The Call to Blog

DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT: I am writing this with the intention that instructors around the country who use weblogs might have their students read this web page. Therefore, I don't talk about our class specifically, but I need your feedback. I'd really appreciate your honest feedback on these questions:

Is this page informative? Does it explain weblogging in language you can understand.
Is it interesting? Did you stop reading at any point because you lost interest.
How did reading this document influence your thinking about, or your attitude towards, weblogging?
Is there specific information or content you would have liked to have seen in this document?

Please email me feedback, or send me feedback in the form you are most comfortable using.

John Trimbur, in the Call to Write, says at the beginning of the chapter on "Communicating Online" that "We are living in a transitional time. . . [and] email, listservs, attached files, message boards, palm pilots, Web sites, MUDs, and MOOs" are on the "verge of replacing printed text" (492). His observation still holds, but one more tool of online communication needs to be added to his list—the weblog, or blog.

This general introduction to weblogging, and specifically weblogging in academic settings, will define weblogs, explain who has been called to blog, and then elaborate on the use of blogs in academic settings, and even more specifically, writing-intensive class. "The Call to Blog" isn't a technical how-to document, but instead explains why people are blogging, and how becoming a blogger might improve your writing, help you manage all the information you will be gathering at college, and perhaps even enrich your life. That's a huge claim, and it isn't going to pan out for everyone who reads this, but if you take up blogging seriously, you are likely to achieve at least one of those three goals.

What is a Blog?

Who better to turn to answer this question than the people at Blogger.com, the leading host of weblog sites, and the interface largely responsible for the explosion of blogging in the late 1990s.

A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically — like a what's new page or a journal. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly — from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction.

Blog posts are like instant messages to the web.

Many blogs are personal, "what's on my mind" type musings. Others are collaborative efforts based on a specific topic or area of mutual interest. Some blogs are for play. Some are for work. Some are both.

Blogs are also excellent team/department/company/family communication tools. They help small groups communicate in a way that is simpler and easier to follow than email or discussion forums. Use a private blog on an intranet to allow team members to post related links, files, quotes, or commentary. Set up a family blog where relatives can share personal news. A blog can help keep everyone in the loop, promote cohesiveness and group culture, and provide an informal "voice" of a project or department to outsiders.

From: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=36&topic=16

Who has been "called to blog?"

The notion of being "called to write" can be illustrated beautifully by bloggers, the people who weblog. Most bloggers are not required to keep weblogs (see below, for those times when you are required to blog), but some sort of passion compels, or "calls" these people to share their lives, their ideas, their experiments, their fears—anything—with a community or, more likely, strangers. If someone starts a weblog, but does not feel a call to maintain it, he or she will quickly drop the blog; they are often time consuming, hard work, and require strong personal discipline. Without a call to write, there will be no blog.

Computer techies and early web hobbyists were the first called to blog: they were sharing technical information, watching the web grow before their eyes, and actually trying to keep track of who was doing what online. The word "weblog" wasn't used until 1997, even though the practice of building extensive links with commentaries has been part of web culture from its beginnings.

When the web exploded in content, complexity, and reach in the late 1990s, the early webloggers gave up the project of mapping the web and concentrated on keeping track of the parts that interested them. These first-generation webloggers were joined by a second generation of webloggers who took up the activity in order to reflect, share ideas, express themselves, and maybe to promote themselves, but not to keep track of the web. They are now the bulk of webloggers; most web experts estimate 600,000 to a million bloggers at work in 2003.

Long-time Bloggers, "The A-list".

Dave Winer, Scripting News: http://www.scripting.com/ the longest run weblog on the Internet (since 1997), about scripting and stuff like that.
Rebecca Blood, Rebecca's Pocket http://www.rebeccablood.net. "Rebecca's Pocket is devoted to highlighting whatever catches my attention, and I'm interested in lots of things. Some recurring themes are media literacy, sustainability, web culture, and domestic life. I often post about current events."
Andrew Sullivan, journalist http://www.andrewsullivan.com Commentary on Homosexuality, faith, politics, people, culture, and the war.
Evan Williams, founder and CEO of Pyra Labs (developed Blogger) http://www.evhead.com/ "I write about the web, business, technology, random other things, and my life in general."
Meg Hourihan, early blogger, http://www.megnut.com; personal content and articles about online culture. "I'm deeply troubled by the lack of female speakers at technology conferences and I am passionate about weblogs, the power of personal publishing, and peer-to-peer/collaborative journalism.

Famous People who Blog

Moby: http://www.moby.com/index2.html Musician moby comments on politics and shares his daily life.
Dave Barry, humorist http://davebarry.blogspot.com/ The shortest blog entries around.
Howard Dean, Democratic Candidate for President: http://blog.deanforamerica.com/ Dean doesn't actually blog much himself—his staffers do all the work..
Anna Kournikova: http://www.kournikova.com/journal/ not updated very often; reports on her playing, her injuries, her days off.

A few key events in 2003 suggest that weblogging will become a solid part of web culture, of contemporary culture, and not just be a passing fad.

During the US invasion of Iraq, journalists and citizens who were having trouble getting their stories told and heard turned to weblogs in order to publish their own accounts of events, or their own responses to the mass media account of events. These "warblogs" illustrated a valuable potential for weblogging as a form of journalism and civic protest.
The leading provider of free and subscription weblogging services, Blogger.com, was purchased by the leading search engine, Google, giving Blogger some capital and security.
AOL plans to include a "diary" function on its next release. While AOL found that most of their customers did not know the word "weblog," they were interested in keeping an online diary.
The word "weblog" was identified as the new word of 2003 most likely to become part of the English language.

Despite all those signs of achieving legitimacy and recognition, weblogs are not simply going to emerge and become a static genre. They will keep changing and evolving as users employ new tools and see new uses for this highly flexible genre. The text-based blog has lots of appeal to the traditionalists, but photoblogs and video blogs are emerging, and within the logic of our current media culture, the image will likely push aside text whenever convenience and bandwidth make that possible. The do-it-yourself attitude that has been part of weblogging culture is also threatened by the corporate use of blogs, the use of weblogs by political candidates, and the use of mandatory weblogs by teachers. These institutional uses of weblogs will not kill the spirit of personal weblogging, but they influence how the culture at large thinks about weblogs.

The College Perspective

If you are in a college class that blogs, you are perhaps being asked to contribute to a website that looks very much like an online bulletin board or discussion board. If this community blog works well, you will get a chance to see what students think of the course material, you will probably get a chance to learn more about some of your classmates, and you might be linked to some great websites. When a course weblogs works well, you will sense cohesiveness within the group, you will probably write more and think harder about the course content than if you were not blogging, and ideally, most people in the class will perform above their own expectations.

Chances are that if your instructor uses a class weblog, her or she is also implicitly or explicitly saying "Try this out on your own and see if you like it. See if you can find a style of blogging and a use for the technology that makes sense to you." What excites most writing instructors about weblogging is that of all the new ways people are communicating—cell phones, instant messaging, emailing, and weblogging—weblogging is the only genre that seems to have the potential to help students become better writers. Rebecca Blood, author of the first weblogging handbook, has described a great scenario in which a hypothetical blogger would become a better writer.

The blogger, by virtue of simply writing down whatever is on his mind, will be confronted with his own thoughts and opinions. Blogging everyday, he will become a more confident writer. A community of 100 or 20 or 3 people may spring up around the public record of his thoughts. Being met with friendly voices, he may gain more confidence in his view of the world . . . As he enunciates his opinions daily, this new awareness of his inner life may develop into a trust in his own perspective. . . . Accustomed to expressing his thoughts on his website, he will be able to more fully articulate his opinion to himself and others. (Blood 13-14)

If students take up weblogging with energy, commitment, and an interest in refining their craft, writing instructors know that this call to write, which comes from personal investment rather than a course assignment, is going to do more for the student's writing, intellectual growth, and self-confidence than anything her or she can do for the student in the classroom.

Of course, not all weblog undertakings are going to work. A class weblog will understandably make some students uncomfortable: putting your ideas online can be intimidating. Keeping a personal weblog will seem like the worst idea imaginable to some students, and busy schedules keep many students from taking on any kind of task that seems outside the normal expectations of a course. And the minute that weblogging is made the center of the class, chances are that the spirit of blogging will be sapped from the activity and weblogging will become just like any other assignment (online courses and courses about electronic communication being likely exceptions to this statement). Most instructors who use weblogs are aware of this possibility, and will really be hoping that students keep an open mind about blogging, give it a fair chance, and explore options for making weblogging part of their school or daily routines.

Weblogs have some intriguing possibilities

Keep track of your friends around the country who have gone helter-skelter. Sure, you can email them, or IM them, but weblogging gives you a way to tighten or expand your loop of friends. Weblogging your life at college, rather than emailing it, will also give you a much more manageable and retrievable record of these years for yourself, your family, current friends, and people from your future. In addition to this legacy function, if the speculation is right, your writing skills will improve throughout your university career.
You could be your campus's unofficial media watch dog: scrutinize the campus paper and other campus media, tapping into one of the most popular blogging traditions. Along the same lines, you could be the self-appointed reporter of the real campus climate. If you see a future for yourself in journalism, you should definitely start blogging.
Insta-pundit: if you would just prefer to express your views on current issues on campus, in your community, or around the world, take a shot at being an "instant pundit."
You can begin to build a knowledge-log: keep your notes online so you can access them anywhere you can access the web. Use some of the higher-end tools and you can have your weblogs sorted into pre-determined categories for easier use later on. Get friends in various majors to take up this weblogging function and watch your university have to re-think its whole approach to education—no more canned lectures, no more courses that remain stagnant for years and years, no more passive students accepting whatever is delivered their way.
You can find, or build, a campus community of bloggers. Search for local bloggers with your favorite search engine, put an ad out in the school newspaper "bloggers wanted", or use whatever communication channels your school might have for broadcasting you message. Blogroll the locals, and if you are feeling ambitious, start a community blog. Organize a blog-a-thon to raise money for a good cause.

The genre, in more detail.

If you want to learn how to weblog from one of the best, pick up Rebecca Blood's The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog. If you want her advice in a condensed form, keep reading. This section explains some of the strategies for writing a weblog; the "Tools" section [coming soon] goes into some technical considerations for setting up and maintaining a weblog.

Rebecca Blood identifies "three very broad categories" of weblogs: "blogs, notebooks, and filters" (6). A lot of academic or class blogs will probably fall under the notebook and filter categories, but personal blogging is always fair game. To the extent that people are familiar with weblogging, they usually associate it with online journals, diaries, or what Blood is simply calling "blogs."

BLOGS: "these sites resemble short-form journals. The writer's subject is his daily life, with links subordinate to the text. Even when entries point the reader to a news or magazine article, link-text gives the feeling of a quick spontaneous remark, perhaps of the type found in an instant message to a friend" (6). These types of entries are by far the most common, although this has only been the case since the tools for easy publication have been available.

NOTEBOOKS: "Sometimes personal, sometimes focused on the outside world, notebooks are distinguished from blogs by their longer pieces of focused content. Personal entries are sometimes in the form of a story. Some notebooks are designed as a space for public contemplation: Entries may contain links to primary material, but the weblogger's ruminations are front and center" (6-7). The notebook entry is ideal for educational blogging. Instead of the instructor collecting short writings on a daily basis, students might be asked to post observations, responses to readings, or responses to questions, as a weblog notebook entry.

FILTERS: "When I think of the classic weblog, I don't think of a short-form diary or a series of stories or short think pieces. I think of the old-style site organized squarely around he link, maintained by an inveterate Web surfer, personal information strictly optional. These weblogs have one thing in common: the primacy of the link" (7-8). This kind of blogging will be less personal, and more academic, but that doesn't mean they can't be fun, written with an engaging voice, and expressive of your interests or personality. Blood is right to say "they [filter entries] reveal the weblogger's personality from the outside in" (8).

Why aren't we just using a discussion board?

Students already familiar with course management systems like Blackboard and Web CT might wonder why they are being asked to blog, rather than use a discussion board.

Most instructors who use weblogs see these advantages:

Schedule

Assignments

Notes

Music Links

Word Links