A daily routine for Captain Kirk (and those who followed him) in Star Trek was to record his ‘Captain’s log’, and now millions of internet users across the globe are doing the same with weblogs, or blogs for short.

A growing number (currently more than 25 million and growing at 75,000 a day, according to some reports) of individuals as well as organisations are logging online diary entries and newsworthy information, or exposing scandals.

Some experts view blogs as an alternative to conventional journalism or as a complementary resource to newspapers or magazines.

PCW's daily blog, The Test Bed, keeps readers up to date with what's happening in the labs with links to a Performance section of test results, new reviews going online and related news snippets. It's also a way of expressing opinions not possible elsewhere in the title.

Papers such as the Daily Telegraph have started using blogs for correspondents to post less formal background reports.

A mouthpiece for democracy
In less liberal countries, blogs can also support the free development and exchange of opinions.

The organisation Reporters Without Borders praised the weblog of Sohran Kabul from Afghanistan for its openness.

Meanwhile in China, according to the government website, there were already 16 million blogs at the end of 2005, set to reach 100 million by next year. However, the site does not say how many of these blogs operate without state censorship.

Interestingly, blog sites can attract many visitors from all over the world and can make as much as £1,500 per month from banner advertising. Of course, most blogging is done for fun rather than profit, and if just a few friends or family visit the site, that’s fine.

You don’t need to be a prize-winning journalist or a computer specialist to have your own blog: using our own free VNUnet Blogs service (powered by Typepad), you can create a personal blog easily.

Other providers of free weblogs include Google’s Blogger and Livejournal.

Some services (VNUnet Blogs included) offer the entry-level blog package for free, but charge for higher levels that offer more features and facilities, such as multiple blogs, multiple users and custom templates.

Alternatively, you can run your own blog server and manage the contents using your own publishing software. The best-known of these content management systems are Wordpress and Movable Type.