Lao Voices

I’ve to admit that I first heard of the term blog on the old Laoplanet forum back in beginning of last year, where members were debating the pros and cons of blogging, in a thread discussion of ‘to blog or not to blog’, and while I was reading it, I’ve never thought that I’d become a blogger myself. I guess you’d say that back then, I was a bit ignorant about the World Wide Web, still somewhat am in certain area, but a bit wiser in others’. There’re still many people out there that don’t know what a blog is, some even asked me if it’s a chat room. I once read a blogger describing that ‘her friends thought that she was up late at night ‘blogging’, meaning that she was doing something dirty on the Internet.’, I think people just assume the worst. The concept of blogging might be new to some of us, but I think it’s evolving to something positive; it’s definitely not a waste of time for blogger to update their blog, it’s actually an incentive to do so more often knowing that you’ve an audience.

LP member once made a comment at my blog, and the person said,

‘So, Laoplanet is turning into a multiple author blog? It’s a bit confusing but I like change, I will enjoy it. What is going to happen to the forum? Maybe I’m not up to date in the new Internet fad, but is the multiple-author blog a new fashion?…’

I think it’s a big change for Laoplanet, and we are moving away from web forum basis that started in the early 90s, which in my humble opinion is loosing it’s popularity, mainly because the newer threads are replacing the older threads, and eventually the older ones get archived and never to be found. A blog entry on the other hand stands alone, and can be retrieved at anytime, and blogging has becoming a new median of communication, from web log or online diary to blog as we all known today. You can read more about blog here.

Blog creates an instant publishing; it provides commentary, news, or any subjects of interest to you. What I like best about communicating in the form of blogging is that I can share my ideas from my perspective, instead of stashing it away in my computer or notebook, then get instant feedbacks from my readers, which can be positive or negative, for some that are not ready for people to criticize your writing or ideas, then your post should be ‘closed for comment’ because by leaving it open, no telling what types of comment you might be getting. I think one of the attractions about a blog is that a blog mainly gives readers the ability to leave comments, to interact with the author and other readers; it also brings the world a lot closer.

I recently heard the term Blook, and came across an article in businessweek.com, and surprising to learn that blog entries can turn into a book, which is known as a Blook. I think this is something to considering for those that are serious blogger, according to the article, many aspiring writers are starting out as blogger, and publishers are taking note. One never know, maybe someday Laoplanet might have a Blook of her own, no telling what the future will hold. As for now, I’m just happy to be able to blog here, and many thanks to Laoplanet readers.