Blogging Community

Blogging community is an advancement where Bloggers share information to each other and allow them to connect and organized as one voices (Holman, 2011). Blogging community formed based on enthusiast’s posts of one specific theme, such as gaming, travelling or automotive which then triggered other fanatics to visit the blog. Today, new options invented by RSS and feedreaders ease users in finding new blogs.

White(2011) claimed that there are three types of blogging communities which are;

• Single Blog/ Blogger Centric Community,

Owned by one particular company, organization or a certain group. Member’s comments are usually filtered and their liberty is repressed, means there is almost no chance of visitors or members to create a new topic.

• Central Connecting Topic Community

Formed and maintained by individual but established together with the members unit. Topics can be influenced or requested by members where hierarchy within blog is wavered.

                     

                                                     

• Boundaried Communities,

Assemblages of blogs and stories from numerous bloggers .Normally, members who join the community have already owned a personal blog and this specific society are functioned as a forum for them. Naturally, the domain server plays a least role in the blog’s establishment where members are free to post and obtain comments on their own. 

A proper example for boundaried method would be http://lookbook.nu. This giant fashion sites contains numerous of members who upload their photography related to fashion and also share information amongst community. Aside from different individual page with a comment box served by Lookbook.nu, this platform also provides a link to member’s social networking and personal blog which can be accessed by others followers. A congregation of these participations constructed lookbook.nu to become a widespread fashion site.

References

Holman, Kitty 2011, How To Create A Blogging Community, spiceupyourblog.com, viewed 24 March 2012, < http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/2011/03/how-to-create-blogging-community.html>.

Lookbook.nu, viewed 24 March 2012, http://lookbook.nu.

White, N 2006, Blogs and Community-Launching a new paradigm for online community? , The Knowledge tree, viewed 20 March 2012, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community.

Blog Stratifications

Blog has becomes a prodigious spot where people can openly write to public. Hobbyist, entrepreneur or employees use this particular medium to socialize, share expertise or even as a prime occupation (Walker, 2012). Since there are different types of bloggers, the blog’s priority and objectives are also various. In order to assist observer to a better understanding or analysing, blog’s classification is formulated.

                      (Source: http://www.internetgeeks.org/blogging/blogging-money-types-blogs-benefits/)

Margaret Simmons (2008), media analyst has her own categorize system which are divided into 9 groups based on the blog’s purposes;

• Pamphleteering Blog
• Digest Blog
• Advocacy Blog
• Popular Mechanics Blog
• Exhibition Blog
• Gatewatcher Blog
• Diary Blog
• Advertisement Blog
• News Blog

Aside from Simmons methodology, there are numerous blog’s classifications available. For instance, in comparison, there is blog taxonomy by xnepali.com, one of well-known media expert site which is stratified blog into three main groups based on the writers and topics discussed;

• Journalist Blogs : Generally designed by journalist to infused public with news, trends and expert’s opinions
• Professional Blog : explores on a specific topics or themes connected to one’s occupation or specialities
• Personal Blog : Deal with personal view, leisure and literately ideas

In my point of view, both of blog stratifications are applicable and moderate. However, although the purpose of Xnepali three prime assemblages are to simplified the categorization, I found it easier to classified one particular blog by the system created by Simmons. It is because Xnepali’s method is too wide and broad in the usage while Simmons’s is more specified. Users who seek for mere general type are welcomed to use Xnepali’s version, whereas users who want a more detailed blog’s classification are advised to adopt Simmons’s. 

References

Funnel, Anthony 2008, A Taxonomy of Blogs, The Media Report, Radio National, viewed on 23 March 2012, < http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/mediareport-1999/a-taxonomy-of-blogs/3186686>.

Walker, Leslie 2012, Top Reasons Why People Blog and What They Blog About, Social Media, About.com, viewed on 23 March 2012, < http://personalweb.about.com/od/socialblog/a/Why-People-Blog-And-What-They-Blog-About.htm>.

Xnepali 2011, Blog classification, Xnepali.net, < http://xnepali.net/blog-classification/>.

Blogsphere Phenomenon & Benefit

                                          http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/81727080/

Blogs have growth to become a conventional item on human daily basis and nowadays even more. Blogging is not only acknowledged as a hobby but additionally as politics and business tools for both full and part-time professionals. The advancement proved on the affirmation of 68% bloggers who are admitting a greater impact in 2011 (Technorati, 2011).

The progression, naturally, has changed society’s blog preference. Extensively, news-related blogs, such as New York Times and New York Magazine, are still ranked at the top. However, there are massive developments on movie online shop, such as Netflix, followed by marketing and publication expertise blogs, for example BlogSpot analytics, and in the third place, Technology blogs which are specialized in product releases information and reviews, for instance The Loop.

Another favoured type of blog would be health and lifestyle ones. Several aforementioned sites, such as foodworksblog, are verified have assisted Americans on obesity statistics which is reported experiences a slight decrease from 2009 to 2010 (Gallup, 2010). The success obtained can be tracked back to the implementation of media theories. First concept is known as produsage, which defined as a situation where users and producers are jointly collaborating in a continuous development (prousage.org, 2008). As shown in the foodworksblog, administrators and visitors share and advise each other to a certain diet or sources that are being experienced before, thus eliminated the risk of first-hand trial as a benefit. 

http://www.bloggodown.com/2011/08/9-ways-to-get-people-to-post-comments-on-your-blog.html

Along with advisories, blog is also a medium to criticize a certain things whereas blog serves as a weapon for democracy and a freedom to speak is the main characteristics of public sphere concept (Gimler, 2001). Foodworksblog demonstrates this approach by an open attack to various restaurants, fast food chains and particular products which are believed harmful and a root of various health problems.

http://technorati.com/business/article/software-is-democratic/ 

                   http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/11/30/russia-competing-models-of-internet-politics/ 


References

Feltner, Sally J. 2012, Foods, Facts and Fads, viewed 18 March 2012, http://foodworksblog.wordpress.com.

Gallup 2010, In U.S., Obesity Levels Remain High but Stable in 2010, viewed 18 March 2012, http://www.gallup.com/poll/143483/obesity-levels-remain-high-stable-2010.aspx.

Gimmler, Antje 2001, ‘Deliberative democracy, the public sphere and the internet’, Philosophy & Social Criticism, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 21-39

Produsage 2008, Reading Sample 1 - Produsage: An Introduction, viewed 18 March 2012, http://produsage.org/node/27.

Technorati 2011, State of the Blogosphere 2011: Part 2, viewed 18 March 2012, http://technorati.com/social-media/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2011-part2/.

The Purpose of This Blog

Issues on Publication and Design speak for itself. This site is constructed in order for readers to achieve a better comprehension on design and its use to a publication area by discussion and information sharing. This particular weblog is addressed to students, especially media and design major and also interested readers on the aforementioned topic.