Getting Started @ CS-ED.org

(A summary of the resources linked to in this document can be found in the CS-ED.org resources hierarchy, under All About Weblogging. In a pinch, you can just work your way through it, without my commentary below…)

You heard about CS-ED.org, either from me or a colleague. Or, perhaps you stumbled on it from somewhere else on the ‘net. Now, you’d like to take part–something about the idea of maintaining a journal, weblog, diary—whatever you want to call it—sounds particularly appealing to you. So, you ask, and receive, and … then what?

why blog?

I think this is the question we’re dealing with at this stage, really. Or, perhaps you want to blog (you don’t know exactly why), but you don’t know how to get started. So the question becomes “What should I blog?” Both of these questions are seemingly simple, but like many things in life, simple questions don’t necessarily have simple answers.

We can start with some advertising-laden, hand-spun pulp from Xanga.com; in particular, they have two pages of chunked text all about getting started with weblogging and finding your voice. I don’t think either of these pages is particularly inspirational or insightful, but they both provide a good starting point. Given that they are

1. Sales documents, and
2. Attempting to snare anyone who stumbles in, from anywhere in the world, with any background

they are remarkably applicable to our quest of answering the question of Why. What they fail to do, however, is give us a personal perspective on the process of weblogging.

A weblog is a a shared, personal space. It is public, by nature, but yours. Coming to terms with this, and understanding the interplay between the personal and public, is part of the why and what of weblogging. CS-ED.org was established as a place to give computer science researchers, educators, and students a voice, a place to be heard and a place to discuss plans, ideas, and hopes without the chaos and transience of a mailing list.

Of course, you may use it differently, and that’s fine. I felt that Derek Powazek’s personal statement regarding why he blogs is particularly pertinent here. This is a clearly written expression of one person’s why, and there are several themes that I believe may resonate with you as you begin blogging. Or, perhaps there will be things that you push back against—and I think that’s good. In short, it’s a well-written little piece that gives you something to reflect on.

If you were to stop here for a day, and think about that, you would have done well, I think. Take the ideas home, talk about it with your kids, your family, your friends—think about why you’re about to set down this path. You might come back and ask the CS-ED.org sysadmin to nuke your blog, or you might have ideas for where to start.

what to blog?

If you look at the start of my weblog on CS-ED.org, you’ll find that I just wrote about stuff I was doing. There was no grand, unifying theme to the writing. In fact, when I’m done writing these documents, I might go back and reread some of those old posts… if nothing else, because they remind me of another continent and friends far away.

The next few links in the list of resources I’ve compiled are to the Art of Blogging parts one and two.
There is some good material for reflection here, as well as some “mechanical” bits about what constitutes a weblog post. With respect to CS-ED.org, however, I find myself tending to post in one of several ways:

• As a (developing) researcher, I tend to reflect on the practice of research. Sometimes, I write about the research itself, and occasionally thoughts for future work. I must admit that I’ve tried to contain myself a bit on the last count, as I don’t think it’s a good idea to look too far to the future when you’re trying to finish one study for one Ph.D. Big ideas that take a lifetime should really come later…
• I haven’t ever blogged as an educator, I must admit. This is, I think, a failing in my blogging practice. In particular, I really like the idea of weblogging about my practice in a place where my students can see what I’m thinking. This is because I (Matt) personally think there are too many guessing games between me as an instructor and my students. If they can see where I think the educational process is breaking down, and why, they can actually take part in the solution. Or, what might be even cooler, would be…
• Blogging as a student. This is a difficult game, at best. Is it safe, politically, to blog as a student? Can instructors actually handle real-time commentary and critique of their work? Can a dialog exist in the public domain between students and teachers regarding educational practice? At the time of this writing, we only have Ph.D. students well beyond coursework, and a number of educators. We are still waiting, I guess, for a student to pave the way on CS-ED.org and provide us with a model.
• I tend, on occasion, to blog for me. These are things I want to remember, things I think are funny, or cool, or… anything. They aren’t about work, or research, or anything else. They’re just something I want to comment on. And this is usually, I think, where the voice comes out. In the end, you shouldn’t be afraid to let yourself post things you want to post; your intuition is probably right. And when you post something Google really shouldn’t archive, we’ll tell you. That’s why this is a community.

Blogging for yourself brings us to joining the weblog nation; this is, effectively, a very nice collection of short links on how to behave on the WWW with a blog. Tips to networking in a weblogged world, if you will. An easy and good read, with some tips that I’m sure we’ll all violate at some time or another.

in conclusion

There are more resources out there about the process of weblogging. Microcontent news and Scripting.com are two sites that come to mind regarding reflection on the technology and practice of blogging. There are many individual bloggers out there as well, all of whom have their own voice, shouting to the darkness, waiting to be heard. I’ll cover how to “listen in” on these conversations using some really savvy tools at a later point; for now, I’m happy if you just start writing.