Moblog is a blend of the words mobile and weblog. A mobile weblog, or Moblog, consists of content posted to the Internet from a mobile or portable device, such as a cellular phone or PDA. Moblogs generally involve technology which allows publishing from a mobile device.
Much of the earliest development of Moblogs occurred in Japan, among the first countries in the world where camera phones (portable phones with built-in cameras) were widely commercially available.
According to
Joi Ito's History of Moblogs, the first post to the web from a mobile user was from Steve Mann in 1995. He used a wearable computer, a more elaborate predecessor to modern Moblogging devices. The first post to the Internet from an ordinary mobile device is believed to be by Tom Vilmer Paamand in Denmark in May 2000.
The term "Moblogging" itself was coined by
Adam Greenfield to describe the practice in 2002. He went on to organise the First International Moblogging Conference (or 1IMC) in July 2003 in Tokyo, with the help of Paul Baron, Gen Kanai, Carsten Schwesig and Steve Graff. Less known about is the First International Love Hotel Moblogging Conference that took place a day before the real 1IMC event.
The term is sometimes pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable - MOBlog - out of affinity with the ideas about social self-organization developed in
Howard Rheingold's "Smart Mobs".
Weblogs made from portable devices are also sometimes known as cyborgLogs, abbreviated as 'glogs, especially when primarily image-based.
Illicit and taboo activities have proven popularity in some early Moblog experiments, while family-oriented moblogs may be soon implementing advanced filter controls. See Drewing for more information about the delinquency publishing fad.
In 2004, Singapore launched a National Day Moblog on National Day. Apparently, it is the first national Moblog in the world.
Early on in Moblogging users sent their media to a Moblog server via MMS or email. Recently software has become available which allows people to have the same rich experience they had while blogging from their PC. Some countries are even using moblogs for pedagogical purposes. The Singapore Government oraganizes annual Campus Moblogging competitions between its primary and secondary schools www.campusmoblog.com.sg
The art of the Moblog is that "a picture tells a thousand word." By posting pictures the Moblogger is able to allow the viewer to look through their eyes, to visually experience where he or she is and what he or she is doing. Words often do not describe what a picture can do very easily. Moblogging is becoming more widespread through the use of websites where anybody with a cameraphone and the ability to send pictures can create an account and participate by uploading pictures on the fly.
