For those that stumble here without knowing what they’ve walked themselves into, here is some information about blogs, blogging, etc.

Blog is short for weblog.

Dave Winer published this in his short history of weblogging:

Weblogs are often-updated sites that point to articles elsewhere on the web, often with comments, and to on-site articles. A weblog is kind of a continual tour, with a human guide who you get to know. There are many guides to choose from, each develops an audience, and there’s also comraderie and politics between the people who run weblogs, they point to each other, in all kinds of structures, graphs, loops, etc.

Rick also had some nice posts about the evolution of blogging, and how some bloggers venture into journalism (or not):

Journalism vs. Blogging – It’s all about viewpoint

When is a Blogger a Journalist and Vice Versa?

(Update: Rick’s blog has vanished, try this or this for the links above, respectively. [waybackmachine.org] )

In the end, I think blogging has a lot of uses and interpretations. I think Dave’s description is a little clinical, almost. Blogging is a personal thing, it’s an expressive thing, it’s a sharing thing. I post something that I like or hate or have some feeling about on my blog. You read it. You react. You can post comments to what I wrote on my blog, or, you could add a link in your own blog to my blog, and put your comments there..

So that’s the low-down on blogs and blogging.
If you’re curious, do a search on ‘weblog’, you’ll be surprised how many come up. Or, go to Rick’s blog, Life Akimbo, he has a blog roll with a very handsome cross-section of blogs on it, which should also give you a better idea of what blogging is all about. (Update: again, try here, instead. [waybackmachine.org] )