MIT Courseware - Free Internet Communications

MIT has, for a few years now, opened its courses to the public. Colleges and university's world wide can either use the courseware as a template for their own, or just them as is. Individuals can use them for self training. I love self training. Especially when it's free. I'm cheap. ;-)

Anyway, you can check out the entire list of courses. I guarantee there are at least a few worthy blog entries in there. However, there is one course in particular that is relevant to bloggers. It's getting a little old now but is still worth looking at. The course is Communicating in Cyberspace. Cyberspace is just so yesterday. ;-)

In the related resources section, there is a list of Excellent Websites, Poorly Designed Websites and Useful Resources. There's even a list of useful books, some of which I own already.

This course has less in the way of presentation and lecture notes than many of the courses but it does give a good over in general. There are several writing courses available. I always like the history courses as that is a hobby of mine.

Enjoy,

LewisC

Technorati : college, courses, free, mit, university

What if someone already wrote it?

A question I have been asked, and a concern I have thought of myself, is the question, "What if it's already been said?" Have you wanted to post on a blog topic and then thought about how many people may have blogged in that topic before you? How many people may have been more original on the topic? Did that make you stop and walk away from the keyboard?




To digress for a second, I get quite a few writer newsletters. I usually let them accumulate in my inbox and then read a bunch all at one time. One of the newsletters that I really like is WrteSuccess. Maybe one day I will write up a list of newsletters that I like but that's not the topic today.




Today's WriteSuccess had a very good quote from a master writer, CS Lewis.




"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." --C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)




Add blogging to literature and art and that answers the question. What if someone already wrote it? So what, give it your spin. Be honest. Write.

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What should I write about in my blog?

This is an easy one. Write about whatever you want. Write as often as you want. It's totally up to you.

Now, if you are looking for a regular following, you should pick a topic and stick to it. That doesn't mean never write about anything but that one topic but, in general, the majority of your blog entries should relate to the topic of your blog.

If you want to write regularly on two unrelated topics, start two (or more) blogs. For example, I am writing this blog and I have my LewisC's Random Thoughts blog as well as several pure tech blogs, like my Oracle DB News Blog.

A quick tip to help you focus on your topic is to put a very clear topic description in your blog header. If that topic is not clear, people won't know what you're about and might not stick around. Make sure the message is clear.

Once you have a clear message, check each post as you post it. Does the topic of your post agree with the topic of your blog? If not, you may want to think about creating an additional blog.

Here is the "but" that you had to know was coming. If you are writing a blog for you, your family, or your friends, write about anything you want at any time that you want to. My Random Thoughts blog is really about whatever interests me. It really gets random at times. Then again, I am ok with not having a large readership on that blog. I hope people stick around but I understand if they don't.

Take care,

LewisC

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