So you want to blog?  First let’s start by saying Blog is actually short for “WebLog” a term coined by Jorn Barger in December of 1997 and later Peter Merholz shortened the term to “Blog” in May of 1999.  Now that you’ve been given a brief origin of the name let’s talk about what a Blog is (for more history check Wikipedia).

While there are probably many ways to define a blog.  It’s most important to think of a blog as a union between a diary and a news article.  In one way it can be like a diary because it typically references events or interesting topics in a person’s life or profession and then organizes them in reverse chronological order.  On the other hand it’s like a news article because it’s a way to broadcast these same topics to many people (completely unlike a diary).   More importantly people can subscribe to a blog (like one would subscribe to a newspaper) and be updated with new content (typically referred to as “posts”) on a regular basis.  With the injection of technology these topics can be made interactive between a group of people in real time.  The “real time” aspect of a blog is where the separation from traditional writing occurs.  With a blog no one has to wait for an editor, press release or actual printing to occur.  With these factors being removed the individual has the autonomy to produce opinionated content whenever they want.  This video is explains it very well, take a look…