Because I work in the media industry, I started this blog in January 2011 to share my thoughts on how to use media better. On the three-year anniversary the site became organized into four categories.
- How we create (Writing, designing, and illustrating, for creators)
- How we discover (Searching and discovery, for searchers)
- How we read (Reading and consuming, for readers)
- How we share (Sharing and distribution, for curators)
Admittedly, those four categories are rather abstract. To flesh out some substance for each category, today I added sub-topics under each category.
- How we create
- How we discover
- How we read
- How we share
These sub-topics are actually tags. They don’t always fit neatly under each category. For instance, social media can easily fit under any of the four categories. But for now, it sits under “how we share.” Not perfect, but close enough to give a little more depth to the navigation.
I picked each of these sub-topics, because they are themes that run throughout this blog—themes that I love.
- Blogging (22 posts about blogging)
- I’ve been blogging since September 2001, publishing over 3,500 posts on my four different blogs.
- A favorite post on this topic: Blogging more helps me appreciate things in life
- Graphic design (13 posts)
- If you think I’ve been blogging for a long time, I’ve been designing for even longer (graduated in 1997). However, I don’t quite blog about design THAT much here. Over on my primary blog, spudart.org, I’ve written 371 posts about design.
- A fav: The history of the State of Union ticket design
- Writing (10 posts)
- Funny, I never really considered myself a writer. Yet, every day I’m blogging and writing constantly.
- Fav: Why do people not comment on blogs? The psychology and historical reasons
- Archives (10 posts)
- I just love archives. I love collecting stuff. I love having back history. I love having a record for the past 19 years of my thoughts and passions. This sort of passion for archives runs in my family. My sister worked at the National Archives as the Midwest Education Specialist.
- Fav: Transforming content that is vaporous into something permanent, substantial
- Search (14 posts)
- Beyond Google, there are so many ways to search online. You can search your friend’s tweets, your RSS reader; or search within your own Google search history!
- Fav: The next Google: personal search
- Books (38 posts)
- When eBooks first became big in 2012, I had the opportunity at work to develop a couple new imprints at Tribune Media Services. We published a handful of books that I helped design and develop. It was certainly a very interesting time—it felt like being on the frontier of something new.
- For a long time, my most popular post was ebook standard sizes for covers
- Marginalia (17 posts)
- I am the most huge fan of marginalia. Scribbling in the margins of the book is a primary way for me to develop new ideas.
- Fav: The impenetrable glass of browsers
- Podcasts (7 posts)
- Podcasts are all the rage now. Back in 2006, I was one of the founding co-organizers for the Chicago Area Podcasters Network. I didn’t have a podcast at the time, but I loved hanging out with people who make podcasts. To this day, I have over 100 podcast subscriptions in my listening app.
- Fav: Will the golden age of podcasts disappear?
- RSS (9 posts)
- In 2001-ish I remember geeking out reading the specs for RSS. To this day, RSS is still one of the best ways of following a blog. (Actually, I would argue it’s the best way). I outline the reasons why RSS is fantastic in my fav link:
- Fav: 7 reasons why Google Reader was the best service
- Social Media (110 posts)
- Whoa. One hundred and ten posts. Most of these other topics I have a handful, but social media gets ten times the amount of attention. Perhaps because social media is so embedded in our lives. Yet, there is so much that could be improved.
- One of my favorite posts is about how to take control of your Facebook stream: How to cut the noise out of Facebook (use a friends list sorted by most recent)
Over the course of nine years with this blog, these are some of the topics that I’m most passionate about. I’m very glad to have this outlet to express and share ideas about media.