Kathie Bracy: What is a blog?

Nov. 17, 2005

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oi=defmore&defl=en&q=define:Blog

At today's CORE meeting, the question was asked, "What is a blog?" I answered as best I could, in terms I have come to understand. The link above will provide definitions from many sources. Basically, it's one's own personal website, where you can put anything you want: pictures, links, articles, letters, your own journaling, etc. My niece, who is with her husband and children in Mexico for a year while he works on a project for his Ph.D. in special ed, has a blog for family and friends. All we have to do is click on her link and we get pictures of the family, their friends, playmates, neighborhood, Mexican food, activities, etc., along with chatty news about their every day life. You can imagine how it must cut down on international phone calls and precious time having to be spent at the computer.

I was brand new to blogs when I started about six weeks ago; I just knew I wanted to have my own blog for posting CORE e-mails and articles, so I pulled up Google (www.google.com) and typed in "free blog." I just kept clicking away at whatever came up after that, and the next thing I knew, I had a blog!

In my first blog (www.kathiebracy.blogspot.com), I wanted to post what I thought were the most significant letters, articles, etc., that came my way via CORE e-mails. While I spent a lot of time selecting, editing and posting, I have since realized I could perform a better service by NOT being selective, but rather putting ALL the e-mails in there, thus enabling others to go to one place to see them instead of opening dozens of e-mails every day, if they so choose. Very different from my niece's blog. So I have abandoned my first blog and this week started the new one: www.coremail.blogspot.com. Thanks to John Curry and everyone else who submits items, I have PLENTY to post, and it keeps me busy. I have not deleted my first blog, though, as there are over 100 posts in it that I did not want to delete. Perhaps in due time I will figure out a good way to transfer them to the new blog.

I still edit, though originally I wasn't going to. You would not believe how messy an unedited version can get when pasted into the "work space" in a blog. (By the way, the word "blog" is a shortened version of "web log.") If nothing else, I will remove e-mail addresses and street addresses. along with ads and other "extras."

There are millions of blogs on the Internet, and they are becoming more and more popular every day. I suspect I have viewed many of them and not realized they were blogs. Last night I was looking at the MSNBC blog, reading stuff that Brian Williams posted. Doing my blogs, I have felt almost as if I were putting out a newspaper. It's a lot of fun, and I am counting on you and you and you to keep supplying the material. I want this to be YOUR blog.