An Introduction

Since the introduction of ‘new technology’ it has brought to the public’s attention about its advantages to help human being in their daily lives.

But how far is it useful in our daily lives? A production company will not confess its disadvantages as it may affect its business growth. What has technology change in our new improved world? It can be seen widely through ‘genre change’.

Purpose of Blogging

A web log, or known as a “blog” is a Web site structured like an on-line diary with one or more people posting messages (Reep 2006, p. 41). However, blogs can create ethical problems because people can write whatever they like for their own desire. This can violate people’s privacy and it can effect ones occupation in the future (Reep 2006, p. 41).

I believe that the trend of blogging is becoming larger. Bloggers are by millions ranging from pre-teens to senior citizens (Taylor, 2007). In Malaysia itself the population of bloggers are increasing. Even companies are taking the initiative to create their own blog for their employees.

The main purpose of blogging is to write about our own views or opinion on a topic that interests us the most. Individuals normally create a blog to write about their lives, opinions on topics or discussions on related issues of interest. Their closest friend or relative can be informed about recent happenings about them. It is an interactive tool that is now replacing emailing.

However, companies create blogs to get feedback from their customers either good or bad to improve on the productivity of their products and services. Companies also maintain blogs so that their employees can give their feedback on projects or on related work place issues (Reep 2006, p. 41). Rather than that, people who are passionate about an issue, a product or a trend create blogs. This results to the increase of community members getting people across the world to join and have their say.

Today blogging has become so wide that anyone at any age can create their own blog or you could get tips on how to create a blog.

Personal Blogging A Waste of Time?

In my opinion blogging is a waste of time. I do not see the need for someone updating his or her blog every minute something happened to them. The world does not need to be informed! However, blogging does kick a good habit of writing. People can be more skillful at writing and learning in the process of what they read and comment about. Through blogging, we can also know the different types of people and their ‘unique’ characters.

The freedom of speech can be exercised through blogging. We can say whatever we want to but to certain extend. People blog because they want to express themselves. Real life experiences that are written in blogs can be a useful tool to educate people and be an eye opener.

Classification of Blogs

They are different varieties of blogs and new ones are being created as we speak. The following are few classifications of blogs:

(i) Special Interest Blogs are such as follows;
fashion
politics
general information
law
photo
tropical
history
books
brands
education
art

(ii) Type of Media is such as follows;
sketchblog
vlog
MP3 blog
fluxblog
musicblogs
audioblogs
radioblogs


(iii) Types of Business or Corporate Blogs are such as follows;
Yahoo
LinkedIn
SUPERSEED
St. Adrian's Reachout Centre
Cohesion
BT Business
Spherion Career
Bocada Inc
Dell: Direct2Dell

There are six types of business blogs according to Wacka (2004).

Blogs as Current Phenomenon

Blogging is the new trend nowadays. Say goodbye to good old e-mailing. To know the status of our friend, all we have to do is read is or her blog. It may be boring but it may also be an eye opener to the possibilities of what a person can write, say and do.

The blogging phenomenon in Malaysia has lead companies to tie a good relationship with its customers. For example, the article on The Star dated May 27, 2007 entitled Getting customer feedback via blog-corporation ties. It states that through blogging is an interactive medium to build a good relationship with its customers (Ho 2007).

Even The National Union of Journalist of Malaysia has urged the Malaysian Government to accept blogging as a new media to disseminating information in the country.
According to Anand (2004) from the Information Week, there are two fundamental challenges of blogging which is issues of feedback and storage.

For more information on blogging phenomenon;
http://www.ajy.net/jmb/blogphenomenon.htm
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22103000
http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/default.cfm?Action=ReleaseDetail&ID=15080

Blogging Communities

According to Vinson (2007), communities are groups of people who come together to explicit a common reason. They gather because they share a common interest (hobbies, events, blogging), a common history (same high school, town, workplace, family, country) or a common event that binds them (a tragedy or history).

In Malaysia there are more political blogs expressing how they feel about the Government. Such blogs are mostly from the opposition party, tend to oppose the government in how they manage the country. Besides that, I think these blogs help citizens to think outside the box and to actually express themselves rather than being spoon fed by the government n what to do or what that needs to be done. These blogs too, does help citizens to know their rights.

However these blogs will not give a good impression towards the other countries. What would they think of Malaysia? Will they have a good or bad impression?

Here are some types of blogging communities;
Bud the Teacher
My Opera Community
Insta Blogs Community
Unbound Spiral
Ekstreme.com
The Truth Laid Bear

Why do Bloggers need to belong to a Blogging Community?

Bloggers need to belong to a community because they want to share their interest with other people and they want to gain more information.

Blogging communities will eventually help its members sustain a relationship that will benefit each other. Besides that, blogging communities are an ongoing passion that keeps them together (Vinson 2007).