Comparing Blogging Services: Have You Tried…

You can find a comparison of the features of some blogging services at this site.

According to Top10Reviews, the best blogging services are:

	WordPress.com
	TypePad
	Blogger
#4	Yahoo 360
#5	AOL Journals
#6	Windows Live Spaces
#7	Xanga
#8	LiveJournal
#9	Vox
#10	MySpace

Click the links above to read the review.
If you want to try out a different blogging service, go directly there.
http://wordpress.com/
http://360.yahoo.com/login.html
http://www.xanga.com/
http://www.livejournal.com/
http://www.vox.com/
http://www.myspace.com/
http://spaces.live.com/
http://peopleconnection.aol.com/blogs

Which blog best supports what you want to do? (What DO you want to do?)

What about bilingual blogs?

Have you seen these?

http://www.oyako.org/enter.html
http://blog.jeremysimonson.com/wordpress/
http://www.zanthan.com/japan/nihongo/
http://joi.ito.com/
http://www.piqniq.jp/blog/10
http://bamboolife.blogspot.com/

History of the Internet

These are some questions related to the history of the internet.

There is a list of internet pages telling the history of the internet at this site:
http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/
Some of the best of these are
Webopedia: http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/timeline.asp
PBS Nerds: http://www.pbs.org/opb/nerds2.0.1/timeline/
http://www.w3.org/History.html
Hobbes Internet Timeline: http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/
There is a Japanese version of the Hobbes Internet Timeline.
Another source is the Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

1. What was Sputnik, and how is it related to the internet?
2. What was ARPA (and DARPA)?
3. What is Packet Switching? (watch this, too) http://www.pbs.org/opb/nerds2.0.1/geek_glossary/packet_switching_flash.html
4. Who developed Packet-Switching?
5. Why was it developed? Why was it needed? What advantages did "packet-switching" have?
6. When was the first e-mail sent?
7. What were the first four nodes on the internet?
8. When was the word "Internet" first used, and by who?
9. What is Ethernet? When did it develop? Who developed it? Why was it important?
10. When and where was the Domain Name System developed?
11. What is Tim Berners-Lee famous for?
12. How did HTTP change the internet?
13. What was WWW? What made it possible?
14. When did the use of "www" pass the use of the "ftp" protocol?
15. What was "Mosaic"?
16. Who invented the phrase "surfing the internet"?
17. What were the "browser wars"? Who was fighting? Who won?
18. When were there 10,000,000 sites on the internet? When were there 20,000,000? When were there only 10,000?
19. What year were Netscape and Amazon started?
20. When did YouTube get started?

WWW Growth: (as measured by the number of Web sites or Servers)

12/90 1
12/91 10
12/92 50
12/93 623
12/94 10,022
01/96 100,000
12/96 603,367
12/97 1,681,868
12/98 3,689,227
12/99 9,560,866
12/00 25,675,581
12/01 36,276,252
12/03 45,980,112
12/04 56,923,737
12/05 74,353,258
11/06 101,435,253

Sites = # of web servers (one host may have multiple sites by using different domains or port numbers)

Ten trends in blogs

This article is about blogging, by the same author mentioned below. She observes several types of blogs that perform different functions. What kind of blog do you want to make? Can you think of any other types? Who is blogging? Why? What kind of media content? What kind of topics are they touching on? Who are they writing for?

The ten types that she observes are:

Informative (teach or inform)
Cultural (a kind of informative?)
Travel (similar to cultural)
Corporate Humanization (PR, customer service, an extension of a business)
Creative Ranting (stress relief)
Creative Writing (blogs a new home for literature?)
Reporting on Events with Personal Accounts (new kind of news report)
Pioneering Ideas (intellectual work of books, letters, societies)
Niche Topics (could be anything)
Family Blogs (a kind of family reunion?)

http://blog-services-review.toptenreviews.com/10-interesting-blog-trends.html

10 things to never put in your blog?

According to Pamela S. Stevens, you should never put your name, the names of family members, where you live and work, telephone numbers, personal e-mail address, plans for when and where you will be, travel itineraries, or pictures that include identifiable information about your home, work, or car! Do you agree with these? Are they good suggestions? Why or why not?

If your blog or journal is posted for “Everyone,” meaning that anyone can look at it, you should hold back identifiable information.

Here are 10 things to never put in your personal blog:
1. Your full name.
2. Your kids, friends or family member’s full names.
3. Where you work.
4. Where you live.
5. Telephone or cell number.
6. Personal email address.
7. Where you will be and when you will be there.
8. Pictures of where you live or work that include identifiable information.
9. Pictures of your car that show the license plate number.
10. Travel Itinerary.

If you hold back identifiable information you can be assured that most of your thoughts are safe to share. If you are not concerned with generating traffic to your blog, just write and don’t worry about whether it is going to be read, linked to or even liked. However, even if your blog is set to “Protected,” meaning only certain people can read it, you still need to be careful about writing content that may come back to haunt you later. If you really just want to write and not worry about sharing, set your blog to private, and keep your posts to yourself. Either way, public or private, blogging can be fun, cathartic and informative.

Visit the site to read it there.

A Review of Internet and Music Trends

Today we listened to this VOA (Voice Of America) podcast.

2006: Expanding Ways to Communicate and Have Fun on the Net
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-29-voa1.cfm
I had a worksheet with a lot of questions about the 15-minute podcast you heard. We focused on listening and only read the transcript afterwards. You were able to get many of the main ideas but not the details.

An outline of this program:

Trends in 2006

…Internet
…… Blogs
…… MySpace
…… YouTube
…… Second Life
…… Fantasy Sports Leagues

…Music
…… Socially active old acts

……… Madonna
……… The Dixie Chicks
……… Bruce Springsteen (Song: How can a poor man stand such times and live)

…… Indie artists

……… Death Cab for Cutie
……… Yeah Yeah Yeahs
……… My Morning Jacket (song: It Beats 4 U)

…… Newly created bands

……… Raconteurs (Jack White also of the White Stripes)
……… Gnarls Barkley (DangerMouse and Cee-Lo Green) (Song: Crazy)

…… Newly dead artists: James Brown (song: I got you/I feel good)

VOA Special English Home