I sometimes feel the next generation will be more adept at mining all the data that is exploding on
our desktops with every passing minute. Before the web, anyone with information was king. Now
every Tom, Dick and Hari has access to a huge reservoir of information and data. Only problem is
few of them have any clue at all what to do with it or how to separate the wheat from the chaff…
Slowly, we will find our own filtering systems and tracking methods.
One of the methods I have found is a web log.
What is a web log?
Think of it as your pocket diary for the Internet. You take your diary wherever you go, it could have
phone numbers, your girlfriend’s or wife’s birthday, the three line poem you wrote and hundreds of
useful bits and pieces of information, which make sense to you, and at times might make sense to
others, too.
A weblog is something similar, but it is on the web. What it means is that you can log on from
anywhere on the Internet, like a web-based email. It is a web page made by you, a list of short,
time-stamped notes, with the newest items at the top. It can have your own tidbits about the latest
flick in town, your thoughts on some page or article…
The advantages are many. You can share your web log with others. Make some of your logs public
and some private and even let others add to your logs. It all depends on how you set it up, and to do
that you don’t have to be a rocket scientist.
All you need to do is log into www.blogger.com. It is by far the best (correction: I can only say that I
haven’t seen anything better, can’t be too sure about the Internet!) Easy to set up and use, your
blog will be http://thenameyouselected.blogger.com. The edit window with post and publish buttons
will get you started in no time. Blogger comes with wireless capability and, surprise, no banner ads.
A recent issue of New Yorker Magazine ran a story on these guys, calling it a digital community on
its own, and not just a web log.
Then comes a bit less flashier web log, Manila, from Userland Software,
http://manila.userland.com/. Your web log will be http://thenameyouselected.weblog.com. Once you
do the quick registration, it takes you to your main page where you can edit your log.
http://rainy.net/ is a collection of weblogs from Sweden to Sri Lanka, Uganda to United States.
Interesting links, pleasing to the eyes and very personal writings make this worth a peek.
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/WWW/Web_Logs/ can give you a bunch of weblogs with
focus on a particular subject or community.
So what are you waiting for, start blogging.
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