Tuesday reads

Each Tuesday this year, I’m going to share some of the things I’ve been reading which I have been inspired by or learnt from.

The blog turns 20 (!) – The Guardian interviews early blogging pioneers Dave Winer, Megan Hourihan and Justin Hall.  I enjoyed the read but wish it went a lot further than it did.  Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge gives a “State of the Blog” address was more interesting for me – she opens her heart in the post about the frustrations, disappointments and evolving nature of blogging, advertising, content-reuse and comments.  The comments section is worth reading too – Grace replies to many questions in there.

Cameron Slater‘s post Blog. I. Am. on why he blogs and the evolving difference between him and his online persona is worth reading.

Academics protest at a proposed ban on blogging and a follow up article in The Guardian discusses why blogging is still important in 2014:

“[Blogging is] one of the greatest enhancements to any craft or profession where people follow ideas wherever they may lead.

It’s evolving. True, many of us are blogging less and using Facebook, Google, Tumblr, Google+ and other centralized services more, a trend that is both practical and problematic. It’s practical because the centralized operations are where the people are. It’s problematic because we end up working for those services at least as much as for ourselves.

The ability to publish our own work on our own sites can’t be overstated. This is why I strongly urge my students to get their own internet domains and create their own presence on the internet. And it’s why I’ve decided to do more blogging myself in coming months and years.

The professional, political and academic bloggers – and everyone else who helps us understand something we don’t normally encounter – are engaging in free speech on their own terms, not bound by the often murky terms of service at the centralized service. America’s first amendment shouldn’t be subject to Facebook’s whims, but Facebook’s users have made that concession.”

Cap Watkins articulates something which I’ve sometimes struggled with when someone asks me off the top of my head what I’d change on a website before I’ve researched the site at all: the perils of uninformed redesigns.

Thinking with Data could be a good book to read.

Myth: people don’t scroll – good summary of research and reasoning.