Slick as a blog
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Local Web loggers Aaron Cope and Ed Bilodeau explain how easy-to-use software has unleashed a new breed of geek
by SARAH MUSGRAVE
For the last few months I've been hearing about "Web loggers," some community of underground trolls whose sole purpose in life is to mine the Web for precious gems of information. I imagined they spoke to each other in code, were only visible through Web cams and all lived in San Francisco or in somebody's basement.
So when I met with local Web loggers Aaron Cope and Ed Bilodeau recently, I was pleased to see they actually drink beer and have a sense of humour. They were quick to point out that, thanks to new software developments, Web logs (or "blogs") are incredibly easy to maintain--even for skeptics with bad attitudes. Far from the old-style static home pages, many of these sites are dynamic, fresh and human. Now, with literally a click of a button, even the least tech-literate among us can easily create a site and continually change it. The interface consists of a text box in which you can enter a link to an online article, jot down thoughts about your morning, or type in an essay. In fact, adding content to your site is as simple as sending an e-mail.
At the start of 1999 there were only a couple dozen known Web logs out there--loosely classified as sites that featured chronological posts. Thousands of blogs have been running wild on the Web in the year and a half since. More than 10,000 people have signed up for software company Blogger's free hosting service since September 2000, and that's just one company offering Web-logging software.
ABC news (already been chewed)
"A Web log is like a mixture between a home page, a bookmarks list and a diary," explains Cope, who was freaky enough to write his own code in early '99, before easy-to-use software was widely available.
At Aaronland.net, you'll find many of the features typical of Web logs, which could be roughly divided into news, personal and just plain fun. Links to articles and upcoming realtime interviews are updated daily and sometimes hourly, providing visitors with the headlines according to Aaron. Focused on politics, arts or technology, he might highlight an interesting piece of writing out there or point out the ridiculous, usually with a personal insight on the subject written under the link. Poking around, visitors can enter his "Spam I Like" section, where they'll find his illustrations inspired by "Children's Books You'll Never See." Alternately, they can check a gallery of his artwork or peruse a few details about his life as an artist/programmer.
In a sense, if you find the right Web logger, it's as though the Web was pre-surfed just for you, the gold nuggets of information you may have missed already mined.
Keeping you posted
As Ed Bilodeau of Calebos.org explains it, rather than bombarding friends with e-mail, you can post material on your Web log and they can check out what's new at their convenience. It's a "one to many" way of staying in touch, while honing your writing skills and areas of expertise at the same time.
Before there was Blogger, Bilodeau manually updated the links in the html code. "I would put it together every night," he recalls. "And my friend told me, 'Every morning I sit down with a coffee and check your links.' And I thought, 'Holy shit, I've got an audience of one!'" Nowadays, Bilodeau figures he gets about 100 unique visitors daily, who check out the six to 12 new posts he adds each day. He tends to focus on business stories about sinking Internet companies and takes a critical look at the hype around new technologies, but you can also get a glance at his apartment and his family. The site also includes a YUL blog, a kind of Montreal-centric bulletin board.
Bigger and blogger, but better?
The hot topic of blogs was featured at last year's SxSW conference in Austin, and more recently in the New Yorker and this month's "Street Cred" section of Wired. Understandably, Web enthusiasts are concerned that the sheer numbers of new blogs threaten to clog up the Web with more garbage. It's a problem similar to the "anyone can have a home page" revolution of a few years ago, when many did just that, creating irrelevant material that just sits in cyberspace messing up search results.
Although Web logs are emerging as an alternative form of media--one that uses and critiques the media itself--they are also intensely personal for some people. In fact, the so-called online community is at odds with just what a Web log is (journal, news source, editorial, confessional?). As it is, you'll find a bit of everything out there.
Where to blog on
If you feel the need to share your innermost thoughts and outermost talents with the world, or check out some established sites, here's where to go:
Make-your-own dot-coms
Blogger * EditThisPage * Groksoup * Metafilter * Pitas * Velocinews
Local Web logs
Aaronland.net * Calebos.org * Harrumph.com (a girl! Recent ex-pat Montrealer) * Mikel.org * Pssst.qc.ca (collective French-language site) * ThisBoyIsToast.nu * dria.org
Classics of their kind
benbrown.com (online diary) * camworld.com (new media) *
guardianunlimited.co.uk (newspaper sidebar) * kottke.org (general interest) * Megnut.com and Evhead.com (blogger founders) * peterme.com (usability) * robotwisdom.com (early Web log) * scripting.com (programming) * Slashdot.org (news for nerds)
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