This is the UK Web Focus blog, written by Brian Kelly, UKOLN. UKOLN is a national centre of expertise in digital information management, based at the University of Bath. UKOLN is funded by the JISC.
Writing Conventions For This Blog
Posted by Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) on 8 January 2007
Is this a Blog or a blog? Am I Blogging or blogging? And is the question “Wiki or wiki?” rather than “Wiki or won’t he?”? After over two months of blogging it’s time for me to start to document policies relating to this blog.
From now on I’ll use the lower case version of the word blog: I’m a blogger who blogs on the UK Web Focus blog (and I’ll avoid the Weblog word which hasn’t really caught on).
The title of blog posting will normally be capitalised (for example see the recent The TASI Blog posting). As WordPress converts uppers case words into lower case – such as http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/the-tasi-blog/ – this avoids URIs having mixed case).
Similarly I’ll use wiki in lower case – e.g. I use the MediaWiki wiki software. I’ll probably avoid using the word in other forms (so although I may be a blogger who blogs at events, I’m not a wikier who will wiki at an event!)
On the subject of writing conventions I always try to ensure that hyperlinked phrases make it clear what is being linked to. For example I would write “I helped to establish the website-info-mgt JISCMail list. A recent posting on the list talked about the First Company Law Amendment Directive.” – the former link goes to the home page of the website-info-mgt JISCMail archive while the latter links directly to the relevant posting (or thread, if I wanted to include a group of postings).
AJ Cann said
Quite right too!, not proper nouns! (Unlike Wikipedia and Blogger, which are).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun
Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) said
I should add that I still write “Web” and “World Wide Web”. I’ve been doing that for about 14 years so that habit is too ingrained (just like I try and use apostrophes correctly in text messages!).
Pete Johnston said
Isn’t the proper name of the weblogging (Heh! Spot the refusenik!) system you use “WordPress” not “WordPress”? ;-)
Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) said
Hi Pete
I stand correct – I should have said “WordPress”. I will use vendors’ form of capitalisation (e.g. dBase, MediaWiki, etc.)
James Brown said
With regard to making it clear what is being linked to, is this personal preference or adherence to web standards?
Or even Search Engine Optimisation?!
Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) said
Hi James
Yes, I’m simply stating that I’ll be using well-established best practices. Although such best practices are known by many long-standing HTML authors, I’m finding that the ease of use of blogging can mean that bloggers aren’t necessarily aware of such best practices.
There’s also an issue as to whether one tries to write naturally and then applies links, or one writes in a way which makes the destination of the link clear from the writing.
sylvie steward said
Hey Brian
I heard a few weeks ago that UKOLN is thinking about organising a workshop, exploring the The potential of blogs. Is this/has happened yet?
Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) said
Hi Sylvie – we were finalising the workshop when we found that the date clashed with the UCISA Management Conference. So we’ve deferred it (probably until the autumn). We do hope to do something on blogs at the IWMW 2007 event in York on 16-18 July. Sorry for the confusion – I should have announced this