Quite surprisingly, the anniversary of the first six months of this blog is about to arrive May 29……. see first post Hello World. Yikes!

To celebrate I am going to spend some time in the coming weeks tinkering with my BlogRoll….because it’s time! I can’t fit all of my Heyjude Bloglines in the roll – but there are some blogs that have provided great leadership for newcomers like myself and to whom I want to say ‘thanks for supporting innovation and change’. As a group you represent the ‘big names’ and the ’emerging names’. You pick which one you are! Without your inspiration I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t be learning at such a breath-taking pace.

When I hit the 12 month mark I hope to be able to list a significantly growing Australian list. Come on Aussies – let me know if you are out there in the blogosphere!

Here’s a recent (though well-known) arrival at Parallel Divergence.

You know, it shouldn’t be this easy to engage in such far-reaching and indepth professional learning. It has been the best six months – and I have learned more in this six months than I ever could have done any other way. Is this a true reflection of blogging…. or the rapidly changing landscape of the digital scene of Web 2.0.

I don’t know the answer to that. But I do know that the amazing personal and professional links with fellow bloggers, fellow social bookmarkers, fellow photo-sharers, fellow bloglines buddies, fellow poddies (yes, that’s what we do in Australia…truckies, roadies, firies, sparkies…) has been terrific.

Just to be different, I’m going to share another blogger with you….Alison Croggon, who provides independent theatre reviewing and discussion. She’s Australian too, and has been making her mark in the blogosphere for some time now.

I’ll let her share her own beginnings about why she is doing this!

Some notes on why I’m doing this

or

“honest and searching dialogue about theatre”

theatre notes

Blogging, like much else in the cyberuniverse, is a chance to be your own star. Even if no one reads your blog, there’s the mirage of public exposure. It’s peculiarly seductive. But apart from the appeal to an illusory sense of self-importance, there’s another reason to like the concept. Blogging has re-introduced the independent public commentator; but unlike underground magazines or samizdat, which were available only to the few, anyone who has a computer with an internet connection can look at a blog.

So I decided to start this blog, as an experiment. Will anyone read it? I don’t know. But I hope it will be fun to do and interesting to read.

Well I guess lots of people are actually reading her blog.

Just like mine – lots of people are reading it too.

So as I said in my first post –

Time to chuck our preconceptions away! Time to undertake a journey of discovery. Time to influence the shape of things to come.