What are weblogs, anyway?

You may have encountered some of the breathless pieces hailing weblogs for their revolutionary impact in fields such as publishing, journalism, politics, and education. Some zealots go so far as to suggest that weblogs herald fundamental shifts in social organization and the way we work. The resulting backlash to such hype has already kicked in, with critics charging that these claims are radically overblown, that weblogs are ill-suited for many of their purported applications, and that they have already peaked as a web phenomenon.

You'll be reading variations on both positions over the next couple of weeks, but of course the true significance of weblogs lies somewhere in between. The technical elements of weblog software are far from revolutionary -- they are really just easily updated webpages. But it is precisely that simplicity that makes them so interesting. Even if some new form renders weblogs as this year's equivalent of the pet rock, being able to publish to the web without sophisticated geek skills remains an important advance for online users.

And there's no question about their rapidly growing popularity. The following statistics from Technorati, a weblog index:

Technorati is now tracking over one million weblogs. We hit 100,000 back on March 5, and 200,000 on April 6; We hit the 400,000 mark on June 21. Technorati is currently tracking about 7,000 new weblogs per day, which means that a new weblog is being created approximately every 12 seconds. And I know we're not catching them all.... [from Sifry's Alerts]

It's impossible in a short space to review all the potential applications of the form. Personally speaking, my own weblog serves numerous purposes for me:

* I use it as a personal management tool, collecting useful resources and links in an easily accessible and searchable online location.
* I treat it as something like a public brain, floating ideas, speculating on future developments, giving shout-outs to work that I like and shooting off ill-tempered criticisms to things that I don't.
* It's an ongoing personal portfolio, where I archive my articles, presentations and project updates.
* Perhaps most importantly, my weblog has been my interface to a vibrant group of professional peers. They provide me with a steady stream of useful resources and information, feedback on my work, and the sense of belonging to a very real (if unstructured and far from unified) community.

But the diverse approaches to weblogging are best experienced for yourself. A handful of my personal favorites:

wood s lot: frighteningly prolific and eclectic, with minimal commentary.
Cassandra Pages: the weblog as online diary and space for personal reflection.
Fotolog: an amazing collection of photographic weblogs from around the world. An extremely effective time-waster.
Ongoing: Tim Bray's site is intended to be "a coherent, catalogued essay about the world" organizaed around the "unifying themes are Truth, Technology, and Business."
Boing Boing: "a directory of wonderful things."
Arts & Letters Daily: comprehensive page supported by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Feel free to recommend your own favorite weblogs by linking to them in the comments field below. We also encourage you to contribute your thoughts on any of the following questions:

What has been your experience with weblogs (either as a reader or as a creator)? What is it about weblogs that you most want to discuss? Have you considered starting your own, and if so what do you need to know to get going?

Thanks to ETUG for organizing this discussion, and thanks to you for checking in. We hope this rather unconventionial online happening proves to be an interesting and useful experience for everyone concerned.