Thoughts on Blogging

Took a moment to google 'research blogs' and my assumptions about blogging seems to hold up. Most blogs seem to fade away after a short time. There was a short blog about blogs, or more like a list of research blogs, and pretty much every one of them seems to have died several years ago. Some are gone altogether, others are frozen in 2003.

It's interesting that rarely do they continue to exist. I think the enthusiasm wanes.

My 'research' blog isn't so much about research, it's more about pre-tea, first thing in the morning thoughts. On that note, I think I'll get a cup of tea started... Okay, kettle's on.

Anyway - I was saying - the concept of a research blog, first of all, is a bit implausible. Any research has an element of trying to discover something, or achieve something original. And no sane researcher would give their 'competitors' the details of what they are doing on a daily basis. Sure, much of the research we do gets shared eventually. Corporately, it gets shared through product success, or publishing/patenting. But we don't share the process along the way, thus enabling our competitors to benefit from our labour and steal the prize. Even academic research or 'pure' research if such a thing exists - nobody would expose their work to being scouped by someone else who could take the glory. Mere explanation of the problem and vaguely how you are approaching it could be fatal. So I don't think you'd see much in that vein.

My approach, exploring the vagaries of big corporate (oceanographic of course) research from an individual point of view, pseudo anonymous to avoid being chastised by my irrational employer is more likely. And surely most of these fade out after a while too. Actually I'd like to find another one of these - are you out there?? Post a comment with a pointer to your work-a-day blog. I promise I won't erase it (assuming it's not one of those "I found your blog inquisitive" spam-postings that are the scourge of blog comments everywhere.

This is my only continuous blog. I think success in blogging is more likely if you make it more event based. For example, I blog about travel, and that blog sits dormant until I go on another trip, then it springs to life and my friends can follow my progress, along with the odd other person who might stumble upon it.

I also have what I call weblists or "blists" (yeah, I know it hasn't caught on). It's a list in a blog. So my favourite movies, or various other things I like to keep a running list on. They are blogs with only one entry, and I just keep updating it.

You'd think Google/Blogger would think of that (drat, should have patented it) and they could market it as a new thing. Meanwhile, I occasionally get on and update the single entry with another example of whatever, and increment the date to today.

Anyway, the kettle is hot, and my tea is ready, so I'll turn my attention to that. Hope someone out there is occasionally enjoying my 'research blog' but even if I'm typing into the ether without an audience, I've enjoyed being able to peek back and see some of my thoughts from days gone by.

And when this fades out like all the other non-corporate, personal blogs, perhaps it will hang around on a server somewhere for a few decades as a snapshot in time for someone doing their PhD on early net culture in 2138.

Researchinator fishes out the tea paraphernalia to make something sippable.