Blog Yourself to The World

Blog Yourself to The World
I blog, he blogs, everybody blogs. You can blog with us if you want to. You can be a blogger in no time. Soon you will see all people in the world do the blogging. Excuse me? Blog? What is that? A new dance? A kind of science fiction creature? Or grandma newly invented cake recipe? Is it delicious? The answers are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Blog, to blog, blogging, blogger, blogged, blog this, blog that... Confused already? Good. Because that means you’re normal. Chances are, normal people wouldn't have any clue about what a blog is. Not yet. Because according to one of the most famous futurists in the world, me (Ehm! No protest, please!), this might be the next big thing in the world after mp3 madness. You'd better get ready, because there's another fun thing for you to do on the Net besides downloading mp3. The name is blogging.

OK, guys! Definition time! Because I can see a lot of people already scratching their heads and giving the “I don't know what he is babbling about” face.

There is no one true definition of a blog, a short form of web tog or weblog. It is a personal journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the web site and its purpose. The topics sometimes include brief philosophical musings, comments on the Internet and other social issues, and links to other sites the author favors. The essential characteristics of a blog are its journal form, typically a new entry each day, and its informal style.

The author of a blog is often referred to as a blogger. People who post new journal entries to their blog may often say they blogged today, they blogged it to their site, or that they still have to blog.

To blog is to post your deepest thoughts, experiences, pictures, feelings, and opinions to a web page using software which will handle everything for you but the actual composition. It's a public diary. You write, it publishes. It? Yes, a blogging tool. The beauty of the blogging community is that they're constantly in touch with one another, linking to each other's most interesting entries. Blogs put people in touch with people who have similar interests. You quickly become an essential part of your online community, exchanging ideas on your respective sites with the click of a button.

In human language, a blog may be similar to a personal virtual diary or journal written on your website. You can give permission for other people to read it if you want to, or you can just keep it for yourself.

So, “Is there something wrong with 'the old fashioned left behind not to mention uncool' paper style diary?” You might ask. Well, actually no. Except that the paper diary is old fashioned, and..... uncool. Everybody does blogging nowadays, from ordinary housewives to famous celebrities, from youngsters to the elderly. They all want to share a piece of their mind with the world. Everybody wants to be heard. And blogging is a perfect way do that.

What makes this different from the “old” way of doing things is its infinite ease. There are no HTML codes to learn. With some tools, there's no installation required. You don't need to be a tech whiz to be able to blog. Just register on one of the bloggers sites like Blogger (www.blogger.com) and Weblogger (www.weblogger.com) and off you go! You can place your blogs on your own website (If you have one) or you can put them on the blog spot (a host for bloggers provided by www. blogger.com). It's so simple that you don't have any reason not to blog.

Examples, Please!

If you want to feel the water before you swim, try to visit these links. You can have thousands and thousands of links to blogs all over the net if you want to search. Just put the word “blog” in your search engine and voila! You get the billion dollars! (Just out of curiousity, try the search string “blog + Indonesia” and see what you can get).

OK, here are some blog sites:

Blogmania (www.blogomania.com)

Blah blah blog (www.blahblahblog.com)

Meryl’s Note (http://www.meryl.net/blog/)

I think I should stop here or I will have myself blogging all the way to Pluto. And as for you, what are you waiting for? Jump in - the water's fine!