Classifications, methods and types of blogging communities

Classifications

People make blogs for different reasons. Therefore, types of blogs are different. It is divided into four categories:

1. Subject matter
- Political blogs; i.e. Jeff Ooi
- Fashion; i.e. I am Fashion
- History; i.e. The History Blog
- Law; i.e. The Wall Street Journal Blogs

2. Device
- moblog; i.e. Jo Ito

3. Media Type
- Vlog; i.e. Josh Leo`s Vlog
- Linklog; i.e. Jennifer`s Link Log
- Sketchlog; i.e. Jose Villegas
- Tumblelog; i.e. a shot of JD

4. Status of publishers
- Business blog; i.e. Health Business Blog
- Corporate blog; i.e. Google Blog

With various types of blogs, some blogs look unique. It has distinctive style to make web users like to read. It depends on style, topic, format and audience. To determine whether it is unique blog or not, Funnel (2008) stated that people look at the topic or issue mainly and the design in it such as the photos also the topic is about political or news or just a diary.
People can read a blog when they have free time and when they find the topic is good and interesting they will keep opening the blog and read. In my opinion, what make a blog unique is the topic itself. Design can be simple but what most readers look for is the content of the blog. But it does not mean design and format is not important.

Building blog community method
Blog community is built based on shared interest and stronger group turns that interest into passion. People leave comments when they read one`s blog. And from there, if they find they have same strong interest then those people can make a blogging community. They can make one blog for themselves to share their interest with others. For example, the Dublin Community blog. This blog tells about what happens in Dublin and their experience there. They put pictures and videos to support it. This blog is made based on same interest among the authors.
Blogging community also can be created through the permalink and tags.

Types of blogging community
There are three types if blogging community stated by White (2006); one blog centric community (design, technology), boundaried community (make a blog then become close to each other because of the discussion board, social networking and instant messagin built in) and topic centric community ( they linked to each other with hyperlink and more to networking). For instance is MySpace.

Power in boundaried community based on the ability of the owner to impose rules on community. It consist of three ways.

One way is frequency of posting. Blogger can decide when to post and frequent posting puts a person`s blog higher in the list. Then another way is popularity or interest. It is measured by how many comments bloggers get. If his blog is famous, lots of comments will be there.

And last is social networking tools to help bloggers associating each other. Users need to add people and approve it so they can chit chat or exchange news or anything in their friends list. Users also can choose to show or not to show their social network in MySpace ecosystem. Users can put video, music and photos that their friends can make comments. From these activities, users can become a community.

Reference List:

Funnel, A 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, ABC Radio National, viewed on 12th June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript

White, N 2006, Blog and Community - Launching a new paradigm for online community?, the Knowledge Tree, viewed on 12th June 2009, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community.