Byte by Bite

Cheap and easy, blogs spark discussion

by Marv Dealy

Back to the flattery—I received a Google Alert (you can set these alerts up to email you concerning just about anything you can think of—go to www.Google.com/alerts) that quoted a bit from one Lonny Paul’s June 24, 2006 posting wherein he quotes nearly verbatim my June 23rd column from this very paper. How about that.

Credit is given and all—he names the Union Democrat right off the top as the source of my column but seems to be most interested in the Friday Freebie. You can read Paul’s post at http://www.lonnypaul.com/lonny.paul/2006/06/24/tigerdirects-50-items-for-50-hits-the-press/

The only thing I can’t figure out is was Paul on a deadline and didn’t have anything to say? Hey, if that’s the case just say so and I’ll send you 3 or 5 hundred words free. Pick a subject, I have lots to say.

But I digress. To the main topic today (segue) which is blogging.

Short for weblog or web blog, which is short for “writing stuff on your computer that—if you push the right buttons—appears on a web page somewhere on the Internet. But wait, there’s more—other people (if they know that web page address) can read what you’ve written and they can write back to you, right on the web page. And all this happens chronologically.”

Of course, the folks who invented this stuff don’t call it “writing back to something someone else said” as apparently that’d be too easy. No, they call your reply a “post.” You 27 faithful readers and I all know that a post is all our local cell tower ordinance will allow to be used to mount the various antennae and gizmos that cell phones and wireless Internet require to work.

By the time you read this hopefully the ordinance will have been fixed. Or, the decision may have been made to hire outside consultants to study why a 40 foot antennae doesn’t work when surrounded by 80 foot trees. And thanks to Craig Wills for pointing out that tall trees are a fact of life in Mi Wuk Village as well as elsewhere.

Back to the blog. The blogs getting the attention of mainstream media are easy to get to—just open your Internet browser, type in the address of the blog you want to read and or reply to, and off you go. The place where you read and the place where you type are two different things; once you finish typing and submit, however, they’ll be merged into the “newer” page at the blog that will be there for all to see and read, after the blog moderator oks what you’ve said. Yes, that moderator can reject your post, in part or in whole.

You can read an incredibly long explanation of the history and background of the blog at Wikipedia.com. On their home page, click on the language of your choice and search for blog. You’ll see a summary and a history stretching back to the early 1980s, when some ham operators had small wearable computers that allowed for a personal diary called glogs.

We’ll skip that and fast forward to today where blogs are sometimes legitimate sources of breaking news—as from downtown Baghdad, or as in the case of Rathergate, the scandal that forced a retraction of a CBS story on 60 Minutes II that was broadcast on September 8, 2004.

The documents behind the controversy—presented by Dan Rather as authentic—questioned the quality of George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard and appeared during the 2004 presidential race. Near instant questioning appeared in Internet forums and blogs, and it was argued by a coordinated group of bloggers within 72 hours that the documents weren’t authentic, as had been claimed by CBS.

The bloggers’ evidence and arguments eventually created such a controversy that CBS was forced to make an apology for inadequate reporting, admitting they had not after all had experts check the authenticity of the documents prior to the broadcast as Rather claimed, leading eventually to mainstream media considering blogs a source of news.

Today, it’s easy to set up your own blog, and it’s a Friday Freebie because it doesn’t cost a dime and only a little of your time.

Get on over to www.blogspot.com, fill out a short form and you’re on your way. You can post pictures, personal thoughts, details of the latest Kennedy assassination theory, or whatever your heart desires. Then by letting friends and family or business associates or whoever your audience is know the address, you can began to virtually “talk” about issues. And it’s so much easier than going downtown and actually sitting with someone on a park bench and just talking.

If you do start a blog you can control the content, or moderate it as the blogods would have us say. So if someone tries to do a bad Ethel Merman on your blog and you’re really about saving the sea cucumber, you don’t have to allow their comments to be added to the conversation. You can delete the unwanted addition to your blog and it won’t even have the consequence of a moth on your hood ornament at speed.

Some people have become such famous bloggers that the print media have offered them columns in their magazines, book deals and appearances on late night TV (ok, I made the TV part up). Folks from preachers to politicians have taken to blogging to get their message across.

If you go to Google and search for hunting blog, you’ll find John’s Guide Service blog about fishing and hunting—I don’t know John, this just popped up in Google. If you search for knitting blog, you’ll find a selection. Search for plumbing blog and you’ll get a selection. Look for gold country blog and you’ll get a bunch. You get the idea—whatever the subject matter, there’s likely to be a blog where people are talking about what matters most—whatever’s on their mind. If you can’t find a blog that talks about what you want to talk about, then start your own. It’s easy (see above) and doesn’t cost anything but your time.

There are any number of groups or entities that really ought to get with it locally and get a blog posted. This newspaper for one. The county portal website for another (although that times you out every 15 minutes, so you’d best have a quick connection). Others that could use blogs are Voters Choice, any developer worth his or her salt, concerned citizens who want to have a forum to discuss whether or not there should be a fountain in the park in front of the courthouse in Sonora, and so on.

To get the ball rolling, I’ve started a blog, called Talk Here. I’m curious to see what folks who never took the time to email me might post here. Have at it—anything too ridiculous and it’ll never make it past my delete button. Talk Here is at http://www.talk-here-now.blogspot.com/