Types of weblogs
I'm going to be talking about weblogs tonight, and wanted to provide a list of types. This isn't as easy as I thought.
I got a good start with Poynter, Weblogs: Put Them to Work in Your Newsroom (from 2002) and flew off the handle from there. Here is my list. I am sure there are other variants.
- Basic: link to something interesting, frequently with a comment as to why it is interesting (the traditional log of stuff on the web)
- Exposition: primary focus is writing, rather than linking to other interesting material (purists may not consider these blogs)
And then there are all the sub-genres that are either "basic" or "expository." Many blogs are combinations of styles, which makes identifying unique types difficult. Do you look at topic, style, format, audience?
- Topic: writing about a specific set of topics of interest to the author(s), such as politics, news, education, etc. Once the community of topic-bloggers gets big enough, they begin to self-identify (blogging lawyers are "blawgers").
- Linkblog: simplest variant of the basic blog with only links and no commentary, possibly becoming passe with some other social software tools (furl, del.icio.us, spurl)
- Group: variant of the basic blog with multiple authors
- Journals (diaries): generally of interest to friends and family, usually expository
- Family & friends: group + journal blogs set up to keep people in touch
- Photo: Graphic-centric blogs, frequently with photos posted directly from picture phones (moblog = mobile phone blog). Can also be based on artwork, cartoons, etc.
- Audio (Podcasting): owner posts frequent audio files of their commentary
- Event: Conference blog to build community and deliver information
- Book: Advertise and/or collaborate on upcoming an upcoming book
- PR: Public relations blogs, better than traditional press release spam
- k-logs: geared towards finding and sharing knowledge within a community. Discussion of this type of blog seems to have waned in the last year or so. Maybe the term was getting too obscure.
Another person made the simple differentiation of Subject vs. Personality or combined blogs. The wikipedia's entry on weblogs has a nice list of types as well, which separates out political and legal, which I would group under the "topic blog" category. In the education niche there are educator, learner and classroom blogs (via Aaron Campbell).
5 Comment(s)
Hi, Jack. Interesting article.
A couple of things to consider:
1) As far as I can tell, weblog "types" seem to represent points along a spectrum, with infinite variability between, as well as hybrid possibilities. The classification comes down to a matter of emphasis over time, rather than absolute inclusion/exclusion of content, IMHO.
2) Weblog "type" can shift or evolve over time.
3) Another way to classify weblogs is according to the mix of basic posting formats. (I've identified seven.) This analysis examines form rather than substance, but it still might be useful for some purposes,
- Amy Gahran
Editor, CONTENTIOUS
said:
Thanks, Rup3rt. We had a very good discussion of blogs and blogging, though I don't know that there were any converts.
I had forgotten the aspect of history that you suggest: the addition of RSS, trackbacks, comments and other blog technology that has killed off the original idea of k-logs as "knowledge repositories." Blogs are now much more of a way to connect people and spread ideas (and information).
Jack - First, I liked the fact that the comment field was prefilled with my inforamtion. It made me want to comment, as half the work was done. How did you do this? Secondly, as Amy pointed out there are types and topics. What is exciting is that both are expanding and I am sure will continue to expand. I think the basic principles of a knowledge repository that is transparent to those you want, even the whole web offers many variations. I agree that blogs are a way to connect people and spread ideas but they stil serve as a knowledge repository for many, or at least some.
Just watched this presentation by Susan Herring on genres of blogs which I liked a lot. It looked like the typology of weblogs you showed here could easily be subgenres. With these two layers then it'd be on the way to some kind of a taxonomy of blogs. This in turn, opens up another can of worms.
Classification taxonomy, why?
I think the beauty of it all is that the portfolio can become quite a personal mix of work, interest,personal and local. This is because it is a pick and mix fuelled by Blog searchengines, a daily shower of possibilities through links and the instant RSS hookup or unhook.Klog K-log too early too ugly
Drupalization
I can only see exceptions, so I think classification can hold a while.
The term Klog or K-log was too ugly to catch on and usually referred to link dumps rather than knowledge repositories.
Only since the
Comments, RSS, TrackBack and BlogRolls has something more elegantly interconnected and participatory been possible. Blog plugins, modules and drupalization are stretching the canvas even further.
Visualizing the interconnectedness will show up classification clusters like your blog network as impressionist paintings idea.
Rup3rt