Not blogging yet!
Choked with ideas, opinions, thoughts and experiences? Start blogging, feel the difference

By Shubhdarshani Mitra
Twenty-eight-year-old Shanaya Joseph strongly feels for social issues like global warming, dwindling tiger population, women safety, mud-slinging in politics, Indian economy and on a personal level, office politics as well. She did not know how to vent her concerns, thoughts or ideas till she was introduced to the blogging world.

Welcome to the e-world where you can talk about endless issues to your virtual friends without interruption!
A ‘blog’ is an abbreviated version of ‘weblog’, a term used to describe websites that maintain an online chronicle of information. It can be called an online diary, which is regularly updated and allows interaction. Blogs can range from being personal to political and focus on a varied range of issues. And since it is interactive, you get a feedback from the readers who can post their comments on the site.

Bangalore-based Priya Raghunath who works in the Human Resources department of an MNC has been regularly blogging for the past one year. She says blogging not only helps her to talk about issues openly but at times helps her to come out of a crisis situation as well. She says it has become a forum for her to share problems and invite solutions.

Delhi-based Gaurav who works as an entertainment producer with a news channel says blogging helps him to talk about the Ram Jethmalani’s which his work profile doesn’t allow since he is into mainstream entertainment production. For him, blogging means expanding his work space.

A typical blog provides the readers a commentary, view or news on a particular subject. It combines text supported by images and links to blogs or web pages. Most blogs basically focus on texts but images also form a significant part many a times. The idea is to share useful and unique content which would attract the readers.

With the virtual world widening its grasp, the blogosphere is growing in size and nowadays most of the corporate world is also blogging. Organisations are encouraging employees to blog for it has an easy reach and posting comments or your views is easy.

Blogs can be internal or external. Internal blogs are usually accessed through the corporation’s intranet and external blogs are publicly available weblogs.

While the concept of blogging has existed for as long time, the term weblog was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997. Wikipedia says Barger is an American blogger who coined the term to describe the process of ‘logging the web".

So, whether you are a working professional, a housewife, a student, you can create your blog and post your ideas. There are free blogs available on the Internet and you can fill in the entries and create your own blog. It’s not just a good hobby to get hooked on to, it’s your way to communicate and interact with the outside world.