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Blogs and blogging
Sanjana Hattotuwa
TED FellowFounding Editor, Groundviews, www.groundviews.org
topics covered
• What is a blog?
• How are blogs used?
• Understanding the anatomy of a blog
• Starting your own blog
• Finding and reading other blogs
• Other resources
a blog is...
• Shortened form of the phrase “Web log”
• Like a diary or journal in the physical world, hosted on the web
• A website that can be easily updated by posting short items, with little or no knowledge of programming.
• Blogs are often ordered by date and topic, with newest items at the top.
• Entries are often archived
• Can be on any topic, and feature written, video, audio and photographic content
a blog is...
a blog is...
a blog is...
a blog is...
blogs embrace
e.g. politics
e.g. politics
e.g. individual opinion
e.g. individual opinion
e.g. individual opinion
e.g. individual opinion
e.g. news
e.g. governance
e.g. innovation
e.g. activist
e.g. activist
what makes a blog, a blog?
some typical features
• Comments on posts (you can post responses to the blog)
• Feeds (others can subscribe to your blog and read it at leisure)
• Trackbacks (a way through which you are alerted when others link to your posts)
• Categories
• Site search
• Archives
• Blogroll (a list of other blogs you find interesting or deal with similar issues)
anatomy of a post (published)
anatomy of a post (backend)
who blogs in sri lanka?
who blogs in sri lanka?
who blogs in sri lanka?
who blogs in sri lanka?
• Across Sri Lanka, largely from urban centres / cities
• MSM journalists
• Youth, including from diaspora and university students
• Young researchers & thinkers
• Still more men than women
• Still more content in English, but Tamil and Sinhala content growing apace
creating your blog
creating your blog
reading blogs (rss)
• Really Simple Syndication – A lightweight format for distributing news headlines and other content on the Web.
• It is an alternative means of accessing the vast amount of information that now exists on the world wide web. Instead of the user browsing websites for information of interest, the information is sent directly to the user.
what is an rss reader?
• Allows you to subscribe to blog updates from a single page
• Like a newspaper subscription - brings in new blog content to your PC without you having to visit lots of blogs individually
• Pull in content, as opposed to go out and search for content
• Thin and light, as opposed to the page load times of websites
• Plethora of online and offline readers, including versions for smartphones
google rss reader
blog safely
• Guides for blogging on sensitive issues are available on the Internet
• Be careful when blogging about sensitive issues
• NEVER use your real name if you suspect the content you post will increase your risk
• Governments have been known to imprison bloggers or subject them to harassment (such as in China)
• Make sure your blog is correctly set up to support the issues you want to write about
blog safely
blog safely
