In their recent post asking why Geobloggers blog, Highly Allocthonous asked:
Another thing we think we’d like to touch on is how your aims, your strategy, and your audience, may evolve (or co-evolve) with time.
This post got me thinking about my original motivations for blogging versus the reality of trying to blog regularly in recent months. The path has not been what I expected.
Some of my primary motivations in starting to blog were to:
- provide more basic and accurate science info on groundwater
- provide basic, accurate, plain language information about environmental contamination outside of the usual advocacy framework
- bridge the gov2.0/science discussions
- connect with the online geo community
- have some good geo fun
I have a long list of posts I’d like to do or that I have actually started to write. However, my blogging content has to be distinct from my current “paid work.” I find myself debating about whether or not to blog about certain topics because I’m still trying to clearly identify that line. This is less an issue with motivations 3-5 and more about 1 & 2. As a result, I haven’t posted as much basic science content (yet)!
So, I was highly amused to come across the following quote while researching various federal agency social media policies in preparation for AGU’s blogging workshop:
“When in doubt, stop. Don’t post until you’re free of doubt.”
I realized I’ve avoided #5 while trying to figure out 1 & 2. Yet I enjoy and learn from other “fun” geoblog posts all the time. And, when you enjoy your work, those lines blur. So, moving forward, there will be more geofun!
