Bloggeratto

One would think that by now the discussion of what a blog is would have died years ago but no. not even with a wikipedia entry available for everyone to read in several languagues.

For me the answer comes down to one word: Format.

Format is what determines how a blog works and is going to be percived by the user and the maker, it goes around with the tools that are used to update it, the interfase is displayed into and the schedule it follows.

Is like when someone say that a sitcom and a soap is the same thing. is not. its format determines that. a sitcom script could not be more different to write from the script of a soap opera, the same goes for a tele series, etc.

And this is the very same thing. we already know by the wikipedia entry what and how a blog must be. and that is the thing. the perception of how something must be is what determines to the user what a blog is and should be from the start. but the most important factor a blog has is that is carries a voice(s) and a concept from a personal vision.

That is why the blogs got popular, because everyone can have a opinion in his own blog and then by de facto everyone can have their own opinion about that opinion.

You don´t carry that out from a common website, when there is only a action to be followed on, you follow steps to access the information you want and what you are dealing with is not a voice but simple cold data.

It of course can carry also a personal vision and purpose but that representation is not as direct as a blog, simply becuase a website puts up a show for the user to follow and blog can only rely on the input of that vision in a constant schedule

That is what the blog changed forever, it took voice up front and made internet interaction a true democracy. because before the coming of blogging to the mainstream, not everyone-everyone could have their own internet space. you had to put up only with content representation that could be or could be not static. right now, you don´t have to put up with your opinions to be erased by time in a forum or in someone else website. now you CAN have the option to state othewise with a blog.

And that is the main difference with a website: Personal Voice- Personal Feedback = Personal Interaction - Idea Interaction - Vision Interaction.

That is a direct display of anything you have in mind that is going to be carried on by your Identity.

When a Blog converts into a Blogsite?

That is where Blog and Website collide.

Lets see the core concept of them besides their respective Formats:

A website is about Representation.

The website will always have a Theme and Concept from were to make its content of, and will follow that theme and concept to the letter. be it for commercial or personal purposes, it will also offer the content with a single purpose: Consumption, Use, and/or Promotion

A blog is about the Direct Interaction.

A Blog carries always a personal vision of a blogger(or the founder in the case of Team-blogs)and offers the content as a opinion, reflexion, review, etc. and that is done with the single purpose of expressing and spreading a point(idea, opinion, etc) to a reader.

When a Blog has a theme or concept that is not directly about personal life tribulations and opinions and the format has been altered to be multi-threaded then you are in Blogsite. be it commercial or non-commercial.

I know the discussion will go on, but i wanted to give my 2 cents on the matter.