Student Usage Rate

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, "twenty-seven percent of internet users say they read blogs."

"Seven percent of the 120 million US adults who use the internet say they have created a blog or web-based diary. That represents more than 8 million people."

We do not have current information on how many UW Madison students blog.

(http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_blogging_data.pdf)

Blog Basics

Blog is short for Web log. A Blog is an online journal which contains "periodic time-stamped posts on a common webpage" Blogs are usually public to all Internet users, although private and semi-private (i.e. accessible to specific people only) blogs can be created. Some blogs allow readers to post public comments.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog)

Uses

Blogs are used for a wide range of both personal and professional purposes. Some serve as an alternative to a personal diary, others as a forum for voicing political views. Blogs can also function as a forum for advice, professional or otherwise. Businesses, organizations, and celebrities use blogs to communicate with their customers, members, and fans. Multimedia oriented blogs, such as photoblogs and blogs with video or audio clips, are becoming popular. With millions of weblogs on the Internet, blog technology is used for a range purposes as wide as people's imagination and creativity.

Suggestions for Educational Uses

Blogging has significant potential for use in an educational setting.

You could create a blog to use as a tool for group discussion. Students can blog about their research project and professors, TAs, or other students can give them feedback via public comments. Read a Badger Herald article about a UW Madison class using blogs as a discussion tool.

For more information and ideas regarding the educational uses of blogs, please see the Resources page.

Etiquette

• Be respectful in your blog comments. Be aware of how public your blog is.

• Avoid, at all costs, posting email addresses other than your own. This will likely lead to the party whose email address has been made public getting spammed to no end. Likely, this party will be rather upset with you.

• If you are citing text from someone else's blog or any other source, be sure to give credit to the original author. If the source is on the Internet, it is a good idea to provide a link to the original source.

• It is polite, although not necessary, to respond to every comment that is posted to your blog. You can respond either in the comments area or via email.

Blogging Jargon

archive - A blog archive is a collection of old blog entries.

comment - A comment is a message on a blog associated with a specific post, usually responding to something said in the post or another comment. Depending on the settings controlled by the blog administrator and limitations of the blog software being used, comments can often be restricted, moderated, and edited.

permalink - A permalink is the "permanent" URL to a specific blog post. Permalinks are often used to reference or access olds posts after they are no longer viewable on the main page of a blog.

post - A post is an entry made on a blog by a blog author, someone authorized to add entries to the weblog.

For an extensive glossary of other blog terms, visit http://weblogs.about.com/od/weblogsglossary.

Getting Started

To get started with blogging, you should first decide which of the many different options available is best for your needs. The best option available will depend on your specific blog needs, your technical skill level, and the resources available to you for your blog.

We have prepared some information to help you in that decision.

Read More >>

Popular Hosted Blog Providers

Hosted Weblog Providers are one of the three main types of blogging platforms. They are the easiest type for beginners to use.  Read More >>

• Blogger
  
  
• LiveJournal
  
  
• TypePad