mediajunk

A US-based blogger claims to have been given the sack for updating his blog while in the office. Frank Sensenbrenner, a co-author of the Iain Murray Online blog, made the following posting on Jan 15: "My employment was terminated this morning, with this blog stated as the reason. I was somewhat surprised by this as my previous boss had been happy for myself and a former colleague to run blogs. They took up little work time, about as much as other employees take up with cigarette breaks, and were useful to get work-related ideas into shape for writing up for wider audiences.

"When my employer expressed his concern, I immediately offered to stop updating the blog forthwith. However, this was not enough and I was fired on the spot. As there is a procedure for disciplinary firings that follows a path of oral and written warnings, I was also surprised that this was not followed. It appears that my employer considered this serious misconduct, on a level with theft and sexual harrassment, thereby justifying an immediate termination."

In August 2002, The Huston Chronicle ordered reporter Stephan Olafson to discontinue his "gonzo journalism" blog, as it contained claims about local politicians. Eventually he was fired. Rival paper The Houston Press subsequently ran the story (with more than a hint of glee)!

Are we seeing the beginning of a trend? Should companies consider introducing 'appropriate use' policies with regard to blogging during office time/using office computers?

As with all things internet, blogging culture brings with all sorts of new jargon, designed to befuddle the unitiated and thier parents (especially their parents).

Moblogging, as mentioned a few days ago, is blogging with the use of mobile phones. Thin media is a more interesting term -- that's business-speak for the combined publications of the blogging community (the blogosphere), as in: the advertising industry should pay attention to thin media and blogads. The term klog seems to have been around for a while -- it refers to weblogs that are specifically used for knowledge-sharing or knowledge-management, as best I can tell. Vlogs, meanwhile, are (you guessed it) video logs.

How much of this blogification will stick? Certainly not all of it. Remember, not that long ago, when the e- prefix was being tacked onto words like a cheap party hat? We don't hear so much about e-tailing, e-dating or e-governing now, but 24 months ago, these terms were loaded with shiny get-with-the-program futurism.

The word "blog" is probably here to stay: in June 2002, it was being considered for the new edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The Chinese government have blocked access to tens of thousands of blogs by bannning the blogger.com site.

Earlier this year, China blocked access to Google, though it eventually lifted the ban the Search Engine complained (although it has not, according to Google Weblog, lifted its ban on the Google cache).

The Google ban led to innovative censorship-bypassing sites such as elgooG, though I suspect there will be no such workaround for blog sites. One way Chinese web users could have looked at blogspot pages was by viewing Google's cache! I guess you could call that Cache-22. Ahem.

Maybe Blogspot will find another way. I'm reminded of the words of John Gilmore, founding member of the EFF: "The Net interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it."

Blogs are no longer simply personal diaries. The blog is becoming the standard web interface for information sites, on topics ranging from geeky google watching to the research and announcements of a noted facial plastic surgeon. As the weeks and months pass, expect to see many celebrities launch blogs. There are already perhaps over a million blogs online (have a look at weblogs.com to see how many 'pingers' have updated in the last hour). Few blogs, ironically, are maintained by people who are already celebrities -- although some bloggers have become celebrites, at least on the web. Journalists and authors are more likely than other types of celebs to keep blogs, but music artists and movie stars, were they to regularly update with genuinely 'exclusive' content, would attract more hits and grow their fanbases.

From today, I'm going to keep a list of 'celebrity blogs' that I've found (email me if you're aware of any others). I've decided not to include sites that allegedly contain diaries or journals but do not conform to the interface, or where so-called blogs are clearly merely shop-fronts, or where the celebs in question don't appear to be genuinely involved.

MMS picture and audio-clip messaging, currently being heavily promoted by mobile phone companies in Europe, will add another dimension to the blog revolution: the predicted phenomenon has been already been dubbed 'moblogging'.

Picture and audio messaging allows users to send clips directly to thier blogs. One of the first to do so is Emmanuel Frécon from Sweden, who asks a pertinent question about the ethical issues this raises re. pictures of people being published on the internet without thier knowledge or consent.

Meanwhile, Irish company NewBay Software have announced their MMS-Blog software called FoneBlog. They claim it's "the world's first carrier grade blogging system specifically designed for mobile network operators".