Conference at ZKM // Blogs as a research tool
At the weekend I visited a great conference about Weblogs, Podcasting and Videojournalism at zkm, Karlsruhe. This was one of the first conferences of this topic on Germany and all participants agreed that it was the time for an overall new media update. And that this conference was a big success.
The contributions from Don Alphonso and Jonny Haeusler were very controversal. Don Alphonso said something like “Blogging is the new Punk” and “I am the prototype of a blogger”. It was a pladoyer of “everyone can blog and really should do it”. I had the feeling that he had a younger targetgroup in mind and used a pop-strategy to communicate his message. Media researcher Neuberger than revealed Don Alfonso as a professional journalist and not a punk-blogger. Read all about the first day of the conference at Glück Auf! (in german)
Blogs as research tools
At this point it was very clear, that blogs are not just content, but a technique. Blogs have ease of use, interactivity, exposure and other side-effects that are similar of journalism or classic research. Having a blog as a research-diary you are able to
- express your thoughts,
- get in contact with others,
- have a sketch of your process online,
- get feedback and new ideas.
I made the experience of my own, that this blog can be a very great tool, if you have to write an article or a paper. Many thoughs are shaped in this blog, that would be lost without it. Find more thoughts leading in this direction in my article philosophy of sketchbooks.