To Blog, or Not to Blog?

The Education Network Australia, or Edna for short, recently did a little survey of why people blog (or don’t blog) as part of their eLearning Insights series. They did it on their Vox Pop service, a rather neat little web app that enables people to record an audio grab directly to a widgety thing on the page, a little like Evoca or Voicethread. This sort of technology is neat because you can embed audio into a page without the need for special software and there is no messing about with uploading files, etc. How very Web 2.0…

Anyway, they were asking people to respond to the question “Do you blog? Why or why not?

I left a comment on the service, but I was also quite intrigued to hear everyone else’s responses to the question. Those who blogged regularly seemed to focus on the idea of community, collaboration, conversation and the whole idea of “wisdom of crowds” thinking. I thought the responses of those who didn’t blog were rather interesting though, with reasons ranging across not enough time, finding it all too revealing and personal, and not thinking they had anything to say.

Anyway, it’s worth a listen if you get a few minutes. Click the link below to play the audio…

http://media.educationau.edu.au/E-Insights_Episode16f.mp3

Welcome to 2008

The Kiwis got there a few hours before us, but Sydney’s New Year’s Eve celebrations have come and gone for another year. Linda and I caught the train into the city last night, along with more than a million other Sydneysiders, and watched $600,000 worth of gunpowder get launched above the harbour. As always, it was quite the spectacle. We got in there a couple of hours before midnight and wandered through Martin Place, then down George Street towards the Quay. The crowd was getting pretty raucous the closer we got to the harbourfront so we turned up Hunter Street and tried getting a spot at Mrs Macquaries Point but it was completely full. We kept walking all the way past Wooloomooloo, Garden Island and eventually found a decent vantage point in Potts Point, just below St Vincents School.

I took a little bit of video, as I promised I would on Twitter… here you go Jen Wagner! At the time of posting this, the Pacific, Australia, Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe have all already ushered in the new year. London is about 30 minutes away while Canada the Americas are still another few hours away yet. It’s a big world.

Anyway, Happy New Year and all the best for 2008, no matter where you may be in the world!

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