Overcoming Blogger's Block

Jill Walker is blogging less, or so she says - this wouldn't be newsworthy if Jill wasn't a genuine A-list academic blogger, and (I suspect) an inspiration for many an academic, and others in what we might laughingly refer to as the real world, to start blogging themselves. Certainly Jill was one of those names we just had to get on board for the Uses of Blogs book - and her struggles in completing what turned out to be a very insightful, and fairly personal, chapter in the book may be a sign of the times for a number of the 'early' bloggers as they're coming to terms with a) the occasional sense of stardom that A-list status might bring, and b) the fact that life doesn't stop, or stop changing, just because you're blogging it.

I'm not going to attempt to analyse what has been causing Jill's unease about blogging in recent times - though some of the comments on her blog have started to try. The only guess I'd make is that running a university department may have something to do with it. I certainly know that I blog (even) less than usual when I'm really busy. Add to this the fact that for academics who are looking to advance to the higher levels of their profession blogging their minds too openly might lead to trouble later on, as Alex Halavais discussed it a few months ago, and it's understandable that bloggers may become more self-conscious as they become better known.

I'm hoping that these are transitional problems, though - the more people blog and participate in collaborative media environments and produsage generally, the more will it become a commonplace activity you'd hardly bat an eyelid about. After all, deity-of-your-choice forbid that a professional person might have personal opinions in private life!

Meanwhile, anyway, another of those bloggers taking it slow, and also yet another Uses of Blogs contributor (hmm, did we wear them out?), is Suw Charman, who is taking time off from at least one of her blogs to get the UK Open Rights Group going - fair enough, too. Happily, though, she's side-stepped Alex's advice on how to deal with blogger's block, sent in blogger-journalist Kevin Anderson as a kind of super-sub - and I've really started to enjoy his posts so far. Really needs to read my book, but it's good to see a forward-looking view of where journalism is headed - and perhaps it's no surprise he's working for the BBC, which has started to explore participatory and citizen journalism to a surprising degree given the weight of history it's carrying.

And speaking of journalism: I hear that there might be a journalism conference here in Brisbane just days before the AoIR conference I'm chairing, and it may include sessions on Internet journalism. Great tie-in, and I hope many delegates may take in both conferences when they come to town. More news as this becomes official!

Well, there you go. My way of overcoming blogger's block.