What’s a blog?
"Blog” is short for web log, and it’s just that: a journal of what you find anywhere in the the world: online, at work, even (oh no!) in your life. Think of blogs as a cross between a website and a forum. They’re easier to build than a website, and they have a built-in way for people to respond to what you write.
Blogs aren’t just popular. They’re exploding: 70 million of them as 2007 begins, and 100 million expected by the end of they year.
While hundreds of COWs already have their own blogs, there’s never been a community of blogs created by video and film professionals.
Until now.
Why does The COW have blogs?
One of reasons why The COW is so successful is that we match the tool to the task. We don’t do many tutorials in the magazine, because tutorials work better online. We don’t make half-hour video podcasts, because long tutorials work better on DVDs. And so on.
Well, there are some aspects of community building that work better in blogs than they do in forums.
- Conversations are nonlinear. Discussions in The COW forums are linear: specific tasks, specific toolsets. That’s not how conversations work. They might start out on one topic, but they naturally include others as well. That’s where blogs come in. A single blog entry can cover multiple topics, which doesn’t work as well in a forum thread.
- There’s more to talk about than problems. We’re geeks. We keep our eyes peeled for new technology. And not just work-related technology. Sometimes we have strong feelings about what we see, and other times we have questions. In any case, we’re ready to talk.
To use one early-2007 example, there’s not a forum to talk about Apple TV….even though it’s something that we’re all talking about privately.
And yes, there are already blog entries about Apple TV at the COWBlogs. In fact, we blogged that Apple TVs were shipping before Apple announced it.
- Communities are made of individuals. Forums let you be an individual, of course, but blogs are an even better way to express yourself as individual. Talk about what you want to talk about, including things that have nothing to do with technology at all.
These are jus a few of the reasons why blogs are the best tool for The COW to take the next step in community building.
Here's some information about how reading COWBlogs works.
Here's some information about how writing COWBlogs works.
Moo!
Your pal, Bessie
