Similarly, Bock (cited by White, 2005), communities can be characterized by common interest, frequent interaction and identification, all three things must be present for an online space to be a community. A successful blog is one which involves community building, among peers or professionals or a community among readers. According to Donath (1997), ‘people are not only looking for information, they are also looking for affiliation, support and affirmation’. Blogs have facilitated these requirements by tagging, linking and being able to comment on each other’s blogs and with number of other features.
Example of a blog community, MarmaBLOG community focus on working women, topics in the blog includes from business, baby picture posting to wedding planning and many more.
Source: http://marmaladya.21publish.com/
"Bloggers can easily link to other blogs using, comments, hyperlinks, blogrolls, or Track-Backs-these technologies let them interact with their readers and form virtual communities in the blogosphere",(Chau.et.all, 2009, p. 37). Here are some tips from Kinkeldei (2007, p.10-11) on how to grow and work a blog community:
"Bloggers can easily link to other blogs using, comments, hyperlinks, blogrolls, or Track-Backs-these technologies let them interact with their readers and form virtual communities in the blogosphere",(Chau.et.all, 2009, p. 37). Here are some tips from Kinkeldei (2007, p.10-11) on how to grow and work a blog community:
- Be clear in direction and topic
- Integrate existing blogs and invite users.
- Activate community features like blog directory and user directory on the community portal.
- Keep members of the community involved and informed.
- Link entries, which are tagged on Technorati, i.e. education, fashion, etc., to your blog community through an RSS feed from Technorati.
White (2006), lists three types of blogging communities, Blog Centric Community, Topic centric community and Boundaried community.
Types of blog base communities
Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community
This is where readers go and comment on early bloggers, getting to know not only blogger but other commentors and their views as well. These centralized blog that is firmly controlled by the blog’s owner in terms of content.
An Example of a Blogger centric community.
Source: http://www.interplast.org/
Source: http://www.interplast.org/
Central Connecting Topic Community
Topic centric community is built on network formation as several blogs are linked together under a common interest.
Example of a Topic centric blogging community. Source:- http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
Boundaried Communities
Boundaried community is a collection of blogs and blog readers are invited to host on a single site.
Example of a boundaried Community, where Clear boundaries as defined by registration and log–in. (White, 2006). Source: http://edublogs.org/
References:
- Wei.C, Formation of norms in a blogging community, viewed 26 September 2010, http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/formation_of_norms.html
- White, N 2005, How some folks have tried to describe community, Updated April 2005 viewed 26 September 2010, http://www.fullcirc.com/community/definingcommunity.htm
- White, N 2006, Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?, viewed 25 September 2009, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community.
- Kinkeldei,B, 6 February 2007,Whitepaper Blog Communities: Forging Connections and Promoting growth Through Blog Communities, 21publish,coorperative publishing.www.21publish.com/pub/21publish/blogging-whitepaper.pdf
- Donath, JS 1997, Inhabiting the virtual city: the design of social environments for electronic communities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
- Chau. M , Lam. P , Shiu. B , Xu. J, Cao. J , January/February 2009, A blog Mining Framework, IEEE Computer Society.
very knowledgable
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