As the active season of 23Things for Digital Knowledge starts up again, I’ve been thinking a lot about my own relationship with blogs and blogging as an activity.

Writing a solitary diary or journal to my future self never felt truly satisfying. Even though I kept trying every few years, and always enjoyed going back to read old journals. I just couldn’t keep myself engaged to commit on a regular basis. That is until I discovered blogging.

In blogging I could share my thoughts and reflections with people who would write back to me. People would comment on my posts, or write their own posts in response, and I could respond and comment on theirs!

It was an incredible open community of dialogue, creativity, and sharing.  More than that, it was community building across the globe, and the support that came from those communities was enormous. Simply being able to reach out into the web to discover and connect with people who shared my passions and concerns was at times an actual life-saver.

Technology, and specifically blogging, has allowed me to connect and develop in ways that I could never have predicted. I have decades-old friends I met through blogging networks I would never have had the opportunity to otherwise know.

Writing for institutional blogs has without a doubt brought opportunities and advancements to my career, and my knowledge and understanding of the world has been enriched through the posts, comments, and writings of bloggers across the wonder of the world wide web.

And it is a wonder to me that we can connect so quickly across ridiculous distances with such relative ease. It’s fantastic and not to be taken for granted.

I included a blogging element to the 23 Things for Digital Knowledge so that participants could build their own community. Each person brings their own experience and perspective to the Thing, encouraging further exploration and discussion of ideas and experiences. The blogs also provide a record of professional development and it’s excellent to see that some have been using theirs to demonstrate Continued Professional Development (CPD).

I learn so much from the 23 Things bloggers, and am thoroughly looking forward to reading, commenting, and sharing with this year’s cohort. Let’s go and: