Defining Blogs

One of my favorite bloggers, Jeff Jarvis, recently wrote a short piece which prompted me to think about the definition of blogs.  Jeff titled his piece Defying Definition, proclaiming that "Blogs are whatever we make of them.  Defining "blog" is a fool's errand."  Looks like I'd be the fool today!

I've already attempted once at discussing what blogs are in my previous post, although I never gave it a precise definition.  While I was thinking about it, I came across BlogCn.com which explained blogs using the diagram above.  Reading clockwise from top, it says: publishing, self-expression, communications. Expanding from it, I came up with the followings:

A blog is a personal website created (using a simplified template) for purpose of publishing, self-expression, sharing and communications. 

I debated as to whether using a template is a condition for blogs – after all, the lines between a blog and a personal website is increasingly blurred.  This also doesn't cover corporate blogs; although I'd like to think of corporate blogs as just another marketing/customer communications tool. 

Image Credit: www.blogcn.com