Cole Camplese threw the blogging gauntlet down today. In a general post on his blog, he proposed the idea of writing a blog post each day for the month of August. After a number of favorable responses, Cole fleshed out the guidelines in his post New Rules, One Post a Day and challenged his readers to join him in this experiment. I find this both intriguing and terrifying. Obviously, I don't post every day; instead, I tend to blog when the feeling moves me (as she says in Pretty Woman, "I say who, I say where, I say how much..."). So to make the commitment that I will definitely create a post each day that isn't just phoned in is a big commitment for me. What will I talk about?
Honestly, I am going to rely on my community for much of my input. I am going to make observations and engage others who have also decided to join this experiment to interact with their posts, their thoughts, their reflections. This is going to be more than I normally do; a lot of times, I simply lurk on a blog but it really doesn't allow me to engage in the discussion, now, does it? Bad form, Robin! Perhaps this is what I need to better understand and get to know my community. What they are interested in. What their background is. What motivates them. What are they passionate about. Right now I don't know where this is going.
But I bet I find out.
Honestly, I am going to rely on my community for much of my input. I am going to make observations and engage others who have also decided to join this experiment to interact with their posts, their thoughts, their reflections. This is going to be more than I normally do; a lot of times, I simply lurk on a blog but it really doesn't allow me to engage in the discussion, now, does it? Bad form, Robin! Perhaps this is what I need to better understand and get to know my community. What they are interested in. What their background is. What motivates them. What are they passionate about. Right now I don't know where this is going.
But I bet I find out.
So here, reposted, are Cole's parameters for this month long experiment:
So there it is. One post, each work day, of value and fun. Hopefully insight will follow.
- I'll post every week day during the month of August. I am giving myself the weekends to think about other things.
- Posts have to be meaningful to count. I'm not going to simply point at an external site and say "this is cool." I'll try to find things that could be of value to the community.
- Sticking to a theme seems like a good idea. From a few the comments it seems important to have a focus and I think I know what I want to focus on ... I'll work to expose interesting results from both our and national statistics that have emerged in the last year. I'll draw upon data we've been collecting and attempt to add a layer of context to it that explains where we are going and why.
- Trying to create conversation will be a big part of the effort. I'd like to share stuff that gets people anxious, angry, excited, and interested in talking back.
- Having fun and writing are really what it is all about. If I'm not having fun, I'm done. That doesn't mean I am dropping out if it gets hard, but it means that if I am having a good time exploring ideas then it is a waste of time.
- There are no invitations required to join in. If you want to write along with me, let's come with a shared tag and I'll aggregate stuff together on a public page shared via Google Reader. I you want to come along, establish your own theme, and torment yourself with me then leave a comment and share an idea for a shared tag.
Are you in too?
Welcome to the posting party! This should be an interesting month of content around here. I am looking forward to seeing what comes of all this. Thanks for being a part of the latest insane grand experiment!
I wrote this post when I came up for 10 minutes of air during the retreat. Thought it was an intriguing idea, and worth a go. While I admire Reginald's ability to come up with an actual list of topics to discuss during the month, I have less faith in my ability to do so. Instead, I think I am going to mine the efforts of others that are taking the plunge with us, then use trackbacks so that I can respond while still retaining a record of my content. At least that's my plan at the moment; hopefully I might even be motivated to come up with content of my own accord. We'll see how it plays out.