It's now two years today since I bought the somerandomnerd.com domain name and started running my own website, so I'm marking the date with a site redesign. Looking forwards, I'm playing around with making "news" a bigger part of the site— I'm still experimenting with the best way of pulling in and categorising the links that I come across in my day to day travels around the web, but hopefully it will add some value for my visitors.
Something I originally set out to do was to write for an audience of "myself, three months ago"; the kind of information that I was looking for, but couldn't find. I quite like the idea of using this news-gathering as a way of writing for "myself, three hours ago"— all the links that I think are interesting, with the dozens (if not hundreds) of the other stories that I read already filtered out.
As I've now pulled all the posts on my first "proper" blog (my Angelfire site doesn't count...) and my mobile blog into this site, I'm frankly astonished to see the amount that I've written and published. (I don't even want to think about the notes and half-drafts that I've put together and abandoned…) Not counting a post on Vinyl vs CDs that I wrote back in 2001, it's two years since my first post Since then... well, a lot has changed. I don't aim to run my own web design agency any more, and writing code is definitely something I prefer to do for myself- not something I see myself doing for a living (although never say never...) I'm happy to say that I think I've found myself in a much more interesting position.
Coincidentally, on pulling all my posts together, I discovered that this post is also another kind of landmark; my 100th blog post. What with that double-anniversary coming hot on the heels of looking back at 2008 over the New Year, and the kind of introspection that naturally came about when I recently announced the news to my friends and family that I'm expecting a baby later this year (who, by the way, despite being minus six months old is already posting on Twitter), I hope you'll forgive me for being even more self-indulgent than usual as I round up a few of my favourite posts since I started blogging.
I'm fascinated by the effects that electronic media is having on society (bordering on obsession…), and I'm particularly interested in the ideas that Marshall McLuhan was writing about back in the 60s and how his predictions are coming to life today— he was definitely an inspiration when I talked about how being cut off from technology is like Losing a Virtual Limb, (which also happens to tie in with Obama's next technological challenge in giving up his Blackberry— a story that quite a few bloggers have been talking about again recently as his inauguration approaches— what the internet discusses today, traditional media will no doubt report tomorrow.) Maybe McLuhan's influence was even more apparent when I tried to articulate my thoughts about the links between "Passive and Active" and "Hot and Cool" Media.
I still wonder about the friction between Advertisers and Consumers, and the future of online advertising (something I wrote before I even considered working in the advertising industry, incidentally.) I've reflected on addressable advertising, and a possible future "Where everybody knows your name" Since I've been working in digital media, a lot of my posts have focussed on the changing media and advertising landscape.
I've talked about how we use computers- specifically The Screen and theKeyboard and Mouse, and how The Paper Paradigm has shaped the way we use them.
I started a mobile blog, mainly to see what the effect on the way I wrote would be, and wondered if I was cutting off my mouse to spite my hands? Along a similar line (but looking at what I was leaving behind, rather than moving towards), more recently I talked about making an effort to go back to writing with Paper and Pen. I'll let you know how that goes...
I've talked about how more and more networked devices will make The Web of Things, and wondered about whether we will see a “Web 3.0″ (whatever that means…) I couldn't help but mention when I saw the future of TV in 3D., and wondered whether it would be the nail in "film's" coffin? I also asked when will “New Media” stop being new?, and thought about how New Media needs New Content.
On the distribution side, I also explained why I think Computer games shouldn't come in boxes.
I've been using mobile phones for about 10 years, so they've been on my mind as I thought a bit about the future of mobile phones, and whether the future of the laptop is in the handbag. Who knows...
When I turned to the dark side (and from it at the same time) and swapped my Microsoft PDA for Apple, I talked about MiPhone, and then had a bit of an iMoan. I also thought that the future of Android was in it's potential in devices other than the phone. I think I am a step closer to my dream device, and I've seen another reason to love WiFi (and hate O2)
Music has always been a passion of mine, so that's a subject that's appeared in a few posts; from why music CAN be "just free" (and then followed it up), and pointed out when a study disproving the Long Tail theory in music seemed to prove the Long Tail theory in music…
I also explained about how I use Smart Playlists, and wondered whether my DVD collection will drive me to piracy. And, back in the real world of consumer media, I asked whether there is something scary about big cameras.
Oddly (to me), my most popular post (by view count) was little more than a copy of a chunk of a Wikipedia page, which had some information about World Debt that I thought was interesting. I haven't posted much else about economics, other than something about House prices (when I was buying a flat), and something about the Imaginary Money that never got spent on online advertising. Perhaps it will become more important to me this year, but as I'm not really interested in chasing clicks, I'm not going to write about it unless it interests me (or is directly related to digital media…)
So, that's something of an overview of what's been going through my mind over the last couple of years. I'm looking forward to looking back again next time my domain name is up for renewal. Thanks for visiting!
I am Some Random Nerd. I work in "Digital Media", and this is where I play with it. Call it a personal home page, blog, realtime lifestream or whatever the buzzword of the moment is. It just is what it is, so please enjoy your visit.
Thoughts and theories are my own (other than where quoted) and are personal rather than professional.
