Deciding my first blog entry should be about why I have decided to blog is, I recognise, both incredibly self indulgent and lacking in any value for anyone other than myself.  But if I’m going to break some cardinal blogging rules I thought I may as well be done with it right up front and then move on. So, please indulge me.

I’ve been a blog voyeur for some time now. I have marvelled, laughed, reflected, learned and questioned much about the world, my profession and indeed life itself thanks to those who allow me to sneak under the covers of their cognitive processing across the Blogosphere. I’ve been intimidated by some, encouraged by many but I’ve never felt comfortable about putting finger to keypad and striking out on my own. Questions, so many questions:

• Have I really got anything of value to say?
• Will anyone read it and does that matter? Is it enough just for me ?
• Is it an act of self indulgence?
• What would I possibly blog about?

And then I realised….like everything else in life I’ll just have to figure it out as I go.

I’m curious and maybe that’s enough for now. Perhaps I’ll blog and find it makes me ‘better’ by affirming what I think, what I care for, who I am and more importantly who I might become (albeit in beta). Maybe it will make me more perceptive or encourage a pursuit of mindfulness about the world around me.  Maybe it will be because it’s an opportunity to participate in a world which, as Doc Searls and David Weinberger put it in World of Ends, nobody owns, everybody can use, and anybody can improve…a chance to participate in a truly democratic conversation to which no formal invitation is required. As Meg Hourihan stated in her 2002 post ‘What we’re doing when we’re blogging’: “Much like free speech itself, what we say is much less important than the platform that enables us to say it”.

And so, like life itself, this blog is and shall remain in beta. Let’s see where it goes.