Where did 2010 go? and now I am 5

Well it's that time of year again where I teach Digital Marketing. I spend a few weeks talking to students about their own online presence. Some start blogs, some develop their twitter identity...last week I asked them to join Linkedin and make contact with me. I don't think any did that.



This year I had to reflect that perhaps I hadn't given my own online presence much love. In fact this blog has somewhat gone to seed. I last posted in late 2009!



This afternoon I am taking a break from marking, last term I had an intense amount of teaching that meant my research suffered and blogging was the last thing on my mind, it also means I've a huge stack of marking still to get through. Still with some light at the end of the marking tunnel I thought I'd spend part of the afternoon figuring out how to go forward with my research and that's where this blog comes in.



I am about to embark on an intense period of time related to my research and PhD specifically and I intend to reflect on the process as I go along. Here I'll be highlighting various aspects for example when I manage to publish something, give a conference paper or read or write something of interest.

That was always the original purpose of this blog which incidentally celebrated it's 5th year last October!! here's a link to that first months blogposts back in 2005 - crikey what a lot has changed in that time!

Hello BCU

Today I am due to present to some colleagues about why I blog. So thought I'd I've myself literally 5 minutes to put down as many reasons as possible:
feedback
rehearse
write down ideas
brainstorm
brain dump
practise articulating
collaborate
raise profile
manage profile
have profile
have online presence
be myself
be me
write
write some more
have ideas
exorcise ideas that won't develop
have ideas that might develop
come back to things
a repository of ideas and thoughts
figure stuff out
things to go back to when ideas dry up
reflect
think
think about multiple perspectives
avoid mentioning names
ethics
research ethics
plan
note to self
link
link to people
link to events
link to research
link me to literature
connect me to people
association with events and people and places
tell my story..........

I think I could go on and on. Blimey the endless benefits. Others might mention the 'conversation' being part of, and contributing to, the conversation around my research area.

Okay my blog has also just proved useful to thinking about what I might say this afternoon! Happy day.