What's in a Name?

Since the beginning of class, I've been curious about what a blog is. I admit, I've never blogged before or visited blog websites so starting from the beginning seemed like a good idea. I've heard users decribe blogs as a personal diary yet others feel blogs and bloggers should be more journalistic in their approach. Recently, I stumbled upon a marketing definition for blogs from marketingterms.com:

blog

Definition

A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.

Information

A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people.

People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the publishing process.

Blogs are alternatively called web logs or weblogs. However, "blog" seems less likely to cause confusion, as "web log" can also mean a server's log files.

What are your thoughts? Are blogs for personal use or something more substantial?

Fundrace Anyone?

Last year's Presidential race was one of the most contentious in our history. I stumbled upon an interesting website called "fundrace.org." On the site, you can look up your friends, families and foes to determine if they donated money to the RNC, DNC or specific candidates as well as the level of their contribution. While it's interesting to look folks up, to what degree does this imepede your right to privacy?