Just the same as everything in life itself, blogs need structure. In order to form online communities we need to separate them into our ‘virtual suburbs’. Blog classification is a necessary tool in defining our blogging identity and allowing users to identify with the right ones. Many blogs may cross into other classifications, however they all fall under one specific category, such as; Personal, business, educational, news and media, non-profit and niche.
Let me give you a tour of our typical ‘virtual suburbs’:
Personal blogs are written by individuals about personal topics such as likes and dislikes, hobbies and opinions.
Business blogs have recently embraced blogging as a way to connect with customers, grow their business and advertise their services.
Non-profit blogs allow organisations to share information about their cause, gain support and raise money.
News and Media blogs raise awareness of current affairs and provide reviews and discussions of entertainment.
Educational blogs are for use by schools and students to mentor, teach and post research and findings to help expand their knowledge base.
Niche blogs are written about very specific topics and can be collaborative or individually created.
Blogging communities are formed under these ‘virtual suburbs’ through large groups of people communicating and forming a network of ideas about one topic- these ideas and conversations travelling through the blogging communities are developing them in an evolutionary fashion, just as a neighbourhood would evolve through cultures and influences ( Jacobs, Rushkoff, 2006). Each blogging community has its own culture allowing the similar needs of strangers to debate, exchange and speculate on topics of interest that might have otherwise never existed.
Thus, the classification of blogs is like giving each blogging identity an area code to live in where their dream blog and community awaits- honey I’m home.
Jacobs, J, Rushkoff, D, 2006, “Blogs and the Communications Renaissance”, in Uses of Blogs, eds Bruns, A, Jacobs, J, Peter Lang Publishing, New York, pp.239-248.
Gunelius, S. 2010, Blogging All-in-One For Dummies, Wiley Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana.
No comments:
Post a Comment