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Presentation for the WV Statewide Technology Conference 2010
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Session Purpose My hope is that you will leave here with a better understanding of the blogosphere and a firmer grasp of the role of blogging in society today.
I also hope you will leave here as someone who is more likely to regularly maintain a blog yourself.
Who is this guy?
Goals for this first sessionAnswer the questions…
What is a blog? Why do people blog?
How do I get started? What tools do I need?
Ethics and legal issues?
As a fashionable trend, blogging comes and goes…
celebrities who used
to have to write whole paragraphs for their blogs now
“tweet” instead…
as a literary form and as a body of
content, the blog is here to stay.
What are blogs?A shortened form of the word “weblog”
A genre with unique distinctive literary
characteristics
A large portion of the content
available on the web
.
Blog Characteristics
Usually individual authorMostly text, w/ some
imagesRegular entries
Reverse chronological order
Relaxed syntaxFirst person POVPersonal details
Interactive
.
Example
July 30, Dolly Sods – My wife and I took the Avalanche up the five-mile rutted-up dirt
road to the top of Dolly Sods, WV today. We take her dad
(now 75) up there most years to pick huckleberries. Beautiful landscape.
Panoramic views. Thousands of wildflowers. But late frost this year made for a scrawny berry crop. Oh well… Still five quarts of last year’s berries in the freezer… Had a nice time listening to the sounds of the wilderness area and taking
pics of the flowers.
Evolution of Blogging
.
Online Diaries: mid-1990’s
Term “weblog” coined - 1997
Weblog shortened to “blog” and the term “blogger” is born - 1999
Evolution of Blogging
.
Focus on Politics: 2002 (and onward)
Mainstream acceptance and diversification into
niche blogging
Growth of citizen journalism, with blog as a medium.
Evolution of Blogging: Muddying Up the News
Straight news
Editorials
Blogs
How big is the Blogosphere?Technorati (Aug. 21, 2009) said that about 185 million
people world wide had started a blog (26+ million in the US) and that 77% of Internet users read blogs.
Technorati stopped trying to count blogs a couple of
years ago. At they time they were tracking 122
million blogs in 80 or so languages.
Why do people blog?Let’s start by ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room….
Four literary purposes for writing
Express
InformPersuade
Entertain
I think, therefore
I am
I think, therefore I blog
I blog, therefore I am
Complicated Motives for Blogging
The four literary purposes tell us why someone writes. But why do
they choose to write a blog?
Answers include: citizen journalism, political
activism, family relationships, personal or professional
development, contribute to their field, promote their business,
desire for attention, delusions of grandeur…
I could go on.
Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic…
Why I Blog
…just write, really write,
write right now, just do it,
write more, write faster,
right this minute, write often, write
regularly, write impulsively,
write like you mean it,
Write!!!
What you need if you’re going to blog…
You must have:ideas and commitment
a keyboarda connectiona platform
You Probably Also Want:a digital camera
a word processer with spell checkphoto editing software
Major Platforms…
Free, Hosted – Google Blogger, Wordpress.com*
, Tumblr, Posterous
Pay, Hosted - TypePad ,
SquareSpace
Free, Unhosted –
Wordpress.org
Pay, Unhosted - Moveable Type
Quick Look at Blogger
Quick Look at WordPress
Ethics and Legal IssuesFree Speech (Protected Speech)
Defamation (Libel & Slander)Invasion of Privacy
Plagiarism, Copyright, & Fair UseTransparency & Conflict of Interest
Honesty, Fairness, Playing Nice
Freedom of Speech Doesn’t Mean You Can Say Whatever the %^&* You Want…
You can criticize the government. You can advocate unpopular ideas. You can be
controversial.
You cannot promote hate or incite to violence. You cannot lie about other people. You cannot publish obscenities. You cannot violate other
people’s property rights (copyright).
The government can regulate commercial speech. Your words are only protected when
there is some public interest at stake.
DefamationLibel or slander happens when you write or say something about someone and your statement
harms their reputation (as opposed to just insulting them).
Your statement has to be a statement of fact (not opinion). Saying that someone is a jerk isn’t defamation, but saying they’re a tax cheat is
(unless it’s true).
You could get sued.
Plagiarism, Copyright, & Fair Use
Plagiarism – taking someone else’s ideas and pretending they’re your ideas
Copyright - the set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work (
Wikipedia)
Fair Use – an author’s right to use a limited portion of someone else’s work to promote
discussion, commentary, criticism, education or research
Invasion of Privacy When you disclose personal facts about
someone that are not common knowledge, you invade their privacy.
The courts are unsettled about the liability involved in this.
Transparency & Conflict of Interest
Are you being paid for your words? Are you related to someone in the post?
Did you eat for free at the restaurant you’re reviewing?
Are you reviewing a product you got for free?Do you have some bias? (It’s okay to have a
bias, if you disclose it.)
New regs on bloggers…
Honesty, Fairness & Playing Nice
Greg CrueyWV teacher. Blogger and journalist.
BA (Psych) from Augusta State University in Augusta, Ga.Grad Dip (Linguistics) from the Australian National UniversityMS (Adult & Technical Ed) from Marshall UniversityCertification in Ed Leadership from Salem University
gregcruey @ gmail.comgregcruey.blogspot.comgregcruey.edublogs.org
Member IRA, ISTE, CEC, ASCD, ACLU, WVAFT
Rabid University of Tennessee sports fan…
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