Through the Lens: the blogging process (or, Notes from the Blogface) - Part 3

Into R. Blood`s site I travel. Hmm, clean site. Has a bloggy feel. I casually scroll the page, taking in the links right of screen and headings as I go. The first item in the list of links is `weblog`. I click. The first three posts have something to do with gas prices, including a post on an article in Newsweek on taxes. I side track now to the right side of the screen and scan the extra links available. Quick links to other sites; a link entitled `a few thoughts on journalism and what can weblogs do about it` and my mind returns to the articles I had reviewed on blogs and journalism. Interesting. The next link points to Blood`s book and includes a list of Amazon editor`s best of 2002, digital culture. I sense there is a raft of reviews of Blood`s book from my initial searches, so click to see what comes of the Amazon review. Blood`s book is 6th of the Amazon list. I close the window thinking cynically that there are many ways to advertise your wares!

Back to Blood`s blog. There is a section entitled `recent press`. I scan and note `blogging, breakfast radio national`. How interesting. Some audio amongst all this text. Where might this link take me I wonder? ABC Online! So, ABC Breakfast Radio has stepped into the blog hype as well!

I quickly review the program synopsis and see that ABC breakfast radio is talking about blogging in response to the recent furore of the blog by Salam Pax, a guest at the Sydney Writers Festival. On the discussion panel is the inevitable Rebecca Blood, press critic Jay Rosen and Lea Rainie, head of PEW Internet and American Life. The synopsis ends with a link to Blood`s weblog.

Sidenote
Of course, the blogging phenomenon has been elevated into the news by the recent Salam Pax book, "Baghdad Blog", based on his blog, Dear Raed. The blog documents Salam Pax`s thoughts and comments during the Iraq war. I jump back into AlltheWeb to search for Salam`s blog. There are many news stories related to the blog and the resulting book (Amazon appears a number of times in the search results). I click on a number fo the links sensing the pages will link to the Dear Raed web log. However, most of the links are broken! I attempt to control my frustration, but can`t help thinking that professional news sites should make an effort to keep their links up to date! An article from smh.com.au looked interesting, covering the diary of Salam Pax, but again the web log link was broken.

Back to AlltheWeb and another result pointing to the Baghdad blog. I click but still no link! My frustrations increase as I begin to consider that Salam having now published and reaping the financial rewards in the book world, has disappeared from the blog world and taken his blog with him! Traitor! I find another interesting link to the Guardian, publishers of Salam`s blog-turned-book. The site contains the first chapter of the book, downloadable to whet the appetite. Of course, I download the chapter for later reading.

Finally! A link within an article in Wired News is live. I click to reveal the Dear Raed blog. I am gratified.

I bookmark the blog for later reference (in my Blogging bookmark folder), realising the Friday afternoon is quickly slipping away.

So, I have now come full circle. `Self`, I say, `I must document my experience of the last 90 minutes, as it has illustrated a process greater than simply blogging`.

If I am to write on blogging in my own blog, surely I should create a ?mindful? space in which to write and the academic in me says I should collect such evidence and marry it to the recent articles I have read on blogs and their potential in teaching and learning.

My blogging here is done. (Now for the critique...!)