About weblogs

What is a weblog?

A weblog (or blog for short) is an easily, instantly and frequently updated website focused around a topic, industry or personality. (Via Easy Bake Weblogs)

A weblog consists of dated entries (called posts) posted directly by their authors. They are sorted in chronological order, with the most recent at the top.

New entries are added with an online form and they are published immediately online – without having to know web design, or computer programming.

Weblogs’ entries can be organised by their date of publication or category so they are easily searchable and indexed. Any type of content is possible, such as text, graphics, multimedia and other types of documents like spreadsheets and presentations.

A KEY ADVANTAGE OF A BLOG IS THAT IT MEANS THAT others can add their own comments in response to any posting. They can even link to their own blogs and websites or suggest other online resources. MOREOVER, blogs also have special features which make it easier for people to track and keep up to date with postings on the blog (see RSS feed below). Over time, these links create an ever-growing network of connections and know-how that can help test-drive new products and ideas and reach out to customers, partners or colleagues.

Through the use of blogging technology, the IP Watch website thus makes it possible that any reader interested in informed, constructive discussion about IP policy can offer feedback and comments on IP Watch stories and articles.

What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format designed to allow content syndication. In other words, the sharing of information between weblogs or websites. An RSS feed provides headlines, brief descriptions and links to the original material in a standard format, which RSS readers (also called aggregators) can read and display. So why is it important? It is used by millions of people and organisations to extend the reach of their material and/or to monitor more easily numerous sources of information on the web.

The aggregator will automatically and rapidly download and collect the content of selected weblogs/websites and display it in a nice, readable way, on one single interface.

Try it out and choose your aggregator! Lists are available on these sites:

• http://allrss.com/rssreaders.html
• http://channels.lockergnome.com/rss/resources/

Then you can simply copy and paste the IP Watch RSS feed, http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-rss2.php, into your aggregator and follow-up real time on all our news and articles!