Month: March 2006

What I didn't do…

Apparently I have two musical memes that I should been doing. I should also be pushing on with a couple of site designs, I did a little for one but not much else. I should be outlining some more ideas for the whole Scottish Blogs/BritBlog thing. I should.

But I haven’t.

Instead, yesterday, we visited my sister-in-law and had a lovely meal and evening with my parents. Today I’ve pottered about, cleaning, tidying, and generally meandering around the house doing chores.

Then we watched 24, then Planet Earth (which was wonderful), and now… now I’m off to bed.

Memes be damned!

March 5, 2006

ULS Presentation

Apologies for not mentioning this yesterday but the whole ScottishBlogs/BritBlog thing got in the road a little (and will continue to do so for a wee while whilst we respond to all your questions).

The presentation went very well, thanks again to everyone who commented and made suggestions and, if she’s reading, thanks to Gillian and everyone at ULS for making me feel very relaxed and very welcomed.

To be honest the presentation was a bit of a blur, I know I missed some of the things I wanted to mention, and that I mentioned a few things I hadn’t planned on, but as I said before I was confident enough in my ability to waffle. In saying that, I did have a mild flutter when I realised that I was almost at the end of the presentation and I still had 15 minutes to fill. This was a bit perplexing as I’d done a couple of rehearsals and both times I’d taken just over 50 minutes but, as it turned out, I had no reason to worry as I finished almost dead on the alloted 45 minutes. Perfect judgement indeed, and not a hint of luck about it… honest.

The audience were very receptive which whilst understandable as they chose to be there was still encouraging. The Q&A session, held after a short lunch break, was fairly lively and engaging and I certainly learned a few things from it, but then it’s always interesting hearing other points of view (it’s one of the reasons I blog).

I also learned a new method for taking notes. Jennifer approached me afterwards to show me her unique way of creating both a set of notes, and a visual reminder of the presentation.

ULS-notes

Excellent, isn’t it. Thanks for that Jennifer.

I’m also happy to report that everything I read or was told about presenting in public came true; nerves disappeared after the first few minutes, if you are knowledgeable about the material you are presenting you’ll NEVER be stuck for something to say, pausing every now and then helps “punctuate” things, and if you want people to raise their hands in response to a question raise your own first.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself yesterday, and I hope the people who attended learned a bit more about blogging and took away some ideas of their own. Would I do it again? Yes, I most certainly would.

March 3, 2006

Blogging Announcement

A day earlier than planned but glad that this is now out in the open. Cross-posted on Scottish Blogs, with a similar post on BritBlog.

BritBlog and Scottish Blogs Join Forces
Some of you may be familiar with the British Blog Directory, a site similar to Scottish Blogs that focuses on (as the name suggests) British bloggers. Mark, who runs the site, and I have been in discussion for some time and we are both pleased to announce that we will soon be joining forces.

The reasoning is simple: combining resources means we can offer our members (and web users at large) more.

Because of the group-focus that the new BritBlog will have, existing members of Scottish Blogs will become part of a similar Scottish Blogs group. With the Scottish Blogs website remaining the focus for that group.

Why join forces?
As BritBlog continues to grow and the number of blogs in Scotland and across Britain rises, the opportunity to offer a better web site and better set of resources increases. There has been a lot of work going on in the background, all aimed at bringing better functionality and more features to the BritBlog web site, so here, for your comments, are our current plans for the future of BritBlog.

The main goals are to improve the community feel of the site, to allow special interest groups and communities to form, and to develop more resources for British Bloggers.

New features will include:

  • A focus on groups and communities – enhanced features to allow communities of bloggers with similar interests or geography to form and grow.
  • RSS feeds galore – allowing you to keep up to date with new blogs and posts from our members. Feeds will be available for specific groups.
  • Improved searching and blog classifications – to make it easier to find blogs that may be of interest to you.
  • Multiple blogs can be registered per user.
  • An open database – developers will be able to integrate BritBlog with their own projects using our web services API.

As you can see, there will be lots going on.

So when is this all going to happen?
Timescales are still to be confirmed, and there’s a lot of planning to do and code to write. We’ll be re-writing the whole site from the ground up, so don’t expect to see too many obvious changes straight away!

Needless to say there will be a lot more on this as the idea progresses but we’d appreciate your thoughts, positive and negative, and any other questions that spring to mind.

My reasoning is simple. I don’t have the technical knowledge to take Scottish Blogs forward any further, but I do have a good understanding of blogging and think the new site will be beneficial in connecting people. Interesting times lie ahead and Mark and I would really appreciate your thoughts.

So, leave your questions, thoughts and ideas in the comments. Mark and I will be collating them all from our sites and I’ll post a response/update sometime next week. Remember, this site will only be successful if people use it.

March 2, 2006

Temperance

March already, doesn’t time fly.

Actually that’s a bit of a worry as March is going to be a VERY busy month for me, and I’d much rather that time helped out as much as possible by slowing itself to a crawl. I’ve already mentioned most of the things I’ll be working on in March although two of those projects are, at this moment, shrouded in mystery. One of the projects will remain that way, but the other will be given a little more depth on Friday, so do drop by as it may interest you.

Site News
Apparently the ISP that hosts this site, and many others, had a few problems yesterday. So don’t worry, you didn’t break my bit of the internet (and thankfully neither had I). Annoying as these things are I have to admit that I can’t really get worked up about it. C’est la vie.

Real Life News
Man at top of stairs in train station is still there, shouting a lot. I’m getting very close to asking him if it mightn’t be a better idea for him to sling a ticket machine over his shoulder and help DECREASE the queues he’s apparently so worried about, than to be standing shouting out the feckin’ obvious at several hundred decibels as I walk past every morning.

Either that or I may “introduce” him to a ticket machine. Forcibly and sideways.

ULS Seminar
Tomorrow at 11.30am I’ll be standing in front of a room full of strangers trying to explain what blogging is, and I’d like to thank (again) everyone who took the time to offer me some feedback. I’m confident in my ability to waffle and now even more confident that I have an excellent set of slides to back me up.

What I DO need to figure out is what to post tomorrow as it’s likely I’ll pull my site up as an example. Do I go high-brow and ponder something deep and meaningful – what IS the best way to get that last scraping out of the bottom of a jar of Nutella – or stick with something more traditional – kitten photo anyone?

Suggestions welcomed.

March 1, 2006