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. Its a code for writing a web page that
can be displayed in a Web browser.
CSS stands for Cascasing Style Sheets, its a way of specifying how the Web browser
should style or present pages that are marked up by HTML. An example would be a rule
that specifies the style like 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, its an additional way of publishing. Its a
version of a web site encoding in a way that allows computers to easily manipulate the
content . An example would be 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.
The term is meant to characterize a second generation of Web sites. The first wave of
Web developers focused largely on publishing content, whereas Web 2.0develops
services that allow users to share their own content and to use the Web as platform. Some
examples of Web 2.0 are Wikipedia, Youtube, and Facebook.
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?
- The first type of blog is a Personal Blog: Dooce.com. This blog presents slices of life,
episodes, and anecdotes that make the reader feel like they are really getting to know the
blogger. Most personal 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.
- The next type of blog is a Filter Blog: Kottke.org. This type of blog holds the finds and
experiences of the blogger. The majority of filter blogs have a wide column with the main
content, extras are placed around the edges. This is different from a personal blog cause it
doesnt 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 blend of the words Web and log. The word log derives from the
nautical navigation. It is also originally mentioned to record of events a journey at sea.
Blog is a type of log being held on the web. Different variations of blogs have multiple
things in common despite their diversity. Most definitions of blog emphasis mostly on
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 put blogs into separate categories amongst all aspects of the
Internet and within blogs themselves. This describes to us that blogging purposes as a medium
within the Internet. Then, she explains in the medium are diverse blog genres including 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.