Blogging: A Blog is a short hand for web log. A web log is simply a diary of events and opinions recorded by somebody on the web. Special software programmes and services allow people to set up Blogs very easily: www.wordpress.com, www.blogger.com and www.typepad.com are three examples. Some charge a blogger (the person writing the blog) a monthly fee for using the software and for hosting the blog.
Medlogs
There are about 300 med logs at the moment. These are web logs written by doctors and other healthcare professionals. Most originate in the US. Experts at the American Cancer Society believe they will become a common way for specialists to communicate with patients. Most are aggregated each day at www.medlogs.com
Phoneblogs
A new class of blog software is just appearing on the market. Many blog hosts allow a blogger to update via e-mail. Increasingly it is possible to update from a mobile phone, and there are now foneblogs, blogs that are more image orientated and can be updated from video phones.
Podcasting
The Apple iPod is the most popular form of new audio "record and play" devices. MP 3 players use a special technique to compress digital sound into a small space and then to decompress and play the sound. That compression technique makes them capable of storing vast amounts of sound.
They allow people who have any kind of recording equipment to create short "radio" programmes that they can put on the web, as an audio blog. Researchers see them as ways of making cheap and cheerful health information widely available in a form that is convenient, especially to younger people. Podcasts download automatically so you don't have to remember to be at your computer at a particular time.
Social Network Media
Today's web sites and web programmes, those such as http://del.icio.us just coming to market, are known as Social Network Media. All three elements of that name are important. By social we mean that the software encourages people to communicate and link with each other.
By network we mean that people create social networks on the Internet. And by Media we mean they communicate through any type of medium - text as on weblogs and WiKi (sites built by their readers and viewers), audio as in podcasting, or video, videocasting will be with us soon.