Josh Sager Media: Creative Technologies Blog

I’ve just finished another year of semi-pro football, which keeps me very busy, and during that time I relied heavily on social networking tools like Facebook and twitter as my way to share cool links, information, and other random tidbits. It got me thinking about the role of blogs vs twitter and other micro blogging tools.

The Blog Evolution

Initially I used my blog to share my opinions about technology and all things creative, then it moved into a re-posting stage where I wasn’t really providing anything new, but I still wanted to share or aggregate the information as a resource for others and honestly for me as well. After a while I felt that I was more of a distributor rather than a contributor so I evolved toward generating new content. I vowed to only contribute new content.

I’ve realized a few things in this journey.  Creating new content takes time if it’s going to be accurate and worth while.  There were many little tidbits that I wanted to share but the moment passed and off it went.

Micro-Blog

Then I started using my status updates as a micro-blog and it satisfied my need to communicate all of the small things.  But as the topics grew in complexity micro-blogging lacked the ability for me to communicate my entire thoughts or reactions to a particular subject, question, or topic. Tweets will go from white hot to white noise in a matter of minutes.  Leaving interesting points, questions, and problems unresolved.

Etiquette of Digital Distribution

Which poses a question.  What role do these technologies play in your digital lifestyle? Have you ever thought about information distribution etiquette and what tools should be used?  When is a blog post really just a tweet and when does a tweet graduate into a full blown blog post beyond general commentary.

In my digital lifestyle my blog is a way to think in prose. An opportunity to put thought and compose an article, essay, rant, opinion or lesson. It takes more than a few minutes to write a blog post (which is probably why I post infrequently).  On the other hand I use my status updates as a micro-blog at least 3 or 4 times a day yet I’m reluctant to post these life updates and cool links to a blog.

As a result of this I’m going to move toward categorizing my posts into buckets.  At least internally. A bucket for opinions and commentary, links and resources, and original content. All three seem important and flexible.  I guess I have this idea that a blog should be more like a newspaper or magazine, but it’s not.  It’s a blog. It’s not entirely professional, but it’s still useful.  If for nothing else it’s a way for me to organize my thoughts.

But now I turn it over to you.  What is the etiquette of new media in your life?

Well that’s a good question.  The best answer of which is “I think it was just time”.

So what makes this one different from the last one?  Well it has my name That’s pretty cool. With that also comes a sense of freedom about posting more tidbits and random items that I would like to share relating to my enthusiasm for creative technology. As well as not feeling guilty about not posting a comic in almost a year. Nothing sucks more than introducing my blog to people like this.  “Hey I’m the guy that has that site about comics, but I don’t really draw them that much or talk about them at all.  It’s pretty much just a tech blog in disguise.” Although it’s an interesting conversation starter I thought a tech blog should be a tech blog and a comic blog should be a comic blog.

So here we are

So what’s the grande plans for this place? Well I have a TON of code that I’d like to archive for me, my current & former students, and the up and commers.  I pretty much see this as a way to give back to community that’s helped me establish a fullfilling career. Without the internet, discussion boards, and blogs I would skaaaayrude.

Along the way I’d like to archive things about my life so that I can look back on it and re-live how I felt, revist the memories, and let people I’ve met know that I’m still alive, doing well, and still in love with flash