Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Blog Software Comparison Chart

Are you interested in starting a blog but don't know which service or software to use? First, decide which features are important to you. Then look at the new side-by-side comparison chart at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/images/blog_software_comparison.cfm

Read This Newsletter on your iPod

That's right, you can read this newsletter and other RSS feeds on your music iPod! You will need Macintosh OSX 10.4, Tiger, or OSX 10.3.9 Panther running on an iPod, iPod mini, or iPod Nano with Notes facility, plus the free program iFeedPod.

 

iFeedPod is available at http://www.carnglas.com

 

 

Blogs Explained

NOTE: This is an updated version of an article that I wrote about a year ago. The popularity of blogs has mushroomed since this article first appeared. I have added numerous updates to the original article.

The word "blog" sounds like one of those "techie words" that describes some black magic understood only by programmers, systems analysts, and others who regularly invoke incantations not understood by mere mortals. In fact, blogs are actually very simple, perhaps even simpler than the Web page or e-mail message that you are now viewing at this moment. You can read blogs easily, even without a technical understanding of the underlying technology. In fact, if you are reading this article on the web right now, you are already using a blog, perhaps without realizing it. The purpose of this article is to help de-mystify the word "blog" and to explain how you can use the benefits of blogs.

Gendatablog

Genealogy blogs are popping up everywhere. I was delighted to see a new one today, started by an expert genealogist and an old friend.

Gendatablog by Sara Leslie Griffith promises to be a "how to" blog along with reviews of various computer programs. Quoting from the first article posted:

Top Ten Genealogy Websites of 2050

I fell off my chair laughing after reading this list. Christopher Dunham has a way with words. Take a look at his blog.

New Genealogical Society Blog

Blogs, or "web logs," are appearing everywhere these days. Blogs are great at distributing frequently updated information to a wide audience. Blogs can be read in a standard web browser, or even more easily in a specialized newsreader designed just for the purpose. Newspapers, weather forecasts, stock market information and this newsletter are all available as blogs. Now Colleen Robledo has created a new blog that should be of interest to many genealogists.

Announcing DavidLambertBlog.com

The NERGC conference in Portland, Maine hasn't even started yet and already announcements about new products and services are appearing. Here is an announcement from the New England Historic Genealogical Society, followed by some of my own comments:

Announcing DavidLambertBlog.com, genealogical thoughts from the NEHGS Online Genealogist

GenealogyBlog.com is (Temporarily) Offline

Leland Meitzler, the owner of Heritage Creations, publishes a very popular web log (blog) called GenealogyBlog.com. That site has been offline for several days. Apparently Leland is home recovering from some minor surgery that is keeping him away from the keyboard.

CousinConnect Adds RSS Feeds

CousinConnect.com is the latest genealogy site to add RSS news feeds. I suspect you will see many more sites adding RSS during 2005. Here is the announcement from CousinConnect.com:

People of the Year: Bloggers

Blog was an almost unknown term one year ago. Now it is one of the fastest growing technical improvements on the Internet. This newsletter converted to a blog format in May, 2004. Several other genealogy publications and databases are also now available as blog news feeds. Now ABC News has named the authors of blogs as "People of the Year."