However much I hate to name anything these days as “something 2.0”, I nevertheless think that it is time for a serious reboot and and a new version of my blogging activities.
I started OpenLife way back in the beginning of 2002 and since then it has been the outlet of a tirade of more and less (mostly less) relevant rants from my side. The posts have been pretty unstructured and chaotic spanning from personal stuff over posts about chocolate and music to a lot posts about open source and IT law.
After the advent of social media such as Facebook and Twitter a lot of my online activity has moved away from my blog. The small quick post are now added to Twitter and Facebook. So what is the role of my blog these days?
I think there is still plenty of reasons for someone like me to keep on blogging the old fashioned way. Here are three reasons that I can think of.
1. I have little control over my content at online social media such as Linkedin, Facebook, Plaxo and Twitter. Yes, I might still hold copyright to my postings at all these places, even though most of these sites would probably try to sneak in terms in their terms of service that try to erode these rights. But as long as all the data shared on these sites are not both de facto and de jure based on open format, it will be very difficult to export any of my content and data in a format where I can actually use or re-use it.
So I need to maintain, update, evolve my blog, as this is where I have ultimate control over my content.
2. It’s been good to learn to limit rants and outburst to 140 characters. The Haiku style of Twitter and other status updates forces you to limit yourself to what is important. But sometimes I need to have more space. On occasions, believe or not, I feel that I have something relevant or important to say that takes up more than 140 characters.
So in the future I will try to make far fewer post to my blog, but each longer and more compelling. History – and Google analytics – will judge me mercilessly.
3. Finally, my blog have to be targeted. As mentioned, OpenLife has been dealing with tons of unrelated topics. A visitor’s only change to find anything coherence has been to use a purge based on “categories”. This does not work. I know from my own experience as an avid blog feed subscriber that I only have time to read postings from blogs that deal exclusively with issues that have my interest and from which reason I have subscribed to.
So my plan is to split OpenLife into three blogs. First, openlife.dk that will deal exclusively with my life and interests. Second, lexlinus.dk where I will blog on issues related to open source. And finally, third, newmediahouse.dk (or another name) that will deal will new media law and IT law in general.
Let’s se what happens!
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