Here Be Dragons: Tom Lucier on Blogging in Windsor

The Blog

"A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs. With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of media wherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something," (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog).

A blog, regardless of what Wikipedia or any other source labels it as, is as much the actual writer of it. It acts as a medium to publicly display desired content and is a tool to convince a reader to continue engaging in an online discussion on any desired topic.

Featured Blog: Here Be Dragons

Tom Lucier, a local bar owner and cultural philosopher first began his blog as a focus on civil rights and was more so interested in sharing and discussing local issues that he found important to him. The name "Here Be Dragons" was derived from a piece of metal work art Tom had seen at a relative's house with the same name. The phrase signifies "looking for answers/seeing what's behind the curtain", yet also on surface level it can be read as "you might not like some of the opinions in here, so tough shit". Not just a tool for promoting his bar Phog, Here Be Dragons supersedes it. The issues presented tie in closely with Tom's radio show Not in My Backyard on CJAM 91.5 FM and are focussed now on community building, sharing new ideas for the city, organization in the artistic community etc. Through writing for this blog, Tom has found that it has and is still changing the shape of how he runs and assesses his own business and local events.

Contents

Interview Videos With Tom

Tone

Community and Conversation

Going Digital

Ethos: "Beyond the Individual"

Spark Some Interest In Our City! Blogging as a Many-to-Many Medium

Editors

Amber Pinsonneault

Andrew MacLeod

Nicole Markham

Cristina Naccarato

Brandon Webb