Four years of blogging

I had been reading about weblogs or blogs for months before I actually met someone who was running one. At a London seminar on trade union use of the Internet, held in December 2002, I came across an enthusiastic Dutchman called Oskar van Rijswijk who had been operating a blog since October and was really keen on the idea. Subsequently we e-mailed each other regularly and Oskar really fired my interest in blogs. Indeed I was moved to write an article on blogging for the trade union Connect.
Oskar continued to encourage me to start my own blog and offered to design one for me so, on 18 April 2003, I launched a blog called NightHawk – the media’s name for my father-in-law who was a Czech night fighter pilot in World War Two. In January 2004, I was appointed a member of the Ofcom Consumer Panel, so I decided to spin off my professional interests into a second weblog – called CommsWatch – devoted to communications issues with a particular emphasis on regulation.
So today marks my fourth anniversary as a blogger. In that time, I reckon that I have posted around 3,300 items on the two blogs. In many ways this personal blog is complementary to my web site – the former is a chronological account of my activities and thoughts, while the latter is a thematic collection of my writings and ideas. Also the two are closely integrated – the web site lists the most recent blog entries and the blog frequently refers to material on the site.
Many thanks for visiting.


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