High Tech Household

Blogs have exploded on the Internet in the last 10 years, covering a wide variety of topics.  They have ranged in scope from personal diaries to blogs such as this one that cater to a wider audience.  More recently, people have started using  blogs as a means of updating family and friends of an important life event.  These “event blogs” are being created to write about everything from the preparation for their wedding day to the difficult journey of a family member undergoing a serious illness.

These blogs differ from the wider-audience blogs in that they are catering to a select group of family and friends, and differ from personal diary blogs in that they are created to chronicle one specific event with long durations.  For example, we have a family friend who’s daughter spent a semester abroad in Europe, and she started a blog to post photos and details of her travels.  She was able to keep in touch with a wider circle of people than she would have been able to by individual emails and phone calls, and was able to circulate her photos and chronicle her travels across Europe in detail.

Creating your own event blog is easy.  There are many sites dedicated to personal blogging that can be used to start an event blog easily and without much effort.

• Blogger: Blogger is Google’s blogging platform.  It is very easy to set up and has many templates that can be set up to match the theme of your event blog.  The interface is straightforward, but it lacks some of the features that more advanced bloggers like.  For a limited time event blog for the novice blogger, it is the ideal platform.
• WordPress.com: WordPress is the premiere blogging platform for bloggers (High Tech Household uses a stand-alone WordPress blog).  Their hosted blog service, WordPress.com, is not quite as easy as Blogger, but still is quick to set up and fairly easy to use, and offers a higher range of features.
• TypePad: Typepad is a paid blogging service that offers more features than blogger and is very easy to use.  However, the price tag may not be worth it for an event-driven blog.
• LiveJournal: This free site run by TypePad is good for a quick down-and-dirty web journal without a lot of features.

There are also a few sites that specialize in event-type blogs for general or specific events:

• CaringBridge: This is a free site dedicated to people who are going through a difficult illness.  I have personally witnessed the power of this site.  It is very easy to use and really builds a small community of people providing support as family members chronicle their difficult journey through an illness and recovery.  More than any other type of event blog, I have seen the positive impact that this site has had on people’s lives, and how this type of event blog can be a source of strength for people who are facing a serious illness.
• The Knot: The premiere wedding site of the Internet allows brides to create their own blogs and chronicle their wedding preparations through their wedding day.
• MyEvent.com: A paid service that allows you to set up your own website and blog for many different types of life events, such as a class reunion, wedding, etc.

There are many more blogging sites and specialized event sites that allow blogs to be set up quickly and easily.  Event blogs are a good way to keep in touch, and chronicle both the exciting and the difficult times in life, keeping a close-knit community of family and friends in touch.  As creating your own blog is now easier to do than ever, it is an option that everyone should consider.