http://www.dailyrecord.com/morrislife/morrislife1-blog.htm 11/30/04 - Posted 1:01:40 AM from the Daily Record newsroom Bloggers post their thoughts for the world to read By Ellen Wilkowe, Daily Record The days of a diary complete with lock and key have given way to a more public portal into one's deepest darkest secrets. Enter at your own risk. Known as "Weblogs" or "blogs," these online diaries allow the documentation of one's daily activities or thoughts on the Internet. They differ from a message board, explained Kenneth Newquist, Webmaster at Drew University in Madison and blog activist. "A Weblog is an online journal, usually published daily," he said. "It's typically written by one person, but occasionally a group of writers will come together to contribute to a single blog." (The latter is known as a blog ring.) Whereas a message board may function as an online version of a real-world bulletin board - usually topic specific - a blog is usually posted by one person, with others responding to the content in the message area, Newquist said. Demographically speaking, Weblogs may appeal to the 35-and-under crowd and have soared in popularity among high school students and "geeks"-(meaning people who are really into computers and technology) of any age. An active blogger since the mid-'90s, Newquist credited the recent rise in blogging to a society's informational thirst, even more apparent after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when people wanted answers. "I think one of the defining aspects of blogs is that they're bringing journalism to the people," he said. "For example, the controversy over CBS's allegedly forged National Guard documents was fueled in large part by bloggers. They got their hands on the documents, played around with them, and started raising pointed questions about their authenticity. Those questions got noticed by the mainstream media, who in turn started questioning CBS about it." (On Sept. 8, "60 Minutes" aired a segment about President Bush's service in the National Guard, citing documents obtained by CBS that it said were written by the president's National Guard commander. Bill Burkett, a retired National Guard lieutenant colonel, later admitted providing the documents to CBS and misleading the network about the source.) Even with the Sept. 11 attacks, Newquist said people may have turned to Weblogs to seek out information otherwise not provided by the news media. While many blogs feed off scandal and tragedy, the overall heartbeat of online journals tends to be social in nature. "Blogs make it even easier to connect with people who share your interests, and to find news that's of interest to you," he said. "There are specialized blogs for just about any topic you can imagine, and usually such blogs are part of a larger, like-minded community." Web-based blogging tools such as Blogger (www.blogger.com) and LiveJournal (www.livejournal.com) allow even the technologically challenged to post their innermost thoughts-and for the most part they're free. Terry Suleski of Denville keeps tabs on her 17-year-old son, Anthony, a Morris Knolls High School senior on an exchange program in Germany, through his Weblog on xanga.com, one of the more popular blogging sites. This is Suleski's second attempt at Weblogging, and unlike his first, functions both as a means to keep family and friends connected and as a memoir of his time in Germany. "I did try before to keep a Weblog before but with no success. The reason is that the journal entries were very bland and it didn't interest me or anyone else," he wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Record. " I like this Weblog because I get to share (with) everyone about my experiences here in Germany, plus I now have a huge reminder of what I exactly did every day here in Germany." Anthony Suleski left for Germany Sept. 27 and will return Jan. 31. Paul Lin of Denville frequents the guest portion of Suleski's site. Lin, a 17-year-old Morris Knolls High School senior and self-proclaimed four-year blogger, documents life issues and enjoys feedback that friends and relatives post in return. But putting one's thoughts online, so to speak, can act as a double-edged sword, he said. "The main problem with blogging is that it is completely open to anyone who is interested in your life," Lin wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Record. "You could have people that could abuse your site - people that leave unwanted comments or spam - or people that are very abusive in their words and just want to ruin your Weblog. … Weblogging is more or less a double-edged sword - you can control the people who look at your Weblog … to an extent." Parents, for one, may be tempted to snoop on their child's Weblog, a common side effect of public access sites. "My parents know that I keep a Weblog, and sometimes it may be a problem, because they are conscious that I complain about them a lot," Lin said. "They are also aware that my younger cousins read my Weblog frequently, so … yeah. They sometimes don't really want me to talk behind their back, so to speak, but they also realize that all I am doing is venting my thoughts on my Weblog, and they usually respect my 'privacy' (that I'm displaying to the rest of the Internet)." Although blog rings are popular among high school students, adults - some introduced to blogging by their teenage children - have also dipped into the virtual ink. For Marilyn Donahue of Denville, blogging is very much a part of her family's daily routine. She holds her 24-year-old daughter Gina responsible for introducing her to what she calls "high-tech gossip at its best." "My oldest daughter, Gina, got the whole crew started with blogger.com, and she has several sites she keeps up to date," Donahue wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Record. "Katie, my 16-year-old, writes daily updates on LiveJournal. She communicates through the journal by checking up on her friends, taking 'friendship quizzes' that amount to 'How well do you know me?' Those are cute multiple choice tests, with questions like 'What's my middle name?' and favorite foods, pop star, etc. After a school dance or game or other function, she's online to get feedback, often being alerted through AIM (AmericaOnline Instant Messenger) to check someone's blog." Donahue's personal attempts at maintaining an online journal didn't go so well. "My sister took offense at being included in my thoughtful musings. The wind was stolen from my sail and I haven't had the heart to try again." But blog content isn't limited to just gossip. Scott Shields, formerly of Morris County, for example created a politically based blog, DemWatch (www.demwatch.blogspot.com or www.demwatch.com), in which he kept personal tabs on the Democratic primary race, the recent election and the aftermath. "At the beginning, I split my time between DemWatch and Dean Nation -http://dean2004.blogspot.com," he wrote in e-mail to the Daily Record. "As you may recall, Dean Nation was THE political blog that transformed Howard Dean from an obscure New England governor into an Internet-powered rock star." With deep thoughts or random streams of consciousness often comes interactive feedback, another main component of blogging. Feedback can be posted live or e-mailed to the author depending on how the blog is set up and allows the public full access to contributors. "There's a voyeuristic component (to blogging)," Newquist added. "Some people set up their blogs as a virtual soapbox and want to share their opinions with everyone. Others set up blogs for a specific group of friends and restrict access." While Web page may provide links to other Web sites, blogs operate the same way. A blog author often lists other blogs, "blog rolls," of interest to them, that a visitor may have not known of otherwise. "Someone can put a list of links to other blogs that they may not find through ordinary search engines," Newquist of Drew University said. To test the popularity of your own blog or a friend's , or for a list of other blogs, Newquist recommends www.technorati.com and www.feedster.com . "They're basically search engines (like Google) but dedicated specifically to the blogosphere," he said. Ellen Wilkowe can be reached at ewilkowe@gannett.com or (973) 428-6662.