Talk | reboot9
WHY do we blog?
Why did we start, why do we stop and what keeps us going?
Why do you blog? Why do I blog? Why does anybody? As the medium enters its adolescence, it's a question that I wonder about all the time. I ran a survey at www.whydoyoublog.com , and was shocked to receive over 1200 responses. I'm still mining the data, but it presents a fascinating portrait of the blogosphere in 2007.
From my "Why Do We Blog" talk at Northern Voice. Photo courtesy of Robert Scales.
First off, this talk delves into the survey responses. I report on how people answered questions like "why did you start blogging?" or "Describe your biggest blogging regret or triumph". That forms a leaping off point for a wide-ranging discussion about the philosophy and motivations of the average blogger.
As a blogger for the past five years and an organizer of Northern Voice, Canada's blogging conference (where I gave a verison of this talk), I also explore my own relationship to the medium, and how it's shaped the way I communicate and, in truth, experience the world.
Here's what a couple of people said about my talk in Vancouver at Northern Voice:
"The results were really interesting, and as diverse as the blogging community itself." -- Jeff Henshaw
"Darren’s “tag clouds” of the responses to his survey (to which he received upwards of 1200 replies) were a real eye-opener, as I discovered that many bloggers have entirely different motivations from my own for maintaining a blog. For some it’s therapeutic; an outlet for their deepest secrets." -- Jordan Behan
Remixed photo of my talk at Northern Voice, created by jmv.
