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--></style><title>Re: [Editors] MIT Editors' Club Minutes,
2/25/04</title></head><body>
<div>Hi Everybody,</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Editors' Club member Kathryn Rotondo kindly sent me the following
note after reading the minutes from the last meeting. Since several of
the Editors at the last meeting were not too sure of what a
"blog" is (I'm one of 'em), I figured that those folks and
others might appreciate Kathryn's definition (and links).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>cheers!</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Elizabeth</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Hi Elizabeth,<br>
<br>
I have to beg to differ, or to clarify, what a blog is!<br>
<br>
The terminology for personal Web sites started with "activity
log" back in the<i> olden days</i> (circa 1990) and has since
morphed to "weblog", and now "blog." So blog
actually refers to a Web site where one person or a group of people
write about their experiences, opinions, news etc., as the main
content of the site. Of course there are always new uses for
blogs, but that's the gist.<br>
<br>
The feature I believe Jean might have been referring to is
"commenting", which is indeed available on many blogs.
While the original content is called a "post", visitors to
the blog can write "comments" in response to the post.
It should be of note that not all blogs have this feature (for
example, Nat Friedman '99: http://www.nat.org/blog) Here are
some examples of blogs with commenting:<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>newsy<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>http://slashdot.org/<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>political campaigns<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>http://blog.johnkerry.com/<br>
<x-tab>
</x-tab>http://www.georgewbush.com/blog/<x-tab
> </x-tab><br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>personal<br>
<x-tab>
</x-tab>http://loobylu.com/<br>
<x-tab>
</x-tab>http://www.kerismith.com/blog/<br>
<br>
Hope this isn't Too Much Information. Being a blogger myself,
and seeing that people on the editors list like to use words
precisely, thought I'd try to help set the record straight :)<br>
<br>
Kathryn<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>But back to Jean, who brought up a second
related topic. She is thinking about adding a "blog" to the
online Insider. "What's a BLOG?" whined several of us.
Essentially it's a form attached to a story so that people can send in
their opinions or otherwise chat about the topic at hand. "It's
designed for people who like to expound---publicly," Jean said.
Blogs can also be great "for getting a discussion going."
Jean further explained that you can get free, open "blog"
software that you can install on your server....</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>===================================<br>
Elizabeth A. Thomson<br>
Assistant Director, Science & Engineering News<br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
News Office, Room 11-400<br>
77 Massachusetts Ave.<br>
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307<br>
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)<br>
<thomson@mit.edu><br>
<br>
<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www><br>
===================================</div>
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