Today, for BlogDay 31 August 2005, I am launching a new blog for Writing and the Digital Life. This is the introductory post:
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Writing and the Digital Life began as an email list earlier this year,
and quickly acquired a critical mass of around 250 users in many
countries - currently Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia,
Greece, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niue, Spain,
Sweden, UK, USA, United Kingdom & Zimbabwe.
We are
interested in the impact of digital technologies upon writing and lived
experience within an interdisciplinary context. We talk about the
relationship of writing and reading in the context of many subjects
including 'new and old' media; craft, art, process and practice; social
networks; cooperation and collaboration; narrative and memory; human
computer interaction; imagination; nature; mind; body, and spirit.
Contributions related to research, writing and teaching in the arts,
sciences, and humanities are all welcome. The list is managed by Sue
Thomas, Professor of New Media at De Montfort University, England.
This
blog is an experiment. We discussed long and hard whether to switch to
a blog, or stay as an email list, but when we voted on it the result
was pretty well 50-50 so we have decided to try both at the same time.
Some of us are old hands at blogging and some of us are completely new
to it, so bear with us - there may be some small glitches as everyone
gets up to speed. The luxurious Typepad software upon which we reside has been made available to us gratis by Alistair Shrimpton, the friendly UK Business Development Manager for Six Apart (thank you Alistair!).
Anyone is free to join us - just go to Participate at the top of the right-hand panel.
If
you join, you get to discuss issues, share news and information, and
vote each month to choose a discussion topic. But you don't need to
join to read the list archives or this blog - although if you do join
we guarantee a warm sense of togetherness and companionship ;)
Text,
in whatever language or script, is the passport to digital life.
Without it we cannot use email, web content, chat, discussion boards,
or instant messaging. In the ecology of global connectedness it is
vital we understand how writing and reading are being used, extended
and changed.
We are 25 writers from several different
countries including India, Africa, and South America - see the
left-hand panel for details. We are interested in anything that
addresses the impact of digital technologies upon writing and lived
experience, from vague, barely expressible notions to passionate
manifestos. This is the place for conjecture, imaginings, mappings and
propositions. With luck we will birth some inventive projects,
successful collaborations, and unusual networks. We hope you enjoy what
you find here.
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For more, visit Writing and the Digital Life
In the morning I will post here links to 5 blogs I want to recommend.
Technorati tag: BlogDay2005
