Blogging Blog

Blog Memes for December

It's that time of year again, when the those of us in the North think of snow and darkness and holiday lights; shopping and giving and receiving; family and friends and food.

It's also a time that bloggers decorate their sites with red and green and sparkles of various sorts. Seasonal music infuses not only our city centers, but the places we visit online.

Granted, all this can become sectarian and obnoxious, but it can also be fun. I recommend indulging yourself in whatever brightens your own season. Here are two possibilities for bloggers:

BlogCatalog.com . . . will launch its fourth social awareness campaign on Dec. 17. This time, the “Bloggers Unite” campaign challenges its more than 80,000 members and other bloggers to do something good offline — an act of kindness — and then post about it, using words, pictures, and/or videos to tell the story.

Another option is the annual Holidailies project:  Holidailies is a free community writing project. All Holidailies 2007 participants promise to update their personal web sites every day from December 1 to January 1. Portal participants post summaries of their entries, which are aggregated on the front page of Holidailies 2007.

Both of these are good ways to connect with other bloggers, as well as inspiration and impetus for your own blogging.

But perhaps you prefer to take it easy in this darkening season? There is something for you, too: After coming across what seemed to be the 4000th or so post on someone's blog starting with "I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile." I decided it is time to rethink what makes a good blog and the expectations that have come to be part of it. I am thinking that no one should utter those words again . . .and with that thought I give you Blogging Without Obligation.

So, go post; or don't -- and may you have a good and deepening season!

Blog Memes for November

Every November (since 1999) is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) during which tens of thousands of slightly batty people (in accord with the season) attempt to write a novel in one month:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat- of- your- pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

While NaNoWriMo is not for bloggers only, many do participate, and some folks start blogs specifically for this exercise. The brave ones, the ones willing to share something of what spills out onto the keyboard during this marathon.

Blog Action Day: What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Blog Action Day:

"On October 15th - Blog Action Day, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone's mind.

In its inaugural year, Blog Action Day will be co-ordinating bloggers to tackle the issue of the environment.

What Each Blogger Will Do

Bloggers can participate on Blog Action Day in one of two ways:

1. Publish a post on their blog which relates to an issue of their own choice pertaining to the environment.

   . . . Our aim is not to promote one particular viewpoint, only to push the issue to the table for discussion.

2. Commit to donating their day’s advertising earnings to an environmental charity of their choice. There is a list of "official" Blog Action Day charities on the site, however bloggers are also free to choose an alternate environmental charity to donate to if they wish.

And that’s it."

Bloggers Unite

Join 1,000s of Bloggers Today, September 27th & Blog Against Abuse.

* Animal Abuse
* Domestic Abuse
* Child Abuse
* Political Abuse  & more....

It's not too late to join in. The Blog Catalog discussion group is here. You will find lots of links there to the contributions of other bloggers.

One Web Day | One Small World

Today is OneWebDay 

The Web is worth celebrating.

OneWebDay is one day a year when we all - everyone around the physical globe - can celebrate the Web and what it means to us as individuals, organizations, and communities.

There are days, in these difficult times, when I feel there is little hope for us, as a species on this world we sometimes seem bent on destroying. On those days, what hope I find is here, on the Web; in the connections we make as individuals, one to another.

The Web has a lot to offer that is informative, or beautiful, or trivial and disturbing. For me, the heart of the Web is the personal blogs, where we each offer something of ourselves to each other. Now, when war or disaster strikes in some other part of the world, I am likely to think -- to feel -- I know someone who lives there.

Because we do grow to know each other, in a new and uncertain sense.  This knowing is a reminder, an awareness, of how small our world is; how connected we really are. That the bell -- be it funeral bell, celebration bell, or alarm bell -- tolls for us all.

Ideas like this should be more often shared, especially nowadays when the world seems to be in need of dialogue and understanding among different cultures, in a way that it has never been before.

Click that Miniature Earth graphic to go see a short, powerful movie --  one of the jewels our Web has to offer. 

If our world still seems large to you, go look at The Size Of Our World.

We are so small, to hold so much.

ATTN: Bloggers

We have a couple of global events coming up.

First, from Listics:

OneWebDay: September 22

The Web is worth celebrating.

OneWebDay is one day a year when we all - everyone around the physical globe - can celebrate the Web and what it means to us as individuals, organizations, and communities.

As with Earth Day - an inspiration and model for OneWebDay - it’s up to the celebrants to decide how to celebrate. We encourage all celebrations! Collaboration, connection, creativity, freedom.

By the end of the day, the Web should be just a little bit better than it was before, and we’ll be able to see our connection to it more clearly.

Then, via problogger:

Blog Action Day: October 15

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future...

Both of these look challenging, fun, and possibly even worthwhile. I'm giving them some thought.

Other blogging items to think about:

From Blog Sisters we have The W Magical List of Women Bloggers. Now, it's possible to get weary of this issue, and we do have several 'lists' of women bloggers -- but it's tough to not welcome a new one. Besides, it gives me an excuse to post an updated version of this:

NaBloPoMo

NaNoWriMo too scary for ya? Maybe this is more your line:

NaBloPoMo is an alternative to November's NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, the program wherein you crank out a novel in thirty days.

Some of us lack the imagination, stamina, and self-destructive impulses required to write a novel that quickly, but, by Grabthar's Hammer, we can update our blogs every day for a month!

[I wish I could remember where I saw this -- if you think it might have been you, let me know, and I'll add your link to this post.]

The deadline for getting your url on the participants list below is, oh, let's say November 1 at 11:59 p.m . . . No cheating and backdating posts, either. You're on your honor. Prizes!