Blogs are not only a bunch of fun, but a very useful way of sharing information.  Getting a blog is easy.  From the ownership point of view, they come in two flavors: remotely hosted and directly hosted.

 

Remotely Hosted Blogs are services like blogger(owned by google), Livejournal, and  wordpress.com. These sites allow users to create blogs that are entirely web-based and hosted off of their servers.  Remote blogs are not as customizable as other options, may forcibly put advertising on your blog, and are not completely controllable.  Still, they offer an effortless means of quickly disseminating information.

 

Directly Hosted Blogs are web apps that you upload to your server, via an FTP program.  They require more set-up than remote blogs, but are not difficult to install and are still easy to use.  Popular direct hosted blogs include wordpress.org and Nucleus CMS, to name a few.  There are literally hundreds of direct hosted blog programs out there.  Visit the wikipedia page on weblog software for more.  Direct hosted blogs are best for long-term projects that need stability and complete administrator control.  They are highly customizable and come with a plethora of options.