'Blogosphere' is a collective term encompassing all
blogs and their interconnections. It is the perception that blogs exist together as a connected
community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a
social network.
History
The term blogosphere was coined on
September 10,
1999 by Brad L. Graham, as a joke.
[1] It was re-coined in 2002 by
William Quick,
[2] and was quickly adopted and propagated by the
warblog community. The term resembles the older word "logosphere" (from Greek ''logos'' meaning ''word'', and ''sphere'', interpreted as ''world''), the "the world of words," the universe of discourse. It also resembles the term "
noosphere" (Greek ''nous'' meaning ''mind'').
As of 2007, a lot of people still treat the term ''blogosphere'' as a joke; however, the
BBC, and
National Public Radio's programs
Morning Edition,
Day To Day, and
All Things Considered have used the term several times to discuss public opinion. A number of media outlets in recent years have started treating the blogosphere as a gauge of public opinion, and it has been cited in both academic and non-academic work as evidence of rising or falling resistance to
globalization,
voter fatigue, and many other phenomena.
[3]
Tracking
Sites such as
Technorati,
Blogdex (as of April 2007, site is currently being "rethought"),
Bloglines,
Tailrank,
PubSub,
Blogrunner,
Blog Street,
BlogsNow and
Truth Laid Bear track the interconnections between bloggers. Taking advantage of
hypertext links which act as markers for the subjects the bloggers are discussing, these sites can follow a piece of conversation as it moves from blog to blog. These also can help information researchers study how fast a
meme spreads through the blogosphere, in order to determine which sites are the most important for gaining early recognition.
References
1. http://www.bradlands.com/weblog/comments/september_10_1999/
2. http://www.iw3p.com/DailyPundit/2001_12_30_dailypundit_archive.php#8315120
3. Blogosphere: The new political arena, Michael Keren, 2006.
See also
★
Bloggernacle
★
Customer engagement
★
Israel Blogosphere
★
Canadian blogosphere
★
J-Blogosphere
★
New Zealand blogosphere
★
Group Blogging
★
Tailrank.com
★
Afrosphere
External links
★
Article on growth of the blogosphere
★
The Chinese blogosphere and
the Persian blogosphere at Wanabehuman
★ State of the Blogosphere, April 2006 by
Dave Sifry:
Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth,
Part 2: On Language and Tagging
★
Technorati - A site for searching across various blogging sites