A Sample Researcher Blog

Weblogs in facilitating communities of inquiry

Weblogs (or blogs) initially came into being as regularly updated websites that contained links to websites of interest to the author (Blood 2000). The name is seen by some to be reflective of their initial purpose of recording, storing for reference and sharing a writer's journey around the web (logging the web) (Paquet 2002) and by others to be simply avoiding confusion with and building on the history of the term "server log" (Wikipedia 2004). Since its inception in or around 1996, weblogging has developed to be much more than a means of recording links to websites - although this sharing and saving remains a widespread use of the technology. A widely accepted definition of what exactly constitutes a weblog is "a website which contains periodic, reverse chronologically ordered posts on a common webpage" (Wikipedia 2004), and the functionality that allows this is generally that which allows users (who are generally single authors) to:

• frequently add to their weblog through simple webpublishing technology
• publish items uniquely by time and date of publishing
• attach to items the facility for comments to be added and for postings elsewhere that have linked to that item to be tracked back
• publish with each new posting a webfeed such as RSS or Atom.

Frequently add to a weblog through simple web publishing technology

While weblogs are on the whole frequently published by a single author (Herring et al. 2004), there are many examples of collaborative weblogs where two or more authors publish a single weblog. However, these collaborative efforts are uncommon and often operated in a manner which befits their large audience, and as such are much more often tilted towards broadcast (which then sparks discussion) rather than dialogue between the author and readers.

Along with the increasing simplicity of tools allowing individuals to create weblogs, one of the reasons given for the explosion in the use of weblogs (Perseus 2003) is precisely the personal facility they provide. While extremely evident in diary style weblogs where subject matter usually related to publishers' daily lives and networks are almost wholly social, in the academic and professional sphere the personal nature of weblogs has been instrumental in the extensive development of use as personal online research and knowledge management tools (Paquet 2002, Fielder 2003), and as an ever evolving e-portfolio and representation of the publisher to their context. In essence weblogs allow an individual to simply publish, organise and develop knowledge in their own online space.

Publish items uniquely by time and date of publishing

Items published to a weblog may range from text to images to video or audio as the nature of the web environment and the ease of publishing allows for all of these. Crucially, whatever the format, when each item is published it is given an individual URL either relating to that specific item or the time period (most often the day) in which it was published. This allows for a reader (or listener or viewer) to record for themselves, or cite or refer other readers to that specific posting. This method of citing specific posts, along with the development of blogrolls (a displayed list of links to weblogs the publisher relates to in some way) is a significant aspect in the development of the blogosphere and particular blogospheres (Bloom 2003) and is made significant use of in the development of tools such as trackback as described below.

Attach to items the facility for comments to be added and for postings elsewhere that have linked to that item to be tracked back

As each item is posted under a dedicated and specific URL it can have a number of different applications automatically applied to it; these have included automated searches for the subject matter on a search engine, the facility to email the item to another person and perhaps most importantly, the ability to comment on or discuss the item using a tool similar to a discussion board and trackback any other items on the web that have linked to that specific item.

This comments facility tool allows for what has been seen by some to be more ad hoc discussion and comment on the items in a particular post. Frequently the commenter is able to subscribe to a webfeed or select that they be notified by email if another comment is added to the post. While these can develop into extensive discussions it is generally the case that if an individual wishes to comment at length or in depth on a post - or meme as these developing conversations are frequently referred to - they will post their thoughts to their weblog, including a link to the original post which will then be automatically harvested and presented as a link with accompanying text in the original weblogs trackback menu.

Publish with each new posting a webfeed such as RSS or Atom

RSS, originally an acronym for RDF Site Summary but more commonly referred to as Really Simple Syndication, and the competing format Atom are XML webpages automatically published by weblogging applications that allow other individuals to subscribe through an aggregator or similar application to receive either full or in part any new items posted to that weblog. This means that, for example, the author is able to monitor over 100 weblogs on a daily basis for any new items simply by opening an aggregator with no need to visit all the weblogs in question. Further to this, RSS is now used in the traditional publication media. The New York Times, The Guardian, the BBC, and on an academic front the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, all supplying RSS feeds allowing individuals to receive new content through an aggregator.