Finally, I have set up my blog, and am making my first post. As is my wont, I’ve thought about this a long time, and delayed, wanting to do it properly. I tend to find reasons to delay things forever.
Blogs fascinate me. One part sees them as egotistical, unimportant waffling written by insignificant people. But I’ve realised I still attribute to much energy to controlled forms of media. The recent case of indymedia being closed down again shows the danger of central control. Most of our newspapers write nothing but corporate and political press releases. Much of what is ‘important’ is what others believe is important. Blogs let us make up our own mind. And having started reading more of them recently, I’ve been impressed by the jewels in the mud. Blogs, Open Source, Open Content such as Wikipedia are rapidly changing the way we see the world. Most bloggers are under 25 – there’s an older generation of people who don’t understand the tremendous social changes we’re witnessing. Misunderstanding Open Source software where their understanding of business is that intellectual knowledge must be kept secret and used for enrichment. Not grasping how encyclopedia content in Wikipedia can at times be more enlightening than that in Brittanica.
I have ordered this blog in quite an artificial way, according to the Chinese 5 elements: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth. Metal for technology, Water for personal, Wood for spiritual, Fire for social and political, and Earth for anything else that doesn’t quite fit, perhaps humour. My interests include literature, technology, in particular open source and its effects upon society, tai chi, spirit, environment. Hmm, I could go on – in a good space, like a child, everything should be fascinating. My difficulty has always been choosing what to focus on. Let’s see what happens!