Blogs and The Blogging Communities

Types of Blogs

"A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world".

- Anonymous -

There are many types of blogs; according to Wikipedia.org, there are about 6 types of blogs, which comprises of personal, corporate, question, media, device, and genre. Each type, offers different type of information, presented differently and also caters to different audiences. Reep (2006) mentioned that graphic (heading, images) used in blogs helps to provide readers with a quick access to information as it distinguishes the type of blog they are viewing. Different types of blogs is how bloggging communities are created. Blogs which contains the same type of style or same interest could link with each other and create a blogging community.

Acoording to Technorati (2008), the main categories of blogs are as below:

• Entertainment
• Technology
• Business
• Lifestyles
• Politics
• Sports

However, under these main categories, there are also sub-categories created to give viewers a specific choice. Wikipedia.org suggested a different way to categorize the blogosphere. There are many types of blogs out there which differ from each and other, not only on the content, but also the way it is deliver to the audiences. As an example, the sub-categories of Lifestyle blogs are:

Personal blog

Fashion blog

Blogging Community

An article was found during the research on ‘Blogs and Community’ by Nancy White, a well known and highly respected e-facilitation and e-community specialist. It is mentioned that there are 3 different blogs community and they are:

The single centric community

The single centric community is a form of blog based community where readers will keep coming back to the site to leave comments and get to know each other, not only the owner but the other readers around.

Topic centric comunity

The topic centric community exist when blogs are linked together by common interest or topic. This community accumulates blogs from others in order to get the attention from a certain party.

Boundaried community

Boundaried community is a collection of blogs that host a single website. This community usually have other functions such as discussion boards, forums, social networking sites, and instant messaging in their website. Bloggers or readers within a defined boundary creates an opportunity for users to gain access to other blogs.

References:
Reep, D C 2006, ‘Chapter 4: Principles of document design’, in Technical Writing, 6th edn., Pearson Edu Inc., New York, p.173-190.

Technorati 2008, ‘Blog directory’, Technorati.com, viewed 11th June 2009, <http://www.technorati.com/blogs/directory/>.

White, N 2006, ‘What blog based communities look like today’, Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?, viewed 11th June 2009, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>

Wikipedia, ‘Types’, Blog, viewed 11th June 2009, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog>