My colleague Kristoffer Greaves has discussed why he uses Twitter. Only yesterday, another colleague asked how I use my blog.

Here is what I said.

http://katgallow.blogspot.com.au/

The truth is…

Sometimes I get ideas

My blog is a work space where I can 'park' smaller units of work or semi-formed ideas until I have time to write about them. I write about ideas

from books I read and relate the ideas to contemporary events as a way of consolidating my understanding and effectively keeping a

combination journal/annotated bibliography.

I also use it to communicate my ideas to more diverse audiences. I've sent posts to my PhD supervisors, to conference delegates and I post them on Twitter (which reaches non-academic audiences) and on my subject site for students.

Engaging with broader

audiences is important to me. I

seem to manage (somehow,

considering the sometimes dry

subject matter!) to engage a wide

range of people in these ideas. From

this I can get a sense of having a

broader community

impact.

Sometimes I collect enough ideas in my blog to bring them together into an article for publication.

I use it to learn about and play in the digital space. I've learned a lot about social media and technology, as well as new ways of measuring impact in the academic context.

All in all, blogging is a great tool to get things off my chest, keep track of my thoughts, and to process and share new ideas.