Workshop:

• The language of blogging.
• Setting up a blog.

blog platforms:
http://www.civiblog.org
http://www.blogger.com
http://www.typepad.com
http://www.livejournal.com
http://www.movabletype.org
http://www.wordpress.org

DUE:
Register an account at http://sodacity.net/user.

Write a 1-page brainstorm for your blog project. It should include:

• Generate at least 3 possible names for the blog.
• Identify at least 2 and no more than 4 topics that you plan to blog about (its ok if they are only loosely related). Spend some time thinking about this. You will be asked to make at least one post on your blog every week of the semester... so choose things that you are interested in and care about so that you don't get bored. The point here is NOT to recreate what you are already doing on MySpace, Facebook, etc. - so topics can't include things like what you did with your friends last Saturday night...
• Research and identify at least 3 other blogs that deal with similar material. They don't have to agree with you (in fact it would be more interesting if they didn't) but the things they write about should be fairly obviously related to some of the things you plan on writing about. The point here is to find some "massive conversations" that are happening online and join them. Briefly describe each one.

Readings:

We Media. Chapter 1: Introduction to participatory journalism Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis

A Definition of Sociable Media by Judith Donath [pdf]