Thanks for the kind words, as always

Looking back it’s interesting to see how my use of blogs has evolved over time and how much of their value to me (and others too I would suspect) has resulted from external factors, organic growth, or unconscious decisions as opposed to conscious ones.

For example I didn’t set out to actively engage with people and be a model or demonstrator of practice (that came much later); I just wanted a space to document my work and thought I’d make it publicly visible in case someone happened to stumble across it and found it useful.

That said though I did have experiences with reuse and sharing of resources – that’s how I came to work at UNSW. I just didn’t think any of my contributions would qualify as “useful” to anyone

When I began to realise people were actually reading what I had to say – and sometimes even disagreeing with me – my perspective on the role and purpose of blogs and new media began to change. The notion that there were actual people on the other side of the internet – some of whom actual found value in what I was trying to say – came to have a significant meaning.

That began a new chapter in the way I engaged with the technology, and marked the beginnings of when technology to me became a vehicle to something larger – it was no longer a destination unto itself, but a means of connecting with others and developing relationships that empowered and benefitted everyone.

I have to say that the open source model of transparency has played a major influence there, and the idea of contributions emerging because someone is “scratching their own itch.” It’s also one aspect of new media which I think is really significant, and which fuels its ongoing use and adoption. People come to new media for their own purposes – arguably fairly simple and narrowly focussed initially – then blossom once the relationships and networks emerge that yield far greater results than they’d initially set out to achieve – and that these relationships are a direct result of a participatory culture in which people give freely of themselves.

Ties into the notion of knowledge being distributed I think – the more we give, the more is available to everyone, and the more we receive back as a result.

Happy New Year to you as well!

Cheers,

Mike

What a great post to end a year and start a new one. It must have been fascinating bouncing with the baby on the birthball, reflecting and typing in between Sydney Harbour fireworks.

Your sharing impulse has transformed my thinking so I can hardly wait for what you produce in 2009!

Happy New Year to you and your family

Keith