One of the things that I’ve noticed about blogging is that many different types of writing seem to have emerged as millions of people have begun to participate in this social practice. It seems to me that the initial wave of bloggers may have set a tone, but have certainly not defined blogging once and for all by any means. As we look around the internet, it is easy to find examples of various kinds of blogs that people have started.

The question, “What is a Blog?” has been addressed by many others. My question, “What could a blog be?” is a question that can never be completely answered. When we look at blogging as a phenomenon, we see that the form has certain conventions that make weblogs recognizable as blogs. These conventions are more a matter of form than substance. Categorizing blogs according to content is difficult. I’ve tried to impose some order on these unruly websites with my del.icio.us account, but have largely been unsatisfied that I’ve really accomplished much with my tagging habits.

John Evans recently developed a scheme for categorizing blogs by looking at the motivation of the blogger. This provides a useful distinction between different types of blogs without regard for specific content. In many ways, this is a more useful method for understanding blogging as a discourse, since it focuses on the intentions of the blogger and provides some context for the reasoning behind the existence of the weblog and the point of view of the author. Evans identifies 3 different types of bloggers. In a post called Are There 3 Blogospheres?, John identified 3 different types of blogs. Rather than differentiate them according specific content, he looked at audience as the primary identifier.

This is a powerful analytical perspective. Motivation is key to understanding any media message, and if the media values of what he called the “Tertiary Blogosphere” are as diverse as the population that is using blogs as a publishing platform, large media is bound to be left in the wake of every cultural trend because monolithic corporate structures can never react as quickly as independent entities.

Perhaps coincidentally, Duncan Riley at the Blog Herald posts The Demise of the Geek Bloggers in which he looks at blogs from a cultural standpoint and sees them going through periodic generational transformations. Without regard for whether the geek blogs are, in fact, in decline it’s interesting to note that his post differentiates blog types according to something other than content, as well.

How can this analytical perspective inform us about participating in literate web communities? Genre studies are an important way of gaining access to any body of knowledge. When we understand the conventions and purposes of any expressive media, we can begin to use that media for our own, perhaps novel, creative purposes. One of my primary interests as a teacher these days is to prepare students to participate in emergent literacies. I see these understandings as crucial to my educational practice in which the definition of literacy has been expanded to include any interpretive act.