Blog, blog, blog
I have to admit that despite being tech savvy and a recognized expert in
technology within the court management profession, I am a slow adapter to
blogging. When the "web log" phenomenon became popular in the early 2000s, I
sided with the media coverage that labeled it the most useless development
in the technology rather than eagerly lining up to become proficient in its
use and potential.
What happened between then and now? Several things, including:
The rising role of blogging in "democratizing" the media — the fourth
estate, like most businesses, has been subject to market influences that
make it increasingly difficult to remain profitable, resulting in industry
consolidation, buyouts and concentration of ownership into large corporate
control. While newspapers, TV and radio continue to ride the free market
train into homogenized-land, individuals and small organizations are using
blogs to articulate new perspectives on life, business, community
development, politics and education. Sure, "alternative media" sources such
as blogs are rife with nutcases, extremism and rumor — they are also
insightful, passionate and refreshingly real. The trick, of course, is
choosing which blogs to track and which to ignore. This is not any different
from choosing which newspapers to read, radio stations to listen to and TV
programs to watch.
"Pushing" blog content instead of "pulling" other media content — I used to
participate in Internet "chat rooms" and bulletin boards, but I grew tired
of having to take the affirmative step of visiting a website in order to
check the latest postings. Let's face it, life is too time consuming to add
chores such as these to your routine. RSS, Rich Site Summary, enables
bloggers to "push" content to subscribing readers rather that requiring that
readers "pull" the content by visiting a site. If I'm too busy or want to
take a break from a particular blogger, I can either ignore/delete the
incoming blog-mail or ultimately unsubscribe. Blogging has now become more
of a casual chat with a familiar friend in the back hallway.
Andrew Cohill and DesignNine.com — the keynote speaker at RTC's 2004 Tech
Expo is an inspiration to all of us who are trying to harness technology to
improve rural communities. His leadership turned rural Blacksburg, Va., into
a world-renowned "wired village." He also maintains a blog on his exploits
in Blacksburg and elsewhere that contain a wealth of useful information and
insights into best practice, changing telecommunication regulations, and
chronicles of activities in other rural communities.
Professional development — more and more of my professional interaction with
colleagues and continuing education involves blogs. In the legal profession,
these first appeared as "blawgs," of law-related web logs. In the court
technology field, the National Center for State Courts (www.ncsconline.org)
converted their paper version of the Court Technology Bulletin into a blog,
while the Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute (www.IJIS.org)
uses a blog to keep its private sector court IT vendors abreast of the
latest developments in criminal data sharing issues.
So, it's time for me to suck it up and get into the game. Over the course of
maintaining this North Coast Tech Blog, I'll offer observations about
emerging technologies, new tech developments in the community, economic
development opportunities and occasional sarcasm. You're welcome to join in
with cheers and jeers of your own.