… they’d make it illegal (so said Litunanian-American anarchist-feminist Emma Goldman wikiquote | wikipedia). So, before they do, head over to the Irish Blog Awards and vote for your favourite blogs in many and various categories, including: Best Blog, Post or Humorous Post, Best Photo Blog, Group Blog, or Newcomer, Best Arts and Culture, Political, Personal, Technology, Sport and Recreation, News, Business, Specialist, or Music, Blog, Best Videocast, Podcast and Podcaster, and my personal favourite, Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere. Knock yourself out.

While you’re there, vote for Lex Ferenda in Best Newcomer, and Best Specialist Blog, and for Irish Election in Best Blog, Best Group Blog, and Best News/Current Affairs Blog. More eagerly-awaited and controversial than the Oscars, the awards themselves will take place on March 3rd in the Alexander Hotel. Look out for the usual mix of prima donna nominees, over the top acceptance speeches from the winners, insincere congratulations from the losers, and terrible dress sense from everyone. I’m sure that the Hollywood gathering the previous week will be tame by comparison.…

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I have been blogging since about the end of last September – first in a very private offline way just to get the hang of it; then online but behind a firewall, just to get the hang of the wordpress platform. I had always intended that the draft posts composed in these trials would be available as an archive when the blog went fully live. But I reckoned without the great god of blogging, who sent two scourges upon me. The combined result is that I’ve lost about 25% of the draft or shadow posts; and whilst I have reconstructed some of them, I’ve decided to bit the bullet and just simply go live now without any further backfilling.

The world has lost my thoughts on: various aspects of funding and policy in the Irish university sector; conferences I attended in the last few months on privacy, defamation and broadcasting; some cases on freedom of expression, privacy, restitution and copyright; and some random musings about life, the universe and everything. I’m sure the world will survive. But since these are themes which interest me, I’m sure that I will return to these issues in the future, so the world will get my ideas on them whether it wants them or not.…

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This is a question I have had occasion to ask already on this blog. And a few searches with the words “why” and “blog” brought back a wealth of self-reflection. As always, the vast BBC website had something thoughtful to say; I rather liked this post on Sandhill Trek (the hill seems to have run into the sand in April 2006, which may or may not be a metaphor for the transience of bloggers); and the comments and trackback on this post on molly.com were very enlightening.

That little excursion around the blogosphere (wikipedia | technorati) was prompted after I came across an interesting post on darrenbarefoot.com. He wants to gather information and spark a discussion, because he has to talk about it at a conference February, so he has put together a very simple (I know it’s simple; I was able to do it!) 16-question survey, and accompanying discussion forum. So go on, do the survey, post to the forum, blog about it on your own blogs, pass it on, and start another cyber-meme. Oh, and he’s offering cool prizes for participation (though I took the survey out of genuine thirst for knowledge, and not because I want to win an iPod, one of two travel books, or a gift certificate.…

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