Guide to Weblog Comments

Leaving a comment on someone's weblog is like walking into their living room and joining in on a conversation. As in real life, online there are some people who are a pleasure to converse with, and some who are not.

Trapani, Gina. LifeHacker (2005). Articles>Writing>Community Building>Blogging

Imagining the Blogosphere: An Introduction to the Imagined Community of Instant Publishing

Blogs above the waterline—those which are frequently updated, widely read, and consistently linked—may represent the conception of blogs in the public mind, but they are not representative of blogs in general.

Lampa, Graham. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Writing>Community Building>Blogging

My Other Job  

Michael Whitman describes his experience volunteering for a community service project.

Whitman, Michael. Intercom (2000). Articles>Writing>Community Building>Volunteering

Parody Blogging and the Call of the Real

If the problem with American public discourse is lack of access, then the blogsphere will do much to improve it. If, however, the problem is how people participate, if there is already too much stance-taking and not enough argumentation, the blogsphere will simply give more people easier access to a form of public discourse which actually has limited benefit.

Roberts-Miller, Trish. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Writing>Community Building>Blogging

Weblogs and the Public Sphere

In this essay I assess the potential impact of weblogs on the public sphere, using a model based on the work of Jürgen Habermas to provide an ideal against which we can measure the efficacy of weblogs as a public space.

Baoill, Andrew Ó. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Writing>Community Building>Blogging