Blogging is....

blogging is.... useful

A 'blog' (or 'web log') is online journal which many people use to post and document their thoughts and processes. It is a 'dumping ground ' for opinions thoughts and ideas - and as such provides a revealing and interesting way into people's thinking. Blogs are used for many different from the banal to the bizarre and have become an increasingly popular way of self-expression and an easy way to publish and document ideas, thoughts, images, link to other sources of information.

In terms of research methodology, a blog can even be used as an extension of the sketchbook - an online journal documenting your thoughts into a logical and chronological order - and could provide a useful way to tackle the module journal aspect of your MA research.

Remember that in terms of your research and the assessment of your research a clear, chronological documentation of your ideas and development is vital: it helps you to maintain a focus for your work, enabling you to see how you have developed your work, and where you may wish to go in the future. It provides a good overview of your thinking .

Another very useful aspect of this approach to generating your research journal is that it accessible on the web, which means other researchers, students, or tutors can access your work at anytime, and even provide comments on your work. This means that you can easily disseminate your research, and allow everyone to keep up-to-date with your latest work and ideas.

Taking photographs or scans of work in process is an important way to document and keep track of your work in progress and it is a simple process to add these - even with a short sentence or two - to an online blog.

A summary of reasons to use a blog:

• formulating ideas into a logical format


• encourages writing


• encourages ways of seeing links with other peoples work - or other subject matter


• good ongoing documentation process


• allows research and thinking to be viewed by other students / tutors


• can form an ongoing part of research methodology


• coherent and chronological


• a way of documenting digital processes

blogging is.... research

The subject matter of web logs is very vast: here are few links to design-related blogs which may inspire / inform you when creating your own.

http://dataisnature.com/

http://www.theverymany.net/

http://www.tom-carden.co.uk/category/processing/

http://www.nml.cuny.edu/forum/about-the-new-media-research-forum/

http://designedobjects.blogspot.com/

http://craftresearch.blogspot.com/

http://weblogs.media.mit.edu/SIMPLICITY/

blogging is.... easy

One of the good things about blogging is that it is so easy to do. There is no specialist web design skill required to create a impressive-looking journal, just sign up to one of the sites which allow you to create your own blog - and start right away. There are many different blogging tools available (typepad.com). The one which I recommend for a quick start is blogger.com

A blog, like a sketch book, is only useful and interesting if it is used, and used REGULARLY. The key to using the blog as a good content-management tool for your research is that you have content to manage: i.e. you create work / have ideas etc. which can be documented.

From Monday Evening MA Group