CounterConsumption

It's been only a couple weeks since I started this blog, and I'm already thinking of starting another one. But I wouldn't be thinking this if I hadn't come up with a good idea (in my opinion!).

I'm still quite new to the blogosphere, and so far my posts have only been pinged(?) by one other blog: "Biofuel Worldwide." Someone liked my post on Obama and coal. Either that or the blog automatically picked up on one of the zillion tags I had attached. Probably the latter. (I'm in the process of learning how tracking programs and trackbacks and pings and RSS and such work -- at the moment I'm very early in the process; my plan to maximize my connectivity is to attach every remotely relevant tag I can think of, which probably is inefficient and looks rather desperate besides.)

Anyway, back to my idea -- I think that it would be good to start a blog about consumption. Not tuberculosis, or even overeating, per se -- but overconsuming in the modern materialistic sense. I would like to not only gather and link to stuff having to do with the media's influence on people's spending habits (the "desire market"), but also to info about positively modifying consumer habits on the levels of the individual and society. People don't need all that they think they need! And if they realized this, and acted on this awareness, it would make sense that their life changes would have a lesser negative impact on the world around them. There's all kinds of stuff out there about "living well on less," and being truly happy without heaps of material possessions -- even as a result of not having heaps.

Why start a new blog? Well, for one thing I think I'd rather keep this blog's focus on my thesis ideas and info-gathering, with the occasional (perhaps not-so-occasional, let's be fair) "vent" on topics that gnaw at me (healthcare, justice, etc.). For another thing, like I said, there's all kinds of stuff out there on consuption and "counter-consumption," and I want to give myself plenty of room to explore. Plus having a blog dedicated to a topic this important to me will probably keep me more active -- learning, commenting, linking -- than if I just threw in the odd consumption post on this blog now and again, though I doubt it would be only the "odd" consumption post, which is another reason to give it its own space.

So, off I go to explore, and I'm thinking about trying a different blog software -- maybe Typepad? Or do you need a subscription? Anyway, I figure it's good to broaden my blog experience every chance I get, may help me with my thesis, too.

What is Knowledge Management??

My thesis adviser has given me til mid-August (it's an informal deadline, but still) to narrow my thesis ideas... So far, I'm certain that I'd like my research to focus on blogs, but I'm not sure just how. For a brief report I wrote recently as part of my summer professional writing internship, I tried to organize the overwhelming results of my blog-studies research -- yes! there is such a thing as blog studies! -- into more digestible categories: weblog communities, corporate blogging, journalism, and blogs in the writing classroom. I didn't expect to find much info on corporate blogging that I might be able to tie into a thesis research project; I don't know, the idea of sharing production-boosting strategies for the purpose of maximizing profits turns me off, I guess. But it was my investigation of the corporate-blogging realm that brought me to a field hitherto unbeknownst to me: "knowledge management."

One knowledge-management guru, Jack Vinson, referenced and linked to work by Lilia Efimova, a doctoral candidate who is writing her dissertation on blogging and knowledge management. I read parts of one of her papers and also have been checking out her blog, what she calls her "learning diary." She says it is "on personal productivity in knowledge-intensive environments, weblog research, knowledge management, PhD, serendipity and lack of work-life balance..." Long story short, this blog is dense! There is a buttload of info and I'm almost afraid to delve too deeply for fear I'll never again see the light of day... Not really -- her writing is very engaging and I'd even say she's someone I'd like to hang out with. :)

Well, I'll leave this for the moment, but there is more to come -- I really like the "learning diary" concept; if I had one, it would help keep me organized as I research and write, I think...