Response to Rebecca Blood's "Weblogs: a History and Perspective"

            In the article “Weblogs: a history and perspective,” Rebecca Blood discusses the start of weblogs and how it quickly developed into a whole new means of communication and expression. Blood takes us back to 1998 when there were only a handful of blog sites available on the web. Before long, there were hundreds of sites after “Pitas, the first build-your-own-weblog too l launched.”  According to Blood, before this advance, weblogs could only be created by people who had the knowledge of how to make a website. But when sites, such as Blogger and Edit this page launched, people no longer had to be tech savvy to have a weblog. Blood says, “All of these services are free, and all of them are designed to enable individuals to publish their own weblogs quickly and easily.”

            The article also explains how people were finding more and more uses for weblogs. “In September of 2000 there are thousands of weblogs: topic-oriented weblogs, alternative viewpoints, astute examinations of the human condition as reflected by mainstream media, short-form journals, links to the weird, and free-form notebooks of ideas.” Blood discusses the impact weblogs have had on the media. She mentions how some weblog editors are “engaged in seeking out and evaluating the “facts” that are presented to us each day” by corporate news sources. I think she makes an interesting point about how weblog editors are beginning to “redefine media as a public, participatory endeavor. “

            Since this article came out in 2000, weblogs continue to thrive and offer people new ways of communication and self-expression. I think one of the most fascinating points Blood made in her article was about how the weblog experience can have a positive impact on the blogger on a personal level. Blood even reveals that she herself has had such a positive experience from the creation of weblogs. “I began to feel that my perspective was unique and important,” she said. I think the greatest aspect of blogs is that it gives people a voice and an opportunity to be heard and feel heard. As the bloggersphere continues to evolve, I believe this new form of communication will bring our great big world a little bit closer.