Blogging

Meredith, in her Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Attitudes and Behaviors, says “I don’t know how those of you who read more than 200 blogs manage to do it! I can barely keep up with 120 blogs (many of which I rarely read in their entirety). I guess there is a different between subscribing to a blog and actually reading all of the posts.”

Right now, I’m “reading” 174 feeds. But here’s what I really do:

• “Keeping up” with 174 feeds doesn’t mean in-depth reading of those feeds
• Some I browse through quickly
• Some, I think “not interested” and move on to the next post in my feed reader
• Some are photo blogs - I look at the photograph, think “cool” and move on
• Some I spend more time on, read, click through the links, respond to (in Meredith’s post’s case), etc.
• Some feeds don’t update very often, so reading them isn’t all that hard
• Some posts are about the same thing that 20 other posts will be about, so I can skim/skip them

Generally, I read those 174 feeds the same way I flip through a magazine or a newspaper - I skim the headlines and the text for something interesting. If I find something, I stay for a while. If not, I move on.

I found these via the Working Smart blog. It’s a nicely done set of blogging guidelines for the blogger’s company (Thomas Nelson Publishers). The Guidelines walk an employee through the blogging process from start to finish - very cool.

You should definitely go read them if interested, but here are the high points:

1. Start with a blogging service (like blogger, livejournal, etc).
2. Write as yourself (ie., use your real name, don’t be anonymous, etc).
3. Own your content (make sure readers know this is your personal blog, and not the companies blog).
4. Write Relevant. Write Often.
5. Advertise - if you wish.
6. Be nice.
7. Keep secrets (no sensitive, confidential, proprietary, etc info).
8. Respect copyrights.
9. Obey the law.
10. Remember the Handbook (the company policy handbook).

Now - I’ll bet someone can adapt this simple but useful format for a library!

I’m celebrating the (approximate) one year anniversary of my blog. Woo hoo, party party! So bear with me a sec as I reflect upon my year of being online, and think a little about the next year.

Last August, I started to blog about library technology types of things semi-regularly. One year later, I’m still blogging, I’m still having fun, I’m meeting new people, and… well… just take a peek at some of what’s gone on with my blog-ish stuff in the last year:

Blog: I started blogging with Blogger in 2003, but really truly started this blog in August of 2004. Some stats:

• First real post - August 2004 (had a few posts before that, but mainly “just testing” types of posts)
• First two comments on my posts: http://daweed.blogspot.com/2004/11/free-range-librarian-is-bugged-by.html, in November (both by people I know, both bloggers. But hey, they’re comments nonetheless!)
• Post with the most comments: http://daweed.blogspot.com/2005/05/15-things-you-can-do-with-rss.html - 8 comments and counting!
• Longest post - http://daweed.blogspot.com/2005/06/email-about-sirsi-thats-creating-lots.html - the post about the SirsiDynix merger, mostly just a copy of the email we received. Sheesh!
• Shortest post- http://daweed.blogspot.com/2004/04/just-testing.html - a skimpy 4-word test post. Why haven’t I deleted that? Double sheesh!
• How many posts? 163 to date. That’s a lot of typing!
• How many people read this blog? Honestly, I have no idea. There are 141 Bloglines subscribers to date. But total RSS subscribers or even total readers? Let’s just say “more than 141.” But even 141 is amazing! Thanks for reading my dandy little blog.

Furl: Around the same time, I started using Furl for bookmarking. I now have:

• Number of links: 334
• Number of Topics (Furl’s name for tagging / folksonomies): 78
• Most viewed links: Yahoo! Webmessenger (116), followed by Men’s Business Attire (77)

Flickr - I also use Flickr for my blog (whenever you see an image in a post of mine, it’s most likely coming from my Flickr account).

• Number of images: 118 photos
• Most viewed images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidking/13591400/ - It’s a slightly funny Google Maps image (166 views)
• Number of images marked as Favorites: 6 images marked as favorites…
• Number of tags: 160

Future plans for this blog: Once I get around to it, I’m going to purchase a domain name, get a web hoster, etc - so I can have my own “place.” Still finalizing domain names in my head… I’ll probably go with some version of my name - much easier than creating some wonderful “blankety blank Librarian” type of name (although “blankety blank librarian” would be kinda funny… ). Plus, there’s that whole self promotion thing… (which, of course, highly rules out the name “blankety blank librarian” … bummer

So, all you fine readers who have actually dropped my RSS feed into your aggregator - stay tuned! When/If I actually do this, I’ll send plenty of warning, along with the new domain/feed URL.

And that’s all for now - it’s been a fun year, and I’m looking forward to even greater fun this year!

Just got a comment that made my day! Mike picked up a copy of Priceless after reading about it on my blog, and is writing his thoughts on it at his new blog! How cool is that?

Someone commented on one of my posts yesterday, I commented on his/her comment in another post, that person then commented back… which I think is great! That’s one of the advantages of RSS and blogs, right?

But I also realized that this blog is read by many people, and someone else might have considered commenting before, or getting in touch with me, etc… and they might not know how. So…

Dave’s Informal Rules for Commenting on Dave’s Blog:

1. Feel free to post a comment on anything here - it adds to the global discussion (in my little virtual neck of the woods, anyway)
2. Leave a comment by clicking on “Comments” at the bottom of each post (you have to go to the actual blog site)
3. Understand that I have the option to post about your comment, agree/disagree with it, use it as an example, think “yes” when I see it, but not post anything else about it, or ignore it… however I see fit
4. So that said, please feel free to comment away!

And, if you want to contact me, go to my website - you’ll find email and IM info at the bottom of the page.

Just received a comment on one of my posts, “Luddites have XML Feeds, too!” … from, of course “Annonymous.” Here’s the comment:

I think, also, it is important to point out to those who are concerned about disappearing printed materials that the rise of new media/technology (radio, television, telephone, phonograph, audio and video cassettes, cds, dvds, etc.) has never supplanted all of our old and familiar means of transmitting and storing information. The printed book will likely outlast every new innovation in technology simply because it is an irreplaceable part of human culture. There is no need for fear mongering or even mild concern. Luddites should sit back and relax. Once upon a time, the written word was considered an innovation beyond the spoken word. We all still talk to each other, however.

Hmm… where to start? First, my take on the printed book. A Book is a large body of text. Paper is one of many ways to display that large body of text. Books used to be stored on leather scrolls. Thankfully, people figured out bound paper worked better.

I think we’re seeing the beginning of moving away from paper to electronic form. I can now read a book in paper, on my PDA, on a cell phone, at my PC, in email form, using an e-book reader, etc. It’s still a book - just not in paper.

Now, to deal with the comment itself:

“…the rise of new media/technology (radio, television, telephone, phonograph, audio and video cassettes, cds, dvds, etc.) has never supplanted all of our old and familiar means of transmitting and storing information.”

I wonder if Anonymous has heard of a relatively new-fangled invention called an Online Public Access Catalog? I believe the OPAC has supplanted the “old and familiar means,” don’t you think? Also, the typewriter has been supplanted by the computer.

And… does the printed word actually “transmit?” That I’d like to see.

“The printed book will likely outlast every new innovation in technology simply because it is an irreplaceable part of human culture.”

Hmm… “irreplaceable part of human culture” …. that’d be sorta like:

• Horses and carriages
• morse code
• LPs
• Cowhide and pottery shards for writing material
• Pants that ended at the knee
• Plows
• Swords as weapons

NOTHING IS IRREPLACEABLE. Longlasting, yes. Irreplaceable? No.

“There is no need for fear mongering or even mild concern.” and “Luddites should sit back and relax.”

Hey, I actually agree…

“Once upon a time, the written word was considered an innovation beyond the spoken word. We all still talk to each other, however.”

Apples and oranges… apples and oranges… Annonymous, the point of your comment is about paper-based information, so you can’t logically use the spoken word as support for your argument.

I have had fun with this comment, to be sure. But I’m hoping someone learns something from this post, too. As I once heard someone say, “eat the meat, and throw out the bones.”

Sitting here with Karen from Lawrence Public, explaining blogs and websites! Cool!

Take a look at this article, “Brain of a Blogger (found via Darlene Fichter’s link blog).

In this article, two MD types argue that writing a blog is good for your brain. Why?

1. Blogs can promote critical and analytical thinking.
2. Blogging can be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking.
3. Blogs promote analogical thinking.
4. Blogging is a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information.
5. Blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction.

So. since I blog AND email (since email lowers IQ), it’ll all even out in the end, right?

PS - for a fun discussion of the silliness of the whole “email lowers IQ” study, check this out.

And now for a little lesson in HTML. The image on the right is a blog post (good blog, too, by the way). Notice how it’s arranged - first a chunk of text, then an image, then another chunk of text. Lots of bloggers post this way - they insert an image into the text of their blog post. Images within a blog post can even be useful at times (this blog post is one example (hopefully…).

However - look at the image of the blog post. Notice all that empty white space to the right of the image? Wouldn’t that post (and many others on many other blogs) look a whole lot better if the text would wrap around the image? I think so… hence this post. I’m going to teach any interested parties how to do that image wrapping thing:

Wrapping text around an image in a blog post:

1. Write about something, and find an image to drop into the post.
2. Drop it in however you normally do it.
3. (the hard part*)… look at the HTML code for your fine blog post, and find the img tag (that’s the image tag).
4. Somewhere around the width, height, and border parts of the tag, add this: align=”right”
5. The align=”right” addition will make the image go to the right (align=”left” will do the same thing, but cram the image to the left of the page), and will make the text wrap around the image.
6. Here’s an img tag example, from my post: img style=”BORDER-RIGHT: black 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: black 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: black 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: black 1px solid” height=”251″ alt=”blogimage” src=”http://photos10.flickr.com/12155718_78a7dca8ee_o.jpg” mce_src=”http://photos10.flickr.com/12155718_78a7dca8ee_o.jpg” width=”413″ align=”right” border=”0″
7. Here’s another important part - stick the img tag where you want the top of the image to appear. For example, I wanted the image in my post to appear on the right side, and starting at the first line of text. So I dropped the img tag right smack before the first line of text.
8. That’s it - all your blogging friends will think you’ve turned especially hip.