Blog Carnival
A Blog Carnival is a type of blog event. It is similar to a magazine, in that it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule, often weekly or monthly. Each EDition of a blog carnival is in the form of a blog article that contains permalinks links to other blog articles on the particular topic.
There are many variations, but typically, SomeOne who wants to organize a carnival posts details of the theme or topic to their blog, and asks readers to submit relevant articles for inclusion in an upcoming edition. The host then collects links to these submissions, edits and annotates them (often in very creative ways), and publishes the resulting round-up to his or her blog.
Many carnivals have a home page or principal organizer, who lines up guest bloggers to host each edition. This means that the carnival travels, appearing on a different blog each time.
Communities of blog readers, writers, and edition hosts form around specific carnivals. The carnivals provide a nice aggregation of recent posts by the community on a given topic, and the host provides a level of editing and annotation that helps readers find posts they are interested in. Writers who submit their articles to blog carnivals are rewarded with traffic (if the host decides to give them a link and, perhaps, a positive review).
History
The earliest blog carnival, so named, was the Carnival of the Vanities, announced at the blog Silflay Hraka in September, 2002.
The Truth Laid Bear has long had a page, known as the TTLB ÜberCarnival, that lists recently posted carnival editions.
It was often hard to find when and where the next edition of your favorite Blog Carnival was going to occur. In February 2005, BlogCarnival.com was launched to provide a comprehensive index of both past and future editions of blog carnivals on the web, and web applications to facilitate scheduling and submissions. As of September 23, 2006, BlogCarnival.com listed 5630 editions of 520 carnivals.