TechSpeak: Blogs
By Ardee Aram
Blog. I would bet that every internet-savvy user has heard or encountered the word at least once, and maybe just bumped unknowingly into one while mindlessly roaming the Net. For the uninitiated, and for those who still think that a blog is a cold leftover of spaghetti and meatballs from yesterday's party ready to be thrown to the dogs (believe me, I did believe that once), allow me to introduce you to another Techspeak-ese: Blog (noun) [short for Weblog] (1999) : a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.
-- Merriam-Webster http://www.m-w.com/info/04words.htm More formally known as a weblog, blogs are web applications which contain periodic "posts" (or online articles) from a certain source or sources. These serve as public diaries for common users to express their opinions of just about anything and everything under the sun. Topics cover a very wide base, and articles could range from the very mundane like one's tummy-ache, pictures of your kettle, or one's new mouse pad, to the critical, like movements for open-sourcing, criticisms of the goverment, and information dissemination on Senate Bills. Not only the topics but even the authors come from a wide range of spectrum. Be it from the field of politics, the arts, engineering, or research, from people of the age of 9 to 79, these people could post their innermost thoughts to be broadcasted over the World Wide Web. The Dawn of Blogging These online journals have existed far beyond the graphical-based Internet that everyone is familiar with. Back in the 1990's when the Internet was still young, and when the only access to the Net was through a "command line" (as the name implies, a line where a user can input text commands for the computer to execute), there already existed media where ideas and opinions flowed. Emails and forums served as a virtual room for every user to chat on just about anything, and up to the time of this writing these technologies still serve their purpose. It was around 1993 when graphical user interface web browsers became popular, but web publishing during that time was tedious and required rigorous knowledge of HTML to effectively post an article, and that didn't contribute at all to the popularity of those online journals. Interestingly, precursors of blogging tools were already being developed due to the needs of webmasters to maintain an often-updated "What's new" page, a section of their website dedicated to track changes and developments about their websites and their company. Several institutions that used these tools for such purpose include The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA, 1993) and Netscape (1993). These web-based journals slowly caught the eye of the public, and by December 1997 Jorn Barger coined the term "weblog", defined as: "...often-updated sites that point to articles elsewhere on the web, often with comments, and to on-site articles. A weblog is kind of a continual tour, with a human guide [whom] you get to know. There are many guides to choose from and each develops an audience. There's camaraderie and politics between the people who run weblogs. They point to each other in all kinds of structures, graphs, loops, etc." The shortened version of the word was coined by Peter Merholz who "in April or May of 1999 broke the word weblog into the phrase 'we blog' in the sidebar of his weblog". It was also during this year that Pyra (now under Google) released Blogger, a web-based blogging tool known for its user-friendliness and ease of use, designed to cater to a wide base of audience. It was said that the influence of weblogs came into its the fore before and during the attack of the United States against Iraq in 2002. Though it wasn't the first time that the online community became political, it was during this time that everyone felt the political pressure that could be mounted through blogs. These political bloggers' agenda was and is to rationalize and support the war being fought by the USA. Be a Blogger The UP Parser reviews several blogging tools and services popular in the World Wide Web:
By Ardee Aram
Blog. I would bet that every internet-savvy user has heard or encountered the word at least once, and maybe just bumped unknowingly into one while mindlessly roaming the Net. For the uninitiated, and for those who still think that a blog is a cold leftover of spaghetti and meatballs from yesterday's party ready to be thrown to the dogs (believe me, I did believe that once), allow me to introduce you to another Techspeak-ese: Blog (noun) [short for Weblog] (1999) : a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.
-- Merriam-Webster http://www.m-w.com/info/04words.htm More formally known as a weblog, blogs are web applications which contain periodic "posts" (or online articles) from a certain source or sources. These serve as public diaries for common users to express their opinions of just about anything and everything under the sun. Topics cover a very wide base, and articles could range from the very mundane like one's tummy-ache, pictures of your kettle, or one's new mouse pad, to the critical, like movements for open-sourcing, criticisms of the goverment, and information dissemination on Senate Bills. Not only the topics but even the authors come from a wide range of spectrum. Be it from the field of politics, the arts, engineering, or research, from people of the age of 9 to 79, these people could post their innermost thoughts to be broadcasted over the World Wide Web. The Dawn of Blogging These online journals have existed far beyond the graphical-based Internet that everyone is familiar with. Back in the 1990's when the Internet was still young, and when the only access to the Net was through a "command line" (as the name implies, a line where a user can input text commands for the computer to execute), there already existed media where ideas and opinions flowed. Emails and forums served as a virtual room for every user to chat on just about anything, and up to the time of this writing these technologies still serve their purpose. It was around 1993 when graphical user interface web browsers became popular, but web publishing during that time was tedious and required rigorous knowledge of HTML to effectively post an article, and that didn't contribute at all to the popularity of those online journals. Interestingly, precursors of blogging tools were already being developed due to the needs of webmasters to maintain an often-updated "What's new" page, a section of their website dedicated to track changes and developments about their websites and their company. Several institutions that used these tools for such purpose include The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA, 1993) and Netscape (1993). These web-based journals slowly caught the eye of the public, and by December 1997 Jorn Barger coined the term "weblog", defined as: "...often-updated sites that point to articles elsewhere on the web, often with comments, and to on-site articles. A weblog is kind of a continual tour, with a human guide [whom] you get to know. There are many guides to choose from and each develops an audience. There's camaraderie and politics between the people who run weblogs. They point to each other in all kinds of structures, graphs, loops, etc." The shortened version of the word was coined by Peter Merholz who "in April or May of 1999 broke the word weblog into the phrase 'we blog' in the sidebar of his weblog". It was also during this year that Pyra (now under Google) released Blogger, a web-based blogging tool known for its user-friendliness and ease of use, designed to cater to a wide base of audience. It was said that the influence of weblogs came into its the fore before and during the attack of the United States against Iraq in 2002. Though it wasn't the first time that the online community became political, it was during this time that everyone felt the political pressure that could be mounted through blogs. These political bloggers' agenda was and is to rationalize and support the war being fought by the USA. Be a Blogger The UP Parser reviews several blogging tools and services popular in the World Wide Web:
- Blogger (http://blogspot.com) is a popular blogging service offered by Google. It has a very straighforward and easy interface, allowing writers who aren't computer-fluent to do what he or she does best, that is, writing. It has a very minimalistic approach which attracts many writers, since it encourage readers to focuses on the meat of the work, and not the color combination of their site. Large default text makes it very readable and very friendly to people with nonperfect vision. For the control- and customize-freak, it has an easy to edit template so that the user can add several functionalites like a chatbox, hit counters, and picture galleries.
- Blogdrive (http://blogdrive.com) is another blogging service that seems to attract a large audience. It is a featured-pack blogging application complete with calendar, quote of the day, and built-in chat box. It has a sleek futuristic feel, and has the ability to host pictures. Though one can claim that the text has been made too small, one could argue that this has been done for aesthetic purposes.
- WordPress (http://wordpress.org) is a blogging tool for advanced users. Unlike the previous blog services, this has to be installed manually on a HTTP server with PHP support running on MySQL database server. Though the concept of manual installation would scare off most people, the benefits of this setup would be the absolute control over your site, which includes on what machine your articles would be placed, what URL your site would be located, and many more. Like Blogger, WordPress has a no-fancy-we-mean-business air, and its minimalistic design and large text makes it a pleasure to read a "Wordpressed" site for hours.
- http://parserblog.blogspot.com - The official blog of The UP Parser. The programmer-journalists have invaded the blogging scene.
- http://claustrophobic.blogspot.com - A sneakpeek to the world of unchained minds and scattered thoughts. Created and maintained by the Tech Editor.
- http://corsarius.blogspot.com - The Editor-in-Chief's Slip of the Pen. Vae victis -- woe to the vanquished.
- http://dogtag.blogspot.com - One of our Feature Editors is turning twenty-one...rather, 10101.
- http://durungawan.blogspot.com - From the author of the last blog, but now in deep Tagalog.
- http://infobuilder.blogspot.com - Welcome to the Information Age and the blog of one of our Managing Editors.
- http://transience.last-waltz.net - The Layout Head is in Transience...Transcendence.
- http://www.livejournal.com/users/carlooos - Based on the true story of another Managing Editor. Trademarked.
- http://www.livejournal.com/users/crimson_parsley - One of our new writers asks the most thought-provoking question of all -- How do you make Crimson Parsley?