In my research on alternate forms of blogs, I came across an article from last year that struck me. It is written (sadly) on an AOL blog by a guy named Dan Harp.
Dan makes the correct observation that most bloggers blog about a small core of topics. He calls those “personal confession and strident political commentary”, but I think I’d expand that to tech as well. I mean, most blogs in Technorati have to do with Politics and Tech or are personal blogs, right?
Dan suggests some ideas for novel approaches to blogging – and I must say I’d love to see these kinds of blogs. They would be brilliant.
- A blog written by a fictional character about his/her fictional life.
- A blog by a real person about his/her travels in a fictional place.
- A blog of literary or arts reviews (by multiple authors).
- A “historical blog,” written from the point of view of a historical figure as if s/he were blogging in her/his own era, a sort of blog re-enactment; e.g., a Plimoth Plantation blog, a Civil War soldier’s blog, etc.
- A blogicization of Dante’s Inferno, or Defore’s Journal of a Plague Year, etc.
- Or best of all, something that’s just plain new and different.
The historical blog really strikes me. I’m an avid armchair historian, particularly World War II history. Can’t get enough of it. I imagine a blog written by a U.S. Army Private assigned to the 82nd Airborne dropping into Normandy or bunkered down in Bastogne. That would be captivating commentary.
