Module 3: Blogs

Let's talk blogs, baby, let's talk blogs and me. Let's talk about all the good blogs on the internet that I read. Let's talk about blogs.

I've been blogging semi-regularly since 2004. My blog has been personal so I write it haphazardly, usually when travelling to update interested parties back home on my whereabouts and adventures.

When I first started this learning log, three thoughts started chasing each other around my brain. It certainly started out as a bit of a chore .

• First, the guilt that I've all but abandoned my personal blog to do this unit sets in.
• Next is the issue that I'm writing in response to something rather than my usual rambling - it's been an interesting and challenging experience to order my thoughts and structure sentences in a way that might make sense to the reader.
• Finally - blogging is time consuming. If you are going to do it properly then you need to do it regularly. Commit to a time frame that meets the expectations of yourself and your audience and stick to it.

This blog operates a little differently as I'm writing in response to tasks I'm undertaking as a part of my study. The timeframe for this is set and as long as I finish the blog by 30 May, everyone is happy. If the blog actually meets expectation and shows the progress and path of my learning then everybody wins.

I'm a fan of blogs. Over the years I've happened across some well written, well designed ones - some have have disappeared over time, some have just been deserted by their writers. These I check back semi-regularly in the hope that the cobwebs will be pushed away, the page dusted down and the witty ramblings of a complete stranger will begin again (yep, here comes the guilt about my personal blog and the people who check it in hope that I'm visiting there as much as they are!).

While there are many personal blogs that are basically online diaries - mine is something along those lines - blogging has become a useful tool to share information in bite-sized chunks to the web world.

My travels amongst the internet blogging community have taken me to some truly wonderous blogs such as:

• Opinion blogs that are written in the same style as a newspaper column - they are sharp, witty, informative.
• Blogs that hit on topics of interest (eg such as a corporate identity before and after - each week a new company is featured)
• Teaching blogs - blogs that offer Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials (can you ever have too many?)
• A very interesting blog about how one girl really hated her flat mate - it was well put together using 50s style photography and daily entries on the latest horrible, disgusting thing the flat mate had done. This blog was hugely popular and would get up to 200 comments a day. I guess we've all had THAT flat mate! =~]

In my research for the Concepts Assignment, I came across a number of useful blogs that had been put together by people with an interest in a topic that they thought unresourced on the web. The answer - start a blog on the topic with all of the information you've gathered and create a community of readers who feel the same way you do (except they are too lazy to create a blog).

With the advances in web technology - blogs have become bigger and better than ever. Blogs are just about some text, maybe a hyperlink or two. You can include imagery and links to files (such as PDFs or photos) for people to donwload.

Some of the other good stuff that you can do on your blog:

• Set up comments and invite your readers to leave their thoughts on your posts - thus providing information from a different angle or opinion.
• RSS makes it easy for others to tap into your blog and syndicate your content.
• Use the calendar navigation to give readers access to all your posts.
• Create a 'favourites' box that has your top 10 most read or most preferred posts.
• Share that blogging feeling - Create a 'links' box that will take your readers to your favourite blogs.

Technology continues to advance and it is exciting to continue to be a part of the blogging community and see where the advances take us next.

One of the most interesting things I've learnt (and possibly the most obvious?) is that is much easier to blog when you have your topic organise and a rough plan of what points you intend to make. My personal blog suffers because, unless travelling, I lack inspiration and I'm sure that as much as my friends care they don't want to read about what I ate that day and how I unblocked the toilet for the third time that week. Writing the learning log makes it much easier to fill a 'page' as I have my topic and, after working through the task, a rough plot of what to type. One of the things I initially disliked about my learning log has actually turned out to be the one things that makes it easier to do.