The Foreign Service Journal, November 2009

T hinking of starting a blog? Here are some tips on how to make your contribution to the FS blogosphere. The prospective blogger first needs to decide which tem- plate to use to create the site. An experienced Webhand may attempt to purchase his or her own domain, but there is little point in that given all of the free and easy al- ternatives. Some basic options in- clude ever-popular www.blogspot. com, as well as www.livejournal. com, www.wordpress.com and the more professionally-oriented www. typepad.com . Of all the current options, the author recommends Google’s Blogger (www.blogger. com) and the creation of a Google ac- count. Google Blogger’s interface al- lows for an excellent tagging and archiving system for an easy-to-use- and-search site. Access to a Google account also offers users the ability to upload documents, audio, video, pictures, etc. and link them to their blog, cutting down on the time it takes to manage multiple accounts for different types of hosting. If one chooses not to go this route, there are several other free, reliable multimedia hosting sites available, including Flicker (www.flicker.com ) and DeviantArt (www.deviantart.com ). The concerned professional photographer, who seek to ensure rights to a photograph, should consider a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License, available at http://creativecommons.org/li- censes/by-sa/2.5/, to protect and track their content. Another advantage of a Google account is the availability of multi- ple applications like site meters, which track visitors to one’s blog, calendars, interactive maps and an ever-expanding host of peripheral programs to enhance the blogging experience. As with pictures, though, other free resources are available. Even for site meters, there are several free sites offering variations on the stan- dard count. Site Meter (www.sitemeter.com/) , Stat Counter (www.statcounter.com/) and Web Stats (www.webstats. motigo.com/ ) simply track readership, but ClustrMaps (www.clustrmaps.com/ ) can count both track the number of visitors and display their locations on a small map for all visitors to see. Most sites also offer privacy op- tions. These usually center on pass- word protection, meaning that no visitors may view the blog unless they send a request for access by e- mail to the blog’s author. The author then issues the requestor a pass- word that gives access. Many blogs have moved to in- corporate varied forms and levels of privacy, such as using locking for certain pictures, documents or other links, or using separate passwords for different parts of the blog. This type of privacy protection is some- what rare, however, and is not part of most FS blog templates. It used to be common practice to include a disclaimer on FS blogs declaring that the views expressed are those of the author only and do not represent the views of the Foreign Service, the Department of State, the U.S. government or any other entity. Based on our sample, use of a disclaimer is no longer so prevalent. However, any blog taking a critical stance or making neg- ative comments about the Foreign Service should consider using a dis- claimer. The language may be something as simple as the above example; but many bloggers resort to cynical or humorous disclaimers. Finally, if one seeks a wide au- dience, it is a good idea to plug into the FS blogging community. List- ing links on the side of the page to other FS blogs will usually gain the blog recognition within the circle and, hopefully, help to boost visitor numbers. — Mark Hay, Editorial Intern 46 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 9 The Basics of Blogging Any blog taking a critical stance or making negative comments about the Foreign Service should consider using a disclaimer. Google Blogger, at www.blogger.com , has many advantages for the beginner.