As I've maintained this chair's blog, I've often thought about my friend Steve Krause's Official Blog. For about 5 years, beginning in Aug. 2003, Steve kept both an official and an unofficial blog. His official blog was "About my scholarship, teaching, and life at EMU." His unofficial blog was about the rest of his life. In Feb. 2008, Steve wrote "And thus ends Steven D. Krause's Official Blog." Presumably, it was too hard to blog in two places or about separate topics. I have to ask Steve about that more. He has written about the topic as well. What he did, though, was to combine everything into one blog about "School, work, life, and everything else." You can read that blog at StevenDKrause.com.
I've thought about Steve's experience a number of times because I have a sense my own blog writing has suffered from this split focus. In this chair's blog, I've tried to separate chair issues from the rest of my life writing. But maybe that separation just doesn't work. It seems like it would be more fun to write about whatever I want to in my blog. It's not like there are any particular rules. No one said my blog had to only be about chiar issues. It's just that's what I've been focusing on in this blog.
But perhaps, after a year, it's time to rethink my blog goal. I'm drawn to the idea of relaunching my blog with a new look, more open focus, and more of a narrative style.
Steve and I will be mulling such issues over at the Computers and Writing Conference next week at UC Davis. If you are in the area, come join the conversation. We'll probably even buy you a beer.
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