So This Is 2005

Hmm, reading about blogs always makes me want to write another entry myself. Unfortunately I don't get around to it nearly as often as I should.

I've had some very good news in the meantime: my series editor for Peter Lang, Steve Jones, likes the manuscript for the Gatewatching book that I delivered at the end of November. A few minor corrections and additions to be made, but things should go smoothly from here. I'll try and I've updated the relevant pages on this site, too. I've also received a nice endorsement for the back cover from John Hartley:

It's journalism, Jim, but not as we know it. "Gatewatching," "multiperspectival editing," the "produser." Strange new terms -- but as Axel Bruns shows in this impressive account of online news media, the underlying issues remain very much as Herbert Gans described them a generation ago. In a democracy everyone has a right to practice journalism. Users are beginning to shape the oddly named collaborative instruments on the internet into a new chorus, giving a new voice to democracy. Axel Bruns shows us why and how we all need to learn the tune.
John Hartley, Queensland University of Technology.

Amongst some other useful pointers, Steve suggested I look more closely at the material collected at Into the Blogosphere, so I've spent the day reading through the articles gathered there. In addition to a number of pieces on blogging and/as journalism (which are relevant to the book) I also found a couple on blogging as a teaching tool, which will be useful for another major project this year - a large teaching and learning grant project at QUT for which I serve as one of the three directors. On the Creative Industries Faculty side we're looking to explore the use of blogs and wikis in learning and teaching.

I guess I'm still coming to terms with my own blogging, and I'll need to work out whether this is a personal blog, a research blog, or something in between. Do I keep work and life separate, or combine them? Do I really want to cover private life in a public forum? Do I start a separate blog on this site as a more personal forum? What is my blogging routine - whenever appropriate; once a day; or less frequently? We'll see.

The new year already looks daunting as far as my workload goes, and perhaps blogging can help me manage it better. There are great opportunities all over the place, and I have a number of very exciting projects lined up (including an edited collection on blogging which my colleague Joanne Jacobs and I have now begun to work on), but I've found it difficult over the last months to do my work and still have a life. I'm now starting to treat myself more kindly and honestly, and hopefully this will enable me to balance life and work better. Let's hope for the best...