What is a Blog?

Jill Walker Rettberg (2008)

Open Book Quiz
Note: you will be graded on the thoroughness and thoughtfulness with which you answer each
question. You may answer the questions underneath the questions. Please indent your responses
to make it easier for me to read. When youre done, you will be posting this on your weebly site
as a document on a Standard page called Research. I will give you more detailed instructions
in class.
1) What do HTML & CSS stand for and what do they mean? Offer an example or two.
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. This is a code for writing a web page
that can be displayed in a Web browser.
CSS stands for Cascasing Style Sheets. This is a way of specifying how the Web browser
should style or present pages that are marked up by HTML. An example of CSS would
be a rule that specifies the style, such as; all paragraphs should have the first line
indented.
2) What does RSS stand for? What does it mean/do?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. This is an additional way of publishing. Its a
version of website encoding in a way that allows computers to easily manipulate the
content . An example of this is how an RSS feed of a blog will use codes like <title> and
</title> to mark the beginning and end point of the title of an individual post.
3) What is Web 2.0? What distinguishes Web 2.0 from the first wave of web developers?
Please offer some examples and explain why/how these are considered Web 2.0.
Web 2.0 is meant to characterize a second generation of Web sites. The first wave of Web
developers focused largely on publishing content, whereas Web 2.0 develops services that
allow users to share their own content and to use the Web as a platform. Some examples
of Web 2.0 are Wikipedia, Youtube, and Facebook. These are considered Web 2.0
examples because all of these websites allow add their own input and personal
information, as well as share this input and information with others.
4) Please list and explain the 3 different types of blogs discussed by Rettberg. Explain what the
defining feature of each are and how they are distinct from one another. What category do you
think our niche blog fall into and why?
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One type of blog is a Personal Blog: Dooce.com. This type of blog presents slices of life,
episodes, and anecdotes that give the readers a strong feeling of knowing the blogger, but
that also keeps many secrets. Most of these blogs have a small section in the upper hand
corner that explains who the blogger is of what the blog is about and/ or an About page.
Another type of blog is the Filter Blog: Kottke.org. This type of blog records the
bloggers experiences and finds on the web. Most filter blogs keep the main content in

the widest column and places extras around the edges. As opposed to personal blogs that
focus mainly on the life of the blogger, filer blogs filter the web from the bloggers own
point of view.
The third type of blog is a Topic-driven Blogs: Dailyko.com. These blogs focused on
diverse topics. They share newly discovered ideas and information with their readers,
usually links to more information. A opposed to the other forms of blogs run by
individuals, topic-driven blogs are often run collaboratively by group contributors.

Our Niche blog seems to fit into the category of a personal blog so far. I believe this because
we have included an about me will be writing within out niche, which can be different for each
person.
5) From where does the word Blog derive? Why is this significant?
The word blog is a contraction of the words Web and log. The word log is taken from nautical
navigation and originally referred to a chronological record of events during a sea journey. The
basic sense of a blog is some sort of log being kept on the web. Different types of blogs all have
many things in common despite their diversity. Most definitions of he blog focus primarily on
the formal qualities of blogs.
6) Rettberg defines blogging by discussing the phenomenon in terms of genre and medium.
Please explain why she does this and how it helps us understand the genre of blogging and how
blogging functions as a medium.
Rettberg does this in order to classify blogs amongst all aspects of the Internet and
amongst blogs themselves. This explains to us that blogging functions as a medium within the
Internet. She then explains that within this medium are different blog genres such as the ones
discussed earlier, Personal, Filter, and Topic-Driven. She also then states though that the
differentiation between blogs as a medium or a genre can be up to your own interpretation.