Weblog-Conversations

Weblogs form networks between eachother: Webloggers read other weblogs and will often use this material to write up own pieces. A free-flowing conversation ensues between the authors and members of the audience who chime in. Technologies such as “TrackBack” (which displays “inbound links” to a particular post, that is: references to a particular post from other entries in other locations that reference it) or referrer-lookup (analysing where traffic came from, made possible by analysing server-logfiles or special web-based tools, such as technorati.com) make it possible to track these discussions across multiple weblogs. New participants can join the discussion anytime by commenting or writing an entry on their own weblog. These conversations are self-organising and only moderated decentrally by the individual weblog-authors.

Weblogs and Networking

By reading someone elses weblog readers get to know the writer very well. It can be seen that webloggers who read eachother and use their weblogs to converse with eachother are building up trust. As a consequence, they are collaborating and forming networks (see Zijlstra, 2003).

Weblogs can be seen as a “Personal Presence Portal”: They are an online representation of a knowledge worker’s presence and serve as an access point to his work and thoughts. Also, they provide access to other forms of getting in contant, such as email, instant messaging or meeting face-to-face. (Zijlstra, 2004)

Conclusion

Source: Knowledge Work Processes and Support for them through Weblogs