Sideblog

Article summary

A sideblog is a feature on a website, particularly a blog, that allows one to communicate smaller snippets of information than an actual blog post. The reasoning is that a blog post will require thought, argument and some semantic structuring of the post, while a sideblog typically displays "brief asides". A sideblog is meant to illustrate your immediate thoughts, movements or status update, and is usually less than 200 characters. Where a blog post may be compared to a newspaper opinion piece, a sideblog would be akin to the "news in brief" column. Sideblogging is wedded to the concept of micro-blogging, where one posts brief snippets to interested observers via text messaging, instant messaging, email or the web. Using the same tools, one can post to one's micro-blog and to one's sideblog simultaneously. Most sideblogs are actually embedded micro-blogs that appear in a small sidebar box next to the main blog posts and use feeds or plugins to display the content. Frequently updating one's status and frame of mind in an online platform to be viewed by friends gained widespread adoption through social networking tools like Facebook and MySpace. While those tools are still largely desktop-bound, micro-blogs (and, by extension, sideblogs) are designed to be updated from mobile devices as well as desktop computers.…

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Discussion questions

1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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