February 5, 2007
Everyone Blog!
To get our blog going, it was decided at today’s Labinar general meeting that everyone should post a blog about either “the” problem of their ongoing research or “a” problem that is concerning them at the moment, explaining why it is important. Everyone should try to do this within the next week. The entry needn’t be long or especially detailed. A couple of succinct paragraphs will suffice.
The purposes of the Lab Notes blog are:
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1. to develop a space for intellectual conversation outside of the classroom;
2. to allow the group to stay informed about what other members of the group are both thinking and doing;
3. to share information, resources, readings, anecdotes; and
4. ultimately, to discover resonances between domains.
Wordpress (the blogging software we’re using) provides most html codes that you’ll need: for boldface, italic, blockquotes, linking to other websites and photo uploads.
A few tips about blogging (picked up in my I-School class last term):
1. use an effective headline (that captures the point of the post)
2. include links in your post as often as possible. Linking improves traffic to the site and allows others to find your post. Linking is considered the art of blogging, captured in the blogospheric motto: “Link as you think.” Discoveries are a great aspect of blogging: sharing things that people might not otherwise know about or find themselves.
3. write clearly and grammatically — although a blog is relatively informal, the writing should not be sloppy.