bald man blogging

OK, in part one I explained how the Internet works in five easy paragraphs. Now, we move onto blogs.

Part 2: What’s a Blog?

The short answer is “a type of website characterized by chronological entries appearring in descending order.” This is basically true, but if you’ve done much reading, you quickly discover that blogs are way more than 21st century diaries.

I prefer to think of a blog as a method or technique for managing website content. A website is nothing more than a bunch of interconnected pages located under a common domain name. Think of a book: Lots of pages all in the same binding. Websites, however, are way cooler than books, because there is so much more flexibility. You can only put the pages in a book in one order. A website can have multiple orders to it’s pages. Also, it’s easier to jump around out of order. Or follow a “footnote” to a completely different book/website! Add the abillity to include pictures, sound, video, frequent updates, interaction with readers, etc… like I said, way cooler than books. (And I love books.)

OK, back to topic: blogs.

I think of blogs more as methods for managing website content. True, most are still ordered around the whole chornological entry idea, but I’ve seen a few that are thinking outside the box. Essentially they are a bunch of webpages most of which are dynamic.

Now, there are three essential pieces. Each of these can be obtained individually or as a package (with some or all of the essentials.) Getting them individually adds flexibility (and complexity); getting them in a package does the opposite.

1. Domain name - OK, technically they’re not essential. You could just remember the IP address, but unless you want to be instantly classified “uber-geek” and alienate all those who don’t know about the numbers, get a domain name!
2. Server - This is the computer on which your website lives: the web pages, the database that stores the information used to create the dynamic content, the programs that process information requests from people who visit your website. When someone types your domain name into their browser, the IP address of your server is where they get directed.
3. Blog Software - This is a program that gets installed on the server. It provides the framework for your website; a method to tweak the framework; and a method for you to add and manage content (text, images, video, etc.).

That’s it. With those three, you’ve got a blog.

Next time, I’ll talk specifics: Accessing the Essentials

OK, I don’t pretend to be an expert, but I’ve had one or two people (Hi, Lynn!) ask me about blogging. In particular, they’re interested in starting their own for one reason or another.

Rather than reply in a series of emails, I thought I’d post my notes here. Not only is it (hopefully) informative, but experiential as well. Learn about a blog… on a blog!

This won’t be a particularly technical overview, since I’m not a tech guy; but it should help you understand the pieces involved. I’m certain there are mistakes. (Feel free to post corrections in the comments, but please don’t get bogged down in details. I’m not teaching a computer science course; I’m trying to give what I think are the necessary details to get non-techies started.)

Also, it’s easy to get lost in jargon, so I’ll skip as much of it as possible. I can’t avoid it all, so I’ll put it in italics when necessary.

Part 1: How the Internet Works

Nice easy topic here, eh? Well here’s my take on it.

Every computer and website on the net has an address, called an IP address. This is a series of four numbers (e.g. 100.200.300.400) When you view a website, data is being transmitted between one address, the website’s, and another, your computer’s. It’s a lot like regular mail or a phone call: You send a postcard requesting a catalogue; the company mails you a catalogue. Same idea; different technology.

OK, but those numbers are ugly and hard to remember. They’re good for computers, but not for people. Well, someone really smart came up with a solution: Let’s map IP addresses to something more catchy, like words. So, instead of remembering 102.384.600.014 we only have to know www.somewebsite.com. Computers translate the words into an IP addrress and everyone’s happy. Those words are called a domain or domain name.

The web pages that get passed to your computer from the website is stored in special text files written in HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language). HTML files look like regular text documents plus tags, special descriptors wrapped in brackets that tell your browser what the text is. (I’ll get into HTML later. You don’t need to become an expert, but it’s very useful to understand the basics.) Some web pages are static: they are written once in complete form, and they don’t change very often. More and more, however, they are dynamic . Most of the information in the file doesn’t exist until you ask to see it. At that moment the server (the computer with files for the website you are viewing) does some programming magic and creates the the actual web page you wind up seeing.

If you ever want to see an HTML file, open a web page, and select View…Source (or similar) from the menu. You should get a text file with all kinds of extra stuff. If you sift thru it, however, you should be able to find just about all the words you read on the web page. (Sometimes the words are really a picture; that won’t show up, but a tag referring to the picture will be there.)

Finally, the browser. A browser is a program that communicates with websites primarily by requesting, reading and displaying HTML files. You probably use Internet Explorer from Microsoft, but there are several others out there: Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox (my favorite), and Apple Safari (only available on the Mac OS) to name a few.

Next time: What’s a Blog?