The Era of the Blog Part 2 - Blogging as a means of creating online communities.

When I blog, I hope to reach as many people as I can. In addition to that, I hope to reach bloggers who specifically share the same interests as I do or at least are able to relate to my regular musings. When I blog about the latest video games I play, I like getting comments and feedback from fellow gamers online, and when I blog about my day at class, I like getting feedback from my college mates or other college-goers.

How blogs reach different types of Internet users are through the different things the bloggers write about. Therefore we can break down blogs to a number of classifications.

According to Technorati, 2008, blogs can be divided into six classes (as seen on their top menu bar);

a) Business
b) Entertainment
c) Lifestyle
d) Politics
e) Sports
f) Technology

These classifications can further be broken down to subclasses (eg. Subclasses under Entertainment are Celebrity, Film, Gaming, Indie Film, Music and Television).

It is the variety of blog classifications that allow for online communities to exist. the envelopes, for example, is an online shopping blog (this would probably go under the Business classification) started by three of my college mates where they sell articles of clothing and accessories online. On their blog there are numerous links to other online shopping websites. They also have a chatbox, where other online shopping bloggers post their updates to inform the administrators of the envelopes as well as the readers.

Another blog hosting website LiveJournal also encourages its members to start groups and communities, through which they can recruit members who have the same interest as they do. Through these groups they are able to discuss and share their thoughts about the topics relevant to the community.

A screenshot of various members of a community on LiveJournal called Harry Potter Knitting, sharing their photos of their hand-made Harry Potter-inspired crafts.

To build a blogging community is very simple and most of the time happens on accident. Jack Vinson (2006) states that bloggers come together due to common interests and are held together by those interests. Not only is it the ongoing passion of the topic of mutual interest is what keeps a blogging community together, but alike traditional communities, these bloggers get to know one another and develop a sense of community and togetherness that extends beyond the common interest.

References:

Vinson, J 2006, Blogging and Communities, Knowledge Jolt with Jack, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://blog.jackvinson.com/archives/2006/06/26/blogging_and_communities.html>

2008, the envelopes, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://www.the-envelopes.blogspot.com/>

Technorati.com (2008) viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://technorati.com/>