Things I've Learned About Blogging in 2010

Here are a few things I have learned about blogging and about myself while taking this Blogs In Education class.

• First and foremost, don't bite off more than you can chew. Apparently, keeping up three blogs as well as a full-time job, Master's classes, and some turmoil in my personal life is a little more than I can chew and I feel like all of the projects have suffered a bit this month while I have tried to balance them. I started writing food reviews for eatsalem.com as well as keeping up my Salem blog and this blog. I also have a blog for work that I've been trying to keep up for my students. 
• Non-bloggers have a different perception of blogging than I do and that is probably okay. Not everyone needs to blog. 
• Blogging is a big enough thing these days that it is being scientifically studied. Who knew? Not me. I didn't realize how much interesting research and how many journal articles I would find when I started looking into it. 
• What my students are doing in class, although it is on a blog, may not fall into the category of "blogging." Blogging is more than just writing an online journal. Although I knew this, I couldn't put it into words like some have. Blogging is analyzing information on one subject and writing about it on a consistent basis over a period of time. Some of my students probably fall into the actual blogging category and others are less advanced in their abilities and are just practicing their writing skills, not really delving into the higher levels of thinking needed to analyze information.
• Keeping up with comments doesn't work as well in Blogger as I would like. It is difficult to have actual conversations in blog comments because the other person may not know that you have responded. I think WordPress might be better at this because it gives you an option to get an email when someone comments after you. I started to put up a WordPress blog, but I'm going to have to hold off on that for now.
• I am very social. Therefore even my online social networking ends up being a truly social real life experience. Apparently this doesn't happen for everyone and some people end up feeling cut off from "real life" by their online activity.

Commercial Blogs

Lately, I've been really interested in commercial blogging and what seems to work in that genre of blogs. (Sidenote: can I apply the word "genre" to different types of blogs or does it only apply to literary works?) There are a couple different types of commercial blogs. The type many people think of when they think of commercial blogs are the blogs that make lots of money off of advertising because they have a huge audience. The type I would like to focus on are the commercial blogs that are used to enhance an already existing business.

Here are a couple local examples that I really like:

The Real Estate Jumble
William Bragg Photography

Now, how does this tie into blogs in education, you ask? Well, I've been thinking. These people care a lot about enhancing and adverstising the business that is their livilihood. So, if the classroom is my livelihood, how can I use a blog to enhance that business? Perhaps we need to think like these business people in order to figure out the best way to use blogs for education.

Some things I've noticed about these commercial blogs are that they strive to become a place where people go for information about all things that relate to their business. That way they become useful to their audience, who will then think of them whenever they think of that business in general.

I think the idea of being useful is the key for education blogs as well. Is my blog useful for my students? Their parents? Other teachers? If my students are blogging, are their blogs useful to other students? Their teachers? Their parents?

This is just a concept I thought I'd put out there.

Measures 66 & 67 in Oregon

Since I have quite a bit to say about these measures, and since Denvy had some of the same questions I had, I decided to just write up a little post about them. I am certainly not an expert, but I will do my best to pass on the information I have been given.

I was concerned about farmers as well. I have been hearing about how this could put them out of business. After getting the facts, I can only assume they are misinformed about the measure. First of all, only C corporations will pay taxes on their gross sales. Most small businesses fall into one of the five other categories of businesses such as sole proprietorships, limited liability corporations, or S corporations. Those five other types of businesses will be subject to the new $150 minimum tax, but will not have to pay anything on their gross sales.

C corporations are generally meant for businesses that plan to have many investors. Most C corporations are big businesses and some of them will have to pay the 1/10 of 1% tax on their gross sales. Yes, they will have to do this even if they don't have a profit. I was concerned about this until I figured out how much this was really going to be. Let's say a company has 5 million dollars in gross sales, but claims no profit. They would have to pay $4000 in taxes in Oregon. Well, that is about $333 a month. If a company has $5M in sales a year they are running about $416,600 through their coffers every month. A small amount like $333 is going to be chump change for them in the scheme of things. I seriously doubt it is going to break them. A bad shipment or a minor loss of any kind would set them back more than $333.

Oregon has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the country. This is a tax on gross sales in Oregon so many businesses from out of state will actually be the ones paying this tax. If you own a C corp. business that sells mostly out of state, you won't have to pay this tax on your sales out of state. This tax will still leave Oregon as one of the lowest corporate tax states in the nation. It is definitely lower than either Washington or California, our closest neighbors. I don't think this tax is going to keep any corporations from locating in Oregon. Now, an unstable economy and a lack of social services to the community and their employees might keep them from locating here, but 1/10th of 1% in gross sales probably won't. Just sayin'.

The personal income tax just makes sense to me. If you make much more than the average citizen, you should pay your fair share. I like the Biblical saying, "To whom much is given, much shall be required." It just seems right. I pay a rather large portion in taxes, and I can afford it because I don't have any dependents. I don't like it, but I do feel that it is only fair.

I think it is really important to have social services and a stable environment for businesses to grow in. Business doesn't flourish in areas where people are worried about basic survival. I think we need to take care of each other, and sometimes this is done through government services and schools. AND, we need to find a stable way to keep our budget balanced so these services can continue. This way may not be perfect, but I think it's a good start.

My Week in Social Media

Do I use social media too much? Let's see.

Monday, I made plans via Twitter to get together with some blog and twitter friends for happy hour after work. We met at Allesandro's in downtown Salem and had a lovely chat, along with some food and drinks. After I left Allesandro's, I headed to the Ike Box for a meeting on Measures 66 & 67 that I had been invited to via Facebook.

When I got home from the meeting, I posted on Twitter that I was planning to vote "yes" on 66 & 67. That started a slew of comments and discussions on Twitter and ended with me agreeing to go talk to some people on Thursday about their decision to vote no. We'll be meeting at the Beanery tomorrow if anyone wants to buy tickets to the debate let me know. Just kidding. I think it'll be a civil discussion...I hope...

In the meantime, I saw on Twitter that there was an earthquake in Haiti. I called (yes, I used the old fashioned cellular telephone to do this!) my friend whose sister is living in Haiti currently. He didn't answer as he normally doesn't at work, so I left a message there and then also posted a message on her Facebook page. My message went up on her page with about 20-25 other messages from friends praying for their safety. I then got a text message in the middle of the night telling me she was safe, checked Facebook this morning, and was directed to two online news articles that told of their escape from their crumbling building.

And here I am blogging away. This is my life 2010 style.

What Does it All Mean?

I have been working with blogging over the last year and a half. Most of that time I have spent trying to figure out the technical details of how to make it all work and connecting with other bloggers. What I haven't spent much time on is the theoretical questions about what makes blogging work, how does it affect society, is it useful and how so, does it change our society significatly, etc. As I started thinking about these things I realized I just DID blogging. I never really thought about what it meant in the bigger scheme of life and society.

I have heard a lot of people wondering about the accuracy of information in blogs. It's true that there is no real regulation of what is written. Then again, if people find out that the information is bad they will often stop reading a particular blog and will find one of the millions of others out there to read instead. And if no one really reads a blog, then it kind of becomes obsolete.

Vanessa sent a link in a comment that was an interesting discussion of how people choose to read information that is close to their own outlook. So I wonder how that affects the information people get? Is it easier to find information that matches your own opinions when there are so many blogs to choose from? What do you think?

Links

Here are links to some of my other posts:

My introduction of myself is here.

My personal experiences and thoughts on blogging are here.

Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Such

I admit it. I use all of these. I've been blogging for the longest, but last summer I added Twitter and Facebook. I mostly added those two because I wanted to know what they were all about. It's interesting because they all fulfill different roles for me. I blog to be active in my community. I Facebook to catch up with old friends. I Twitter to make new friends, connect with people I don't know as well, and get information from sources I don't have in my "real" life.

I do think that society has changed somewhat because of these online communications, but I really feel like this is just an extension of the natural urges of humans to connect with others. We have always had social groups and clubs. Now we just have them in a virtual world instead of a physical world. Before the advent of the internet and social networking sites, people met up in clubs like the Elks, Boy Scouts, book clubs and other social clubs. This hasn't completely changed that real world meeting of friends, but it has affected it. I think that people have a tendency to meet first online now, and then eventually form groups that meet-up in person to establish friendships and networks in real time.

One thing that I think has changed with online socialization is the level of disclosure people are comfortable with. I found some research awhile back about a study that was done on how honest people were online as compared to face-to-face contact. It was amazing how much more honest people tended to be when they couldn't see another person's face. I can't remember the numbers, but I remember that the level of truth-telling skyrocketed when people were chatting online. There is something about being a little bit anonymous that seems to give people the freedom to really let it all hang out. Now, is this a good thing? Maybe, but maybe not. I, for one, don't want to see social graces exchanged for indiscriminate truth. Sometimes a little mystery is a good thing.

I think the way that social media has changed us the most is that our networks no longer have to be bound by geographical distance. In a split second I can be chatting with my friends who are teaching English in China, even though they are half a world away in a completely different time zone. Because of this ability to interact no matter where in the world we are, I think people are more willing to move, travel, and generally be mobile because it doesn't mean losing touch with people who are important to us. So in a way, social media has taken away the loss associated with moving, changing jobs, etc. I think this makes people more willing to take those risks.

I think people will always strive for ways to connect with other humans. I believe that we have seen a shift in how that happens in our era, but I imagine it will continue to change and grow as technology advances. What doesn't change in all of this is the basic need to people to have friends and connect with others. Human nature doesn't seem to change dramatically just because technology does. Ah, the great mystery of humanity. :)