Blogs Abundant and Their 'Clans'

In regards to my last post, the amount of blogs within the blogosphere reaches up to 133 million from the year 2002 as mentioned by Technorati (2008). Note that the year 2002 is the year where Web 1.0 was slowly turning its course to Web 2.0, and later it fully develops into the Web 2.0 we know of today (O’Reilly, 2005). So 133 million blogs in the year 2002 as its starting point, and imagine the amount of blogs there are out there at this moment. Grand, isn’t it?

Of course, the more blogs there are hanging around in the blogosphere, the more types and genre we would find. However, classifications for blog types would differ from one person to another. But in a whole, EGM (2006) has managed to classify the many types of blogs into three categories;

a) Producers
i. Blogs with original contents written by the author of the blog themselves.

b) Reviewers
i. Blogs that take their contents elsewhere and rewrite it, often expanding the topic or taking it off to a different direction. ‘The hallmark of these blogs is that they don’t simply point to the source material; they riff on it somehow.’

c) Pointers
i. In other words, linkers. They link the readers to contents found elsewhere that pertains to their topic.

There may be disputes on the fact that the Reviewers can be considered as rip-offs and such. But, like many things in this world, one cannot exist without the other. EGM (2006) clearly states that these blogs are connected, one way or another, and one needs the other for support and its contents.

The 3 Categories of Blogs (source from EGM)

As for the topic, style, format, and audience, EGM has pretty much covered them all.

And as for the blogging ‘clans’, they are mainly from the many genres of blogs out there. White’s (2006) research on blogging communities revealed that there are three types of blog community:


a) Single Blog/Blog Centric Community
a. Stephen Downes
b. Evil Genius Marketing


b) Topic Centric Community
a. Global Voices Online

c) Boundaried Community
a. MySpace
b. Friendster

It is through those types of community would one find the methods to create a blogging community. As for me, my blogging community would fall under the Boundaried Community cum Topic Centric Community called Destructoid.


As an avid video game fan, this community appeals to me as they discuss about the topics that is of interest to me. Their features range from reviews of video games to community blogs and podcasts. Of course, as this is considered as a Boundaried Community, I must register have access to their features.

But this is just one community out of millions in the blogosphere.





Reference:

O’Reilly, T., 2005, What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software, O’Reilly Media Inc, viewed 10 November, 2008,
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html?page=1

EGM, 2006, Three types of blogs: Producers, Reviewers, and Pointers, Improving Customer Experience, viewed 11 November, 2008,
http://www.evilgeniusmarketing.com/ice/direct_link.cfm?bid=F1C806E8-A81C-4D15-58A7EB5FA7EFF8C6

Technorati.com, State of the Blogosphere 2008, viewed 11 November, 2008 http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/

White, N., 2006, Blogs and Community – Launching a new paradigm for online community?, Full Circle Associates, viewed 11 November, 2008,
http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/2006/12/blogs-and-community-launching-new.htm