An introduction to the phenomenon of Weblogs--online journals and diaries--and the people who keep them.

Instantaneous and raw, unedited and uncensored, Weblogs are self-publishing at its best and its worst--occasionally brilliant but often pretentious, sometimes shocking but always fascinating. We’ve Got Blog is the first book to explore this phenomenon, which has been quickly rising from obscure Webpages to national attention in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Weblogs are free, searchable journals of opinions and links updated daily by an individual or a group and they have become some of the hottest Websites. We’ve Got Blog has pulled together some of the best writing explaining their history, the mavericks who created them, and how they are changing the way we use the Internet.

As I Blogger Myself I Found This Fascinating
For the first time in months I have read a book cover to cover, and it is We’ve Got Blog.



I am a blogger myself (goodbyejim.com) and this book helped me clarify what it is I have been doing for the past year. There are some weaknesses in this work, but even so I highly recommend it.



The book provides alternate definitions of what is a blog. A useful one is that a blog is a chronologically ordered, regularly updated website that is primarily the work of one person and contains a high number of regularly updated, chronologically ordered links to other sites. The links and the other ordered chronological material are often contained within the same short piece of micro-content.



I am not sure what micro-content is. The phrase pops up in the book but is not explained.



We’ve Got Blog focuses on diaristic blogs or blogs in which the blogger blogs about whatever is of interest or about a very broad topic. But there are many tightly focused blogs. (Mine is for liberals who oppose a certain nominally-Democratic politician and his machine in a single congressional district. How is that for narrowcasting?)



The book rarely discusses topics of specific relevance to single issue blogs. It devotes great space to people who have diaristic blogs and want to have other diaristic bloggers like them and link to them. For single point-of-focus blogs this concept is irrelevant. Often we are the only blog dealing with a subject and there would be no one to link to us even if we cared for them to do so.



Some of the material in this book is already dated. The book describes the robotwisdom.com blog, but when I visited it I got the impression that it has not been updated for a year. When some of these essays were written Google was not the overpowering presence that it is today. It would have been nice to see some discussion of how Google placement affects blog.



But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Within 24 hours of purchasing this fairly thin volume I had read it in its entirety, and for me that is the highest praise that a book can earn.





Jonathan Mark

Blogmaster

GoodbyeJim.com

As I Blogger Myself I Found This Fascinating
For the first time in months I have read a book cover to cover, and it is We’ve Got Blog.

I am a blogger myself (goodbyejim.com) and this book helped me clarify what it is I have been doing for the past year. There are some weaknesses in this work, but even so I highly recommend it.

The book provides alternate definitions of what is a blog. A useful one is that a blog is a chronologically ordered, regularly updated website that is primarily the work of one person and contains a high number of regularly updated, chronologically ordered links to other sites. The links and the other ordered chronological material are often contained within the same short piece of micro-content.

I am not sure what micro-content is. The phrase pops up in the book but is not explained.

We’ve Got Blog focuses on diaristic blogs or blogs in which the blogger blogs about whatever is of interest or about a very broad topic. But there are many tightly focused blogs. (Mine is for liberals who oppose a certain nominally-Democratic politician and his machine in a single congressional district. How is that for narrowcasting?)

The book rarely discusses topics of specific relevance to single issue blogs. It devotes great space to people who have diaristic blogs and want to have other diaristic bloggers like them and link to them. For single point-of-focus blogs this concept is irrelevant. Often we are the only blog dealing with a subject and there would be no one to link to us even if we cared for them to do so.

Some of the material in this book is already dated. The book describes the robotwisdom.com blog, but when I visited it I got the impression that it has not been updated for a year. When some of these essays were written Google was not the overpowering presence that it is today. It would have been nice to see some discussion of how Google placement affects blog.

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Within 24 hours of purchasing this fairly thin volume I had read it in its entirety, and for me that is the highest praise that a book can earn.


Jonathan Mark
Blogmaster
GoodbyeJim.com

A book without a personality
I had such great hopes for this book. The list of contributing authors reads like a "who’s who" of blogging, and I really enjoyed headliner Rebecca Blood’s "Weblog Handbook". Alas, I was to be disappointed. This book is not a grand collaborative effort but merely a collection of unrelated essays, interviews and weblog posts. Some of these articles were new, some were familiar, some were intriguing, some were dull or inconsequential. Worst of all, these articles are mostly available on the web for free, And there’s not even a linking paragraph of new content between them. One of the distinguishing characteristics of weblogs is that each rings with the individual tone of the author. Jumbling a bunch of such differing styles together made my head spin.

I find it hard to imagine anyone who will get full value out of this book. Most people will find some of the articles informative or inspiring but also find some a waste of time. A book to check out from the library and dip in to, but not one to keep and cherish.

Interesting, but not filling
I was hoping for a more in depth look at what blogs mean to our culture, to the net, etc. This book doesn’t really provide that. While most of the essays collected here are interesting, it doesn’t provide a huge amount of point or commentary or new info. Good read though.

Have you blogged today?
This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me-
The simple News that Nature told-
With tender Majesty

Her message is committed
To Hands I cannot see-
For love of Her - Sweet - countrymen-
Judge tenderly - of Me

--"A Blogger’s Anthem" (actually a poem by Emily Dickinson, c. 1862--change the "Hands" in line 6 to "Eyes" and it fits rather nicely.)

Well, the novel is dead or dying, I forget which, and there’s no cinema in Hollywood, and TV’s still a wasteland, and pro wrestling’s fixed (yes, sad), and the news is biased, and I don’t need no stinkin’ make-over, etc. So why not blog?

Is it an ego trip? Cheap psychotherapy? Pathetic? How about an exercise in futility? Or a way to know for sure how meaningless your life really is? (And a way to document same?)

A new art form? The new New Journalism? A synergistic combination of link and commentary? Open letters to the world? A great adventure in self-discovery? A way to make friends and influence people?

Judging from this book which serves as a spiffy, if limited, introduction to the world of blog, all of the above, I would guess and something more. In fact, anything at all. Link and ye shall know. Write and somebody might write back.

There’s a Glossary. It’s short. The first word I looked up ("filter") wasn’t there. That’s my test. I read a technical word in the text that I am not sure about and I flip to the Glossary. I do this three or four times. If it’s there, good Glossary, otherwise not. There are footnotes. All are URLs. Cute.

And there are chapters. In six parts: A Brief History; Meet the Bloggers; Blog, Blog, Blog; Advice; Weblogs vs. Traditional Journalism; and Community. Neat. Each chapters is written by a different blogger including Rebecca Blood, who wrote the Introduction, and Weblogs, A History and Perspective. Here are some examples of the most interesting chapters:

Weblogging: Lessons Learned by Kulesh Shanmugasundaram whose dicta include: "Content is everything." That’s a duh, but a Great Big Duh. And "Having ten million hits is not the game plan. Having 10 regular readers is a home run."

The Libera Manifesto by Chris Pirillo, whose words of wisdom include: "Most of us seek recognition, not fame" and "Opinions aren’t wrong."

Metascene’s Ten Tips for Building a Bionic Weblog. His style is lively, snappy, a bit of a controlled hard-boil (and foul-mouthed), but somehow mature, and includes this gem: "Once in a while remind yourself that just because it happened to you does not necessarily make it interesting."

Put the Keyboard Down and Back Away from the Weblog by Neale Talbot. He gives an example of a Blog Style Journal and a Journal Style Blog, and comments, "I’m not sure which one is worse." (Actually both are great. See page 158.)

Tim Cavanaugh’s Let Slip the Blogs of War has the virtue of pointing to what might be expected of a lot of blog text: it’s political. The political fires are what motivate some bloggers to blog. "The weblog is not the most useless weapon in the War On Terrorism," he writes. "That title is still held by the nuclear submarine." (p. 189) Clever, but I think he’s wrong. The decentralized exchange of opinions that blogs offer may be exactly what we need, the fact that the blogs that Cavanaugh read were pretty much lockstep jingoism, notwithstanding. There are other opinions that go out to the world.

What is wonderful about the blog is that it allows almost anyone to have his or her say (with the hope that somebody might be listening). Yes, the journalism is mostly somebody else’s (but often there’s a link); and as an art form the blog is in its infancy--although some bloggers would surely say the opposite, that blogging is already a mature art form (measured at the speed of webtime), and out there in Cyberspace, already quietly perfecting their art, are the Shakespeare and Botticelli of blog. And they aren’t necessarily A-list.

Or is blogging possibly a way to fame and fortune? Will it be possible some day to make a living as a blogger? Ah yes, a tenth of a cent a hit cometh your way. Ten thousand hits a day = a hundred dollars. (I just wish they would charge even a tenth of a penny for each e-mail. That would hit the spammers where it hurts.)

If nothing else this book inspired me to check out the blogs themselves. I was expecting some pretty amateurish stuff, but the ones I looked at were easy on the eye and fairly well composed and edited. They combined links with commentary. Many were political and some were obviously biased, but that is to be expected. If you take the time to surf I suspect almost anybody will find a blog that appeals.

Ironically this excellent little book makes the point that blogging is another example of the decentralization of the publishing world. This is a semi-official acknowledgment that the commercial publishers are watching. Where blogging will lead is anybody’s guess. Maybe someday everybody will have a blog, started from youth and continued throughout one’s life. Instead of a resumé or a formal introduction, you will send the URL to your blog. And you will be judged. And possibly loved.

The origins, trends, and pros and cons of weblogs
The editors of Perseus Publishing’s We’ve Got Blog also explore the new trend of self-published web-based logs and journals. Weblogs are self-publishing at its strongest - and its worst. This explores the origins, trends, and pros and cons of weblogs.