Bamblog

Achtung - das Bamblog wird seit Mitte Oktober 2007 nicht mehr aktualisiert. Bitte besuchen Sie mein neues Weblog unter http://www.schmidtmitdete.de. Danke! - Please note that this blog is no longer active. You can find my new blog at http://www.schmidtmitdete.de. Thanks for visiting!

It took longer than I originally planned and wished for, but I finally came around to put together an english paper with some key results of my "Wie ich blogge?!" survey (background information). [Update] Being all enthusiastic about it, I forgot the abstract..

The diffusion of weblogs over the last years has led to a differentiation of blogging practices. This paper proposes a general analytical model to analyse and compare different uses of the weblog format. Its main argument is that individual usage episodes are framed by three structural dimensions of rules, relations and code, which in turn are constantly (re)produced in social action. As a result, “communities of blogging practices” emerge, that is groups of people who share certain routines and expectations about the use of Weblogs as a software tool for information-, identity- and relationship management. To illustrate these conceptual ideas, findings from a large-scale survey (N=5.246) of the german-speaking blogosphere are presented, focussing on sociodemographic characteristics and motivations of active bloggers as well as on strategies of presenting oneself, dealing with social relationships and using the blogosphere as a source of information. These are found to be partly dependent on bloggers’ age, partly on the experience with the Weblog format. In general, the majority of bloggers uses them to journal episodes and events of their private life, while keeping contact with other readers and authors through comments and (to a lesser extent) a blogroll.
[slightly updated the abstract on 4/4/06]

It is a first draft, based on a presentation I just held at the GOR 2006 conference, and I’m planning to submit it to a journal. So I’m really looking forward to getting your feedback on my thoughts, line of reasoning and on language. Oh, and since I’d like to get to know those who are interested in the topic, please send me a mail (jan.schmidt [at] split.uni-bamberg.de) if you want a copy of the .pdf…

[Update] Philipp Young commented on some of my findings over at his "mediations"-Blog. Somehow his trackback wouldn’t be displayed at my blog, so I’m adding this reference manually.