{"id":28,"date":"2007-12-22T06:38:41","date_gmt":"2007-12-22T06:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.195.124.246\/~wisecon1\/blog\/?p=28"},"modified":"2007-12-22T06:38:41","modified_gmt":"2007-12-22T06:38:41","slug":"teds-blogging-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/?p=28","title":{"rendered":"A Blogging Manifesto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why bother keeping a blog? Everyone’s doing it<\/a>, but I struggle with this humble blog–whether or not to post, what to post, analyzing my analytics, and questioning the worthiness of the endeavor. Why bother with posting your thoughts and reflections in public? Given all of the other things that we could be doing, why blog? I am at war with my old media self, that’s quite content to keep a journal that’s for my eyes only and new media self, who wants to embrace this not-so-new medium with more gusto. Given that context, here’s the argument in favor of blogging I’m working on:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1) Blogging is participatory; instead of consuming media, we’re producing it. While it’s challenging to systematically create time and space to make meaning about what we’ve read, heard, or watched blogs are not-so-new spaces where we can stop, think, act and share. Writing thoughts down and posting them encourages clearer thinking, exposes weak ideas and starts a conversation. Blogging makes learning public. It begins with passion for a topic, which leads to looking things up and before you know it, you’re engaging in a meaning-making activity. Looking up ideas, connecting them and sharing them is nothing new–we’ve been doing it since we could write, but it has never been easier than ever to discover something and share it. Sometimes the things we need to know maybe obscure, like say, how to append text to a file using Quicksilver on Mac OS <\/a>X, but chances are, that thing you need to know is something that someone else needed to know too–and is only a Google search away. <\/p>\n

2) Blogs are what economists call a positive externality<\/a>. As the blogger, I’m the primary beneficiary–whatever my topic, whether it’s a book I’ve read, a reflection on an activity or a political rant, I’ve had to think about a topic, organize my thoughts and get them to the point where I feel comfortable sharing them with anyone in the world who’s interested. And then others benefit from whatever knowledge I’ve created. For example, one of my most popular posts is around a paper weekly planner I developed for triathlon training. I needed something that would help me plan and track what I did in a week, and then total those results. I created a template and then shared it here. I was the primary user of the document, but others benefited as well. I don’t pretend that the 100 or so downloads were earth shattering, but if I helped someone get better in some small way than I’ve met my goal.<\/p>\n

3) I’m passionate about my pursuits–whether it’s technology, education, fitness, or the world around me–I am compelled to share those experiences. And the process of doing it makes the experiences richer. <\/p>\n

4) It’s fun to see where you’ve been. The blog becomes a public artifact of your own experiences–a curated life portfolio and a place where you’re in control of what your public persona. <\/p>\n

5) I’ve used blogs like 43 Folders<\/a>, The Happiness Project<\/a> and A Million Monkey’s Typing<\/a>, and Lifehacker<\/a> to explore new topics and have learned from those sites, so I want to contribute what I know and set an example for others who might be tentative to do the same<\/p>\n

It used to be that everyone got 15 minutes of fame, on the internet, everyone is famous to 15 people<\/a>. So in the spirit of learning together, I’m committing to more regular posts here on Wise Contradictions and inviting you to join in the conversation. What keeps you and your blog going or stops you from starting one? Sound off in the comments.<\/p>\n

Sources\/References <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.caslon.com.au\/weblogprofile1.htm#many<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.practicaltheory.org\/serendipity\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/PPF\/r\/186\/report_display.asp<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/weblogg-ed.com\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.hyperorg.com\/blogger\/mtarchive\/004264.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given all of the other things that we could be doing, why blog? I am at war with my old media self, that’s quite content to keep a journal that’s for my eyes only and new media self, who wants to embrace this not-so-new medium with more gusto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,27,8],"tags":[85,84,88,86,87],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-tech","category-webtech","tag-blogging","tag-blogs","tag-commons","tag-knowledge","tag-sharing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}