I hate the term blog
Let me not beat around the bush with this: I hate the term "blog". It's "personal web publishing" or "self publishing". Or maybe just the next generation of content management. This realization has been a while in coming. I've "blogged" before it was called that. Many "bloggers" seem to have a certain attitude, a certain "if you blog, you must do it for these reasons". Apophenia talks only about the term "blogger" vs. "journaler":
What are the implications for bloggers/blog tool creators to see people who identify as journalers and try to enforce that label on them? How does this affect tool design, community understanding and cultural development?
apophenia: Journaler is to Blogger as Dyke is to Lesbian (Why Identity through Activity Fails)
I still use the term when I need to explain it to other people, because the following long-winded explanation takes too long:
The phenomenon known as "personal web publishing" is nothing more than an easy way to add and edit content on the web. Some other attributes:
- easy-to-use browser-based content addition and editing; you can publish content, including media such as images, from anywhere that you have an Internet connection
- the concept of syndication, so that same content can be easily displayed on other sites, and read using a desktop application so that you can quickly see who has updated their content
- comments and/or links between sites, where a topic or idea can freely flow between different sites, especially through the display of links from other sites next to the original content
- unique and permanent links (URLs) for every piece of content, which is what enables the direct commenting of linking
Personal web publishing builds upon the foundation of the Web, on the concept of content linking to other content. Capitalizing on this fundamental rule is what makes it so useful. Because of the very personal, or at least opinionated, nature of the links and commentary between sites, many people describe this as something richer: conversations. Whether you are an individual, an organization, or a business, personal web publishing engages you in the larger conversation of the Internet. It gives people a reason to come back to your site, rather than view it once and never return.
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Web logs
Hmm, if by blogging we're talking about a web log then i have no idea what it has to do with content management systems. These make the job easier, but have nothing to do with what a web log is. Nor does an online journal in my opinion either. A web log is a place you post links to cool/interesting shit you found on the web. It saves you from spamming all your friends with emails to tell them about it. Whether you use a content managment system or not doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it has archives, categories or anything else. All that crap is just brought about by people high-jacking the term and trying to make it what they want. Silly buggers.
Oh, and it's Kyle here, just to make me not so anonymous.
In many ways, "blogging" or m
In many ways, "blogging" or maintaining a web log was not possible for the vast majority of people before easy content management tools came on the scene. Movable Type is a content management tool -- it just happens to be optimized for managing the content of a web log.
And your comments about "hijacking the term" is exactly what bugs me. That's why I prefer "personal web publishing", because "blogging" seems to have too many other connotations attached. People can use personal web publishing tools (which are essentially simple content management systems) to create all sorts of content online.
Thanks, Kyle (also, Kyle).
(This, by the way, one of the Cardinal Sins of Blogging)
activity...
The thing is that you're once again focusing on the activity. I have yet to speak to someone who identifies as a personal web publisher. Part of my point is that there is a language in which people use to describe their identity that may or may not talk about their activity.
I'm trying to get away from t
I'm trying to get away from the concept of "people" being involved at all. It's a content management solution, one with some albeit radical departures from what came before, but that's what it is.
People will certainly identify with different terms. Let's talk about desktop publishing, which I continue to think has many parallels with personal web publishing. Does someone say "I'm a desktop publisher"? No, they don't. Saying things like "I'm a 'zine publisher" or "I'm a graphic designer" are perhaps self-identifiers that could be linked to the tool-that-is-desktop-publishing.
Yes, identity can be bound up with personal web publishing, especially if the content being posted is of a mainly personal nature, so the self-identifier that people use will very much say a lot about the community and context they consider themselves to be a part of. So I perhaps side-stepped your point somewhat to harp on the fact that I, personally, reject the self-identifier of "blogger" :p