As I slowly ramp up blogging here, it's worth talking a little bit about the subject as an introduction to readers who may be new to the blogging experience.

First, a note on terminology: a blog, short for "web log", is a very general term meaning basically a series of regularly-updated posts. Many blogs are simply personal diaries broadcast to the public, while others are focused on humor or providing collections of links.

This blog will include some personal notes, some humor and some linking, but the goal is for it to be a news blog, where a substantial portion of the posts are the result of some degree of reporting. The blog format will enable me to get stories out more quickly than traditional articles and it will allow me to cover issues that wouldn't be important enough to get coverage in our print edition.

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If you want to follow my blog there are several ways you can do this. The simplest is just to click the link with my picture on it at the top of www.capjournal.com and see if there are posts you haven't read yet. (You can also bookmark the blog here)

However, we're also making use of a web technology called "Real Simple Syndication," or RSS. What this allows you to do is subscribe to the blog like you would to a newsletter. Every update will be automatically beamed out to you, where you can read or ignore them at your leisure.

Using RSS is simple. On the home page for this blog, find the orange button near the top, next to the "Behind Government Lines" headline. If you use a browser such as Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer 7 or 8, just click the orange button and follow the instructions to subscribe.

If you're a heavier user of blogs, you can use a stand-alone application called an RSS reader. Google has a simple web-based app called Google Reader. Well-regarded free downloadable applications include FeedDemon for PCs and my personal choice, NetNewsWire for Mac.

The beauty of the world of blogs (also called the "blogosphere") is the wide variety of options out there. I won't pretend to give any sort of comprehensive list of blogs to read, but I did want to share a few news blogs I do read -- and ask for suggestions on other blogs to follow.

There are a number of good South Dakota blogs, and I don't read enough of them.

In the straight news category, Rapid City Journal reporter Kevin Woster publishes Mount Blogmore, which is, like Behind Government Lines, a blog focused on politics. The Argus Leader invites a number of their reporters to blog.

Some of the best scoops in South Dakota political blogs come from bloggers with open political allegiances. On the left, Todd Epp at South Dakota Watch does a lot of reporting (though much of his work has a Sioux Falls focus). Scott Ehrisman at South Dacola is a cartoonist and often takes a lighter approach to news.

On the right side of the South Dakota blogosphere, the heavyweight is Pat Powers at the Dakota War College. Also on the right (but no friend of Powers) is Steve Sibson's Sibby Online.

There are other good South Dakota blogs out there that I haven't yet discovered. Let me know in the comments what I should be reading!

Finally, and very briefly, a sampling of some of the national political blogs I read: Marc Ambinder, Ben Smith, Jake Tapper and Mark Halperin's The Page