Conversations, blogs and related musings

Its interesting that a lot of people have been blogging for years without ever realizing it. But then the term wasn't invented then! I have kept an electronic personal diary and a database for capturing ideas, and musings for the last 10 years. This is part of what Ton Zijlstra says about his blogging activities in a posting on KnowledgeBoard:

I have been keeping a diary, although not daily, for most of my life, in which I track what keeps me busy, where I work out ideas and lines of thought. Facts and figures seldom come up in it. Also I have been jotting down notes of most of the conversations and meetings I have had on legal pads for some 14 years now. These notes contain references to what was said, what it was about, and ideas that came up as the conversation took place. In one of my bookcases a shelf is used to stack a growing row of legal pads with these notes. When I refer to these notes, I often can recall the conversation in great detail, often even being able to quote verbatim what has been said. The notes jog my memory. Then there's one other habit of mine: jotting down phrases, words and situations that I think of during the day, and that some day might be useful in writing literary prose.

Have I been blogging all these years? What is it that blogging adds to conversations? Extending your social network? An archive? A new meetingplace for existing parts of your network? A place to stay on topic, where conversations can wander? And what might starting a blog do for me, given all the stuff I write down already. Would it be useful to translate it into English and publicize it? I don't know really. I sort of think of my notes as a repository of unpolished thoughts, and mostly not ripe enough to share. Although this posting by the way is in the same style as I would write in my diary. Formulating questions etc.

So my questions to you are: Why do you have a blog? What does it bring you? How do you decide on what to blog and what not?

Ton, yes you have been blogging and have discovered some of its many benefits.

Blogs are unpolished thoughts and not very ripe but that is no reason not to share them. Blogging is like thinking out loud. You give other people the chance to comment and help shape your thoughts and ideas and theirs too in the 'conversational' process.

Primarily for me my blog it is a focusing and thinking tool but all the items you mention are benefits. Different people get different things out of blogs.

Deciding what to blog and what not blog is simple ... if I have the urge to blog it ... even if it is off topic then I blog it ... as even if I cannot explicitly articulate it ... there is a almost certainly a connection with my other thoughts and ideas.

And finally I'd just say that blogging is like a loving sexual relationship - you just do not realize how rich and rewarding it is until you have experienced it . So I'd encourage you to create a weblog and start to find out what it means to you - you are clearly a natural blogger.