Types, methods to build and structure of blogging communities

To define what is a blogging community, we must first look at what is an online community. As explained by Nancy White (Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community? 2006), an online community is a community that relies on online interaction within some bounded set of technologies. During the early mass acceptance of the internet technology, these online communities interacted via bulletin board systems, forums and even as simple as emails. The rapid advent of blogs has instantly caused peo

ple to adopt it as a more personalized vessel to convey their thoughts better than bulletin boards or forums. It is safe to say that the blogging community evolved from the earlier online community.

White (Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community? 2006) also stated that it is the use of Web 2.0 tools such as RSS, permalink, tagging which allowed bloggers to comment on each others blogs are largely responsible in the creation process of a blogging community. These tools are used as a native communication tool for bloggers amongst one another which allowed community-like interactions.

According to White (Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community? 2006), there are 3 basic types of blogging communities that can be easily understood by observing the diagrams below. They are:

(Source: Tihane 2006)

1. Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community (Involves not only the blogger but also the community of commentors)

(Source: Tihane 2006)

2. Central Connecting Topic Community (A community that arises between blogs linked by a common passion)

(Source: Tihane 2006)

3. Boundaried Communities (Collection of blogs and blog readers hosted on a single site or platform)

If we take a look the structure of Nuffnang, it's interesting that White (Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community? 2006) mentioned about hybrid types. Nuffnang is Asia's first and leading advertising community that provides a platform that allows advertisers to place their adverts on almost all blogs hosted on an array of platforms. This type of blogging community is very closely linked to that of the Central Connecting Topic Community where everyone is bounded by a common passion.

References:

1. Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community?, podcast radio programme, September 2006, Australian Flexible Learning Framework, retrieved 11 April 2010, from http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community.

2. 3 blog community paradigms, 24 December 2006, Taming the spaces blog, online, retrieved 11 April 2010, from http://tihane.wordpress.com/2006/12/24/3-blog-community-paradigms/

3. nuffnang - About Us, online, retrieved 11 April 2010, from http://www.nuffnang.com.my/about-us/