This blog began in 2004 as a Typepad site, which was a great way to start for such a newbie like me (and if you are lucky you may still be able to look at the original blog). It was then shifted over to Wordpress, which was integrated with a Coppermine photo gallery using an excellent Coppermine Integration plugin and some tweaking of the TNO theme template. This is all set up on my server space hosted by the kind folks at Alternative Jumba.

So why am I doing this?

Motivation: Self indulgence, curiosity/experimentation, geekness, procrastination … I’ve been following the evolution of blogs for a while, but didn’t really think seriously about doing one myself until quite recently. The main reason for this has been the influence of a few other bloggers, who I will acknowledge below. I also have a few general aims

Writing: Although my research job involves a lot of writing I often find it difficult to get motivated. Thus the experiment of using this blog as a writing motivation tool.
Communicating: Research can be quite a lonely enterprise, spending hours on end sitting at a computer typing to yourself. Having a blog can be one way to share your ideas, seek feedback, feel part of a community (if anyone reads it).
Recording: The idea of keeping an intellectual diary appeals a lot to me. Often it is difficult to have a broad perspective of what you’ve done, and how it has evolved – a blog can give you this.

Influences and Acknowledgements: Despite the enormity of the blog universe my main blogging influences are due to just two people, both of whom I met in the flesh before I followed their online personas. The first of these is Brian Weatherson, an old philosophy colleague and adversary from Monash. His blogging embodies everything I find appealing about blogs – it is diverse, interesting, entertaining and stimulating; it has generated a vibrant discussion community; it is an extension of his unique personality; and it has obviously contributed greatly to his own intellectual and professional development. My other influence is Lilia Efimova, who I met earlier this year in Innsbruck at the OKLC2004 conference. Her PhD research is specifically on weblogs and knowledge management, which really inspired me to start up a blog for myself. She also introduced me to the rich world of KM blogs, which has substantially helped with my own research work in KM.

Why the title “Dubbings and Diversions”? Paraphrasing the OED, to dub is “to provide an alternative track to a broadcast; to mix various tracks into a single track; to impose additional tracks on to an existing track”. This is what I’m doing with this blog - I’m laying down some tracks, and pasting them together to provide my own worldview remix. I’m also a fan of this style of music. The diversions part of the title should be obvious.