The Classification Of Blogs And Its Communities

Blogs have been increasingly classified into a variety of types and subject matter.

Fashion blogs are a dominant entry where the authors would blog on everything
that is fashion; beyond the runway & beyond the clothes.
Blogs such as I Am Fashion and La-Fashion-A-La-Mode are updated regularly to keep
tabs on the ever revolving fashion world.

Political blogs are also garnering more attention especially in the United States where the Democratic election campaign is on going. Blogs such as Obama Barack and
Hillary Clinton Army discusses the campaigns of the respective leaders and the
momentum leading up to The United States presidential election in November.

The ‘Traditional’ text blog with images is still dominant. However, as technology
progresses, blogging from mobile devices otherwise known as MoBlog will surely
pick up the pace. The definition of MoBlog according to BBC News is when a blog post
or entry is written and sent
from a laptop via a wi-fi hotspot in a cafe or from a capable mobile phone.

Some blogging in relation to media types is Vlog which is a video blog prevalent on
video sharing site YouTube. As Heather Graham puts it, "They’re a dedicated group of video blogging advocates who are working to help all kinds of video bloom, whether
commercial or personal".

Linkblog provides interesting and relevant links to other sites and blogs.
PhotoBlog on the other hand is where the authors would use it as a medium to posts
pictures and Tumblelogs consists of mixed-media posts being preferred over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging.

An example of a PhotoBlog.

Blogging communities are formed through a shared common interest. Bloggers are able
to create an online community simply by providing links to other blogs that shares the same passion as they do. These links are typically provided on the side panel in a blog.

Other than the exchanging of thoughts and ideas, these communities served as a social
support group to each other. Below are some examples of blogging communities on the web.

• http://guitarz.blogspot.com/
  
• http://tsunamihelpindia.blogspot.com/
  
• http://loving-fashion.blogspot.com/
  
• http://only1united.blogspot.com/
  
• 
  

Being an avid guitar player, I am part of an online commuity known as GuitarPraise.
What the blog does is that it provides guitar notes and chords to all the well-known
Christian and gospel songs for us learning musicians to based on. In the blog, we have links
to other blogs who share a similar love and passion for music such as the Drum themed blog.

The GuitarPraise blog. My blogging community.

In my case, a blogging community is created when bloggers who share the same interest in
playing the guitar creates the blog to serve the interest of guitarists worldwide. Others will
then be introduced to the blog either by links or by ‘stumbling’ upon it. Whichever way,
it is the passion and love for music that drives us on and makes us function as an online community.

Henry Jenkins, The Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program says in his blog that instead of school banning the use of YouTube, MySpace and the like, they 
should instead examine the ways such sites could be used to the benefit of the education community.
In any given case, it is even possible to create an online community where Teachers and Students are able to communicate in a stress free environment.

The future awaits.

Reference List:

1) Green, H 2005, Those Darn Video Blogging Pioneers, viewed 27 April 2008
     http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2005/08/t      hose_darn_vide.html?campaign_id=rss_blog_blogspotting

2) Hi-tech Ways To Stay In Touch 2007, new.bbc.co.uk, viewed 1 May 2008
     http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7082566.stm

3) Jenkins, H 2008, Librarians, YouTube, And The New Media Literacies, viewed 1 May 2008
     http://www.henryjenkins.org/2008/04/librarians_youtube_and_the_new.html