Mobile blogging (also known as mobloggingIto, M. (2002) 'Mobiles and the appropriation of place', receiver magazine, 8, www.receiver.vodafone.com) is a method of publishing to a website or

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

from a

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

or other handheld device. A moblog helps habitual

gers to post write-ups directly from their phones even when on the move. Mobile blogging has been made possible by

technological convergence Technological convergence is the tendency for technologies that were originally unrelated to become more closely integrated and even unified as they develop and advance. For example, watches, telephones, television, computers, and social media p ...

, as bloggers have been able to write, record and upload different media all from a single, mobile device. At the height of its growth in 2006, mobile blogging experienced 70,000 blog creations a day and 29,100 blog posts an hour. Between 2006 and 2010, blogging among teens declined from 28% to 14%, while blogging among adults over 30 increased from 7% to 11%. However, the growing number of multi-platform blogging apps has increased mobile blogging popularity in recent years creating a brand new market that many celebrities, regular bloggers and specialists are utilizing to widen their social reach. Mobile blogging is popular among people with

camera phone A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with color cam ...

s which allow them to

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

MMS MMS may refer to: Science and technology Network communication protocols * Multimedia Messaging Service for mobile phones * Microsoft Media Server, a content-streaming protocol (mms://) * Manufacturing Message Specification for real time proces ...

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

photos and video that then appear as entries on a web site, or to use mobile browsers to publish content directly to any blogging platform with Mobile Posting compatibility. As the ability of camera phone users to publish their own blogs has increased, so too has the ability for collective submissions. Users are now able to access the posts of other bloggers in the immediate area through a process called Georeferential Blogging; which utilizes geographical location to collectively group blogging activity. This advancement unites the posts of local bloggers in an effort to increase the relevancy of information to those in the area.

History

One of the precursors to a "moblog" was the development of a wearable photographic device by Steve Mann of the University of Toronto. Termed "domewear," the intention was for human rights workers to wear the devices to take photographic and video evidence of dangerous situations while avoiding being targeted for using traditional cameras. The first recorded example of moblogging was on 1995 February 22, when Steve Mann posted text from his wearable mobile computer to his weblog server, together with video (image sequence).Ito, J. (2003) 'Moblogging, Blogmapping and Moblogmapping related resources', http://joiwiki.ito.com/joiwiki/index.cgi?moblog (accessed 9 January 2006). The term moblogging, however, wasn't coined until 2002, by Adam Greenfield. Mobile devices have expanded beyond basic communication and now these devices can support multimedia creation tools.

Design

The mobile blogging system has its origins in a technology-inspired design approach. This approach incorporates the rich feature set of a smartphone, including the ability to create multimedia, capturing decent images, and connectivity options. The intersection between the inherent design functions of the phone with the ongoing, personal nature of both a phone and a blog is how the concept of mobile blogging began. In the case study of SmartBlog, a system created to support mobile blogging, key principles were developed after assessing bloggers' needs. These include: * Mobile client must not interfere with phone functionality * Mobile blogging should integrate easily with existing blogs * Client device needs to utilize the multimedia capabilities of a phone and be very easy to use * Client should allow for management activities, such as editing and deleting * Client should use cheap connectivity if available * Client must cope with broken connectivity transparently The client, in this instance, refers to a

Thin client In computer networking, a thin client is a simple (low-performance) computer that has been optimized for establishing a remote connection with a server-based computing environment. They are sometimes known as ''network computers'', or in th ...

Advantages

A ''moblog'' platform offers the capability to use a phone for administration, editing and writing from a

phone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into ele ...

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

browser. There are services and platforms which present different versions of a blog administration interface based on user agent. Mobile blogging also promotes the dissemination of ideas and perspectives of younger people, who previously have not had as many easily accessible platforms to present their views.

Educational use

The continued integration of Mobile Blogging into areas of education has revealed many of its advantages. Its benefits affect both students and teachers, and have improved the overall educational experience. For students, it allows them to stay up-to-date with class schedules, access materials, and it inspires a more creative dimension with the inclusion of visual and audible materials in their work environment. For teachers, mobile blogging has allowed further monitoring of students’ progress and participation. Mobile blogging can be used alongside

computer-supported collaborative learning Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is a pedagogical approach wherein learning takes place via social interaction using a computer or through the Internet. This kind of learning is characterized by the sharing and construction of kno ...

in the classroom. This provides a positive and encouraging learning environment for students, especially students in a virtual classroom. Working collaboratively with mobile blogging can provide more authentic context learning and can help solve the coordination issue that often arises from working in a collaborative learning environment.

Tourism

Mobile blogging is particularly helpful to

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...

s and travelers when access to a computer with

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

connection may be difficult. The traveller can snap photos and with a

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Insti ...

or a

WAP WAP or Wap may refer to: Music * "WAP" (song), a 2020 song by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion Organizations * Weatherization Assistance Program, for US energy costs * Western Australia Party, a political party founded in 2016 * Western A ...

-enabled phone can easily upload such pictures with text descriptions directly to his or her

. If the camera phone is equipped for

Autogeotagging Real-time geotagging refers to the automatic technique of acquiring media (such as photos, audio or video), associating a specific location with the media, transferring the media to an online map and publishing the media in real time. It is thus a ...

, the blog may be able to show a map of the locations.

Challenges

One of the most significant challenges to mobile blogging is lack of access to both mobile devices and internet connections. While mobile blogging encourages production and spread of information to seemingly limitless people, it must be understood in regards to the advantages and disadvantages of

socioeconomic status Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's economic access to resources and social position in relation to others. When analyzing a family's ...

and geographical location.

Data Costs

One of the most substantial and relevant challenges to having a mobile blogging network is the costs involved. Western countries face relatively cheap costs in terms of data plans and expenditures related to mobile devices, yet in most places around the world, these costs are very substantial and restrictive. When the costs are too high, mobile blogging and its benefits become irrelevant.

Platforms

Popular platforms (free)

Blogger A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

Weebly Weebly () is a web hosting service, headquartered in San Francisco. Weebly is a subsidiary of Block, Inc. History Weebly was founded in 2006 by Chief Executive Officer David Rusenko, Chief Technology Officer Chris Fanini, and former Chief Prod ...

WordPress WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...

Popular platforms (paid)

Squarespace Squarespace, Inc. is an American website building and hosting company which is based in New York City, USA. It provides software as a service for website building and hosting, and allows users to use pre-built website templates and drag-and-drop ...

TypePad Typepad is a blogging service owned by Endurance International Group, previously owned by SAY Media (from the merger of Six Apart Ltd and VideoEgg). Originally launched in October 2003, Typepad is based on Six Apart's Movable Type platform, and ...

References

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