[EDLING:282] Re: CFP: Academics Who Blog

[Billy Clark]

Hi,

A blog (shortened from 'web log') is an online journal. I think the original idea
was that the blogger (or 'web logger') would post links on particular topics to
save other people from having to sort them out for themselves, e.g. a linguistics
web log would be a place where you could go and find regularly updated links to
linguistics-related web sites. Many blogs now are more like personal diaries
and of course there are various combinations of genre features.

The term is also used for the technology which blog sites use. It's particularly
effective in raising a site's profile on search engines, so more and more sites
are using blog technology for purposes other than logging or keeping a journal.

The Language Log is a good linguistics-related blog site:

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/

And this is a link to a number of languagey blogs:

http://linguablogs.fieldmethods.net/

Finally, here are some links to discussions of what a weblog is:

http://www.robotwisdom.com/weblogs

http://www.salon.com/tech/col/rose/1999/05/28/weblogs/

http://www.powazek.com/wtf/

Best wishes,

Billy

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Billy Clark
Programme Leader
Communication and English Language Studies
Middlesex University
White Hart Lane
London N17 8HR

Tel: +44 20 8411 6555
Fax: +44 20 8411 6652

Email: b.clark at mdx.ac.uk