How do the active bloggers do it? How do they fit the time to shape their words and post their entries in between all of the other things that life demands. While I'm delighted and intrigued by this medium, and filled with ideas about the research potential lurking within the communities and communication channels of bloggers and blogs, it's hard to find the time to think clearly enough to articulate those thoughts in a way that I'd want the rest of the world to read.
The best of the blogs seem to be very plugged into the feedback loop--referencing each other, building on each other's post. So it's not just the writing that consumes time (that may be the easy part, actually). It's the reading, the linking, the responding, the connection-building.
For me, at least, there's also a sense of vulnerability in posting my words to a public place. The very thing that makes this process so interesting--the interlinking and cross-reading--also makes it feel risky. You have to strike a balance between the immediacy of stream-of-consciousness writing, and the careful phrasing of public words that can come back to haunt you.
Hehe. Since you posted on my blog, you are now in my sights. ;-)
Have you read the 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web? Rule 10 is "Relax!". It says "10. Relax!
Don�t worry too much about correctness: Find a voice and use it. Most readers will overlook, and nearly all will forgive, errors in punctuation and spelling. Leave Fowler and Roget on the shelf, unless they�re your old friends. Write clearly and simply and write quickly, for if you are to write often you must neither hesitate or quibble." I think that's exactly right. Blogs are somewhere between writing email and publishing. The communication aspect is much more important than the perfection of each thought. As you say, it is the web of interconnections.
If I'm going to be in anyone's sights, I'm flattered that it's yours! :-)
I love the "ten tips" site...hadn't seen that before. Been a long time since I looked at A List Apart. Didn't realize it was still going strong. Lots of interesting stuff there.
Once I've got tenure, I think I'll be able to relax a bit more about words that live in the public sphere. (four more months 'til I know about that)