There are many ways to classify a blog. You could classify them through the device used to create the blog: moblogs, for example, are blogs made through a mobile phone (Twitter being a popular moblog platform). You could classify them by the media used: vlogs, phlogs, tumblogs - video blogs, photo blogs and mixed-media blogs respectively. You could classify them by genre - technology, news, fashion, politics, hobbies.
Sites such as BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog are online communities devoted to blogging. On sites like these, people can be connected to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers (MyBlogLog). They are a cohesive of people interested in a common, unifying theme. Creating a blog community is a simple matter: all that is needed is links to other, similarly-themed blogs and a way to collect feedback for instance, a comment box. Ensure that you "foster discourse" (Kawasaki, 2006). Remember: publicity is everything (supra). A well-known community would be The Knowledge Tree, an "e-journal generated by members of the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system to enable the sharing of research and learning innovation in national and global e-learning" (About The Knowledge Tree, 2008). This community makes use of archives and RSS feeds to foster discourse.
(OnlineDatingMagazine.com, 2006.)
In A Taxonomy of Blogs (The Media Report: ABC Radio National); the author and analyst Margaret Simons attempts to dissect and define the different types of blogs that inhabit the World Wide Web. After reading the article, I felt that her classifications were far too inhibiting to be competently applied to today's blogosphere. She divides blogs into diaries, advertisements, pamphlets, news, gatewatchers, exhibitions, popular mechanics (i.e. How To's), digests, and advocacy blogs. While her categories were well thought out and concise, they did not fully encompass the scope of blogging today: is categorizing blogs even important (Chaney, 2005)? They could look at topic, style, format, or maybe their target audience. The most effective method would be to "categorize blogs by the type of content they consistently produce" (Rowse, 2008).
In my opinion, because blogs are part of Web 2.0, and not at all easy to categorize, readers must choose their own identification keys based on what they most need.
References
- Chaney, P. (2005). Categorizing Blog Posts. All Business. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/internet-marketing/3874720-1.html
- Heuer, C. (2005). Simply Blog Classification System: Please, No Acronyms. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://www.chrisheuer.com/2005/07/14/simple-blog-classification-system-please-no-acronyms/
- Kawasaki, G. (2006). The Art of Creating a Community. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/02/the_art_of_crea.html
- MyBlogLog FAQ. (2008). Why Do I Need MyBlogLog? Yahoo Services. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/help/faq
- Rowse, D. (2008). Types of Blogs: Can We Categorize Them? ProBlogger. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/10/16/types-of-blogs-can-we-categorize-them/
- The Knowledge Tree. (2008). About The Knowledge Tree. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/
- The Media Report. (2008). A Taxonomy of Blogs. ABC Radio National. Viewed 12 November from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript
