Blogs and Community Groups

This article was derived from an article prepared for the NGO Handbook by Samantha Jobber, titled "Blogs and Community Groups."

A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a chronological order. Community groups work in a similar way to blogs in that they allow people to share opinions but are usually hosted by an outside source, with the host having the power to control what is being written on the group or forum.

What is a blog?

A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and typically displayed in a reverse chronological order so the most recent blog entry will appear at the top.

Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, 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 most blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), artwork or sketches? (sketchblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.

Blogs are becoming increasingly popular. When www.xanga.com was launched in 1996 it had only 100 blogs. At the end of December 2005 it had over 20 million. In November 2006, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 57 million blogs with 100,000 new blogs being created every day. Although blogs are a relatively new phenomenon the concept has been embraced by a wide age range. Its not just young people blogging! In fact, older generations are embracing this new way of communicating. For example, if you type ‘older people and blogs’ into www.google.com you are faced with an array of blogs written by the over 50s.

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

In 2002, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga began Daily Kos (www.dailykos.com), a blog with political content. With up to a million visits a day during peak events, it has now become one of the Internet's most popular blogs.

Blogs give people a voice. They enable the general public to talk about things which matter to them, from politics to fashion and environmental issues. Some refer to bloggers, particularly those who write about news, as citizen journalists. Another advantage of blogging is that bloggers can remain anonymous. Many bloggers write under a pseudo name. This means that they can write much more freely about a topic.

However, it is important to remember that the laws of defamation still need to be adhered to. There are many examples of employees being fired from their jobs after revealing too much in their blogs. For more information on blogging and defamation in the US visit http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-defamation.php.

Laws do vary from country to country but it is wise to check that your blog is not libelous before you make it available to the general public.

Blogs and the media

The media is increasingly using blogs as a way of interacting with the general public. Most online versions of newspapers will have a team of bloggers whose blogs can be accessed via the newspaper website. Some examples can be found on:

Guardian Newspaper (UK): http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/index.html New York Times (USA): http://www.nytimes.com/ref/topnews/blog-index.html and Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): http://www.smh.com.au/blogcentral/index.html

www.blogafrica.com is a very useful resource, bringing together bloggers from across the continent. www.charityblog.org.uk/wordpress is another useful resource for NGOs working in the UK.

In April 2005, the BBC set up a user-generated content team to oversee the launch of BBC’s own blog as a pilot with just three staff. After the July 7 2005 bombings and a series of other events the team was made permanent and was expanded, reflecting the arrival of the ‘citizen journalist’.

Since 2002, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning news stories. Blogging by established politicians and political candidates, to express opinions on war and other issues has cemented blogs' role as a news source. Two examples can be found at blog.deanforamerica.com and www.securingamerica.com. Meanwhile, an increasing number of experts are blogging, making blogs a source of in-depth analysis. Agree. Very valuable resource Daniel Drezner, a political science professor at the University of Chicago (www.danieldrezner.com) and J Bradford DeLong, an economics professor at Berkeley University (Delong.typepad.com) both have very popular blogs.

During the second Iraq war bloggers gained wide readership, and one, Salam Pax, published a book of his blog. Blogs were also created by soldiers serving in the Iraq war. Such warblogs gave readers new perspectives on the realities of war, as well as often offering different viewpoints from those of official news sources..

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

How blogs can help NGOs

As blogs become as important as mainstream media many NGOs have begun using them to promote their work and also to inform the general public of issues and causes neglected by the world media. For example, blogs were an important news source during the December 2004 Tsunami. Medecins Sans Frontieres (www.msf.org) used SMS text messaging to report to the media from affected areas in Sri Lanka and Southern India. Similarly, during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and the aftermath a handful of blogs which were located in New Orleans were able to maintain power and an Internet connection and disseminate information that was not covered by the media.

NGOs can use blogs in a variety of ways. For example, they can be used to promote your work as well as highlight issues and causes. UK-based charity Oxfam (oxfam.org.uk) has an excellent blog aimed at young people. The blog contains opinions as well as competitions and information on how to donate to the charity (www.oxfam.org.uk/generationwhy/blog). Action Medical Research has a very good blog which enables parents with premature babies to report on the babies progress as well as their own emotional state (www.action.org.uk/parentsdiary/parents_blog.php) Another excellent example can be found at jamiesbigvoice.blogspot.com. Jamie is a homeless man living in the UK. His blog gives an excellent insight into the realities of homelessness (www.jamiesbigvoice.blogspot.com). Jamie uses Internet cafes and libraries to update his blog.

How to start a blog

There are many websites that can help you create your blog. Most are free (e.g. www.blogger.com and www.typepad.com) but some may charge a nominal fee ($4.95 USD per month) to host a customized blog.

Blogs are very simple to set up. For more information on how to create a blog visit any one of blogging websites mentioned in useful references at the end of this article. Each gives comprehensive advice on how to create a blog, from giving it a name, to linking to blog search engine so that people interested in your topic can easily find it.

Publicizing your blog

One of the easiest and cost effective ways of promoting your blog is to add a link to it at the bottom of your emails. You should be able to do this with most email providers – check out the help section on your home page for more information on how to do this.

Make sure that you tell your members, supporters and fundraisers about your blog and encourage them to tell as many people as possible. If your blog is controversial or groundbreaking tell your local media. Many blogs are mentioned in newspapers and attract new readers this way.

Also, make sure that your blog is tracked by blogger search engines like www.blogsearch.google.com. Your blog hosting site should give you more information on this. Check out the help pages.

Community groups

Community groups work in a similar way to blogs in that they allow people to share opinions. The difference is that community groups are usually hosted by an outside source and that the host has the power to control what is being written on the group or forum.

There are many examples of community groups, covering a wide range of topics. Some of these groups are private while others are accessible to the public. In order to post comments most groups will ask you to register, This is usually cost-free and very simple.

Some examples of community groups include:

www.myspace.com www.facebook.com www.cybertown.com www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk http://www.princetonol.com/groups/charity.shtml

www.googlegroups.com hosts lots of different community groups on a variety of subjects.

Useful References

www.wikipedia.com www.blogsearch.google.com

NGO blogs

www.jamiesbigvoice.blogspot.com www.weblog.greenpeace.org www.oxfam.org.uk/generationwhy/blog www.action.org.uk/parentsdiary/parents_blog.php www.worldlandtrust.org/news/blog.htm

Blog hosting websites

www.blogger.com www.squarespace.com www.typepad.com www.blog.co.uk www.blogspot.com