What is a Blog and should I use one?

When first asked "What is a blog?", the simple answer is, "A blog is a web log." Well that doesn't tell me much more than before I asked.

Let's examine blogs in more detail. According to Wikipedia:

"A blog is is a website where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs." (Blog - Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog Accessed December 21, 2007)

So a blog introduces a component of interaction and collaboration that is not present on traditional websites. When setting up a blog, the creator can choose to be the sole administrator, assign authors and allow comments from a select group of individuals or from everybody who reads the blog. All of the decisions as to who can see the blog, add entries, and add comments are up to the creator of the blog.

Why do people create blogs? Well, let's take a look at some examples of blogs to try to determine why people create blogs.

Technorati lists the Top 100 popular blogs during the past six months at http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/

The Best of Education Blog Awards were presented in March 2006 at the Florida Educational Technology Conferences as reported in eSchool News (http://tinyurl.com/2ckcye)

The "Best Classroom Instruction Blog for Students" was Frank LaBanca's Applied Science Research blog at http://appliedscienceresearch.blogspot.com/

EduWonk at was the winner in the category "Best K-12 Administration Blog."

MacKenty.org (at http://mackenty.org/), a blog written by Bill MacKenty won in the category "Best Instructional Blog for Teachers."

What do each of these blogs have in common?
Each blog has a specific focus.
Each blog meets the reader where the reader is - connected and online.