There's a good possibility that most of us --the Class of '59-- are unfamiliar with the "blogosphere" and blogging. The reason, of course, is that the blogosphere came into existence a full forty years after we graduated from high school. In fact, the world of blogging bursted onto the scene with it's full impact only in the last four or five years.
Members of our class didn't grow up with computers. Those of us who now have computers, purchased them in the last decade or so. Our children and grandchildren grew up with computers and are familiar the technology and terminology of a world of communication that is difficult for us to comprehend.
In this blog post, I want to define a couple of terms and give you some pointers about to reading and participating on the Class of '59 Blog.
Blog: A blog is a Web site that is usually maintained by an individual (in our case, two individuals) with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material. "Blog" is a contraction of the term, "Web log." Our blog was created for the specific purpose of providing regular entries of commentary about the celebration of the 50th anniversary of our graduation from high school. But that's not all Bud and I desire to do with the blog. We hope to make this web site a gathering place for members of our class and other interested parties. We hope this will become an effective tool of communication.
Blog: A blog is a Web site that is usually maintained by an individual (in our case, two individuals) with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material. "Blog" is a contraction of the term, "Web log." Our blog was created for the specific purpose of providing regular entries of commentary about the celebration of the 50th anniversary of our graduation from high school. But that's not all Bud and I desire to do with the blog. We hope to make this web site a gathering place for members of our class and other interested parties. We hope this will become an effective tool of communication.
Blogosphere: "Blogosphere" is a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections. It is the perception that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network. According to Wikipedia, the term was coined as a joke on September 10, 1999 by Brad L. Graham. However, it quickly became the term to denote the entire world of blogging. Think about it for a moment. That was almost exactly 40 years after our graduation from high school. So there's nothing for us to be ashamed about for not being too familiar with the term or that sphere of communication.
Pointers on how to read and respond to a blog:
1) Blogs are funny things in some ways. The last article written on a blog is the first article that appears at the top of the page. Blogs are posted by their dates. So the latest dated blog appears at the top. As you read down the page, remember that an earlier blog post follows the first and so on. For example I wrote the first blog post on January 1st. Yet it is the last article that appears on this page.
2) There is a table of blog contents in the column to the right. Those titles are links to the individual articles. When you click on the link of a title, your computer pops the article to the top of the screen and you can read the article along with whatever comments that participants write to that particular blog post. There is a box at the bottom of the page where anyone can write a response to that particular blog.
3) All blog articles have headers. Those headers are links to themselves. You can click on the header of the article and that will also pop the the article to the top and the reader comments will become visible.
4) The comment box is the place for readers to respond. There are a series steps one must take in order to write a response. The responder is required have some sort of internet identification to post a response. Since our blog is hosted by Google, the easiest way to respond in the comment box is to create a Google account. It is easy to create a Google account. Go to google.com and sign up for a Gmail address. When you create the account, you will have the necessary internet identification to post a comment to the blogsite.
Hopefully this information will be useful to help novices move forward into the vast blogosphere.
In closing, if there are members and readers who choose to forgo establishing an Internet identification, you may send a blog message to me and I will post your message in a blog so others may read your message. Send your message to my blog email address, which is phlick59@gmail.com
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