A few weeks ago Jason Kottke wrote a post for Nieman Journalism lab declaring that the blog is dead. People have been ringing the blogs are dead bells for several years. While these used to draw some controversy, that topic has been beaten to death. If a declaration needs to be made on an annual basis…well then it’s probably not true and Kottke even states that from the get-go and stated he deliberately wrote the post in a provocative way. Now I don’t deny that the prominence of personal blogs hasn’t declined and I completely agree with the rebuttal to Kottke’s post that John Scalzi wrote. The proliferation of social services and mobile apps that have lowered the barrier to post content online along with delivering installed audiences with tools to engage is the biggest reason that blogs have declined.
I created this site in 1996 and shortly thereafter began blogging on it. Over the last few years though I too have spent more time posting to social services and when I do write it’s primarily over at Lifestream Blog. But I do still cherish this site and just wanted to give it a face-lift and update to reflect my current state of online behavior to keep it fresh and remove that graveyard feel it was getting with the lack of updates.
I’ve completely re-designed the site. My home page now contains the latest updates I’m sharing across several social services. To the right you will see several of those updates broken down by type. Top navigation will take you to my blog and pages that provide even more of the content you see on sidebars. I will continue to write here at times, but have modified the site where that isn’t front and center anymore. In creating this updated site I’m leveraging several online services, a new WordPress theme and several plugins. I will write another post to share that information for those that are interested.