We meet again tomorrow evening at 5:30.
We’ll set up blogs and discuss blogs with themes. Here are some to check out:
cupcakes by chockylit
wee wonderfuls
craftlog
domicile
Chocolate & Zucchini
my little kitchen
yarn harlot
Hello, Bloggers.
I’m thinking about all of your questions, and I feel like we have a lot of great material to cover.
Some of you may have begun setting up a blog, and others of you may need a little more assistance. My goal for our next class is that everyone who wants a blog shall have one!
The first posts you write are, in some ways, the easiest. You have, after all, a whole lifetime of stories just waiting to be told. Your first posts are the way you introduce yourself to your audience so…have fun!
We’ve talked about the fact that our blogs are public and that we need to be aware of how we present ourselves to an audience, but that issue has two sides. Consider this prompt from No One Cares What You Had for Lunch by Margaret Mason
Writing gives you time to consider how to present yourself. Online, you can be smarter, wittier, kinder. Alternately, you can be a mind-numbing bore. This sometimes happens because your audience (however small you think it may be) gives you stage fright. You worry that certain things could be misconstrued, so you’re tempted to water things down. You hone, delete, and reshape until you’ve sucked all the juice from your posts.
All readers need an occasional dose of schadenfreude, so fess up. How do you fail? Do you consistently kill plants? Keep getting fired? Always take the last cookie? That’s the stuff, friends. To err is human, but to share? Divine.
Welcome to Carnegie Bloggers.
We will meet tonight in the computer lab in the Carnegie Center from 5:30-7:00 p.m. for an introduction to the world of blogging. We will discuss the creation of on-line identity, a brief history of blogging and why people do it, and the practical matter of blog hosting. If you don’t already maintain a blog, you’ll have an opportunity to get started.
Below are some links we will explore during tonight’s class.
About blogging
Weblogs: a history and perspective from Rebecca’s Pocket
Why we Blog by Sandhill Trek
Why I Blog by Dr. Drew
Blogging 101
A Brief History of Weblogs, Columbia Journalism Review
Examples of blogs (personal journals)
California Fever
My Topography
Finslippy
Tequila Mockingbird
Mingle Freely
Jill’s Notebook
ljcblog
Amanda Johnston
Rude Cactus
Blog hosts
Blogger
WordPress
Typepad
Free e-mail providers
hotmail
yahoo
Blog search engine
Google blog search
Answers to a blogging meme
by Jill
by Marilyn
Please leave a comment on this post and tell me a bit about yourself, what you hope to learn from this class, and why you’re interested in blogging.
I would like to post our links on the sidebar of this blog. Please leave your blog URL in the comments here, if you authorize it to be posted. If you wish that your blog not be linked on the sidebar, you can email the URL to me.
I began blogging roughly four years ago. I had a job that required I sit at a help desk, in front of a computer, with not much to do. One afternoon, I received an e-mail from a friend containing a link to a blog she had started as a way to stay in touch with her friends and family. I knew nothing about blogging, but my friend used Blogger so I went straight there and signed up for a blog of my own. I gave no thought to my title. (I called it Lori-Lyn’s Life.) I e-mailed my URL to several close friends and started posting. I wrote about anything and everything on my mind, confident that only those in my inner circle were checking in. As my addiction to blogging grew, however, I discovered how huge and encompassing the world of blogging actually is. I learned of a whole world of blogs with creative titles, blogs that were intentionally crafted with purpose in mind. I discovered themed blogs and group blogs, and I wished that I’d spent a little more time thinking before I’d begun publishing mine.
Blogging is the high-tech equivalent of the court house square. It is instant empowerment, allowing the blogger to assert his or her voice without censorship. When we blog, we have an audience for our thoughts, and a community to provide feedback. Just as it is in the rest of life, most people are kind, but some are not.
In my early blogging days, I became leery of trolls , and I chose not to reach out to new readers. I began to be self-conscious in my posting, worried about offending others. Over the past four years, however, the way I think about my blog has evolved. I blog The Dream Life now on Typepad, and I participate in group blogging activities that certainly do bring new people to my site. I have formed genuine friendships through blogging and I have learned much about myself. I have learned to trust and respect my voice. I have learned what I’m willing to share with the world and what I’m not willing to share. I’ve learned when to take risks and when to protect myself. (And, I have learned practical things like how to sew a wee.) I hope that you will enter the world of blogging armed with information and an open mind, and that blogging will enrich your life the way it has mine.
