Category Archives: Who Is Hilary?
This Website As A Learning Resource
This website seems to be used as a learning resource, as well as by a more general readership. Teachers and students refer to it for a range of reasons; and amongst these is the opportunity for people whose first language is not English to read short articles linked to other websites on the same topics. So, how do / could you use this site as an educational resource?
Your views and advice, as teachers and as students or general readers, about how this ‘learning resource’ facility might be extended, would be most welcome. As myself a qualified teacher who worked in education for many years, I am always enthusiastic about the development of new learning materials and ways of teaching. If only the internet had been available when education was my day job…..
I look forward to your ideas and contributions on this topic.
Thank you!
Graduate Retention Strategies: Ageist, Sexist Or Just Shortsighted?
Graduate retention is a serious aspect of any decent policy for regeneration. But the emphasis on new / young graduates alone is strange, when there are always also other highly qualified and more experienced people who might offer at least as much in any developing economy.
A recurring theme in the regeneration of cities and regions is the emphasis on retention of graduates. This is an entirely reasonable focus, given the cost of producing graduates and the potential which they have in terms of economic value. The flight of bright graduates from regional to capital cities is a well-marked issue for most regional economies.
Reducing the loss of graduate talent is generally a task allocated to the regional universities which have educated them. There is a whole sector of most regional knowledge economies which is dedicated simply to training and retaining graduates in the hope that they will enhance the economic performance of that region.
Extending the scope for retention
There are also now schemes which train ‘women returners’, women who have taken time out to raise a family or who have
only later in their working lives decided to develop their formal skills. Generally these schemes give good value for the ‘returners’ and their future employers, at least in terms of providing competent middle-level practitioners and professionals; and certainly they can make a really significant difference to the lives of the women who undertake the training.
Overlooked and under-used
But there is another group of people with high skills who are often simply not geared into their local and regional economy in any meaningful way. These are often older, highly qualified and experienced graduate women who are no longer working (but are usually not registered as unemployed), and who may remain living in an area because they have family or other personal commitments there.
These women generally do not need any further training (except in the same way that other practising professionals might need it) and they often undertake a good deal of voluntary and unpaid work in their communities. Little of this work however is given any formal economic value, and even less of it is focused strategically on the requirements of their economic location.
How could their activities be strategically focused, when these women, often for reasons beyond their individual control, may have almost no continuing professional connection in their communities?
Invisible people
In an economy with a significant proportion of women leaders and decision-makers the ‘invisible’ older female graduate might be identified as a person with serious economic potential,
someone for whom every effort should be made to find or create suitable high-level employment or enterprise opportunities commensurate with her qualifications and experience.
Highly qualified men are likely, we might suppose, to move to a job elsewhere which meets their requirements; the women may have no choice but to relinquish their employment, if their family moves elsewhere or if circumstances mean their job disappears. In many challenged regional and local economies however the scope to realise this female potential remains unperceived by those (mostly men) who decide the strategy for their local economies.
Doing the audit
Has anyone tried to estimate the numbers of ‘non-economically-productive’ highly qualified older women in a given regional or
local economy undergoing regeneration? Does anyone know what these women currently contribute informally to their economies, or what they could contribute formally in the right contexts?
Older women are often seemingly invisible. My guess, from many private encounters, discussions and observations over the past few years, is that here is an almost totally untapped resource.
Nurturing all available resources
Retention of young graduates is of course critical to economic renaissance; but so is the gearing in of the potential of older and more experienced graduates. This is another example of why economic regeneration strategists need to appreciate and nurture more carefully what they already have, as well as what they would like for the future to procure.
This article is also linked from the New Start magazine blog of 14 March 2007.
Policy-Related Scientific Research In Context
Avian influenza (‘bird flu’) has again made us aware of the scientific research which underpins government policy. Some have great faith in this science, others have none. Our growing understandings of how scientific research and public policy inter-relate can however help inform both science itself, and how political / policy decisions might be taken in real life.
Avian influenza has provoked quite a debate in The Guardian about how science and politics inter-relate.
Recent contributors to this debate include Erik Millstone and Simon Jenkins, who are right to raise the issue of scientific advice to the Government in respect of avian influenza – just as Ministers are right to take this advice seriously.
But in reality there is no such thing as ‘pure’ scientific research. All research, whether ‘natural’ or ‘social’, is predicated on often taken-for-granted understandings of context.
However inadvertently, therefore, the gap between scientific advice and policy / politic, whether in the case of avian influenza or any other issue, is wide not as Prof Millstone and Mr Jenkins might in different ways seem to suggest.
The questions underpin the research
Scientific advice arises from scientific research questions, and scientific research tends to be structured largely around ‘received’ understandings of the issues involved – including, inevitably, contexts of those issues.
In other words, natural scientists, as non-experts in matters socio-economic, will tend, if unchallenged, towards uncritical acceptance of the status quo or predominant contextual view of the situation in the same way as any other ‘person in the street’.
It is not surprising therefore that science, in selecting which techno-scientific issues to address, has in the past often focused on the interests of the most collectively powerful and visible operators.
Socio-economic impact and policy
This is now changing as questions about socio-economic impact are, rightly, articulated more loudly.
It is encouraging that Government politicians and policy-makers are beginning to recognise the critical importance of framing scientific research, from its inception, around contextual as well as ‘purely’ scientific questions.
Articulating these wider understandings better from the inception of any piece of research is the way to ensure that scientific advice can best inform political decision-making. And doing this certainly does not diminish the robustness of scientific endeavour; rather the converse.
Scientific and poltical responsibility shared
The selection of ways forward in policy is ultimately a political responsibility; but making sure that ‘scientific’
questions acknowledge the whole spectrum of contextual interests is a responsibility which, thankfully, scientists advising decision-makers are themselves increasingly aware that they must share.
A version of this posting was published on The Guardian letters page of 17 February 2007.
Further commentary follows the e-bookshop.
Microsoft, BT And My Computer
E-technology may well be becoming more accessible, but it still has its problems if you’re just the customer. These last few weeks have brought this message home for one aspiring e-user at least.
I’d be the very first to admit I’m totally below the horizon when it comes to things e-technical, but I do seem to know a bit about how to deal with emails, blogs and such like. A-level Physics was a very long time ago – no computers then, anyway – and my relationship with my e-suppliers is the same (in my mind) as that with my newspaper shop, car mechanic or whatever. They deliver the goods and I use them.
So in a vague sort of way I expect that my IT suppliers will look after the technicals, the supply chain and so forth, and I will give them money to deliver a service, before we reach the part of the process which I’m responsible for.
Unwelcome surprises
It was a surprise therefore when all things e-technical went quite seriously awry in this office a few weeks ago. My email went on strike and my data-save service stopped working, all at about the same time, so I couldn’t access any back-ups, exactly when I also couldn’t read or send any email. (And I couldn’t just restart on Outlook 2003, before you ask, because it’s sold out everywhere. Why? is a good question…)
It turns out that these things were both related and not related. It was bad timing, but also bad luck. My only good fortune was that the wonderful Nick Prior (and a few very e-technically-minded house guests over the festive season – thank you, Nick and all!) managed to work out what the problems were:
The problems diagnosed
Firstly, although Microsoft had updated my Office system rigorously, I turned out still to have an ‘old’ copy of Microsoft Outlook 2000. How was I to know, having used the system for some years, that as soon as a large number of attachments reached me just before Christmas, this file would hit 2 gigabytes and flatly refuse to respond at all?
There were no ‘warnings’, nothing to let me know things were about to go haywire, it just all STOPPED…… and took until early January to sort out.
Secondly, the very act of Microsoft’s updating my system (they offered, I didn’t ask them to) was also the cause of my BT DigitalVault going on strike, even before I’d managed to get it started. BT ran a Net service before this, and they – again not I – insisted on my updating and starting a new system. When I rang
to ask why DigitalVault was failing to register my data I was met with a weary ‘You haven’t just updated to ‘7, have you Madam? Could you downgrade again?’
Well, no chance of that, so I still have a non-functioning ‘service’ whilst I await the basic courtesy of BT and Microsoft talking to each other on behalf of their (paying) customers.
Communication is the key
As on so many other occasions, more attention by the suppliers to communication might have resolved things even before I knew about them.
If Microsoft had enabled a notice to warn me about the 2 gigs limit, I would have ensured it wasn’t reached – a much better solution that the e-surgery, random and necessarily brutal, which was eventually required to get the system going once more.
And if BT and Microsoft had talked to each other before the launch of DigitalVault (or, come to that, if BT had warned me not to permit the Microsoft upgrade, which happened just after I’d signed up for the data protection) I would not now be paying for a function which doesn’t work.
Technical challenges or customers?
Like many other not-particularly-technically-engaged people I expect to be able to use my computer to do simply what it says on the can: in my case, essentially www searches, emails, documents, spreadsheets and weblogs. Not that difficult really.
There are many like me, I suspect ,who have a feeling that the challenges of advancing e-technology are more interesting to most IT people than are their humble customers.
So it’s not surprising, is it, that not everyone wants to embrace the brave new e-world?
Science And Regeneration
Science may sometimes be difficult for people in regeneration to understand; and perhaps this doesn’t always matter. But we do all need to see what science in its operation and applications has to offer. For optimal outcomes at every level dialogue between scientists and regeneration practitioners is critical.
Why is science important in regeneration? And why, if so, is it invisible?
There are many answers both these questions, but three of the most straightforward are:
* Science is a huge part of the knowledge economy, which in turn is a critical part modern western life; we have moved on from standard production to an ideas based economy.
* Science in its applications is both a ‘cause’ of and a ‘cure’ for the environmental issues which are by the day becoming more pressing.
* Science is often invisible because many of us find it incomprehensible and, in any case, it tends to be tucked away in universities, industrial laboratories, business parks and at the more daunting end of the quality media. (We won’t even think here about science and the popular press…)
Plus of course science is as incomprehensible to significant numbers of journalists and politicians as it is to many members of the general public.
Science policy
But science is not the same as science policy. The former tends (though probably less so than in the past) towards more theoretical research, even if often externally funded; the latter is about the intentional influence and impact of scientific (and technological) knowledge on our lives.
The incomprehension of many about science is unsurprising. But impressive scientific knowledge in itself is less important for regeneration strategies than is an understanding of where the application of science can take us, and how to get there. I can drive a car, and I know where I would like it to take me, but I would be hard pressed to construct one.
And science can offer not one destination but several if it is ‘driven’ well…. How about large-scale construction and investment opportunities, enhancement of the skills base, graduate retention and synergy with existing enterprise, plus the kudos of internationally significant research, for a start?
Is there a downside?
It would be foolish to suggest that all science is ‘good’. Publicly contentious work is another reason why understanding what science can do is important – the GM food and MMR vaccination debates, however well-informed or not, come to mind and are frequently confused issues for the non-specialist. But even disallowing for these sort of concerns there are still costs to the advancement of science and technology, not least environmental.
What science and technology ‘cause’ they can also however often mitigate. If we know, say, how ‘expensive’ in carbon terms a particular innovation or development is, we also usually know what to do to mitigate or turn around that cost. Planning and design, for instance, are frequently critical. to best practice.
In a regeneration proposal, has economy of energy been a major consideration? Is the infrastructure connected in ways which reduce negative environmental impact? Are the plans sustainable in all the ways, environmental, economic and at the human level, that they should be? Science of many sorts can help us towards the answers.
Moving away from traditional perspectives
Science and technology are not respectful of the public-private boundaries which have traditionally shaped regeneration. Knowledge, once that genie has emerged, cannot be put back in the bottle. Like water, it will flow wherever it meets least resistance or most encouragement.
Given the gargantuan sums of money which some science and technology require in their developmental phases and application, it is surprising that so little public attention is generally given to where Big Science facilities are located. (The Daresbury Laboratory in the North West of England is a good example of enhanced regeneration when world-class science is secured by active regional lobbying.)
It’s time to move away from the idea that all regeneration requires is a science park tucked away in a corner of our strategic plan, and we need also to think big about what it all means. For the best regeneration outcomes scientists and regeneration policy makers must to be in communication with each other all the time – even if they need an active ‘translator’ to achieve this. Neither is likely to procure the very best opportunities from the other, if no-one is talking.
A version of this article was published, as ‘The appliance of science affects us all’, in New Start magazine on 24 November 2006.
‘Second Generation’ Web-logging: This Journal’s Double Century Is Just One Tiny Step
There are now two hundred ‘article’ postings on this website. Over the past year the style has changed and so has the emphasis. Are we, as Tim Berners-Lee has said, at the beginning of the ‘second generation’ of web-logging – perhaps a phase in which not only the technicals but also the social networks will change fundamentally? This journey takes us from CERN all the way to Six Apart.
It’s always difficult to recall what things looked like when one’s been involved in them for a while; and for me, this weblog is no exception to the rule. There are some two hundred posted blogs on this website now, and the terrain has changed.
Certainly, we can all see that the ‘product’ is now sometimes crisper and often more colourful (in the literal sense..) than the original, but that’s different from remembering what it felt like when I embarked on this adventure.
Perhaps on reflection what intuitively attracted me to web-logging is the idea of universal space which, as long as we remember the ‘rules’ of sensible evidence and behaviour, we can all share and use together.
Anyway, I’m glad that I decided to go ahead with my weblog / journal.
Thinking things through
I’ve mentioned before how I feel that writing about things in this quite abbreviated (for me) way is helpful in getting my thoughts together, and how I enjoy taking the photographs and finding appropriate books to illustrate and animate my text. This, to my mind, is much more interesting than just a quick blast at something and a half-finished comment without back-up.
And now, fifteen years after Tim Berners-Lee launched the World Wide Web (WWW), I am reading that others too are getting into web-logging in a more formal way. It seems that a lot of web-writers (if that’s what we are) are beginning to acknowledge that there’s something to be said, as Berners-Lee also emphasises, for using weblogs to make the ‘argument’ as well as just the odd comment.
More structured debate
Good. I always hoped that weblogs like mine could become the focus of debate amongst people who have thoughtful things to say. I don’t mind at all if someone disagrees with what I say, as long as they can back up their argument with reasons, and can also recognise why I / others have adopted whatever position is in dispute. That’s how we all learn.
It would be a disaster if the WWW became, as its inventor and many others fear, a place simply of scurrilous half-truths or worse – though I recognise of course that sometimes news and views have to emerge in roundabout ways, and the WWW is ideal for this strategy where it’s needed.
But in the end, something which can’t be substantiated is often of less value than something that can. That’s why in academia we have peer-review, referees and gatekeepers, to ensure the quality of published work. (Yes, I know that process sometimes backfires, but reasoned and / or evidence-based debate is fundamentally still a good, positive way to proceed.)
Everyone can have a say
So now we have Wikipedia (‘What I Know Is…’), first launched in the original English version on 15 January 2001, and other recent e-inventions which allow everyone a say – on the condition that they don’t mind being challenged or put right if someone else thinks that should happen. The pros and cons of how successful Wikipedia can be remain to be seen, but the admirable concept behind the idea is now established.
This is knowledge democracy in action, open to all. In a way it’s the dialectic of learning by discussing – a method previously available to those of us who went on to higher education, but less so to everyone else. Now virtually everyone who wants to can find out about things and join in the discussion. How much better is that?
Business, commercial and community, too
Nor ultimately does it matter that interactive blogging is becoming a business and commercial activity, as well as a voluntary one; either way, people are connecting. The massive market leaders, companies like YouTube, MySpace and Flickr, have their part to play in the engagement process, as do the newly e-friendly business interests which now offer interactive websites – BT amongst them.
Of course there are issues around the strategies used for ‘fooling’ the search engines, so that certain names and topics rise to the top of the list; but that probably applies as much, say, to film and book sales as to the web itself. (My own website designer, Nick Prior, offers a valuable insight into how search engine interest can be attracted legitimately.)
And now we have an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) report telling us that smaller community groups should do the same. I think they’re right. The more ideas are shared, the better. Being on the WWW doesn’t, after all, preclude also being on the radar of the local newspaper or even just the local gossip.
But still there are people, such those discussed in Mike Ion‘s blog, who doubt the web has relevance to the lives of others ‘in the community’.
‘Good’ weblogs vs ‘bad’ ones
The race is now on between those who could damage the good intent of Tim Berners-Lee, who gave us all the WWW for free because he believed it should be available to everyone, and the rest of us, who admire this generosity and vision.
Very few can achieve a great impact in going for a positive future for the WWW, but it’s nonetheless an ambition for many of us in our own small, often minutely small, ways to do what we can. The more people ‘connect’ in this activity, the better, as far as I can see. And don’t just ask me. Look at the way innovations like Mena Trott’s Six Apart (which ‘owns’ the Moveable Type facility which I’m using here) are developing….
Agree only this…
This is just the beginning of what could be a very long debate. Being ‘accessible’ may not mean being ‘free at the point of delivery’; that could even become impossible if there is to be any proper regulation of quality – without which access is in any case of little value. Nor does a new emphasis on social connection eclipse the technical aspects of the semantic web and e-intelligence. These are critically important matters for future consideration.
For now the only thing we have to agree to agree about as a general principle is, as Berners-Lee says, that “We’re not going to be trying to make a web that will be better for people who vote in a particular way, or better for people who think like we do…..The really important thing about the web, which will continue through any future technology, is that it is a universal space.”
This Website Is One Year Old Today!
This website went live exactly one year ago. Its owner has learnt a lot about ‘web-based journals’ and ‘blogging’ in the 365 days since then.
11 Octcber last year was a scary day for me. It was the day I finally took the plunge and ‘went live’ with postings for my pre-prepared website.
Technical ‘challenges’
Over the last twelve months I have learnt to write in several different styles and a new ‘voice’ (generally less academic and more direct), I have touched on many topics which take my interest, I have learnt to manipulate Moveable Type and to insert weblinks and photographs (you too can do it, if you try…), and I have had many and long discussions with my admirably ever-patient web designer, Nick Prior, over matters large and small (most of which started by my asking, ‘How do you ….?’).
I like to think Nick has been on a (gentler) learning curve too – mostly about how little some of his clients (specifically, me) know of things web-based. Perhaps it has offered him a view of the process through the eyes of an enthusiastic, enquiring and reasonably articulate weblogger who would like to make as much contact as possible with her readers, but knows nothing about the technical side of things. In my imagination I am not constrained by the technically conventional, because it’s all new to me!
Friends and ideas old and new
I have ‘met’ many new friends over the internet, and have talked about my weblog postings with many ‘old’ friends over coffee. This in itself has offered me a lot.
I have also discovered something of what I think about issues and areas of experience which I did not expect to pop up from my mind, but which have somehow become little contributions to this website. It’s illuminating to me as an individual to see where my thoughts take me, and perhaps it’s sometimes also engaging for others. A weblog is far less constraining than an academic paper or a one-off article, more like a conversation between the different parts of my experience. I personally would miss my weblog now, if I didn’t have it.
Categorising thoughts
As Nick Prior said recently, the opportunity to map out one’s thoughts in such a categorised way (computers are very unforgiving, though fortunately my web designer isn’t) is both interesting to the writer and difficult to achieve. I hope as the reader that you sense more of the former (‘interesting’) than the latter (‘difficult’).
Nonetheless, categorising my ideas has proved to be one of the most tricky tasks. How does one bring together connected individual postings as ‘topics’ without huge numbers of categories and sub-categories to guide the reader? My aim is to give this weblog some coherence and integrity, so we have general headings to provide an indication of where one might find the articles of most interest; but even that seems to leave things a bit too wide and woolly.
I plan therefore to introduce a category of postings entitled Resource List (or similar), where I will offer a brief guide to what’s been posted so far on particular recurring themes, with a note on why I believe the theme is of interest. It has been fascinating to see which topics have been most selected and pursued by my readers!
Becoming business-like
I am now trying to make the whole arrangement a bit more business-like; just in the past day or so I have signed up with Amazon and Google for ‘appropriate’ referrals through my website, and we shall all be watching to ensure that’s what we get. If it works, this should help to defray the costs of running the site and it may even open our minds to (new?) publications and other items of interest about which some of us, on occasion including me, were previously unaware. We shall see.
Sharing ideas
But most importantly, ithis website has given me the opportunity to share thoughts and observations far more widely than before, with all the challenges and benefits which derive from this. There are now almost two hundred postings on the site, which has had hits from seventy seven countries across every continent. As Nick Prior predicted, the rate of increase in the past three months has been striking – he told me that without external promotion it would take eight or nine months to get going – and now we have some one hundred unique visits a day (often many more page views) and rising.
For me this is encouraging indeed; obviously people like to visit my site; sometimes they even post comments as well. And that’s just great.
What next?
So what should I be concentrating on for the next year? Is the coverage of topics a good balance? Do you like the photos? Are the weblinks useful? Your comments and ideas are, as ever, really welcome.
Thank you for visiting, and please come again!
The Conference Diversity Index
Conferences involving public funds and public policy are still too often devised and conducted as though the vast majority of the population were white, male, able-bodied and middle class. The time has come to start measuring in some way the extent to which this limited approach offers the general public value for money.
This is the twenty first century. We in Britain live in a democratic and accountable society run, on the whole, by people who are serious about ‘getting it right’.
How come, then, that I find myself so frequently incensed by the line-up and arrangements for public conferences on critical matters? The answer is simple: conferences about pressing civic matters are still very largely (not exclusively) organised and presented as if the entire planet were inhabited by able-bodied white, middle class, men.
Democratic underpinnings?
There are of course many excellent conference speakers and delegates who happen to be able-bodied, white and middle class; but theirs is not the only perspective or understanding which matters. It therefore follows that policy developed largely on the basis of this perspective will probably be weak or even downright unhelpful (and the evidence of this abounds…. just choose your own example.) So check out the next conference on any matter of general public concern:
Does it have significant diversity in its speakers and and their positions? For gender? For age? For ethnicity? For influence?
Is the agenda helpful in terms of recognising and giving weight to the diverse perspectives within its given community of interest? Do the topics listed for discussion demonstrate this clearly? Do they include specific consideration of possible future action on diversity within the theme being considered?
Is it accessible to everyone? Does it offer a significant number of places for sensible prices (say, the cost of two meals, perhaps £20)? Is it near a train station on a main line (especially if it’s more than local in its remit)? Is the venue easy to navigate for those with mobility and related problems? Assuming the issues under consideration are not privileged in some specific way, will the end-point papers be published on a free, publicly accessible and openly advertised website?
Where’s the action towards inclusion?
The Fawcett Society recently calculated that, at the present rate, it will still be four hundred years before men and women are equal in terms of their influence in the corridors of power.
This is simply not good enough. Not at all. Not now, let alone in several hundred years.
I have decided therefore to take one small step for diverse-person-kind, and begin work on a Conference Diversity Index, which will be developed to indicate, however, impressionistically, just how much value and weight might be placed on various publicly funded events about matters of public concern. More diversity of involvement and experience, more value…..
I know a few conferences coming up on Merseyside which may prove to be of interest; and no doubt you know of others.
This is my website version of the article ‘Can I have a speaker that reflects the community? Too white, too male and too posh. It’s time conferences had an injection of diversity’, published in New Start magazine, 27 October 2006, p.11
Hilary’s Website Goes Visual
This weblog has just become a photo blog. In the past week or so several of the postings have gained an extra full-colour visual dimension. It may take a while yet, but hopefully in due course your aspirant photoblogger will get around to visuals for most of these postings.
There has been something of a lull in up-front activity on this site for the past few days. Never fear, however, there is no lack of action behind the scenes.
Truth is, I’ve been learning how to put photos on my website; and my excellent and long-suffering web designer, Nick Prior, has been doing his best to teach me by ‘distance learning’ (i.e. down a phone line….. ).
You, The Reader, and Nick can be the judges, but I think I’ve got the hang of it now – it’s like weblinks only fancier, because you usually have to change the size of the photo too (otherwise anyone without good broadband would have to wait ages for the download).
My first photoblog efforts
So now we have quite a few articles / postings with their very own pictures. Please take a look at my photographic efforts to date (all my own shots). Themes covered in this first week include: Sefton Park birds, Sefton Park development plans, Wavertree Botanic Gardens, Big Science and the new localism, Minako and Ian’s lovely ‘international’ wedding, and life with a violin and its owner.
There will, I hope, be more before too long. Your comments are welcome – and please watch this space….
To Blog Or Not To Blog? That Is The Question
The nature of ‘blogging’ has been quite throughly explored of late; but here is the humble observation of a person who is actually trying to do it, and to find a new way of sharing ideas into the bargain.
Having now completed 150 entries over a period of six month on this Weblog, I hope I’m beginning to get the hang of it.
I read recently that a new Blog is created somewhere every second of every day, but that half of them fold within three months. Frankly, I’m not surprised. I expect that for quite a lot of people it’s bit like writing a Diary, and after a while Life takes over….
More a Journal than a Diary
For me, however, this exercise has become defined in my head as ‘journalistic’, in the sense of examining the events and ideas of the moment – or perhaps sometimes those which are distinctly against the grain of that moment?
And in that too I’m not alone. Both The Economist and The Guardian, for instance, are currently engaged in what might be called meta-analysis of the ‘meaning’ of contemporary journalism; and both have concluded that a lot of it will in future involve direct engagement with the reader.
What is a blog?
Indeed, The Economist‘s Survey of new media, published this week, addresses the issues very clearly: A blog, argues Dave Winer who pioneered weblog software, is ‘the unedited voice of a single person’, preferably amateur and, in The Economist‘s words, having ‘a raw, unpolished authenticity and individuality’. This, it seems to be agreed, is what distinguishes blogs from formal newspapers; just as blogs must in the view of readers be accessible and personal in a way that organisational productions often cannot be.
Well, obviously, I couldn’t possibly comment in this particular context; but I do feel that approaching my Blog Journal over quite a time now has changed my understanding of what it’s all about. To start with I was quite nervous of sharing these ideas, and then I began to feel more confident that readers would understand the spirit in which they are offered – as indeed has always been the case.
More direct and better linked?
And I suspect that I now write more directly than I did to begin with. It’s quite a challenge to move away from ‘academic speak’ whilst still trying to stick to the established rules of evidenced-based commentary. But what I’ve lost in third party style has perhaps been compensated for by my better grasp now of how to link / reference my pieces to other writers’ work, directly through the internet. It’s a challenge always to find the right links to illustrate a given point, but I’m coming to think that even partial connection is better than none.
What next?
So what next? Well, discussions with Nick Prior, who designs this website for me, have taken me to thinking we need photographs! This will not make the weblog a newspaper, but it may help to add interest and show you more about what’s what, especially when I write about events and places I know. My first assignment of this photographic sort was therefore today, in Sefton Park.
And maybe I shall try some more ideas as well… an educational or musical ‘column’, or something special about Liverpool, perhaps? Who knows? Or perhaps by Entry No. 200 we shall all know?
Thank you as ever for joining with us in this adventure.
Dreaming Realist 