the Net where you write and publish at the near-same moment to a few million of your closest friends, except only about 20 people actually read what you write. Each entry is called a ‘post’ and the person writing a weblog (or 'blog') is called a ‘weblogger’ or ‘blogger.’”
From Halley Suitt’s Weblog Halley's Comment

What the hell is a Weblog?
“And through it all, I drew my inspiration from the cacophony of personal voices I found online. Here was the mother lode of personal expression ‚ the one place in our lives that we (as people lucky enough to have access) can say whatever we want about anything we want. This was the anti-television. Digital democracy.” From Derek M. Powazek: Author, Designer, Troublemaker, Person.

What the hell is a Weblog? You tell me.
Bloggers respond to Derek’s essay.

Samizdata.net — Blog Glossary
“This is a glossary of blog terminology, including obscure words directly related to blogging and expressions commonly encountered in the blogosphere (qv) which might be obscure to the uninitiated.”