What the heck is a blog and why do I need one?

Recently I sent an email to my father telling him I had posted some pictures on my personal "blog". This was his response: Hey Kid, I was just sitting here musing as to what the heck a blog is. It sounds like it could be terminal - as in "Well Mr. Huber, we've verified that your daughter has a confirmed case of the South African BLOG and as yet there is no cure". Please enlighten me as to the nature of this condition. I'll work on a cure. Love, Dad After laughing for about 20 minutes straight I decided to look up what the definition of blog was so that I could reassure my Dad that I was not terminally ill. Here's what I found: Blog: An online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log. (courtesy http://www.dictionary.com) A web-based publication of periodic articles (posts), usually presented in reverse chronological order. It is an online journal with one or many contributors. (courtesy http://www.wikipedia.org/) Weblog: a personal Web site that provides updated headlines and news articles of other sites that are of interest to the user, also may include journal entries, commentaries and recommendations compiled by the user; also written web log, Weblog; also called blog. (courtesy http://www.dictionary.com) What is a blog good for? For genealogists, weblogs are good for many things. First of all they're generally free. Also whereas you have to have some sort of an eye for design for creating a personal web space, blog sites generally have very attractive templates to choose from and they are easy to set up. Probably the most popular place for starting your own weblog is at Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/start). It's completely free and very easy to set up. Some examples of genealogy related blogs: http://vitalrecordssearch.blogspot.com/ http://dearmyrtle.blogspot.com/ http://www.genhelp.org/ Another blog site used for more professional weblogs is TypePad (http://www.typepad.com). It's free for the first 30 days and ranges in price starting from $4.95 per month. Example: http://eogn.typepad.com/ Why should you start a blog? A blog is a good place to keep track of your research. For example, if somewhere down the line you have a question such as "Where was I when I found that article about great-grandfather George's train accident?" you can just pull up your trusty blog and you'll see that you were at the Philadelphia main public library that day. In addition, if you wish to share research with your family members, just send them the link to your weblog. If they have a tidbit to give you in return, they can comment on an entry with the click of a button. If that weren't enough, having a weblog means all your research is located in one safe place. No shuffling through papers or wondering if the dog chewed up your hastily sketched notes about your maternal grandmother's great-grandparents which were last seen on top of a pile of mail on the kitchen table. Finally, if you do start a personal family history weblog that you'd like to share, email us at deadfred and let us know (archivists@deadfred.com). We're hoping to start a comprehensive list to aid all genealogy researchers find the information they're looking for. Now that you are armed with a web-savvy knowledge of blogs, go out and impress your friends (and your children) by creating one for yourself. Just be sure to tell them there is no need to search for a cure.