I think therefore I blog

BLOGS are the new personal and political journals, published in the web for all the world to read (or those who want to anyway), and even if no one wants to read them. Quite the reverse of an invasive anonymous text, a blog is only there if you go to it.

What is a blog? Yugatech.com, the weblog of Abe Olandres, an Ilonggo enterprenuer who hosts blogs, defines a blog or weblog as: "is a web application which contains periodic time-stamped posts on a common webpage. These posts are often but not necessarily in reverse chronological order. Such a website would typically be accessible to any Internet user." Yugatech.com add, "a blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules."

There is a whole new world out there, of people who are called bloggers. They write and write on their blogs even if no one is reading. There is a blog on almost anything, from photography, shoes, to journalists' scribbles, music and plenty of young people's madness. And if you drop somebody's blog a line, you will almost surely get a reply. I wonder if someday people will be called "bloggers" and "non bloggers," much like human beings who are not magicians are called "mugles" in Harry Potter.

Some people think that bloggers are people who only want to make the journals of their lives public, but I think they do it more for themselves, their self-expression, more than the desire to be read. If it is for their ego, they have a fine way of doing it, without bothering anyone. Unlike email which is a "push" method, the blog is a "pull" method because we don't receive unwanted information, or "push" our ideas on people. Instead, the reader who wants to read on a certain information, goes to someone's blog or searches for a particular topic, and gets the information she wants, or comments on the contents of the blog she opens. I have benefited from the expert opinion of bloggers when I wanted an opinion on which digital camera to buy, a canon or a sony 8 megapixel. I went to litratista.com, who visited my blog rbing.i.ph mainly because we have the same family name. Kim Guanzon lives in the U.S. and collects Russian cameras. He and his friends have great photos in his blog, and he writes short paragraphs about cameras.

Through litratista.com I found another blog, rockster.com, which contains photos taken by an amateur woman photographer who uses a digital camera. I wrote to her and asked for advice, and she replied that a Canon is better in digital cameras, and that I could get it cheaper in J. Luna St.

Many journalists have discovered blogging, and some lawyers are catching on. Because I write in two papers plus the projects I am involved in aside from my law practice, a journalist friend advised me to have a weblog. I started it in July, and I am happy I did. Now I have a "home" for my articles, papers (published and unpublished), and I get comments from friends and strangers on the articles I post. I have a gallery of pictures, including pets and their humans, and of my favorite project, the Gender Justice Awards. We are no longer limited by hard copies, or newspapers and magazines. The blogs are out there in the universe, every blogger a publisher, enjoying her or his freedom of speech. There is even the Out Source Media or www. osm.com, where you can read news and opinions. Also known as the pajamas media because the writers are in their pajamas, OSM is the alternative to newspapers.

For starters, click on pcij.org/blog and enjoy the bloggers' exchanges. Drop by my blog also at rbing.i.ph.*

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