Definition of Blog

Just grabbed from http://lamp.tu-graz.ac.at/~i203/ebner/publication/08_edmedia_tugll.pdf after a hint of Martin.

Today the most important and visible field of these new possibilities are weblogs, shortly called blogs. The definition or description of weblogs cannot be explained within one sentence, but a majority of researchers would at least agree that a weblog is “a frequently updated website consisting of data entries arranged in reverse chronological order” (Schmidt et al, 2005) (Walker, 2007). This statement sounds neither very new nor very modern. But there are some important facts behind these words:

• “Frequently updated” means not only that the website itself is updated but also the “readers” of the weblog can easily follow the details of the updates. With the help of RSS (Really Simply Syndication) information can be consumed just in time. RSS is an XML based data format that carries the content of a website in a strictly standardised format that is similar to content organisation of a weblog (Nagler et al, 2007). RSS allows users to subscribe to a website and to receive new content using their favourite application (e.g., RSS Readers integrated in major Web browsers). RSS differs from email in that the users themselves decide from where they receive information. Users are monitoring the data in a user centred way.
• “Website” means online: One of the success factors of Web 2.0 technologies is accessibility. Today broadband access to the internet is provided in all developed countries and is affordable for nearly everybody. Accessing the Internet, especially for university students, is easy. On the campus Internet access is free, for the wider area special prices and availability allow affordable access. The times where broadband Internet access was limited to few university students are history.
• “Data entries” means user centred content: Weblogs are mainly authored by individuals, called webloggers (or bloggers) and sometimes of groups. It can safely be assumed that content is written almost exclusively by persons with no knowledge in web programming and HTML. Hence a critical factor of Web 2.0 applications is ease of use. Improving the usability was the precondition that a vast majority of bloggers are able to write personal and subjective content on the World Wide Web (Du Helen & Wagner, 2006).
• “Reverse chronological order” means collecting and sharing data in diary form: The newest contributions or posts are always displayed on top and are relatively small stand-alone entries. The real power of these short articles is the possibility to create hyperlinks to other articles or websites. Digital collections of small pieces of content instead of confusing endless lists of hyperlinks without comments seem to be a great advantage for users. Another significant advantage is that weblogs are searchable.

Original printed in: Proceeding of World Conference on Educational Media, Hypermedia and Telecommunications
(ED-Media), 2008, p. 5618-5625
A Blog Sphere for Higher Education
Martin Ebner & Behnam Taraghi
Computing and Information Services / Social Learning
Graz University of Technology
Behnam Taraghi

Still did not answer my question, but I wanted to share this with you.