BlogCampaigning Is Back (Again)

I think that anyone who has been blogging for a significant amount of time understands the concept of blog fatigue. You get tired thinking up new posts all the time; you wonder where it is all leading. It has happened to me a few times. In fact, when I first started to write the title to this post, I thought it felt awfully familiar. Then I remembered that I wrote a similar post almost exactly two years ago ("BlogCampaigning Is Back") where I said that "Jens has been trying to sort out his life back in Germany, and Espen pretty much went AWOL in Norway."

Some things never change, eh?

The good news is that after a month of contemplation, I've added a fresh coat of paint coding to the ol' blog, I've got some good posts lined up, and we've even got a new author starting in the next week or so.

Added on to the fact that Heather and I both started new jobs, Jens is almost finished his thesis and it seems like a pretty good time to get a fresh start.

Thanks for continuing to read BlogCampaigning!

-Parker

Espen in Print

For our Norwegian readers only! If you're interested, you can check out the piece I wrote on corporate blogging in the most recent addition of the Norwegian communication magazine: WebMagasin. The magazine is print only, and I am therefore not able to offer a link to the piece.

Those of you that are interested can order the latest addition of WebMagasin from their website: http://www.webmagasin.no/.

The article is in Norwegian. I'd therefore advise our English-speaking readers to just keep up with what our esteemed leader Parker Mason, has to say in one of his many non-blog-articles.

-Espen

Where have we been?

You might have noticed an absence of posts on BlogCampaigning lately. That's because I've been moving into a new apartment (and have been working on getting internet set up), Jens has been trying to get a lot of research done for his PhD before he leaves Australia for Berlin, and Espen has gone AWOL. If he has gone back to Norway to work on the campaign for the socialist party, then I'm sure we can expect some great posts about how he is introducing them to blogging and the world of web 2.0. If he's lost on the Australian coast, surfing his life away, I enviously wish him luck. Stay tuned, and we'll have some more stuff to you shortly!

-Parker

Espen's Thesis

As many of you may or may not know, BlogCampaigning was originally created almost a year ago as part of Espen Skoland's thesis on politics and blogging for his Master of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications (Honours) at Griffith University, Australia. This site has served as a way for Espen to interact with the online community as he developed his thoughts on the topic of blogs and political campaigning. While it has since grown to include my view points on the PR industry, Web 2.0, and other miscellany as well as the video game theory of Jens, and the work of a few other contributors, the essential goal of the site has remained the same.

Espen is currently putting the finishing touches on the thesis, and he will be making it available online both as a pdf and as a series of posts her on BlogCampaigning.

We are planning on posting the thesis in reverse order (with the last part of the paper posted chronologically first, the first section of the paper published chronologically last). This will, it will show up in the right order when read online and via a feed reader. If anyone has a better suggestion, we are very open to hearing it (please leave a comment, or e-mail me).

As the BlogCampaigning site manager, I'm very excited about this, because I think that this is the first time that a major academic paper has been published in this manner. If anyone wants to prove me wrong on this point, I'll buy them a drink if they come to the Toronto area.

This won't be the end of BlogCampaigning, either. Jens, Espen, and I have discussed how much we enjoy working on the site that we want it go on.

So thank you for checking us out now and then, and we hope you continue to do so even after this online publication of Espen's thesis.

-Parker, BlogCampaigning Site Manager