Friday, April 30, 2004

Blogging (new and updated)

The web has become saturated with 'blogs'. Since about 1999 this phenomena has grown and grown. Why should we blog? Is this the new way to create for the web? Should we throw away all our HTML skills? If you want to create stuff for the web then you should become totally immersed in the medium. You need to spend as much time 'surfing' (a term that seems a little dated now!) as you do poking around with Flash, HTML or other code! If you do spend a lot of time browsing for things that interest you, then you will have noticed that a lot of people are posting to their web sites in a particular way. This way is known as 'blogging'.

furthermore...

How many are there?

Well, go to http://www.weblogs.com/ and see how many have been updated in the last 10 minutes! Is this Content Management for the Masses or is this Personal Publishing?

The word blogging: started as weblog or log of journey of the web Blogging, blog, weblog are all used in this context. In some ways the word 'journal' means the same but 'blogging' is 'disruptive' and not traditional in the same way that a journal is. Journals tend to be more corporate. However, 'blogging' software, such as pmachine can be used to deliver more traditional journals such as http://www.alwayson-network.com

And yes it's a journey thing. A 'log' originates in sea going. A wooden log was trailed from the ship in order to measure the track of the voyage. Thus; ship's log, 'keeping a log'. web log, weblog. Rebecca Blood's site has a good article on the history of blogging: www.rebeccablood.net

How should or does it look? There are no rules BUT: it has become common practice to: put the latest post / article at the top have a headline and a short intro which is then linked to the full article Put 'thumbnail' images into the text and have larger images available on popup have regular posts

How often should you post: No rules BUT: Post often. This is about getting your thoughts and ideas into the virtual space quickly and frequently. The best approach is to think of it as conversation rather than full blown academic writing. I find myself feeling a weeny bit guilty if I leave off posting for a while.

Format: One common element amongst all blogs is the format. latest on top expansion to detail comments registration archives

Subjects for blogging: Anything goes. You have some choices right from the start though: do you make it personal or professional. Think of an identity but be prepared to change it!

Brand? Design companies make loads of money from creating brands for their clients. You don't want to do the same thing becasue you might change things mid term. On the other hand, you need to think of a domain name, which sets the tone right there. I decided to use my name for the first one, but then I had this idea that I could separate personal with professional, so I have 2 blogs:

1. www.chrisjennings.net
2. www.pagetoscreen.net

It could get personal Originallly blogs were journals of web findings - logs of travels on the web It could be mixed professional blogs are 'Journals' Blogging as journalism

Content You'll find that the content of blogs is mostly text but it has a particular flavour. Mostly, it's a matter of dividing the text into chunks so that readers can choose whether to just read the summary or get the full detail. You are reading this because you have clicked on 'more on this'. Journalists talk of a method of writing called the inverted pyramid. basically, you tell the ending of the story first. Or, put another way, the conclusion comes first. This way, web users can just take that in and then, fully inspired, move to the full story. This means that the title of the article and the first sentence or 2 needs to be very compelling. In fact, I would say that choosing a title is really key here. I'm trying my best at this so what do you think of 'Sea Shells - Shore Shapes" or "Shepherd Artists".(see http://www.chrisjennings.net) Photos are used a lot on blogs and some sites specialise in posting photos and caption only. I prefer to use a bit of both. But you need to keep the file size small by using thumbnails.

Text The style of writing is important with headlies, bylines and summaries on top.

When using Graphics always use thumbnails which can be enlarged rather than give the full picture straight off.

PhotoLogs are another area

Well most 'blogging' software can be used for photo display, there are other more specialised tools for the organising of photo archives. One such is PhotoPost: see photo_web_blogs

Style is very much a matter of taste and could be simply 'how it looks' but actually, in keeping with the non-HTML editing approach, the phenomena of downloadable templates / themes or skins has evolved. All weblogging software will come with its own 'templates' which can be changed or new one downloaded. Style is changed using Templates, Skins or Themes ------------ Side step ---------

Non HTML web creation and editing techniques us web designers spend a tremendous amount of time learning how to develop our web pages with HTML. We use text editors or WYSIWYG editors like DreamWeaver. Meanwhile, many desktop applications like WORD and Photoshop have HTML output built in. What do we think about that? With WORD for example, you can simply 'save as Web page' and generate a reasonable web site. (read my article: here)

With Photoshop, it is very easy to create a portfolio of images: http://www.pagetoscreen.net/lens

Other tools are on the market to do similar things. Like most web designers, I feel I must be able to edit the HTML to control what happens on my pages. But, if I work on a site that requires others to be able to post content then I don't want them 'mucking around' with the code! ----------- That's where Content management comes in ....... Once we grasp the notion that content is separate from design and layout then we should find away to handle them separately. The content is managed by the editor or 'poster' of articles. The layout is handled by the designer. In 'blogging' this is most often, one and the same person, nevertheless, if we separate these activities, then we can strengthen or focus on each of these activities.

Techniques of blogging A fundamental shift of approach from the - edit the HTML / FTP to the server approach - is the idea that you post your content from a web browser. The significance of this is that you don't need to carry around with you the content of your site. It's all there on the server. The HTML and code stays the same, the content is in a database. The web pages are populated with content from the database as the pages are loaded. Systems such as PHP / MYSQL combinations are used. It also possible to post your entries through email, although not all blogging systems support this. NEW: There are some new things happening on the mobile phone link up; some sytems support audio blogging; send an audio message to your blog.(http://www.audioblogger.com/) posting from browser. This is known as moblogging You could maintain as HTML and in the early days of blogging some people were using a system of dated entries to create the archive of posts. This is, of course possible, but the management of such a system quickly becomes cumbersome. Any such method very quickly become discouraging and you may find yourself 'making excuses' not to blog. The best way though is NOT HTML edited:

Client side software Once this 'blog' is set up on the server, then you can (as an alternative to posting entries through a web browser) use a desktop application to post entries. Radio Userland is a good example, although I found it quite difficult to set up. Not all client software works with all blogs. The blogger.api (protocol) has become a standard and the client application should write to this format. Here are some examples of those desktop applications: Radio Tinderbox Archipelago iBlog You can also: email to your blog and phone in to your blog Blogging is usually organised through a database with a scripting language like PHP or Perl The software is installed on the server:

Server side software The software that I use is called ExpressionEngine http://www.pmachine.com This needs to be installed on the web server which in turn must support PHP and MYSQL.

A very popular tool is Movable Type http://www.movabletype.org Movable Type requires PERL and MYSQL (although another database is supported) Greymatter is also worth considering although I have no experience with this. This gives a full list of blogging software: http://www.blogroots.com/resources.blog

Community The option of including comments or annotation in the blog means that a community around the idea or them of the blog can develop. This might just be family members or workers in the same company. For a good use of comments take a look at the Samuel Pepy's Diary. The comments have become annotations by academics who are willing to share their knowledge about this famous diarist from the 17th Century. A forum, is a communal blog although the entries tend to be much shorter. Some blogs can have multiple authors and even a system of editorial hierarchy, with one person giving approval before articles 'go live'. A WIKI is the ultimate multiple authoring system, where anyone can edit anyone elses entry. A good explanation of a wiki can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki