After a couple of years of blogging (most of it at another site), I believe that blogging is one of the best things to happen on the web. Remember when we all had a home page, it was everyone’s chance to have their 5 minutes of glory on the newest medium around. The trouble was that these pages were hard to update requiring some technical skills to be able to update regularly.
Now we have lots of blog content management systems that can meet the need of every user. For those who are a slightly tech savvy there is wordpress or a range of other platforms that allow a great total control over the look of their site with an easy to manage dashboard allowing the blogger to post. Then there are the paid hosted systems, typepad stands out in this group and is used by many popular blogs. For example TechCrunch uses typepad. Then there is a plethora of free hosted systems that usually have limited flexibility and are paid for by advertising.
Some of my thoughts on blogging after using a number of these and sharing my thoughts about fatherhood and personal development to the world are:
1. Blogging is about my personal interaction with whatever content matter I choose to write about. That’s what makes is special and unique. I know there are lots of spam blogs out there but they are blogs in name only. There are also a number of professional blogs that exist solely to make money that are really a cross dressing website.
2. Blogging is about the people who are reading your site. With adequate spam protection your blog joins a worldwide conversation of people interacting personally with your content.
3. Blogging is soul enhancing. I find that what I am writing about is also about sharing a part of my spirit with others. I think that writing is essentially about this and that we need to remember that the energy that is dispersed should enhance anyone who comes into contact with it.
4. Blogging is about people. Write for people, talk like a person and respond as a person is the best advice that I can give for building a successful blog.
5. My blog is my gift to others. I know that I may not be the most eloquent of writers but I want to share something of myself with others. The subjects that I write about I care about. I want to see people improve and to have the resources that will enable their self development.
What’s the difference?
Well they look pretty similar but dig in a blog and you will find something special, a person.
So how do you think this interface should work for as an expression of a discrete community. For instance a club or a church etc.?
BTW great article — still trying to come to terms with Web 2.0
Hey Craig I think that it would be an ideal interface for the church community. Perhaps with the added functionality of forums? I really depends on the input of those who belong to that community.
I often think that there are a lot of parallels between web 2.0 and the emerging church. They seem to have a lot of similar interests.