Compassion for Luddites - Part 1 (Blogs)

I absolutely don't claim to be on expert on web technology. Indeed, things change so quickly that I am always feeling behind. However, there are many things in the world of the web that are taken for granted by those in the know, and thus rarely explained to the neo-luddites lurking amongst us! I know this to be true, because I have been in these shoes!

So for this initial post I thought I would focus on all things blogging related (since I assume that as your are reading this, you are interested in blogs...)

Blog - Start with the basics, a blog is a shortened form of "web log," basically an online journal of your thoughts and ideas that is shared on the web. The word blog was first coined in 1999 and has become a permanent part of online culture since. For a thorough definition of blogging and other associated terms, see the wiki entry.

Thread - A thread is a "string" of posts or responses from a single initial post. The most simple type of thread is an e-mail discussion, where individuals reply back and forth on a subject, resulting in a history of the discussion. Google's GMAIL now calls threads "conversations" for this reason.

RSS - RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." It is a way to easily publish updates to a blog, website, or other online content. This allows regular readers to keep abreast of any new posts without having to check the site on a constant basis.

RSS Reader - If you are not using an RSS Reader, you are still in the dark ages of blog browsing!! ;) Seriously though, RSS Reader's have been a huge breakthrough in the way an individual can monitor content on a number of blogs, websites, etc. Instead of keeping track of many different sites, a person can simply subscribe to the "feed" for that site in a common RSS Reader, and then access a single site to read all new posts. I personally use BlogLines, although I am sure there are better Readers out there.

Podcast - Podcast was created from the words "iPod" and "broadcast." A podcast is a multimedia file that can be downloaded or viewed online. Similar to a traditional blog, a podcast is often audio or video reflection about ideas, information, etc. A person can subscribe to podcasts in much the same ways as to blogs. I currently use iTunes to subscribe to Podcasts (requires an iPod).

VLOG - A fairly new term is "VLOG," which means video blog. This is different than simple embedding a clip on a blog post (as I often do), rather most (if not all) of the content is contained within a video clip. Video blogging has become extremely popular in recent years with the soaring interest in YouTube, now one of the largest websites in the world.

First Steps
If you haven't already, the first thing I would do is sign up with an RSS Reader and add your top blogs. This will revolutionize your blog reading experience and you will never be able to live without a reader again!