Blogging: Welcome to the party

If you are reading this using your favorite feed aggregator and are comfortable with terms like RSS, ATOM, or enclosures this post is not for you. If you are reading this using Internet Explorer, you probably typed in the wrong address or Google hates you.

This post is to welcome you to the party known as blogging. Blogging is also known as web logging, and it is here to stay. Keep in mind Blog = weB log. Clever isn't it?

Excited that I was now able to subject perfect strangers to whatever the hell was on my mind, I emailed some friends and family.

To: Friends and Family

From: Me Subject: Hey, I have a blog! Check it out.

Some replied back: "I don't get it. What the hell is wrong with you." Others said: "Shouldn't you be working? Is this what my tax dollars are going towards?" My parents said: "How did we raise such a geek?" Well, let me tell you why the hell people blog and why you might be interested.

Getting What Web Logs Are About

Why should you be interested in web logs? Let me ask you this: Do you have 2 or more web sites bookmarked that you visit every day to get your daily fix of news, humor, stock quotes, weather forecasts, or see if you got that yard gnome you had your eye on at eBay? If you answered yes, web logs can help you, provided the sites you visit have an orange XML button/link on them, indicating the offer RSS feeds of their content.

Syndication formats/web logs allow you to have content come to you instead of you to it.

No more traveling from web site to web site, reading what you are interested in. With the help of an aggregator like SharpReader, you subscribe to a feed and from then on the content you used to have to go to instead is coming to you. Aggregators can also download audio content like radio shows to your local computer for you to listen to. Now you might be thinking this is just a tool for lazy geeks. It is. But that shouldn't stop you from being lazy too. Life is too short to be using a web browser. Shouldn't your computer being serving you, instead of the other way around?

How I learned to love the blogosphere

At first I used blogs to keep track of content I was interested in, get notifications of new software that was available, and keep up to date on programming topics. But the great thing about blogs is that ANYONE can publish them. You are no longer restricted to the common media outlets and what they think you should read. Whether you are interested in optimizing a web cache, finding out more about quilting or follow a study on insulin pumps, there is likely a blog that meets you interests. If not, you could start your own. Blogs also create a virtual community. I have had 'conversations' through blogs with people all over the world. Physical location no longer matters. People who blog often have blogrolls that point to blogs they read or share their interests, creating a web of information.

Blogs are a unique form of communication because you can meet a person on an intellectual level before you actually meet them in person. A web log can be an online diary, personal record label, your own news press. It is inherently an empowering technology, and it might be right for you.