About this Blog

What is it?

The Internet Special Interest Group (Internet SIG) of OCMMA recently visited the topic of blogging. In light of the fast pace of technology change, I should mention that here recent means seven hours ago. Anyway, not only do the tools and technologies of blogging change fairly quickly, but, at any moment, there are a wide range of opinions as to what a blog is, and what the process of blogging means.

These differences became apparent during the meeting. Although everyone had some idea what a blog was, the ideas were a little vague. In short, it was surprisingly hard to pin down a definition we liked. So it is not surprising that talking about strategies for starting blogs of our own was a little hard, too. That's not a bad thing; it was a great discussion.

Well, that was part of the meeting. I jokingly mentioned to Scott that everyone present should pledge to start a blog in the next 30 days, before the next meeting, so as to be able to trade ideas in an informed way. For my own part, though, I was serious. I had wanted to start a blog anyway, for other reasons, and now seemed a perfect time.

Performing without a net--Just do it

After arriving home, and waiting for the microwave, I created a blog and posted my first post. Wow, that was fast, even easier and faster than I thought. Frankly, the most time spent was in searching Google for "free blog" and trying to decide which provider to use. As an analyst, analysis is good, but it is also definitely possible to fall prey to the paralysis part. So when I realized that blogger.com is part of Google and therefore I already have an account, the choice was easy. That's it. There may be a lot of other decisions, and I may move the blog somewhere else, sometime . . . but I got started right away. I picked mostly the default choices. To me, blogging is thinking slightly more carefully than for email, and then typing.

Who is the Intended Audience?

First of all, me. That's not as selfish as it sounds. It is satisfying to express thoughts, and, for me, clarifies those thoughts.

Second, OCMMA members who may not have had a chance to attend the meeting. It's a worthwhile topic; perhaps others will take away something useful, or contribute comments. (I haven't got to the comments settings yet).

Third, there may be creative professionals working in or learning about design, Web sites, Flash, video, etc. who haven't heard about Orange County Multimedia Association, but who are in Orange County, California. Come on by!

Many thanks to SIG leader Scott for preparing, sharing and generally riding herd on the presentation and vigorous discussion. For more, see ocmma.org. Next month's discussion continues with personal publishing, but focused more on audio content, i.e. podcasting.

--JBo