Sometimes, the smallest shifts on Internet platforms can bring about the largest changes in usership. At SixApart, the company that provides the hosted Typepad service that has provided the platform for this blog since 2004, the team saw the massive aggregation of links happening at Facebook (and to a lesser extent, Twitter and other social media havens) and quickly cooked up a little feature to try and capture some of that shareable goodness.
The tiny "Blog It" bookmarklet was born, and I've decided to use it here at My Dirty Life & Times for a while. This will vastly increase the number of posts usually found here. But that's okay; this blog started as a conversational experiment in media, more than a formal collection of essays, and it remains so. Besides, they're my links.
Like a lot of longtime bloggers, I'd shifted a lot of my attention and currency in the so-called "link economy" to Facebook and Twitter, sharing links and media of all sorts on those platforms. That allows Facebook and Twitter to benefit from my consumption, research and sharing - I'm one of millions busily building the corporate fortunes of those start-ups. And that's fine, too. After all, the implicit contract brings software and hosting - and the ability to engage in conversation - back to me, for free.
The tiny "Blog It" bookmarklet was born, and I've decided to use it here at My Dirty Life & Times for a while. This will vastly increase the number of posts usually found here. But that's okay; this blog started as a conversational experiment in media, more than a formal collection of essays, and it remains so. Besides, they're my links.
Like a lot of longtime bloggers, I'd shifted a lot of my attention and currency in the so-called "link economy" to Facebook and Twitter, sharing links and media of all sorts on those platforms. That allows Facebook and Twitter to benefit from my consumption, research and sharing - I'm one of millions busily building the corporate fortunes of those start-ups. And that's fine, too. After all, the implicit contract brings software and hosting - and the ability to engage in conversation - back to me, for free.
And I'll go on sharing "my media" - links, articles, photos, songs, podcasts, and videos - through Facebook and Twitter and other platforms, mainly because that's where the people are. But like a lot of my blogging friends, I despaired a bit for this little corner of the digital media universe. The long silences, the crickets and tumbleweed, bothered me. Yet, there I was shifting my idea-sharing and conversation to Facebook and Twitter.
So now, I'm shifting them back here.
In some ways, it's closer to the original notion of blogging, which was simply the sharing of links and content via a personal news feed. There will be more of that here, at least for while while I try this thing on for size and see what happens. Look for many more short posts and links, as well as the occasional essay. Drop a comment or Tweet the links. I have no ideas how it will play out. Stick around for the ride.