Blogging is tough

As you can probably tell by the length of time since my last post I’m finding this blogging thing quite hard, there’s so much going on here that I can never find time to do it although there’s lots that I want to talk about.

Blogs i’m reading

I’ve managed to keep up with lots of other blogs using my bloglines account and I’m enjoying reading how Beth Kanter has used her blog (and its readers) to raise money to support a Cambodian student through college, I’m continuously amazed by people and how generous they can be with their time and money.  I’ve also been warmed by the camaraderie of bloggers through things like turning blogs pink for breast cancer awareness and taking part in a day of blogging for Burma.

Events from the ICT Hub

I’m in the process of organising two events for the ICT, aimed at different parts of the voluntary sector.  The first is for organisations that work with older people and the second for organisations working with young people.  It’s been a really interesting time finding out about the ICT challenges facing these two groups, themes very quickly emerged and I hope that I manage to address them all at the events.  One of the key themes for organisations working with older people seem to be around digital inclusion, how can we reach older people – and help them connect to others – using technology.  I’m really looking forward to the sessions on the digital TV switchover, the use of assistive technologies and how older people are starting to (and might in the future) use online networks.  For organisations working with young people the capturing, storing and using of data is a huge issue and one that I think we can only start to address at the event.  If anyone particularly wants to input into these areas then feel free to get in touch.

Blog obsession, is there a treatment?

One of the problems with blog readers is that I am becoming obsessed, I’ve got blog feeds about knitting coming out of my ears and I’ve even subscribed to get the latest episode of The Archers sent to me!

I’ve arrived

I can’t believe this is finally up and running …

I wanted to start writing a blog to tie in with the conferences I am going to be planning and running for the ICT Hub in 2007/08.  The plan is to blog before, during and after the conferences, let’s see how it goes!

I’m pretty new to this blogging game, so I chose to use the free wordpress.com service, which I know has been used by many of the other ICT bloggers out there.  It’s not an easy thing to get going and you need to be a confident computer user to make the most of it, there may be other blogging sites out there which are easier to set up, such as Blogger or MyBlogSite (although I haven’t tested either of these – any comments on how easy they are to use?).

That said, now that I have set up the blog it’s really easy to use, hey, I’ve almost finished my first post!

I’ve already had fun today with widgets, no not the things that make your beer go frothy, the little bits of code that you can copy and paste into the blog to make it do things, I used it to insert the ICT Hub logo.  I might try and be adventurous soon and insert some Flickr photos or other such wizardry.  Keep a look out.