I’m not an expert – I only play one on the internet. But after two years of on-again/off-again writing for Thotplaces, I’ve discovered some things that will (hopefully) help me in the future.
With the not-so-unreasonable assumption that some people will start up a new blog in the new year, I thought I’d take the opportunity to impart some of those things to you.
1. Come Back
You will start strong, full of vim and vigor and excitement with all the possibilities your new blog has to offer. Then you will slow, you will run out of ideas and you will stop writing. Maybe for a day, maybe for a week, maybe for a few months. But when the time is right, come back. Your failure to maintain that initial enthusiasm will not be unique, but what you have to say could be.
2. Keep Your Titles Simple
I like to try to make catchy or clever titles for my blog posts (I usually fail in that regard, however). Don’t do that. Clever puns and obscure literary references are fun and cute and show your creativity, but I’ve found that those are the posts that seldom get read after they drop off the front page. It’s the titles that feature the terms people are directly searching for that have people discovering them week after week.
3. Don’t Fear Change
You may start your blog with a narrowly defined focus. Or maybe it’s stream-of-consciousness-anything-goes-around-here-baby. But if you eventually find that there are certain odd posts that get the most views time and again (and if getting views is what you’re looking for), don’t be afraid to follow that bit of information – even if it means going a different direction than you’ve established. Maybe you find that you want to get more personal in your posts. Or instead of the personal journal, you want to follow all the news in your favorite sub-genre of historical supernatural romance. It doesn’t matter. Follow your writing wherever it takes you. Your blog will be better for it and there will be someone out there who wants to read it.
There’s plenty of other things that are important for blogging, but we continue to learn those as we go along. I hope giving you this advice – advice I wish I had considered when I started blogging – will strengthen your resolve to blog the hell out of the new year.
Computer Space by pargon on Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Right. So let’s get back to this, shall we?
I find the best way to re-engage someone after some time away is to just ramble incoherently until they figure out how to grab hold of the conversation and pull it in some meaningful direction. Given that we’ve had some time away from this blog, let me start babbling and you can take this somewhere more useful in the comments section. Or not. Whatever.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve become quite enamored with the underlying concept of the internet, the new digital world in which we live and how the future is going to play out. I’d like to say I’ve come up with a Single Unifying Theory of The Information Age, but alas it remains just out of reach. What seems clear to me, however, is how technology and our expanding knowledge is fundamentally changing the world. It’s hard to find a corner of society that has not been touched – if not completely rearranged – by computers, the internet and the social-economic-psychological disruptions they have wrought. Newspapers, books, music, film, radio, television, social interaction, communication, banking & financial institutions, social investment (like Kickstarter), education, and on and on, have been turned on their head. As we continue to see the wave of revolution wash over the landscape, I’m sure anything not directly touched will find itself altered indirectly.
We’ve seen smart phones sweep the globe and bring communication and the sum total of human knowledge along with them. On the horizon, I expect robotics and augmented reality to come more to the front. And we’re going to see the future be about automation, virtualization and segmentation. With improved technology and an ocean of sensors – not to mention geo-location and ubiquitous wireless connectivity – there’s going to be a lot that can be done by robots that might previously have been the domain of unskilled laborers. Any products or services that don’t have to be physical, and have not already been overtaken by their digital counterparts (think music or books), will see their monopoly diminish. And with the powerful platform for creation, promotion and distribution that is the internet put into the hands of common people around the world, I anticipate a growing market of niche products and services that can be both implemented and consumed by small groups – unlike the large production and distribution chains needing even larger target markets to be sustainable.
Look at me, prognosticating about the future of technology and society like I have some kind of specialized knowledge or skill set pertinent to the conversation.
Truth be told, I’m just excited about the possibilities. I think there’s going to be some serious growing pains as the world is turned upside down. Established industries are going to suffer losses or fall entirely. Things are going to be in turmoil for a while. But I think the end result is going to be pretty cool.
If you have any thoughts on the matter, I’d love to hear them. Post in the comments below or tell us about it on our Facebook page.
And if this was a boring return, I apologize. We’ll get it next time. Promise.
Maybe it’s just because the sun has been shining and little cartoon blue jays have been singing as they swoop down onto my shoulder during lazy afternoon walks, but this TED talk recently given by Peter Diamandis has me feeling pretty positive:
Although I’ve heard similar talks given by others in the past, it is nice to hear something other than doom and gloom about our future every now and then. And I may be a sucker, but I think there’s something to the idea of things getting better – rather than worse. And I believe Mr. Diamandis hits on the reason why: lots of brains coming together.
Net Neutrality is becoming a hot topic in the media and the swamplands of Washington, D.C. And it’s an issue that can have a significant impact on all internet users and the way they interact with the internet in the future. So it’s important to have some understanding of what Net Neutrality is and what the controversial fight over it is all about.
Net Neutrality as a concept is a principle element of the internet from it’s point of origin. In a nutshell, the idea is that all data being transferred between two parties should not be discriminated against and should be delivered at the same speed regardless of who sent it or who is receiving it. Despite it’s rather innocuous and boring description, the adherence to this concept is very important to how the internet works.
You might think of the internet as being like a highway, where all traffic can enter or exit the roadway where and when it wants and travels at (approximately) the same speed. An internet without Net Neutrality could (though certainly not “would”) become a “company road”, where the owner/operator of the road could decide what cars are allowed to enter, where they are allowed to exit and what speed they travel based on what suits the company best, including potentially charging for better access and speed. Or even shutting out sites and providers that compete with the owner’s interests.
For the internet, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), like cable providers and telecoms, control the infrastructure for how the network connects. It is not outside the realm of possibility that those ISPs would like the opportunity to have greater control over how the network runs. They might even like to establish “tiered internets”, where they can charge additional amounts to get the ability to use the better version. And I’m not talking about connection speeds, but the actual ability to reach a site or use services like Google or Facebook or Skype. And that’s where Net Neutrality comes in.
At the moment, Net Neutrality is not law or regulation. Companies don’t necessarily have to abide by the concept, though most do most of the time. There have been a few instances of people not playing nice, but overall the system has worked pretty well so far.
As the use of the internet continues to grow, and the demands put on the network continue to grow, and the other services and products that ISPs offer get replaced by internet-based services and products (like, why get a home phone from your ISP when you can make free calls over Skype?), the implicit agreement to follow Net Neutrality ideals becomes less likely to continue. So there has been a significant push as of late for legislation that would enforce Net Neutrality.
Those in favor of legislation typically believe that doing so would prevent ISPs from creating their own tiered internets, preserving the openness of the internet, and allows for further innovation and communication. In this case, ISPs could not force sites and services to pay additional money to reach their users in a more timely fashion and ISPs could not block access to sites that provided competition for other services (like video entertainment, phone services, etc.)
Those who are against legislation typically believe that it opens the door for government regulation of the internet and limits the ISPs ability to better deliver service(s) to customers. An argument of the latter might be: not all data is equal and the ISP should be allowed to slow some data down to improve the performance of other data. If you take e-mail and web video as examples, there’s no real reason why e-mail shouldn’t be slowed down by a few seconds if it means that web video gets delivered faster. And, of course, as for the former, people fear that allowing the government to get involved in regulating the internet might lead to a less open internet in the future anyway.
Regardless of where you fall on the issue, the preservation of an open internet that encourages innovation, communication, learning and discovery is an important goal. We don’t know where the paths in front of us may lead, but we should explore them carefully and slowly so as not to lose the amazing opportunity the internet presents us with.
Come Back
3. Don’t Fear Change
