Blogging for genealogists

Blogging For Genealogists

By Dick EastmanOctober 6, 2012


Today’s slides are available at:

http://www.eogn.com/handouts/blogging


Presentation contents

• Origins of blogs

• Terms Explained

• Comparison to HTML web pages

• Examples of genealogy blogs

• Software required to read blogs

• How to create blogs

• The future of blogging


What is a blog?

• Blog is an abbreviation for “web log”

• 10 Million or more blogs are online today

• It is easy to mix practical “how to” terminology with technical terms


A web log, or simply a blog, is a web application which contains periodic time-stamped entries on a common web page.

Definition of a blog

In its simplest form, a blog is a web page or a series of web pages.


You can read most blogs in a regular web browser, such as Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox or any of the other web browsers.

Definition of a blog

Specialized software can add extra functionality to reading blogs.


Who writes blogs?

• Private individuals

• Political campaigns

• Corporations

• Genealogy societies

• One-name societies


Terminology

• RSS

• Atom

• XML

Don’t get lost in the alphabet soup!


To publish!

Why Use A Blog?


In the Genealogy Blog Finder!

http://blogfinder.genealogue.com/

Where Can You Find Genealogy Blogs?


In the Genealogy Blog Finder!

http://blogfinder.genealogue.com/



Cyndi’s Blog List

http://www.cyndislist.com/blogs/



Or on the Google Blog Search

http://www.google.com/blogsearch



Let’s look at a few blogs

We will first look at them in a web browser.

We will later use a typical RSS newsreader.


This looks like a standard web page


This newsreader looks more like e-mail


Let’s look at a typical newsreader in operation


In summation

Creating a blog with today’s software tools is easier than creating HTML web pages.

Your readers can read your words in web browsers or in newsreaders.

You can “push” data to readers or they can “pull” data from you.

You can increase the number of readers by offering more delivery options.


In summation

All of this adds up to a “win-win” situation!


Today’s slides are available at:

http://www.eogn.com/handouts/blogging

Technology

Blogging for genealogists