11 September 2004
Blogs, part 3
(Slightly more sober, Scott decides to finish his fragmented thoughts on blogs.)
Kristin divides blogs thusly:
- Journalists (diarists),
- Essayists
And Wikipedia's entry on blogs divides them thusly:
- Personal - diaries and journals,
- Topical - one narrow subject,
- FriendBlog - groups of friends or people with similar interests,
- Collaborative - a topical blog maintained by a group,
- Political - political entries and opinions,
- Directory - purveyors of links
I love Wikipedia, but that's a crappy taxonomy. It contains a weird uncertainty about authorship and subject and intent that causes classifications to work at cross-purposes. Topical blogs can be political; directories can be personal and collaborative; FriendBlogs are collaborative. Let's clean things up with distinct properties:
- Authorship - single, multiple, or multiple moderated,
- Source - original content or compilation,
- Topics - range or specific,
- Intent - personal, editorial, or educational
Ah. Now that's some garbage you can live with!
So let's categorize and see if it works (like I haven't already done that while coming up with the list). BoingBoing has multiple authorship, both types of source material, a range of topics, and editorial intent. DailyKOS has single authorship, primarily original content, a specific topic (political), and editorial intent. The famous Messages from the Ether has single authorship, original content, a range of topics, and a range of intents.
I believe these to be good classifications, but specific sites usually are not limited to one parameter of each classification. The classifications define specific entries and not entire blogs. That was the original point of my original post (lost in postmodern jibber jabber). Each blog may contain a predominant type of entry, but it will just as likely contain entries with very different qualities. I shoot for educational entries, but I often become a link monkey by providing external sources, and have recently lost myself more deeply with personal intent. It's a wonderful outlet that allows such a range.
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