Blogging and the Rise of Creative Self Publishing
'Content is king' has always been the mantra of the successful web industry. But while information publishing on data driven websites has benefited from automation, with statistics and newsfeeds drawn from databases, and updates handled by user friendly input tools, creative publishing has not had it as easy. Creative writers, photographers, or artists have struggled with the technical issues involved in publishing their ideas and baulked at the effort involved in keeping their website updated. The creative voices on the internet have largely been those who have either battled through all the technical issues of html and ftp or those that are directly involved in the web industry itself.
Broadcast media or even print publishing media rarely provides an
unimpeded voice for the creative individual. This trend has now
more than ever been reversed through the Web's celebration of the
individual voice, where that voice can have as much power in
shining a light on the far flung corners of the web as any search
engine.
The individual creative publisher has now been firmly given a voice with the growth of the 'Weblog' or 'blog' as the vehicle for their web presence.
While original weblogs were link driven websites, personal commentary, essays and journals have begun to emerge. These 'bloggers' revel in the many forms of the web, the essence of its network spirit, with unequivocal cross linking and shouts out to the web community as it changes day to day, like a shifting sand of content and ideas. A weblog is neither a diary, magazine or link station, but a mix of these elements and more.
A host of free 'build your own' weblog tools have since been launched
from websites such as pitas.com, scribble.nu, blogger.com and others. Similar variations such as those at
diaryland.net are
also growing in greater and greater numbers, Both in terms of
publishers and readers.
While weblogs may not seem like anything new to the uninitiated, the ease with which individuals can now publish their thoughts has provided a huge leap forward for the web to facilitate creative writing and thinking on a deeply personal level. At the same time it provides users of the web with personal guides, around which the more popular can build up an audience of many thousands.
As users have struggled to find content through search engines or commercial portals that is of interest to them, finding the right weblogs now provides users with a far more effective way to explore the net, filtered as it is through a like minded surfer.
With free web publishing services such as Blogger.com this
technical process has all but been removed. Once an account is
setup and a template is created the creative publisher can add a
'BlogThis' bookmark to their browser. Then, any time they have new
content to contribute, they just click the bookmarklet and a
pop-up window appears, ready for new content. Enter plain text or
HTML, hit Publish, and the Blogger software automatically updates
your page based on your own template. They will even automatically
archive posts on a weekly or monthly basis.
Sounds simple. But media, ideas and content have now become a participation sport played out on a daily basis fusing with both the rest of the web and the opinions and events in the life of the individual authoring the weblog.
While established weblogs such as Slashdot or The Drudge Report focus on more general news stories, others such as Memepool or Lines and splines focus on more eclectic interests from design and typography to fiction or music.
Finding the right weblog in effect puts a face and a personality on the web itself, like a two way conversation with the network, for it is only when the web has been filtered through the appropriate set of eyes that it shifts from its endless library status to being a living, breathing community.
Weblog Links:
www.weblogs.com
www.linesandsplines.com
www.halfbakery.com
www.loobylu.com
www.memepool.com
www.loobylu.com
www.camworld.com
www.linesandsplines.com
www.marychen.com
eatonweb.com
explodingdog.com/
powazek.com
www.kootke.org