As we move into the 21st century and the FCC continues to tighten its grip on radio broadcasting standards, a new form of audio entertainment has emerged that gives an unfettered voice to anyone with a computer, a microphone and a little technical know-how. This guide explains what Podcasting is all about and how you can find and listen to a Podcast or create your own.
Blogging: Thinking Locally, Acting Globally
The phenomenon of the Internet is something of a paradox, as
it fosters worldwide intercommunication while encouraging personal expression
and customization. Online journals—also known as weblogs (“blogs” for
short)—are one example of personal expression gone global, and since 2003 they
have become a significant part of the public’s technological awareness.
Such personal journal-keeping is by no means a new craze, as
people have been building personal websites since the Internet become part of
the public consciousness in the mid-90s. But whereas most of those sites,
especially in the early days of the Internet, were made and updated by hand
using HTML code, blogs are built on the principal of dynamic content. Such
content is generated and displayed in a consistent format using data that is
submitted by the author through simple web-based forms.
In other words, updating a blog can be as simple as follows:
the author logs into his or her blog through a standard web browser (such as
Internet Explorer), enters an update in the boxes provided, and clicks on
“submit.” The date and time are posted automatically with the update, so the
blog appears as a series of time-stamped text entries ordered from newest to
oldest, like a diary where the most recent entries are at the top. Blog
subjects may vary from personal to political, and readers may or may not be
encouraged to comment. But blogs usually follow one theme by one author from
post to post, and thus have a more linear and focused structure than bulletin
boards, chat rooms or other forms on online communication.
Blog entries are published on a regular basis by their
authors, and readers can either visit the blog to read new entries or subscribe
through newsreaders that check subscriptions for new content, such as
SharpReader, FeedDemon, or any other application that supports atom or RSS
(Really Simple Syndication) formats that are commonly used in blogs to
syndicate content and enable users to “subscribe” to updates.
Thanks to the popularity and flexibility of the blog format,
a number of blog services have emerged which provide free webspace for people
to create blogs of their own, including livejournal.com, blogger.com and
xanga.com. But even large organizations such as aol.com are now offering
blogging services to their paying customers. So as long as you have access to a
computer and the Internet, you can create a blog of your own.