Everyone in the blogosphere should be reading guidelines for writing good blogs before they start publishing on the web. The world of blogging is only a few years old, and many are jumping in fresh, without any experience in this new form.
The emergence of blogging strategies and weblog ethics indicates that the weblog is maturing. Yet the mainstream is still largely unaware of details about weblogs, as shown by the Net Rage study. Weblogs are no longer only communications between bloggerati; readership of blogs is entering mainstream usage, as in the examples of the many libraries using blogs in conjunction with or even replacing their websites, and perhaps explanations about weblog construction and functions need to be included to clarify them for the mainstream reader.
Bloggers have tended to pour out thoughts--Schneider’s expression “information become conversation” describes the style—such is the temptation offered by the ease of blog publishing. Perhaps blogs should be compared to editorials written on the fly. Because there is now so much being written, perhaps blog texts should be written with more care (here’s the editor in me coming out), remembering accuracy, and acknowledging any biases (Blood). In other words, bloggers need to become more professional, since, after all, they are publishing on the web. It all makes common sense to me. I think bloggers need to slow down and reflect so that they will be proud of what they have written when they read it 10 years down the road.
1 comment:
Hi Jill,
As I mentioned in my blog, I think that libraries need more complex blogging software. Customization, ability to host multiple blogs, archiving, control over organization, etc, are elements that libraries need to consider. Though we are starting to learn about blogs, I still think having in house computer technicians is important; we need people who can read and write HTML. Or maybe we should be the ones learning it? Since I am out on co-op I cannot even imagine having to learn HTML, and more importantly have to stay updated. What I do like, however, is learning about blogs, moboblogs, vblogs, etc, and try and incorporate them into a libray's website.
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