Angie Clever

What bloggers have in common it that we all want to make progress towards our goals. I spent some time reading other blogs out there, and I suddenly had an insight. We aren’t writing for anyone else. We are writing because, at the end of the day, we want to see some progress in our own life, and we want to be part of the future.

The feeling of frustration sets in when you go to work, 9 to 5 , repeat. You come home, you eat dinner, you watch TV, you do your nightly chores. If you are lucky you get a read and long bath (or shower, as the case may be), but most of the time you probably don’t. It is easy to get bogged down in the monotony of day to day life and lose site of your goals. It’s easy to get so caught up in the basics that you forget what it is that you are really working for.

Writers (Bloggers) Create Something

Blogging is becoming a legitimate form of publication. Just like novels or newspapers, they have an audience that reads them, and there are a variety of writers and writing styles, good and bad. There are some “Best-selling” blogs—which translates into those blogs that get loads of traffic. There are also some flops. Many times you can look at the writing style and topic and see how successful a blog is, or will be.

Great Reasons to Blog

1. It makes you do your homework“The lack of formality and the ease of cross-referencing other blog content or references means is great to accelerate discussion and promote broader thinking and understanding.” (David Wilson)

2. This is the way people will learn and share information in the future “This is the difference represented in the shift from traditional classroom based learning and network learning. The idea of the latter is that learning occurs when the learner immerses him or herself in a community of practice, learning by performing authentic tasks, learning by interacting with and becoming a member of the community.” (Stephen Downes)

3. Lets potential customers and other people know you professionally and personally “What can you know about a professional who doesn’t blog his or her work? How do you know they are competent, that they have the respect of their peers, that they understand the issues, that they practice sound methodology, that they show consideration for their clients? You cannot know any of this without the openness blogging (or equivalent) provides. Which means, once a substantial number begin to share, there will be increasing pressure on all to share.” (Stephen Downes)

4. Helps you get perspective on your life, to build something meaningful “there is something that happens to a person when they hit that “publish” button - you cross a threshold - you move from consumer to producer - you put your intellectual neck on the line and I really think that you aren’t the same person after that.” (Mark Oehlert)

5. You network and build relationships that future your career and personal growth“all learning professionals need to exchange ideas with others, to test their ideas, to question their assumptions, to learn from each other in ways that come with dialog. Blogging is great for forming networks based on weak social ties.” (Bill Bruck)

Blogs are bigger than novels or newspapers because they are dynamic. A blog site, much like a website but in a larger way, is a dynamic book with the ability to grow and change as the author progresses through her life. Instead of the static viewpoint brought about by one time or social circumstance, a well written blog provides literary insight into someone life, what really makes them tick.

Our Literary Past

It’s hard to imagine in the days of full color billboards and two pounds of junk mail every day, but there was a time when humans did not write. Not alphabet, no language, nothing. Then we progressed to a time when only the most educated wrote and read, and stories and information was mostly passed by word of mouth. When most people became literate, the world changed. When the printing press was invented and allowed people to easily own book and written material, the face of the world was forever altered.

Then advertisement and print became common—there were great news media battles between newspapers in the late 1800s. Then the print ant media on television in the 1950s.

The internet came into popular culture in the late 1990s. Suddenly print information was available instantaneously from you home. It was dynamic and could be updated and changed.

The Future of Writing

The new millennium holds dynamic websites, powerful interactive communities and online gaming sites. What do you think the next step is?

Already many businesses are starting to blog to provide direct customer support, product updates, and, mostly, the personal presence of a person that is on the other end of that web connection. Suddenly the web is less impersonal.

Do you realize the modern Book was Pioneered in the 1800s?

Have you noticed the structure of blogs. Take the standard WordPress: Category, Sub Category, Post, Archives. It is a format. Think of the standard book: Table of Contents, Contents, Ending/Notes/Index/Appendices. That format was not always common sense. It was pioneered and perfected after the advent of the printing press. My point is that online literature is in its infancy, but is taking a more defined shape every day.

The future of literature is in interactive online format. Imagine, only twenty years ago most libraries used index card systems to find books? Online databases revolutionized the process of searching for literature. The next logical step is to actually provide literature online with fully searchable dynamic content. The content itself being dynamic bits of information not limited by the normal linear structure of books.

Freedom From Linear Literature

Think of the novels of the future. Can you see multi-dimensional novels being written through blog-like mechanisms? Instead of flowing from start to finish, the novel exists in a series of pieces that depend on the users’ interaction. Already we are seeing periodicals like this. Online magazines don’t flow from start to finish, but are comprised of interactive menus allowing users to flip to pertinent sections.

The future of literature is dynamic written content. Books, Newspapers, Magazines (which think, only in recent history has printing been affordable enough to produce the many full colored magazines and periodicals that we take for granted in our modern society), Web pages, and Online Literature. Puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? Opens a whole new window to the future.