BLOGS & BLOGGING

A weblog (usually shortened to blog) is a web-based journal consisting of a series of short articles (normally appearing in reverse chronological order) that gives the appearance of a diary. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual (or small group) and usually focus on a particular subject or topic. Readers of blogs can normally add comments at the foot of each article agreeing, disagreeing, or developing the original article. Bloggers frequently reference other articles and web pages on the Internet building up a rich seam of interconnected articles related to the topic under discussion.

Blogging is a relatively recent phenomenon but one that has experienced an exponential growth from twenty three known blogs in 1999 to an estimated 53.4 million blogs by the end of 2005 . There is now a myriad of different types of blogs: personal blogs, academic blogs , journalist blogs , Chief Executive Officer blogs , [http://www.spring.org.uk/student] blogs , and are even blogs run by companies set up to advise business about the use of blogs . Not surprisingly, given their open and accessible nature, blogs are also being used by service users to share experience and for campaigning purposes (e.g. the recent “Blogging against disablism day” ).

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