This appeared in Valley Scene Magazine in April of 2003:
Thursday, April 10, 2003
The Revolution Will Be Bloggerized
When I was a kid, I kept a diary. I wrote my personal thoughts and feelings in a book, then tucked it away in a secret hiding spot. Later, I would pull out my diary and read through, meditating on these thought of mine, musing on my inner dialogue. A lot of my friends also kept diaries, although I never read any of them, as my friends, obviously, considered them private, sacrosanct documents.
Boy howdy, have things changed.
Today, kids (and grownups) are riding the wave of public diaries, known on the internet as weblogs, or "blogs". Consisting of a combination of personal insights, rantings, ravings, castigations, instigations, pleas, persuasions, and more, blogs are the latest internet trend, complete with a do-it-yourself kit. Confessing your soul used to be the sole province of your friendly neighborhood priest. Now confession is just a click away and open to the public.
And posting your diatribes on the internet is pretty painless. Mouse on over to a dedicated blogging website and follow the instructions. Take a look at my favorite, www.blogger.com, who make it simple to get started. It's obvious to see why they are the most popular blog host on the 'net. Not only is setup a breeze, so is the day to day administration. Blogger.com lets you post long or short entries, add HTML (for links or formatting), or change the look of the entire page.
This last option is something that really turns me on about blogger.com; their templates are fresh, distinctive, varied, and readily available. And changing templates is a snap. Also, I can add my own code to customize the template. For example, on my blog (techtronica.blogspot.com), I have altered the size of the text blocks by changing the table heights. Don't sweat it if you're not HTML-savvy. But if you are, the ability to alter code is sweet!
Recently I had the opportunity to ask questions of a member of the blogger.com team. His name is Jason Shellen and he's one of the Blogger program managers. He spends his days speaking to various companies about Blogger and also working on the customer service aspect of the Blogger community. He's also a huge fan of Blogger, saying that he was a long time user of the product and "felt like it was going to change the world". An interesting notion, but one that is surprisingly commonplace in the internet business community. Not to make light of such a dream. How many of you have "Change the world" on your to-do list?
On a lighter note, I asked Jason what made Blogger better than the competition and he said, "I don't know if this makes us better than the competition but I think the
instant nature of our publishing tool has helped adoption of our product
more than other web publishing tools. The fact is you can be up and
publishing in a matter of minutes at a web address that you can point all
your friends and colleagues to."
I agree wholeheartedly with Jason. My favorite overall feature of Blogger is their method of instant publishing. Anyone can do it, with little effort. Just type your words of wisdom (or woe or whatever) into the provided entry window and hit the "publish" button. That's it, your words are instantly (and I mean instantly) made available to the general population. (After typing that, I feel the need to get my mom and dad hip to blogger.com. I bet they'd love it, especially with its ease of use).
Another great feature of the blogging community is the sheer volume and variety of the blogs. There are literally thousands of different topics blogged every day, from cooking tips to motion picture reviews to the gothic Martha Stewart (www.toreadors.com/martha/). Even the hilarious humorist Dave Barry has his own blog (davebarry.blogspot.com/). What more could you ask for?
Looking for more information on blogging? Point your browser to Rebecca's Pocket ( www.rebeccablood.net ). Rebecca is the author of The Weblog Handbook, a wonderful tool for those who want to get the most out of their blog. Her website provides a genuinely comprehensive overview of the blogging community, including a detailed list of resources on blogging. I think her site is a must for anyone into their blog.
One more thing: Have a good time with it. Blogging can be very therapeutic, especially if you maintain a healthy sense of humor. Happy blogging!
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