So, you think you might like to give skydiving a try, or you want to talk about why Philadelphia sports teams can't seem to catch a break. Maybe you're interested in exercise and health tips, Spanish pop music or the Civil War. Or, maybe you just want to delve more deeply into the mysterious doings of TV's Desperate Housewives.

For a mix of information, opinion and chat on all these topics, and approximately 80 others from wedding planning to backpacking, you can turn to a new resource—student-produced blogs that were created as part of a business administration class. The class, "Information Technology Applications in Marketing," requires students to create their own blogs, or personal web logs, on a topic of their choice.

"We asked the students to choose topics they were passionate about, not just interested in," Anu Sivaraman, assistant professor of marketing, says. "We think that passion is reflected in the work they have done, which is on a par with some of the best blogs I've seen anywhere."

Blog creation first became a course requirement during the spring 2005 semester. The topic is a recent addition to the curriculum in the Lerner College of Business and Economics, Sivaraman says, reflecting the fact that blogs are becoming an increasingly important marketing tool. Also teaching the course is Alex Brown, an instructor in marketing, who introduced Sivaraman to the concept of blogging.

Blogs are known to many Internet surfers either as personal journals in which the writers detail the often-mundane aspects of their lives or as unedited forums in which bloggers can express their opinions on a variety of political topics.

But, blogs also are being used by established businesses to reach audiences informally and to counter negative publicity from mainstream media or other blogs. Business Week magazine, in a recent article titled "Blogs Will Change Your Business," reported that 9 million blogs exist on the Internet, with 40,000 new ones being created daily.

The article, which also served as the magazine's introduction of its own blog, called the new communications tool "simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself." It noted that companies are hiring people to monitor blogs to learn what is being said about their own businesses and about their competitors, as well as to create blogs.

"Because blogs are being used more and more in business, we thought it was time that our students get trained in this field," Sivaraman says. "It's a very marketable skill to have when you go for that first job interview."

Students created their blogs from scratch, adding links to related web sites, photos, animation and an assortment of other enhancements. Sivaraman says the students in the class also have seen the project as a community-building exercise, in which their classmates and others from throughout the University can add their own comments, ask questions or participate in online discussions about the blog's topic.

Sivaraman says she and Brown have been impressed by the quality and the diversity of the blogs. Topics have included cigarette smoking, supporting those in the military, weightlifting, movie and theatre reviews, recipes, a guide to local restaurants and a variety of travel blogs, describing destinations from Vietnam to Antarctica.

Natalia Bernardino, BE '05, says Hurricane Katrina was dominating the news at the time she was beginning her class project. She chose the disaster as the subject of her blog, using the forum to recount personal stories of survivors, to update news and opinions on the government's response to the hurricane and to provide readers with information about organizations that were helping with relief efforts.

"People seem especially interested in individual human interest stories and in ways they can help," Bernardino says. "I want to keep the blog going, to continue to follow what is being done."

The timing of the fall semester class also suggested a blogging topic for Katie Wallace, BE '05, who is planning a July wedding in Mexico. "Destination weddings, how to plan them and tracking my own progress seemed like a perfect subject," she says. In addition to her personal experiences, Wallace's blog includes tips from a professional wedding planner and links to a variety of travel sites.

Shayna Kritz, BE '06, also used personal experiences as the starting point for her blog. In Kritz's case, it was an account of her childhood and teenage years as an observant Jew in a secular and largely Gentile environment. She writes of feeling like an outsider in her Massachusetts school and the importance of her involvement in a supportive Jewish youth group.

"I also use the site to include factual information about Jewish holidays and religious observances," Kritz says. "I've received so many positive comments and questions from people who were interested in what I wrote that it's been a great experience for me."

For Nguyen Dinh, BE '06, life experiences also were her inspiration in creating her blog. Until she came to the United States four year ago to attend college, Dinh had lived in Vietnam, where her family still lives. She says she wanted to share information about her country, and about Asia in general, with Americans who might not know much about the history, culture and beauty of the region.

"I try to mix my own experiences with information so that it can be a travel guide to Asia," Dinh says. "It's been very interesting for me to learn about this new tool for communication. I think you can make a lot of friends and hear a lot of different opinions through blogs."

Sivaraman says the class covers various information technology topics in addition to blogging, including small-business Internet marketing strategies and international considerations in global Internet marketing.

The blogs can be viewed at the class web site, [http://buad477fall5. blogspot.com/].

    —Ann Manser, AS '73, CHEP '73