A great way to capture life where your live

Over the last two days we had constant snow (actually the whole month of January and it looks like February is on its way). The Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences has begun to keep a blog (which it started a few years ago but abandoned until this semester). As part of their blog, they included a time lapse of 52 hours of the various storms we had passing through. It is really impressive to watch.

The educational value of the blog is interesting to me. The school connects to the community and community is able to use the knowledge and understanding the school is creating.

Is blogging changing?

This was going to be a different post. I was going to look at the blogs that I follow and the different ways that I follow them. However, as I began to review (and purge the links as I usually do on an annual basis) the blogs I read, I realized that blogging has really changed this year.

In fact, I still have a core group of blogs that I read on a regular basis. But their style, patterns of posting, and even the way they link to other posts, blogs, and readers has (for the most part) changed drastically.

I see blog posts now following one of three trends:

• Blogs are more informative, reflective, and formal. Michael Hanley's posts have always fit this format. But I noticed this year that Tony Karrer's eLearning Technology become less spontanious and pondering. As a result, blogs appear to be more of a learning tool or marketing tool for an organization. It also seems to be replacing more traditional publishing venues to get research or articles out in a more timely manner. Taking a page from Andy Coverdale and Gina Minks, I have begun to blog my own dissertation research process and results.
  
• I am feeling that I am coming into the middle of a conversation (or the end of a conversation) that was started somewhere else (such as twitter or facebook). It appears that blogging is the reflective or summary of those conversations. Karyn Romeis still has a very conversational style, but she will refer to other conversations she has had on facebook. Harold Jarche will refer to others at aggregated blog sites where he is collaborating with colleagues. As a result, I don't feel that there is as much "conversation" on blogs as there used to be. In addition, I have noticed that Michael, Harold, Karyn, and Tony all have easy access to Twitter on their sites. Ken Allan has moved into a different rhelm this year: 2nd life. His posts often include graphics taken from 2nd Life. In fact, some blogs that I have been reading for the last couple of years either took hyatises or have not had posts in months.
• One thing I have noticed is a decrease in the number of comments. I'm not sure if this is because the conversation has moved to other venues or if the authors are not responding as much. It seems, though, that blogging is still being used to start conversation, but not necessarily on the blogs. There are other technologies being used for the "community". I am always surprised that there are not more comments on Nancy White's Full Circle Associates' blog or Jon Husband's Wirearchy. After all, these blogs are about community and network building!

So what do you think blogging will end up looking like in the next year? Are bloggers that don't tweet at a disadvantage? Is blogging even passe at this point?

By the way, since I listed most of the other blogs that I read on a regular basis, I think I should include the others that are on my igoogle or reader:

Visual's speak: Chrisine Martell writes a nice "creativity" blog
Lucacept: Jenny Luca is a librarian in an Austrian school
Growing Changing Learning Creating: Tom Haskins' blog reminds me of mine...it's all over the place but always thought provoking.
Digital Perspectives: I just love Kathreen's photo blog. But she's been a bit quiet at the end of this year! I hope she starts up again because her photos always make me feel good.

Identifying blogs

While I see articles, seminars, and resources on how to find information using search engines and how to find and evaluate resources through the library, I have yet to see anything that identifies how to identify blogs.

What got me thinking about this topic was spending the weekend with my sister and her family. My brother in law is a financial planner and he was pouring through magazines and journals that come to his office for free. I asked him if he found anything useful, and he indicated that most was too broad to be of use, most likely since any useful information would be outdated by the time it was published. I asked if he followed any blogs, and he said he had yet to tap into one that was useful, but that he really did not have time to go looking so his search had been superficial.

This got me to thinking about how I have found the blogs that I now read on a regular basis.

My Own Journey into Finding Blogs

Most of the blogs I subscribe to came out of the online conferences I have participated in over the last few years. Those online conferences started with a simple e-mail on a listserv announcing the conference on Connectivism. My first two blog subscription came out of that conference for George Sieman's elearnspace and Vicki Davis's Cool Cat Teacher Blog. I found Tony Karrer's blog through the conference on elearning innovations and trend.

As I began to participate more in the blogs, I learned I could find out about other blogs by clicking on those posting's profile. This is how I found Karyn Romeis, Christy Tucker, and Guy Boulet (whose names I recognized from participating in online conferences) Joan Vinall-Cox, Clark Quinn, Christine Martell, and Harold Jarche. I was then asked to participate in the Work Literacy blog. As I began to blog more, I then began to create other contacts with those that would comment on my blog such as Ken Allen and Michele Martin.

So, how do I decide which blogs I am going to subscribe to and how do I follow them?

Upon reflection, I realize that I tend to go back to blogs where the authors are discussing issues that are of interest to me. Sometimes I am right on the same page as them (as I tend to be with Karyn Romeis and Joan Vinall-Cox. However, more often than not, the topics under discussion are interesting to me and the authors will engage me in a discussion of the topic. In fact, I find more often than not, Tony Karrer and Guy Boulet have a very different take on their topics than I do.

When I look at the blogs, I look at the profile of the writer. The name is not as important as a description of the blog and its purpose. I will follow a link from a respected blog. Before subscribing, I will need to follow the blog for a while. If I have not read the blog for while, I will reevaluate the subscription.

Recently, I have begun to organize the blogs and how I access them differently. I now make sure that those posts I find interesting I put on delicious. I have some of my blogs on RSS feeds (mostly those I have been following for a while). However, others I have begun to put on igoogle so I can access them away from home. These tend to be blogs that I can use in planning my teaching.

While I have tried to find blogs via search engines, I find I have not had any real look. While I might get popular sites, they don't fit into what I am interested in.

So, I am interested in knowing how others find blogs in their fields? How do you decide which ones to subscribe to? How do you keep track of them? How do you vet them?