Classification & Blog Community

Classification
I enjoy browsing through other people’s blogs during my free time. However it came as a surprise to me when I found out from Technorati’s Blog Directory that the blogs I read have different categories:

• Entertainment
• Lifestyle
• Sports
• Business
• Politics
• Technology

Even under the different categories they may be divided into more sub categories. For example if you were to consider the lifestyle category:
• Health and Fitness
• Literature
• Food
• Travel
• Fashion

According to the taxonomy of blogs there are many different classifications of blogs and they are divided based on the topic the authors write about and the purpose of it, for example the Gatewatcher Blog- that serves as the media’s watchdog, as experts in a field critique the reporting done by the media on their fields. I too believe that the authors choose what they write about, to whom they are writing to and for what purpose the blog is written and all those things determine their blog category. This concept is similar to Bear’s form follows function.

Blogging communities
A social group is where people of similar characteristics interact among each other while sharing a sense of unity (CliffsNotes, 2008). Similarly a blogging community has the same principles except that everything is done through the blog-medium.

One of the biggest blogging communities in Malaysia and the surrounding regions would be Nuffnang. Nuffnang.com is essentially a blogging advertising community created back in 2007. As bloggers sign up for Nuffnang and include it in their side bar, Nuffnang advertises for different companies on those blogs and would send the bloggers a commission. According to Nancy White this form of blogging is the Central Connecting Topic Centric blog community- blogs are linked by common factor.



(Source: rjuna.net )



Reference List

Technorati 2009, ‘Blog Directory’, Technorati.com, viewed 9 June 2009, < http://technorati.com/blogs/directory>.

CliffsNotes.com, 2008, Social Groups, viewed 9 June 2009, <http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/Social-Groups.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26868.html>.

Nuffnang 2008, About Us, viewed 9 June 2009, <http://www.nuffnang.com.my/about-us>

Bear, JH 2006, ‘Form follows function’, About.com, viewed 22 May 2009, .

Simon, M 2008, ‘A Taxonomy of Blogs’, ABC Radio National, viewed 9 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?’, Australian Flexible Learning Framework, viewed 9 June 2009, < http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>.