Chris Ashley, IST–Interactive University
A previous article [1] described using weblogs as a web-based writing environment, and as a tool to quickly and easily create, maintain, and update websites with minimal coding. Reviewing briefly, weblogs are template-based, database-driven, browser-edited websites that support information and knowledge sharing, and community. A very reasonably priced annual license enables the UC Berkeley Interactive University Project (IU, http://interactiveu.berkeley.edu:8000/IU/) to run Manila [2], an application capable of hosting hundreds of weblogs, on an NT server. A Mac version is available, too. There are also a number of weblog hosting services from which to choose [3]. The advantages of using weblogs for web publishing include built-in, journal-like archiving, content management, and the editing of the content and appearance of a weblog from any networked computer with a web browser.
It is important to note that weblog software, interfaces, and various tool plug-ins are in constant and various stages of development and innovation, with many people thinking of, and figuring out, ways to use these tools. A third article in this series will explore the kinds of technology percolating in the weblog world that spell great innovations for the second-generation Web [4].
This second article is an overview of a number of areas in which weblog software and the weblog model of content production and platform interoperability are proving to be increasingly useful and powerful, pushing and inspiring innovative developments for, and uses of, the Web. These areas include: content, information, and knowledge management; community building; publishing and journalism; teaching, learning, and collaboration; and course management systems (CMS). Of course, while that's a pretty impressive list, making weblogs appear to be the Swiss Army knife of websites, it would be absurd to claim that weblogs are currently able to meet the requirements of each of these areas. The purpose of this article is to point out how weblog software, interfaces, and workflows are helping to realize a web of increasing organization and interoperability, ease of production, improved and flexible information flow and interlinked accessibility, while taking advantage of the increasing number of powerful, networked desktop computers.
Because weblogs handle text, images, and other media, they are by definition a kind of information management system for "capturing, organizing, manipulating, and accessing information" [5]. Many groups and individuals, including the IU, are looking at ways to use and improve how weblogs can be used for this. The ability of weblog software to provide automatic and consistent date-based archiving, persistently assigned URLs, and interoperable workspaces, has sparked much recent discussion about ways that weblogs can be used as content management systems (CMS) "to manage the content of a web site" [6], and for knowledge management (KM) to "consciously and comprehensively" gather, organize, share, and analyze "knowledge in terms of resources, documents, and people skills" [7].
There are many examples of weblog use for content management, and just a few are listed here. The Interactive University is currently using Manila for content management of all of its websites [8], and many IU staff members are active webloggers [9]. Portland Public Schools is using Manila to host several topic-specific weblogs that organize and serve a broad variety of teacher resources and information [10]. The Redwood City Public Library has a "weblog of current websites and stories dealing with the interface between technology and libraries" [11].
Amy Wohl has written about how knowledge management "lets organizations preserve expertise inside a knowledge management system and share that resource to train additional professionals as well as to permit workers to access and apply information that is normally outside of their field of competence" [12], and looks to how weblogs can be used to gather, organize, and share this knowledge. John Robb frequently writes in his own weblog [13] about knowledge management, and has established a Yahoo Group [14] to discuss it. One particularly interesting idea he proposes describes how an individual might use a weblog for learning and for the management of acquired knowledge throughout the school years and beyond into higher education and work, a unique and powerful take on the concept of lifelong learning [15]. In a related and interesting twist, Jon Udell has written about using a weblog for project management [16].
Weblog communities are encouraged and supported by the ability of writers to use relatively simple publishing and writing environments that they can own, by the tools that help readers and writers find each other and connect over similar interests, and when readers themselves are empowered to write. Although this might sound very similar to Usenet, the flexibility with which a writer can move from one topic to another, can expand on topics, can determine the flow or narrative of a topic, and can archive work, including text, images, and other media, within a single writing space that the writer owns, is quite different.
Writing about the difference from other media, Jon Katz says, "Weblogs — described by one of their creators as the "pirate radio stations" of the Web, are a new, personal, and determinedly non-hostile evolution of the electric community. They are also the freshest example of how people use the Net to make their own, radically different new media" [17]. Dave Winer emphasizes how weblogs are integral to each other, writing, "a weblog is part of communities. No weblog stands alone; they are relative to each other and to the world… My weblog, Scripting News, is part of the weblog community and part of the community of independent developers, particularly those using scripting environments. The same can be said of most weblogs that gain audiences; they connect people together using the Web through common interests" [18]. And Tim MacDonald elaborates by quoting Cameron Marlow, "Essentially, we're using the people of the Weblog community as editors of the Web … They're commenting, distilling and rethinking the entirety of Internet content, and we're hoping to harness their work into something that is more easily accessible" [19].
Since linking from one weblog to another is a way of creating threads and building community, a built-in "referrer" tool in Manila that tracks links from other weblogs is very useful. A number of new tools are bringing even more power to weblogging. Userland's Most read sites [20] lists the top hundred most read weblogs. Each time, for example, a Manila or Blogger weblog is updated, Weblogs.com [21] is notified, generating an up to the minute, continuous view on the most recently updated weblogs. Other interesting tools include Daypop and Blogdex. Daypop [22] "is a current events search engine. Daypop crawls the living web at least once a day to bring you the latest information relevant to your searches". Blogdex [23] "is a system built to harness the power of personal news, amalgamating and organizing personal news content into one navigable source, moving democratic media to the masses", focusing "on the referential information provided by personal content, namely using the timeliness of weblogs to find important and interesting content on the web". These various tools help track and organize content and trends, and are ways of bringing readers and writers together.
Dave Winer wrote that the Web "is a fantastic writing environment", and that "the one revolution that the Internet has totally delivered is a fundamental change in the way written information and ideas flow" [24]. While the dream of a truly democratic society enabled by the Internet still remains to be realized, the Web has globally spurred individuals and groups to become authors, content producers, and information providers for audiences of all sizes in an amazing range of subject areas. A weblog is an excellent tool to consider for improving and making easier this kind of service.
An interesting shift occurring is how weblogs have given both practicing and emerging writers a place to write, publish, and find an audience. This has led to thinking about how news is produced, the concept of amateur journalists and peer-to-peer (P2P) journalism, and how this impacts the world of journalism. Since weblog technology helps writers to find, identify, link to, and write for other webloggers, over time multiple communities of writers who are writing for each other coalesce, specializations emerge, and reputations form and solidify. Some webloggers have found themselves with audiences that are large and reliable, while others might have audiences that appear, spike, wane, and reappear with the topic, quality, and quantity of writing.
Kevin Werbach has written about P2P journalism [25] as a "brave new media world, where the boundaries between committed amateurs and working journalists may be difficult to determine". Werbach quotes Doc Searls [26], "There are an awful lot of people out there who are remarkably good journalists who are not formally in the profession", and continues, "The authority of Weblogs comes from their readers and from the ease with which they can be updated, he [Searls] points out. Weblog journalists can refine their thoughts almost continually. They are constantly talking with their audience, who are also talking with one another".
JD Lasica writes, "A high school freshman videotaping a faculty strike and uploading clips to the Internet with his commentary on the situation is, for all intents and purposes, an amateur news journalist" [27]. In another article he talks with several weblog-using journalists about "their take on the phenomenon and its significance for journalism" [28]. Lasica has also published a list linking to several articles written by himself and others that further explore the "intersection of weblogs and journalism" [29].
If it is true that weblogs are useful in the areas of information and knowledge management, are easy writing and publishing tools, and provide tools and processes that foster community, then it probably makes sense to look at ways weblogs might be useful to K-12 and higher education teaching and learning. A growing community of educators and instructional technology specialists are already finding ways of incorporating weblogs into teaching, and are using weblogs as spaces to reflect on, share, and discuss questions and ideas about teaching, technology, and education in general.
Some ideas for educational uses of weblogs include: teacher and student writing spaces for announcements, journaling, and assignments; websites for student research, projects, portfolios, and assessment; teacher and student P2P writing and journalism for interactive learning within classes, schools and across distances; collaborative writing and planning spaces; and the notion of the difference between ongoing, cumulative weblogs and weblogs built for a specific project, presentation, or resource.
Many individuals are leading the way in this work, and the short list that follows will provide good starting places to learn more. In Amsterdam, Adam Curry and Peter Ford run Schoolblogs [30], at which anyone working in education can create and use their own weblog. Peter Ford, a teacher at the British School of Amsterdam, also regularly provides thoughtful commentary and links to good resources at Schoolblogs. David Carter-Tod at Wytheville Community College in Virginia writes at Serious Instructional Technology [31], and Terry Elliott, a high school English and drama teacher in Kentucky, writes TELLIO [32]. Patrick Delaney, a San Francisco teacher, school librarian, and Bay Area Writing Project [33] Teacher Consultant, is increasingly pushing weblog use in all of his many roles [34]. John Marden at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, has compiled a list of "Courses using Weblogs" in his weblog A Curmudgeon Teaches Statistics [35].
A common criticism by educators of many course management systems (CMS) such as Blackboard and WebCT is that they are rigid, top-down, hierarchical, and follow the paradigm of desks in a row with the teacher in front, and that there isn't space for student ownership, for genuine collaboration, or for the kind of work — research, writing, demonstration of learning — required of project and inquiry based learning. Increasingly, many educators are looking to weblogs as an alternative.
Given the descriptions above of the many functions and features weblogs have, it might seem natural to look at them as likely candidates for a more flexible kind of CMS. Weblog software doesn't have the complete sets of tools one might expect of a typical CMS, such as a grade book, chat, and confidential file upload, but there are at least three lines of thought regarding the potential of weblogs.
First, there is the idea that weblogs can become more like CMSs because weblog software is a programming environment for which developers can write plug-ins for new tools. Second, there is the idea that a weblog can be written as an API (a method by which "an application program can make requests of the operating system or another application" [36]) so a weblog can be incorporated as a component of an existing CMS. Finally, a line of thought among some educators is that since they aren't interested in the CMS paradigm anyway, and what they really want for themselves and their students is an easy place to write, publish, serve various media, and read each other, then the weblog model and its development path is just fine the way it is.
Weblogs are helping determine what the Web can and will become. Lively and growing communities of webloggers engage in this process by writing and sharing about the future of the Web and by demonstrating this future by using these new tools for a variety of purposes. To use words by Kevin Kelly in The Web Runs on Love, Not Greed [37], by working "out of passion, enthusiasm, a sense of civic obligation", the true power of the Web will be realized.
[1] Ashley, C. Weblogging: Another kind of website, 2001 (http://istpub.berkeley.edu:4201/bcc/Fall2001/feat.weblogging.html).
[2] Userland. What is Manila? (http://manila.userland.com/).
[3] Google. Computers > Internet > On the Web > Web Logs > Tool (http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Web_Logs/Tools).
[4] Yee, R. The sea change of the Web: What is the Second-Generation, Semantic Web? 2001 (http://istpub.berkeley.edu:4201/bcc/Fall2001/feat.2ndgenweb.html).
[5] School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS), University of California, Berkeley. What is information management? (http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/admissions/learning/info_management.html).
[6] Whatis.com. Content management system, (http://searchserviceprovider.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid28_gci508916,00.html).
[7] Whatis.com. Knowledge management, (http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid11_gci212449,00.html).
[8] Interactive University (http://iu.berkeley.edu/).
[9] Ashley, C. IU and Affiliate Weblogs, 2001 (http://interactiveu.berkeley.edu:8000/ca/Weblogs).
[10] Portland Public Schools. News and Information For Portland Teachers, (http://teachers.pps.k12.or.us/teachers/).
[11] Redwood City Public Library. Liblog: A Library Weblog (http://www.ci.redwood-city.ca.us/library/news/liblog/).
[12] Wohl, A. Life On The Internet: Could Blogging Assist KM? 2001 (http://www.wohl.com/wa0156.htm).
[13] Robb, J. (http://jrobb.userland.com/).
[14] K-Logs (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/klogs/).
[15] Robb, J. K-Logs and Continuous Education, 2001 (http://jrobb.userland.com/2001/11/09.html).
[16] Udell, J. Telling A Story, 2001 (http://www.byte.com/documents/s=620/byt20010524s0001/index.htm).
[17] Katz, J. Here Come The Weblogs, 1999 (http://slashdot.org/features/99/05/13/1832251.shtml).
[18] Winer, D. What are weblogs? 2001 (http://newhome.weblogs.com/personalWebPublishingCommunities).
[19] McDonald, T. 'Bloggers' Create New Kind of Web Community, 2001 (http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/13276.html).
[20] Userland. Most read sites (http://www.userland.com/mostReadSites).
[21] Weblogs.com (http://www.weblogs.com/).
[22] DayPop (http://www.daypop.com/top.htm).
[23] Blogdex (http://blogdex.media.mit.edu/).
[24] Winer, D. The Web is a Writing Environment, 2001 (http://davenet.userland.com/2001/04/17/theWebIsAWritingEnvironment).
[25] Werbach, K. Triumph of the Weblogs, 2001 (http://www.edventure.com/conversation/article.cfm?Counter=7444662).
[26] Searls, D. The Doc Searls Weblog (http://doc.weblogs.com/).
[27] Lasica, JD. How the Internet is reshaping journalism, 2001 (http://jd.manilasites.com/2001/06/26).
[28] Lasica, JD. Blogging as a Form of Journalism, 2001 (http://ojr.usc.edu/content/story.cfm?request=585).
[29] Lasica, JD. Weblogs and the News: Where News, Journalism and Weblogs Intersect, (http://www.well.com/user/jd/weblog/roundup.html).
[30] Ford. P. Schoolblogs (http://www.schoolblogs.com/).
[31] Carter-Tod, D. Serious Instructional Technology (http://instructionaltechnology.editthispage.com/).
[32] Elliot, T. TELLIO (http://www.schoolblogs.com/tellio/).
[33] Bay Area Writing Project (http://www.bawpblogs.org/).
[34] Delaney, P. homoLudens (http://www.bawpblogs.org/PatD/).
[35] Marden, J. A Curmudgeon Teaches Statistics (http://cuwu.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$118).
[36] Whatis.com. Application program interface (http://searchwin2000.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid1_gci213778,00.html).
[37] Kelly, K. The Web Runs on Love, Not Greed, 2002 (http://www.scripting.com/stories/2002/01/09/kevinKellyTheWebRunsOnLoveNotGreed.html).
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Berkeley Computing & Communications,
Volume 12, Number 1 (Winter 2002)
Copyright 2002, The Regents of the University of California