Blogging – is it really all about the technology?

What is Web 2.0?

How blogs are used and the nature of blogging itself is often viewed from a technical, personalised or social perspective. One research issue that I wish to address in my research is whether blogging is really all about the technology or the use of it? The answer to such a question could be either yes and no.

Software platforms that support the running of blogs inevitably play an integral role in facilitating the evolvement of blogging in terms of what blog users can do to improve the format of their blogs. The fact that the developments surrounding Web 2.0 are evolving at such an accelerated rate means that bloggers must be aware of them. Such observations throughout the ‘Blogosphere’ will allow bloggers to improve upon the overall appearance and usability of their blogs. It is important though that the developments surrounding blogging software continues to support the fundamentals of content generation.

Despite the technical aspects of blogging being of the upmost relevance what really makes a blog is its content. The fact that blogs revolve around an individual’s personality in terms of ‘their voice’ and what they wish to say means that blogging software must keep abreast of technological developments elsewhere in the sphere of Web 2.0. From this I mean that we can already see how integrative blogs are with blog users being able to incorporate other aspects of social media within their blogs e.g. podcasts, video files and graphics. Within higher education, course management systems such as Blackboard and Moodle are quickly evolving into e-learning platforms that can accommodate various types of social media e.g. wikis, forums and blogs for the purposes of collaboration for project work and feedback. These course management systems will continue to develop through the innovations of social media and with the gradual introduction of Web 3.0 (though I think that many people still have to grapple with the concepts of Web 2.0 prior to Web 3.0′s introduction).

Blogging software (in terms of use and design) is all about supporting what blogging really evolves around – the writing and generation of content. I wish to expand upon this theme in a subsequent post that will discuss issues relating to writing in a blog as well as perceived problems associated with this.