#3 (Week 1) Explore some blogs and make a comment in a blog

By now you know what blogs are. Here are a few blogs that are either very popular, or of possible interest to you:

• BoingBoing: The most widely-read blog, it chronicles lots of the weird and wacky, as well as tech/gadget/web stuff.
  
• Librarian.net is a blog about being a librarian. Like what you see? Check out a slew of more library blogs.
  
• There are also blogs dedicated to children’s literature and librarianship. Probably the most widely-read one is Fuse #8, which started out as independent but is now published by School Library Journal. She gets paid to blog!
  
• Then there is our famous NZ Beattie's Book Blog - among the hundreds of book blogs on the web! And don't forget about the eLGAR Programme Office blog.
  
• Explore Technorati's Top 100 blogs that cover all kinds of topics.

Blogging is all about communication. The bloggers put their ideas out to the audience and the readers comment on it. You would often see at the end of a blog post a comment that changes into a conversation where readers comment or ask questions and the blogger comes back with a reply. That is often where you pick up very interesting things - either references to other web sites, arguments from a different slant, or thought provoking comments.

Comments are moderated where the blogger first looks at the comment before it gets posted on the blog, or, comments can be turned off so no comment can be made especially if the blog serves as a notice board. But most commonly the comments are open and immediately published.

Some pointers when making comments:

• Thoughtful comments which contribute to a topic are always welcome, especially if it leads to a lively debate or sharing of experience.
• Express your appreciation when you have learnt something from a blog post.
• Be aware of giving too much personal information online.
• Remember that whatever you write on the web will be there for everyone to see forever. (There is a web site where deleted web pages can be traced.)
• The law also applies to online publishing - including copyright and libel/slander laws.
• For further advice on commenting in blogs see The comment etiquette, Time wasting blog comments , The blogger's guide to comment etiquette.

Discovery Exercise (#3):

• Make a comment on a blog - it could be on one of your colleagues' blogs or any other blog that you find interesting.
  
• Use your gmail account to email northshorelibraries@gmail.com with the link to your comment. Please put Exercise #3 in the subject heading.

To find the link to your blog post look for the permanent link for that blog post. Depending upon the Blogger template that you selected, the permanent link for each individual posts can be found either through the post’s title or through a link in the post's footer area that contains the date.
Example: Here is where you would find the permanent link for this blog post:

Have fun exploring blogs. You will find some interesting award winning blogs at Blogger's Choice Awards, Weblog Awards, Blog Of The Day Awards, The Best of Blogs.