Blogging is often seen as a new form of journalism, an online diary or a democratising medium which potentially gives every citizen a voice. However, what can we say about blogging and the blogosphere if we look at blogs from within the medium? In other words, what is blogging when we look at the software blogs are made with?

Anne Helmond graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a study on WordPress, the leading blog software. This research focuses on how blog software and search engines arose at the same time (1999) and have since established a tight relationship. What does this mean for bloggers, blogs and the blogosphere if we look beyond search engine optimization?

Anne Helmond – The blog as database from Vileo on Vimeo. (Thanks Vileo for the video!)

My slides are available in a previous post: “Slides from my presentation at the first WordCampNL.”

Yesterday I attended the first ever WordCampNL where I gave a talk about “The blog as database. Blogging and the blogosphere through the eyes of software and search engines.” I talked about how research can tell us something about current blogging culture through three concepts:

1. Freshness Fetish (an internal wish to update, the consensus within the blogosphere to blog daily and the external force of the search engines that rank their content according to freshness)
2. Software-Engine relations (the role of the search engines in indexing, shaping and constructing our blogosphere and blogging behavior)
3. Template Culture (how the software also defines the aesthetics of blogging and the rise of the ‘widgetized self’ – see a previous post on The widgetized self and the modding user in the blogosphere

The talk was also recorded for WordPress.TV and I will keep you posted when the video material is online. [Update: Video now available]

The first Dutch edition of WordPress was a great success thanks to the organizers. I also got a chance to meet my ex-colleague of the Blog Herald and long time blogging inspiration Lorelle VanFossen and successful blogger Liz Strauss.

On top of that I was actually able to help some people with some WordPress questions. Loved it!

Photo by Daphne Channa Horn (whose blog I built ;)

Madbello from about:blank posted a small video preview of WordCampNL

I will be speaking (in English) at the first WordCampNL edition in Utrecht on 31 October 2009. I will be presenting my research on Blogging for Engines filled with updates and practical implications for bloggers. Please join us if you’re interested in blogging/WordPress and I hope to see you there!

Summary:
Blogging is often seen as a new form of journalism, an online diary or a democratising medium which potentially gives every citizen a voice. However, what can we say about blogging and the blogosphere if we look at blogs from within the medium? In other words, what is blogging when we look at the software blogs are made with?

Anne Helmond graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a study on WordPress, the leading blog software. This research focuses on how blog software and search engines arose at the same time (1999) and have since established a tight relationship. What does this mean for bloggers, blogs and the blogosphere if we look beyond search engine optimization?