Blog (Weblog)

A blog, from web log or weblog, is a kind of journal online. Typically a blog is written by an individual or maintained by a group or organisation. It includes dated entries on one or more topics. Blogs can be personal, journalistic, commercial, or informative in whatever way the creator of the blog decides.

1. African blogging

There are an increasing number of blogs by Africans and people in Africa. See for instance:

• Global Voices. "Global Voices Online is a non-profit global citizens" media project founded at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research think-tank focused on the Internet's impact on society." http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/
• BlogAfrica. "BlogAfrica is intended as a collection of weblogs by Africans, both living on the continent and in the diaspora, and of non-Africans writing about Africa." (Apparently it will be merged with Global Voices later.) http://www.blogafrica.com/
• Afrigator. An aggregator for blogs from and about Africa. http://afrigator.com
• RSS feeds for the above, at the end of this page.

2. Blogging in African languages

There are an increasing number of blogs in African languages. [list is being built]

• Hausa
  • Bahaushe Mai Ban Haushi! http://www.ibrahim-sheme.blogspot.com/
  • Sha'irai (Hausa Poets) http://www.shairai.blogspot.com/
• Swahili
  • Jikomboe http://www.jikomboe.com/
  • Simon-Kitururu Mawazoni http://simon-kitururu.blogspot.com/
  • Utakapojua Hujui Ndipo Utakapojua http://ngurumo.blogspot.com/

Global Voices has a translation project "Lingua" with interfaces in (as of 2008-1-30):

• Arabic - http://ar.globalvoicesonline.org/
• Malagasy - http://mg.globalvoicesonline.org/

3. Links

3.1 Resources

• Blogging sites. There are a number of sites that allow you to set up a blog without having to have your own site. These typically have templates and other features to make it easy to set up and maintain. Some are free, some for pay. [Need info on how friendly these are for extended-Latin and non-Latin scripts.] A general list is at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_software#Developer-hosted
  • Free. Some examples:
    • Blogger/Blogspot http://www.blogger.com
    • Wordpress http://wordpress.com/
    • [more]
  • For pay. Some examples:
    • Typepad http://www.typepad.com/
• Blogging software. For people who have a website, there is free software to enable them to set up a blog on their site. For more information, see:
  • "Blog Software Breakdown" (side-by-side comparisons) http://asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm
  • Wikipedia list of blogging software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_software#Examples

3.2 References

MarketingTerms.com, "Blog (Weblog)," http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/blog/

Wikipedia, "Blog," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

______, "Blog," http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

______, "Weblog," http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblog

4. RSS feeds from aggregators

4.1 BlogAfrica

4.2 Global Voices: Sub-Saharan Africa

4.3 Global Voices: Middle East & North Africa

4.4 Afrigator