Welcome to my first blog post of 2010. I didn't expect that my hiatus would be over a month long, but here I am in mid-January.
Thanks to those of you who took the time to complete my blog feedback survey at the end of 2009 - it was really helpful in understanding how my regular readers see the blog. From the responses I received, here are the highlights:
I'm doing some planning for the future of this blog, and I'd like your feedback. Of course, you're always welcome to leave your comments in the comments section below, but I've also created a survey with some specific questions that I would appreciate your candid responses to.
It's only 10 questions, most are multiple choice, and if you do take it by the end of the year, I'll put you in a drawing to win $25, either for any business in the Center City business district in Richmond, Indiana or for Amazon.com. (And if you don't want to identify yourself, that's fine too, you just won't be in the drawing.)
Thanks for your feedback.
Last summer, two generally swell guys in Indianapolis, Noah Coffey and Shawn Plew, decided to put together a conference for people in the area interested in blogging and social media, and it went quite well for a first-time effort - you can read my full reflections on Blog Indiana 2008 in a previous post. (I believe it also marked the beginning of my Twitter usage - gasp.)
The dynamic duo have teamed up to do it again for Blog Indiana 2009, which starts later this week. It looks to be an expanded and amplified version of the inaugural event - the conference will span three days with multiple tracks - blogging and social media, higher education, non-profit, etc. - and it sounds like there will be a lot more people there too (with great representation from Richmond). Summersault has returned as an event sponsor, and I'm also presenting again, this time with a session on "Using Social Media for Real-World Community Improvement" and as a panelist in a session about "technology."
I've apparently also been nominated for the award of "Best Hoosier Blogger" in the "2009 Blindy Awards," and while I'm not saying that I will give you significant amounts of cash just because you click on this link and vote for me, I'm not saying I won't do that either.
I'm looking forward to gathering with fellow bloggers and fans of technology, and sharing about how these tools can help us make life a little better for everyone. I hope to see some of you there!
This is a hard post to write because a lot of people who I care about and respect are very invested in and excited about the recent news that Richmond is one of the winners of the National Civic League's "All-America City" award.
First, I want to say that I do offer my genuine congratulations to the youth, their mentors and supporters who put together Richmond's application and saw it through to the win. To achieve national recognition for our city is commendable, and I know that the passion, time and energy you put into this effort comes from a deep love of this community and its potential. Richmond needs more people like you who care enough to act, and who do so with a bright future in mind.
Now on to the harder part:
If you spend any amount of time following my online adventures - through my blog, Twitter, Facebook, or otherwise - then there are some things you need to know:
All bloggers do it at least once in their blogging career. It's remains pretty faux pas in my opinion, but here I am anyway. You know what I'm talking about, don't you?
It's the blog post that only exists to note that I haven't been blogging much lately. Gasp.
Sometimes it can be a sign of a dying blog, or a lack of personal creativity, but I assure you that's not the case here. No, I think we all get to have at least one of these kinds of posts once every few years or so. I think my last one was in 2005, so I'm due.
For now, talk amongst yourselves, and check out my inane procrastinatory ramblings on Twitter.
Things feel kind of in limbo right now, don't they? What are you in between? While you think about that, here are some links you might enjoy:
I haven't had the chance to blog lately, but here are some bits and pieces to chew on. First, some links:
Some topics I'm thinking about, and may eventually blog about:
Continue reading "Links, and what I'm thinking about"
I don't feel guilty for not blogging for a while, no I sure don't. Guilt is certainly not why I'm posting a bunch of random (but great) links for you to look at. Nope, not at all:
One of the weird things about blogs is that, as much time as people put into creating interesting and useful content for them, it's rare that anyone goes to the trouble to read back through older entries unless they're really looking for something specific, or are otherwise very committed to the content.
I don't expect that most of my readers here will bother with browsing through archives just for the fun of it, so I already make available a couple of topic-related mechanisms to find what you're looking for: the list of post tags (visualized in the image shown here), the category tree, the search form, the list of top-rated posts, etc.
Today I'm introducing another way to get to my core content, an index of my signature blog posts. This is a list of my more substantial and well-considered essays on a variety of topics, and I think it represents well the thinking and writing I've done on topics I'm passionate about. I'll try to keep it updated regularly, and I hope you find it useful.
