Week 2: Blogs

By meredithfarkas - Posted on December 15th, 2007

January 30 - February 5, 2008

Learning Objectives

By the end of the week, you should:

1. Have a general understanding of the technical principles behind the way blogs work

2. Have a firm grasp of blogging terminology.

3. Understand how blogs create community and why people blog.

4. Identify some strategies for developing a successful blog.

No lecture this week since we'll be having an Elluminate session.

Farkas, Chapter 2
Coates, T. (2003). "Discussion and Citation in the Blogopshere." plasticbag.org.
Efimova, L. et al. (2005). "Finding 'the life between buildings': An approach for defining a weblog community." AOIR Internet Research 6.0: Internet Generations, Chicago, 2005.
Walker, J. (2005). "Weblogs: Learning in Public." On the Horizon, 13.
Schnell, E. (2007). "Is Blogging Scholarly Communication?" The Medium is the Message.
Stephens, M. (2007). "Modeling the Role of Blogging in Librarianship: Librarian, why do you blog?" Tame the Web.
Martin, M. (2007). "Getting Started with Blogging." Bamboo Project Blog. (visit some of the links that you think might be useful)
Clasper, E. (2007). "My Story About Telling Stories." Library Revolution.
Library Garden. (2007). "Top Ten Tips for a Successful Team Blog."

Take a look at some of these successul blogs and think about what makes them so successful.

1. Complete Exercise 1.

2. Write at least one blog posts on one (or more) of the following topics:

1. How do you think blogging will contribute to your learning in this class?

2. How do you think community forms in the "blogosphere?"

3. Describe your impressions of the successful blogs you looked at above.

4. Write your own reflections on what you learned this week.

3. Comment on at least two other people's blog posts.

4. Bookmark three additional resources about blogs in del.icio.us and tag them libr246-13.

5. Mandatory Elluminate session Tuesday February 5, 2008 6:30-8:00 pm PT.