Episode 10 – Risky Business? Blogs on Campus, Part I
18 July, 20074 comments
Dan, Mills, and Tom celebrate the tenth edition of Digital Campus with part one in a new series on blogs and blogging. In this episode, we take a look back at how we became bloggers, examine questions of subject matter, voice, and style, and debate the risks and rewards of blogging in a scholarly context. We also report on problems posed by the iPhone for wireless network administrators, the subversive role of SMS in China, and ups and downs for humanists in Second Life. Picks of the week include Flock, a “social” web browser, the David Rumsey collection of nearly 16,000 historic maps, and the launch of plain text Google Books.
Other links include:
Professors, Start Your Blogs
The Perils of Anonymity
Finding History
L.A. Times on the true number of Second Lifers
MacArthur funds work in Second Life, from NYT
PhDinHistory’s new blog
Running time: 52:20
Download the .mp3.
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Mark Sample : 26th August, 2007
Great podcast. There’s so much to be said about the benefits and hazards of being an academic blogger (or is it a blogging academic?). I seem to be breaking most of the rules you lay out here (I don’t stick to one subject, I blog irregularly, and I’ve got a blasted tag cloud on my front page). If I get the time, I’ll parse out some of these thoughts on my own blog.
I can’t remember who said it in the podcast, but I agree that the iPhone, for now, is not a “game changer” on GMU’s campus. I doubt many students have plunked down the cash. I’m sure we’ll discover that the students are all text messaging in the middle of class on their regular old cell phones.
It’ll be interesting to contrast GMU with my wife’s college (Davidson College), where they have explicit directions on configuring the iPhone to work with the campus wifi network.
Joe Blogger : 30th August, 2007
It really depends on what you are blogging about, and what the purpose of your blog is.
A (we)blog is meant to be personal, but at the same time available to others. If you have something to write, then you post, if you don’t, then you don’t post. If your blog has too much junk in it, people won’t subscribe to it, if it is too irregular, they may unsubscribe.
If indiscriminant readership/authority is what you are after, you need to spend more time and effort on your blog. If however you are trying to publish thoughts, ideas, comments on certain academic topics you come across, and gain a more select crowd of readers, then set a goal and publicize it on your blog (just like you do with the podcast) – Just say – new posts every xx days/weeks, so readers don’t get caught off guard when there is no new post in 2 weeks.
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