j’s scratchpad

Click more for the outline for the first session of the blogging class I taught in December at the Boston Center for Adult Education.

Welcome to the first week of Building a Blog at the Boston Center for Adult Education!

Below is an outline of what we might cover in class today.

Building a Blog: Week 1
Jessica Baumgart
Boston Center for Adult Education
December 1, 2007

The World As a Blog: http://www.brainoff.com/geoblog/

My Credentials

• Started blogging in April 2003
• Work with Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s blogging initiative
• Co-coordinate Berkman’s Thursday night blog group
• Have contributed to many blogs using different blog software

This Week

• Talk about weblogs, XML feeds, blog search engines, finding blogs, where to go for help, how to start blogging, and what to post and not to post
• Break
• Hands-on with our class weblog

Next Week

• We’ll cover how to find and select content, tagging, copyright law, cyberbullying, Web 2.0, tools, marketing the weblog, search engine optimization
• Break
• Hands-on with the class weblog

Raise Your Hand If You …

• Know what weblogs are
• Read blogs
• Blog
• Blog anonymously
• Are here because you personally want to learn more
• Are here because your employer is considering or already using the technology

Why Should We Care?

• Weblogs are great and powerful
• We can consume the products of blogs, as well as use them for our own purposes

What is a Weblog?

Weblogs

• Specialized Web sites with one or several authors
• Can be about anything
• Definitions vary, but features often include short posts, links to other sites, and comments
• Can be hosted, run on own server, on intranet

Blogs’ Reach

• Blog –> one person
• Blog –> many people
  • Blog –> many people –> many blogs
• Community blogs –> many people

Technical Details

• Blog software enables easy updating of Web pages
• Bloggers don’t necessarily have to know HTML
• There are many different kinds of blogs, different kinds of platforms for blogging

Why Blog?

• Communication
• Knowledge management
• Annotated list of links
• Networking
• Community building
• Sharing sources
• Easy to archive and retrieve material

Why Read Blogs?

• News
• Professional development
• Time management
• Get someone else’s perspective, view of the world

Examples

The Media

• Boston Mommy: http://www.townonline.com/blogs/bostonMommy/
• Starts & Stops Blog: http://www.boston.com/news/local/startsandstops/
• WBZ’ Keller @ Large Blog: http://wbztv.com/kellerblog/  

Local Blogs

• Boston  Police Department News: http://www.bpdnews.com/
• Universal Hub: http://www.universalhub.com/
• Davis Square Community on LiveJournal: http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/   
• H20town: http://h2otown.info/

International Blogs

• Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/
• Global Voices Online: http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/
• Hoder: http://i.hoder.com/
• Iraq the Model: http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

Comics

• Unshelved: http://www.unshelved.com/
• Gaping Void: http://www.gapingvoid.com/
• xkcd: http://www.xkcd.com/

Hobbies

• Knitting: Circles Knit News: http://www.circles-salon.com/news/newsblog/
• Gardening: UBC Botanical Garden Weblog: http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/weblog/
• Traveling: Tour of America: Airstream Life: http://tour.airstreamlife.com/weblog/

Major Political Blogs

• Democratic Party: http://www.democrats.org/blog.html
• Republican National Committee: http://www.gop.com/Blog/
• Centrist Coalition blogs: http://www.centristcoalition.com/

Local Political Blogs

• Blue Mass Group: http://www.bluemassgroup.com/
• Hub Politics: http://www.hubpolitics.com/
• John Tobin, Boston City Councillor: http://www.votejohntobin.com/

Massachusetts Governor’s Race

• Deval Patrick: http://blog.devalpatrick.com/
• Christy Mihos: http://www.christy2006.com/
• Top 10 Sources: Mass. Governor’s Race: http://www.toptensources.com/topten/member/Mass.-Governor-Race/  

2008 Presidential Campaign

• Hillary Clinton: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/blog/”>
• John McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com/Blog/
• Barack Obama: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/group/ObamaHQ/
• Mitt Romney: http://fivebrothers.mittromney.com/

National Political Blogs

• Senators and representatives
  • John Kerry: http://blog.johnkerry.com/
  • Ted Kennedy: http://www.tedkennedy.com/journal
• Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story
• The Corner by National Review Online: http://corner.nationalreview.com/
• Eschaton: http://atrios.blogspot.com/

Knut the Polar Bear Cub

• http://www.zoo-berlin.de/erleben/jungtiere/eisbaer-knut.html
• http://blog.rbb-online.de/roller/knut/

Video Blogging or Vlogging

• Way to distribute video content via a weblog
• Much easier and more popular now

Examples of Vlogs

• Steve Garfield’s video blog: http://stevegarfield.blogs.com/videoblog/
• EepyBird on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/eepybirdvideos
• RocketBoom: http://www.rocketboom.com/
• hometown baghdad: http://www.hometownbaghdad.com/

Audio Blogging & Podcasting

• Bloggers distributing their content via audio files
• Like vlogging, it’s much more popular because it’s much easier to do

Podcasts

• The Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/news/podcasts/
• Boston Behind the Scenes: http://www.bostonbehindthescenes.com/
• Museum of Science: http://mos.org/events_activities/podcasts
• Radio Shows: http://www.npr.org/podcasts/

XML Feeds

Raise Your Hand if You …

• Know what XML feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) are
• Receive feeds
• Use an aggregator or news reader
• Have coded your own XML feed

Feeds

• Popular and powerful way to distribute and receive content
• XML file on a server
• Usually appears when there’s new content
• Most people use software to read them
• Possible to route feeds to Web sites
• Many weblogs use them to distribute content

2 Main Kinds of Feeds

• RSS: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html
• Atom: http://atomenabled.org/
• Both are XML feeds
• Differences: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/2004/10/29/difference-between-rss-and-atom/

Feed relationships

XML -> RSS -> Atom

• RSS is a kind of XML feed.
• Atom evolved from RSS.

Signs Something Offers a Feed

• Icons  
• Text
  • Subscribe
  • Syndicate
• What works best?  http://bokardo.com/archives/interface-elements-for-providing-feeds-and-having-people-subscribe-to-them/

Differences Between Reading a Feed and a Site

• Stream of content with no distractions
• Easy to find what’s new
• Lose niceities of the Web site

Aggregators

• Aggregators read feeds
• Many kinds
• Good aggregators should handle various feeds and files
• Public vs. private aggregators

Enclosures

• Send files via feed
  • Podcasting
  • Vlogging, or video blogging

Finding Feeds and Blogs

• Some general Internet search engines
  • For a specific feed, try looking for the title and add ‘blog’ or ‘weblog’ or a similar term to the search query.
• Search engines specializing in weblogs
• Directories

Search Engines Specializing in Weblogs

• Feedster: http://www.feedster.com/
• Technorati: http://www.technorati.com/
• Daypop: http://www.daypop.com/
• NewsIsFree: http://www.newsisfree.com/

Blog Directories

• Blogwise’s list of blogs: http://www.blogwise.com/
• Open Directory Project: http://www.dmoz.org/
• SciencePORT: http://www.scienceport.org/  
• Syndic8: http://www.syndic8.com/

Finding Weblogs

• Professional colleagues, friends, family
• Other weblogs and Web sites
• Blog rolls

Collaborative Blogging

• Multiple people can contribute to a blog
• Works well for projects with multiple contributors
• Like all group projects, people need buy-in and encouragement

Blogging on Multiple Blogs

• What goes where?
• Posting the same item in multiple places
• Managing multiple blogs

Where to Go for Help

• Support options within the platform
• Some platforms have user communities
• Help documentation on the Web

Local Blogging Groups

• Thursday Meetings at Berkman: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/bloggroup/
• Boston Weblogger Meetup: http://blog.meetup.com/3/?

How to Pick Blog Software

• Think about what you want to blog/need from a blog and select appropriate software for the task.
  • This is not necessarily easy.
• Blog platforms may be similar, but they aren’t the same.
  • More details about picking blog software: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/list-of-longer-pages/how-to-pick-blog-software/

How to Start Blogging

• Take some time to really learn about the system you choose.
• Find out your support options: discussion list, superusers, help desk, etc.
• Market your blog
• Start casting those bottles into the ocean
  • I’m being figurative here. I’m not advocating for pollution.

Let’s take a break!

Let’s Blog!

Blogware

• One of many different kinds of software
• More robust than some
  • Image uploading
  • Comment moderation
  • Users & privileges

Our blog: http://blogclass.blogware.com/

Quick Tour of Blogware

• Posting
• Linking
• Comments
• Trackback

Dashboard

• Links to major places within the software
• Stats
• Subscribers
• Bookmarklets

Posting

• Dashboard -> Post tab
• Categories
• Keywords
• Upload files
• Many options
• Save drafts

Links

• Links are a main component of blogs
• Just link: no permission needed
• Links are a good way to market the blog

Comments

• Another main component of weblogs
• Build community
• Market the blog
• Commenting vs. blogging on your own blog

Comment moderation

• Moderate comments from the dashboard
• Comment spam

Trackback

• Servers tell each other when someone has linked to them
• Another way to market the blog
• Not absolute

Trackback moderation

• Moderate trackbacks from the dashboard
• Trackback spam

What to post

• Find something in response to these questions:
  • What interests you?
  • Who’s your audience?
  • What do you want to do?

What not to post

• What’s appropriate?
• What might offend your audience?
• What won’t get you fired or anger your friends or family?
• Dinner table rules
• Write your own guidelines
• Be smart

Anonymous blogging

• Blogging anonymously is very risky
• Some say there’s no such thing as anonymous blogging
• Be smart and be careful

Inspiration

• The news
• Things you read
• Real life
• Other blogs
• Practice writing
• Be patient

Thank you!

See you next week!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Professional Development, Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.