Anyone Can Do It
Blogger got a nice mention in the current issue of TIME Magazine. 10
Things We Learned About Blogs: "Blogs wouldn't be such a democratic
medium if they weren't so easy to set up. The most popular service,
Blogger, http://blogger.com owned by Google, boasts features like
push-button photoblogging." Nice.
See also http://www.blogscanada.ca/ for a Canadian version of blogs.
[full text]
http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2004/poymoments.html
10 Things We Learned About Blogs
Radio had its golden age in the 1930s. In the 1950s, it was
television's turn. Historians may well date the golden age of the
blog from 2004-when Merriam-Webster.com's most searched-for
definition was blog. How long can it last? Who knows? Here's what we
discovered about the new medium this year
By CHRIS TAYLOR
Posted Sunday, December 19, 2004
Blogging Can Get You Fired
When Delta flight attendant Ellen Simonetti, 30-a leggy blond and
self-styled "queen of the sky"-began her blog, she thought it would
be fun to post pinup snapshots of herself in uniform. Delta wasn't
amused and promptly fired her. Undaunted, Simonetti retitled the blog
Diary of a Fired Flight Attendant and detailed her legal battle to
get her job back.
GO TO: http://queenofsky.journalspace.com
Bloggers Make Money
Earn a living in your pajamas! Online ads (along with Google's
automated ad server) allow popular bloggers to go pro. Joshua Micah
Marshall of talkingpointsmemo.com, a political blog, says he makes
$5,000 a month from banner ads-enough to hire a research assistant.
GO TO: http://talkingpointsmemo.com
Bloggers Get Scoops Too
After book editor Russ Kick read that the U.S. military was clamping
down on press photos of coffins coming back from Iraq, he didn't just
pen an angry rant on his blog, the Memory Hole. He filed a Freedom of
Information Act request-and embarrassingly for the Pentagon, was
mailed a CD from the Air Force with 361 coffin snaps, which he
promptly posted. The national press, which hadn't thought to ask
whether the military had pictures, beat a path to Kick's door.
GO TO: http://thememoryhole.org
Bloggers Keep News Alive
So your blog hasn't succeeded in getting national attention for your
pet issue? Don't lose heart. Just blog, link and repeat. It worked
for conservative bloggers like Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, who
trumpeted the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's claims this summer, as
well as for liberal blogs like Daily Kos, which investigated evidence
that President Bush wore a wire in his first debate. Some of the
issues had questionable merit, but persistent bloggers made the
subjects tough to ignore. Say it enough times online, and someone is
bound to hear you.
GO TO: http://Instapundit.com, http://dailykos.com
Bloggers Can Be Titillating
In May a blog graphically detailing the sex life of an anonymous
Capitol Hill staff member prompted D.C.'s most intriguing game of
guess-the-author since Primary Colors. Jessica Cutler, a.k.a.
Washingtonienne, was later outed and fired by her boss, Ohio
Republican Mike DeWine, for "inappropriate use of Senate computers."
(Her site is not for kids.) In another sign of the times, her first
postfiring interview was with Wonkette, another Washington blogger.
GO TO: http://washingtoniennearchive.blogspot.com, http://wonkette.com
Bloggers Can Be Fakers
Plain Layne, a highly personal blog supposedly belonging to a
Minnesota lesbian named Layne Johnson that drew thousands of fans
over 3 1/2 years before mysteriously disappearing, was revealed to be
a hoax. Hundreds of fans helped track down the real author, Odin
Soli, 35, a male entrepreneur from Woodbury, Minn. Later in the year,
fake Bill Clinton and Andy Kaufman blogs became hits.
GO TO: http://plainlayne.dreamhost.com,
http://billclintondailydiary.blogspot.com
Most Bloggers Are Women
Men may have taken the lead in the early (read: geeky) days of
blogging, but that's not the case now. According to a survey of more
than 4 million blogs by Perseus Development, 56% were created by
women. More bad news for the boys: men are more likely than women to
abandon their blog once it's created. Call blogging a 21st century
room of one's own.
GO TO: http://blogsisters.blogspot.com
Candidates Love Blogs
O.K., so Howard Dean never wrote his blog. But his campaign workers
posted a surprisingly intimate online diary of life on the road, and
Dean had collected $20 million in contributions via the Internet
alone by the end of January 2004. It didn't take long for other
politicos to catch on. When New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer
announced that he was running for Governor this month, he did so on
his blog.
GO TO: http://blog.deanforamerica.com, http://spitzer2006.com
Pets Have Blogs Too
It started as an in-joke among feline-friendly bloggers: why not post
pictures of their cats every Friday afternoon? Friday catblogging
became a hit, and soon even NASA was playing along by posting
pictures of the Cat's Eye nebula.
GO TO: http://carnivalofthecats.com
Anyone Can Do It
Blogs wouldn't be such a democratic medium if they weren't so easy to
set up. The most popular service, Blogger, owned by Google, boasts
features like push-button photoblogging.
GO TO: http://blogger.com, http://www.blogscanada.ca/
