User:DemosDemon/Blag

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A blag (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "blag" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blag.

Many blags provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blag combines text, images, and links to other blags, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blags. Most blags are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblag), sketchblag, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blag), audio (podcasting) and are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blagging is another type of blagging which consists of blags with very short posts.

As of September 2007, blag search engine Technorati was tracking more than 106 million blags.

History
Before blagging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum software, such as WebEx, created running conversations with "threads". Threads are topical connections between messages on a metaphorical "corkboard". Some have likened blagging to the Mass-Observation project of the mid-20th century.

1983–1990 (Pre-HTTP)
Usenet was the primary serial medium included in the original definition of the World Wide Web. It featured the Moderated Newsgroup which allowed all posting in a newsgroup to be under the control of an individual or small group. Most such newsgroups were simply moderated discussion forums, however, in 1983-84, one exception, named mod.ber, was created, named after and managed by an individual: Brian E. Redman. Regularly, Redman and a few associates posted summaries of interesting postings and threads taking place elsewhere on the net. With its serial journal publishing style, presence on the pre-HTTP web and strong similarity to the common blag form which features links to interesting and cool places on the net chosen by the blagger, mod.ber had many of the characteristics commonly associated with the term "blag". It ceased operation after approximately 8 months. Brad Templeton calls the newsgroup rec.humor.funny (which he founded) the world's oldest still existing blag.

1994–2001
The modern blag evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. A few called themselves "escribitionists". The Open Pages webring included members of the online-journal community. Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal blagging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest blaggers, as is Jerry Pournelle. Another early blag was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site in 1994. This practice of semi-automated blagging with live video together with text, was referred to as sousveillance, and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters.

Other forms of journals kept online also existed. A notable example was game programmer John Carmack's widely read journal, published via the finger protocol. Some of the very earliest blaggers, like Steve Gibson of sCary's Quakeholio (now Shacknews) and Stephen Heaslip of Blue's News (still running since 1995 with online archives back to July 1996), evolved from the Quake scene and Carmack's .plan updates. Steve Gibson was hired to blag full-time by Ritual Entertainment on February 8th, 1997, possibly making him the first hired blagger.

Websites, including both corporate sites and personal homepages, had and still often have "What's New" or "News" sections, often on the index page and sorted by date. One example of a news based "weblag" is the Drudge Report founded by the self-styled maverick reporter Matt Drudge, though apparently Drudge dislikes this classification. Another is the Institute for Public Accuracy which began posting news releases featuring several news-pegged one-paragraph quotes several times a week beginning in 1998. One noteworthy early precursor to a blag was the tongue-in-cheek personal website that was frequently updated by Usenet legend Kibo.

Early weblags were simply manually updated components of common websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blags we recognize today. For instance, the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blagging". blags can be hosted by dedicated blag hosting services, or they can be run using blag software, such as WordPress, Movable Type, blagger or LiveJournal, or on regular web hosting services.

The term "weblag" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blag," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblag into the phrase we blag in the sidebar of his blag Peterme.com in April or May of 1999. This was quickly adopted as both a noun and verb ("to blag," meaning "to edit one's weblag or to post to one's weblag").

After a slow start, blagging rapidly gained in popularity. blag usage spread during 1999 and the years following, being further popularized by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blag tools:
 * Open Diary launched in October 1998, soon growing to thousands of online diaries. Open Diary innovated the reader comment, becoming the first blag community where readers could add comments to other writers' blag entries.
 * Brad Fitzpatrick, a well known blagger started LiveJournal in March 1999.
 * Andrew Smales created Pitas.com in July 1999 as an easier alternative to maintaining a "news page" on a website, followed by Diaryland in September 1999, focusing more on a personal diary community.
 * Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) launched blagger.com in August 1999 (purchased by Google in February 2003)

blagging combined the personal web page with tools to make linking to other pages easier &mdash; specifically permalinks, blagrolls and TrackBacks. This, together with weblag search engines enabled blaggers to track the threads that connected them to others with similar interests.

2001–2004
Several broadly popular American blags emerged in 2001: Andrew Sullivan's AndrewSullivan.com, Ron Gunzburger's Politics1.com, Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit, Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs, and Jerome Armstrong's MyDD — all blagging primarily on politics (two earlier popular American political blags were Bob Somerby's Daily Howler launched in 1998 and Mickey Kaus' Kausfiles launched in 1999).

By 2001, blagging was enough of a phenomenon that how-to manuals began to appear, primarily focusing on technique. The importance of the blagging community (and its relationship to larger society) increased rapidly. Established schools of journalism began researching blagging and noting the differences between journalism and blagging.

In 2002, Jerome Armstrong's friend and sometime business partner Markos Moulitsas Zúniga began DailyKos. With up to a million visits a day during peak events, it has now become one of the Internet's most popular blags.

Also in 2002, many blags focused on comments by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Senator Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president. Lott's critics saw these comments as a tacit approval of racial segregation, a policy advocated by Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign. This view was reinforced by documents and recorded interviews dug up by blaggers. (See Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo.) Though Lott's comments were made at a public event attended by the media, no major media organizations reported on his controversial comments until after blags broke the story. blagging helped to create a political crisis that forced Lott to step down as majority leader.

The impact of this story gave greater credibility to blags as a medium of news dissemination. Though often seen as partisan gossips, blaggers sometimes lead the way in bringing key information to public light, with mainstream media having to follow their lead. More often, however, news blags tend to react to material already published by the mainstream media.

Since 2002, blags have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning news stories. The Iraq war saw blaggers taking measured and passionate points of view that go beyond the traditional left-right divide of the political spectrum.

blagging by established politicians and political candidates, to express opinions on war and other issues, cemented blags' role as a news source. (See Howard Dean and Wesley Clark.) Meanwhile, an increasing number of experts blagged, making blags a source of in-depth analysis. (See Daniel Drezner and J. Bradford DeLong.)

The second Iraq war was the first "blag war" in another way: Iraqi blaggers gained wide readership, and one, Salam Pax, published a book of his blag. blags were also created by soldiers serving in the Iraq war. Such "warblags" gave readers new perspectives on the realities of war, as well as often offering different viewpoints from those of official news sources.

blagging was used to draw attention to obscure news sources. For example, blaggers posted links to traffic cameras in Madrid as a huge anti-terrorism demonstration filled the streets in the wake of the March 11 attacks.

blaggers began to provide nearly-instant commentary on televised events, creating a secondary meaning of the word "blagging": to simultaneously transcribe and editorialize speeches and events shown on television. (For example, "I am blagging Rice's testimony" means "I am posting my reactions to Condoleezza Rice's testimony into my blag as I watch her on television.") Real-time commentary is sometimes referred to as "liveblagging."

2004–present
In 2004, the role of blags became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants, news services and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Even politicians not actively campaigning, such as the UK's Labour Party's MP Tom Watson, began to blag to bond with constituents.

Minnesota Public Radio broadcast a program by Christopher Lydon and Matt Stoller called "The blagging of the President," which covered a transformation in politics that blagging seemed to presage. The Columbia Journalism Review began regular coverage of blags and blagging. Anthologies of blag pieces reached print, and blagging personalities began appearing on radio and television. In the summer of 2004, both United States Democratic and Republican Parties' conventions credentialed blaggers, and blags became a standard part of the publicity arsenal. Mainstream television programs, such as Chris Matthews' Hardball, formed their own blags. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary declared "blag" as the word of the year in 2004.

In 2004, Global Voices Online, a site which "aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore" surfaced, bringing to light blaggers from around the world. Today, the site has a relationship with Reuters and is responsible for breaking many global news stories.

blags were among the driving forces behind the "Rathergate" scandal, to wit: (television journalist) Dan Rather presented documents (on the CBS show 60 Minutes) that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's military service record. blaggers declared the documents to be forgeries and presented evidence and arguments in support of that view, and CBS apologized for what it said were inadequate reporting techniques (see Little Green Footballs). Many blaggers view this scandal as the advent of blags' acceptance by the mass media, both as a news source and opinion and as means of applying political pressure.

Some blaggers have moved over to other media. The following blaggers (and others) have appeared on radio and television: Duncan Black (known widely by his pseudonym, Atrios), Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (Daily Kos), Alex Steffen (Worldchanging) and Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette). In counter-point, Hugh Hewitt exemplifies a mass media personality who has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media" by being an influential blagger.

Some blags were an important news source during the December 2004 Tsunami such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, which used SMS text messaging to report from affected areas in Sri Lanka and Southern India. Similarly, during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and the aftermath a few blags which were located in New Orleans, including the Interdictor and Gulfsails were able to maintain power and an Internet connection and disseminate information that was not covered by the Main Stream Media.

In the United Kingdom, The Guardian newspaper launched a redesign in September 2005, which included a daily digest of blags on page 2. Also in June 2006, BBC News launched a weblag for its editors, following other news companies.

In January 2005, Fortune magazine listed eight blaggers that business people "could not ignore": Peter Rojas, Xeni Jardin, Ben Trott, Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble, and Jason Calacanis.

In 2007, Tim O'Reilly proposed a blagger's Code of Conduct.

Types
There are various types of blags, and each differs in the way content is delivered or written.


 * By media type: A blag comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblag or one comprising photos is called a photoblag. blags with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs.


 * An Artlog is a form of art sharing and publishing in the format of a blag, but differentiated by the predominant use of and focus on Art work rather than text.


 * A rare type of blag hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog


 * By device: blags can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blag written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA is called a moblag.


 * Genre: Some blags focus on a particular subject, such as political blags, travel blags, fashion blags, project blags, niche blags, legal blags (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. While not a legitimate type of blag, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog. A Slog (Site or website log) is a section or 'slice' of a regular business website, which is seamlessly integrated within the regular website structure but is produced with blagging software.


 * Legal status of publishers: A blag can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. blags, either used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or PR purposes are called corporate blags.


 * blag search engines: Several blag search engines are used to search blag contents (also known as the blagosphere), such as blagdigger, Feedster, and Technorati. Technorati provides current information on both popular searches and tags used to categorize blag postings.


 * blagging Communities and Directories: Several online communities exist that connect people to blags and blaggers to other blaggers, including blag Catalogue and MyblagLog. A collection of local blags is sometimes referred to as a blaghood.

Popularity
Recently, researchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blags become popular. There are essentially two measures of this: popularity through citations, as well as popularity through affiliation (i.e. blagroll). The basic conclusion from studies of the structure of blags is that while it takes time for a blag to become popular through blagrolls, permalinks can boost popularity more quickly, and are perhaps more indicative of popularity and authority than blagrolls, since they denote that people are actually reading the blag's content and deem it valuable or noteworthy in specific cases.

Recently, through the mass popularity of sponsored post ventures such as PayPerPost a massive amount of personal blags have started writing sponsored posts for advertisers wanting to boost buzz about new products and services. It has revolutionised the blagosphere almost in the same way that Google AdSense did.

The blagdex project was launched by researchers in the MIT Media Lab to crawl the Web and gather data from thousands of blags in order to investigate their social properties. It gathered this information for over 4 years, and autonomously tracked the most contagious information spreading in the blag community, ranking it by recency and popularity. It can thus be considered the first instantiation of a memetracker. The project is no longer active, but a similar function is now served by tailrank.com.

blags are also given rankings by Technorati based on the amount of incoming links and Alexa Internet based on the web hits of Alexa Toolbar users. In August 2006, Technorati listed the most linked-to blag as that of Chinese actress Xu Jinglei and the most-read blag as group-written Boing Boing.

Gartner forecasts that blagging will peak in 2007, leveling off when the number of writers who maintain a personal website reaches 100 million. Gartner analysts expect that the novelty value of the medium will wear off as most people who are interested in the phenomenon have checked it out, and new blaggers will offset the number of writers who abandon their creation out of boredom. The firm estimates that there are more than 200 million former blaggers who have ceased posting to their online diaries, creating an exponential rise in the amount of "dotsam" and "netsam" — that is to say, unwanted objects on the Web.

It was reported by Chinese media Xinhua that the blag of Xu Jinglei received more than 50 million page views, claiming to be the most popular blag in the world. In mid-2006, it also had the most incoming links of any blags on the Internet.

Blurring with the mass media
Many blaggers, particularly those engaged in participatory journalism, differentiate themselves from the mainstream media, while others are members of that media working through a different channel. Some institutions see blagging as a means of "getting around the filter" and pushing messages directly to the public. Some critics worry that blaggers respect neither copyright nor the role of the mass media in presenting society with credible news. blaggers and other contributors to user generated content are behind Time magazine naming their 2006 person of the year as "you".

Many mainstream journalists, meanwhile, write their own blags — well over 300, according to CyberJournalist.net's J-blag list. The first known use of a weblag on a news site was in August 1998, when Jonathan Dube of The Charlotte Observer published one chronicling Hurricane Bonnie.

blags have also had an influence on minority languages, bringing together scattered speakers and learners; this is particularly so with blags in Gaelic languages, whose creators can be found as far away from traditional Gaelic areas as Kazakhstan and Alaska. Minority language publishing (which may lack economic feasibility) can find its audience through inexpensive blagging.

There are many examples of blaggers who have published books based on their blags, e.g., Salam Pax, Ellen Simonetti, Jessica Cutler. blag-based books have been given the name blook. Indeed, a prize for the best blag-based book was initiated in 2005, The Lulu Blooker Prize. Although success has been elusive offline, with many of these books not selling as well as their blags. Only sex blagger Tucker Max cracked the New York Time's Bestseller List.

blagging consequences
The emergence of blagging has brought a range of legal liabilities and other often unforeseen consequences. One area of concern is the issue of blaggers releasing proprietary or confidential information. Another area of concern is blagging and defamation. A third area of concern is employees who write about aspects of their place of employment or their personal lives, and then face loss of employment or other adverse consequences. A number of examples of blagging and its sometimes negative or unforeseen consequences are cited here.

Defamation or liability
Several cases have been brought before the national courts against blaggers concerning issues of defamation or liability. The courts have returned with mixed verdicts. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), in general, are immune from liability for information that originates with Third Parties (U.S. Communications Decency Act and the EU Directive 2000/31/EC).

In John Doe v. Patrick Cahill, the Delaware Supreme Court held that stringent standards had to be met to unmask anonymous blaggers, and also took the unusual step of dismissing the libel case itself (as unfounded under American libel law) rather than referring it back to the trial court for reconsideration. In a bizarre twist, the Cahills were able to obtain the identity of John Doe, who turned out to be the person they suspected: the town's mayor, Councilman Cahill's political rival. The Cahills amended their original complaint, and the mayor settled the case rather than going to trial.

In Malaysia, eight Royal Dutch Shell Group companies collectively obtained in June 2004 an Interim Injunction and Restraining Order against a Shell whistleblower, a Malaysian geologist and former Shell employee, Dr John Huong. The proceedings are in respect of alleged defamatory postings attributed to Dr Huong on a weblag hosted in North America but owned and operated by an 89 year old British national, Alfred Donovan, a long term critic of Shell. The Shell action is directed solely against Dr Huong. Further proceedings against Dr Huong were issued by the same plaintiff companies in 2006 in respect of publications on Donovan weblag sites in 2005 and 2006. The further proceedings include a "Notice to Show Cause" relating to a "contempt of court" action potentially punishable by imprisonment. The contempt hearing and a related application by the eight Royal Dutch Shell plaintiff companies for Dr Huong to produce Alfred Donovan for cross-examination in connection with an affidavit Donovan provided, was scheduled to be heard in the High Court of Malay in Kuala Lumpur on 17th August 2006. Donovan's principle weblag is royaldutchshellplc.com. In January 2007, two prominent political blaggers, Jeff Ooi and Ahiruddin Attan were sued by pro-government newspaper, The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad, Kalimullah bin Masheerul Hassan, Hishamuddin bin Aun and Brenden John a/l John Pereira over an alleged defamation. The plaintiff was supported by the Malaysian government . Following the suit, the Malaysian government proposed to "register" all blaggers in Malaysia in order to better control parties against their interest. . This is the first such legal case against blaggers in the country.

In Britain, a college lecturer contributed to a blag in which she referred to a politician (who had also expressed his views in the same blag) using various uncomplimentary names, including referring to him as a "Nazi". The politician found out the real name of the lecturer (she wrote under a pseudonym) via the ISP and successfully sued her for £10,000 in damages and £7,200 costs.

In the United States blagger Aaron Wall was sued by Traffic Power for defamation and publication of trade secrets in 2005. According to Wired Magazine, Traffic Power had been "banned from Google for allegedly rigging search engine results." Wall and other "white hat" search engine optimization consultants had exposed Traffic Power in what they claim was an effort to protect the public. The case was watched by many blaggers because it addressed the murky legal question of who's liable for comments posted on blags.

Employment
Losing one's employment as a consequence of personal blag commentary about the place of employment has become so commonplace that there is now an informal verb for the event: "dooced". The word dooce originates from the pseudonym of Heather Armstrong, who lost her job after writing satirical accounts of her place of employment on her personal blag. In general, attempts at hiding the blagger's name and/or the place of employment in anonymity have proved ineffective at protecting the blagger. Employees who blag about elements of their place of employment raise the issue of employee branding, since their activities can begin to affect the brand recognition of their employer.

Ellen Simonetti, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, was fired by the airline for photos of herself in uniform on an airplane and comments posted on her blag "Queen of the Sky: Diary of a Flight Attendant" which her employer deemed inappropriate. This case highlighted the issue of personal blagging and freedom of expression vs. employer rights and responsibilities, and so it received wide media attention. Simonetti took legal action against the airline for "wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages". The suit is postponed while Delta is in bankruptcy proceedings (court docket).

In the spring of 2006, Erik Ringmar, a tenured senior lecturer at the London School of Economics was ordered by the convenor of his department to "take down and destroy" his blag in which he discussed the quality of education at the school. .

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was recently fined during the 2006 NBA playoffs for criticizing NBA officials on the court and in his blag.

Mark Jen was terminated in 2005 after a mere 10 days of employment at Google for discussing corporate secrets on his personal blag.

In India, blagger Gaurav Sabnis resigned from IBM after his posts exposing the false claims of a management school, IIPM, led to management of IIPM threatening to burn their IBM laptops as a sign of protest against him.

Jessica Cutler, aka "The Washingtonienne", blagged about her sex life while employed as a congressional assistant. After the blag was discovered and she was fired, she wrote a novel based on her experiences and blag: The Washingtonienne: A Novel. Cutler is presently being sued by one of her former lovers in a case that could establish the extent to which blaggers are obligated to protect the privacy of their real life associates.

Catherine Sanderson, aka Petite Anglaise, lost her job in Paris at a British accountancy firm as a consequence of blagging. Although given in the blag in a fairly anonymous manner, some of the descriptions of the firm and some of its people were less than flattering. Sanderson later won a compensation claim case against the British firm, however.

On the other hand, Penelope Trunk, writing in the Globe in 2006, was one of the first to point out that a large portion of blaggers are professionals, and a well written blag can actually help attract employers.

Political dangers
blagging can sometimes have unforeseen consequences in politically sensitive areas.

In Singapore, two ethnic Chinese were imprisoned under the country’s anti-sedition law for posting anti-Muslim remarks in their weblags.

Egyptian blagger Kareem Amer was charged of insulting the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and an Islamic institution through his online blag. It is the first time in the history of Egypt that a blagger was prosecuted. After a brief trial session that took place in Alexandria, the blagger was found guilty and sentenced to prison terms of three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mubarak.

Egyptian blagger Abdel Monem Mahmoud was arrested in April 2007 for things written in his blag. Monem, for whom a campaign has been taken up at is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

After expressing opinions in his personal weblag about the state of the Sudanese armed forces, Jan Pronk, United Nations Special Representative for the Sudan, was given three days notice to leave Sudan. The Sudanese army had demanded his deportation.

Other consequences
One unfortunate consequence of blagging is the possibility of attacks or threats against the blagger, sometimes without apparent reason. A blag is, after all, open to the public to read and respond to. Kathy Sierra, author of the innocuous blag Creating Passionate Users, was the target of such vicious threats and misogynistic insults that she canceled her keynote speech at a technology conference in San Diego, fearing for her safety. While a blagger's anonymity is often tenuous, internet trolls who would attack a blagger with threats or insults can be emboldened by anonymity. Sierra and supporters initiated an online discussion aimed at countering abusive online behavior, and developed a blagger's code of conduct.