---
title: "Update on my Weblog Goals for 2004"
date: 2004-03-17
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2004"
    url: "/tag/2004.md"
---

# Update on my Weblog Goals for 2004

I’ve been relatively quiet on the blogging front lately, for two reasons. Firstly I’ve been busily reading as much of [Heath Row’s SXSW transcriptions](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171334/http://blog.sxsw.com/) as possible (thanks Heath!) – so I’ve been in Read mode rather than Write mode. But I’ve also been taking a good look at my goals for this weblog and deciding: where to next? Mostly for my own benefit, I’m going to summarise my updated goals here.

1\. Write and publish one **web technology analysis article** per week on [Read/Write Web](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171334/http://www.readwriteweb.com/). This has been my goal from day one for this weblog, but I need to remind myself of it now and then. What do I mean by web tech analysis? For example, check out my series of articles on the ‘Universal Canvas’ which I wrote in June 2003 [\[1\]](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171334/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/06/15.html#a50), [\[2\]](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171334/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/06/16.html#a52), [\[3\]](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171334/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/06/17.html#a53), [\[4\]](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171334/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/06/23.html#a57).

2\. **Web Design** ‘learn by doing’: specifically create a **new CSS design**, starting from scratch this time; conduct **XML experiments**; play with **Information Architecture** concepts. In order to better accomplish these things, I’m thinking seriously about moving to [Movable Type](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171334/http://www.movabletype.org/). Yes, another lemming about to jump – I hear you mutter. It’s not that I dislike [Radio](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171334/http://radio.userland.com/), actually I’m very fond of it and especially the friendly community of Radio users. But MT has some compelling advantages for web design – e.g. lots of 3rd-party plug-ins; easier to integrate CSS and XHTML-ize content; more dynamic (because it lives on the server rather than the desktop). Plus I’m already familiar with MT, because I use it to run [my linkblog](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171334/http://ideas.readwriteweb.com/). Hmm, I’m still thinking about this – any advice appreciated.

3\. Continue to write about **wiki/weblogs in business** environment and corporate **web strategy**. My aim here is to complement my ‘Real World’ job and flesh out ideas that I have.

4\. **Bi-monthly short story** – first one due end of April 04. I want to write a series of fiction short stories this year, with the aim of entering one of them into a prestigious short-story competition run by a New Zealand Sunday paper every September. I’ve been eyeing this competition since I was a young whippersnapper and this year there should be no excuse for not entering it! I’ll probably publish my stories on R/WW, ideally to get some “Peer-to-Peer Editing” feedback.

So that’s an overview of my weblog goals in 2004. One of the main motivations (for numbers 1-3 in particular) is a desire to use my weblog more to enhance my career prospects, as well as using it as a creative outlet. Partly I want to prove to myself that I can accomplish all these things, but also I want to be able to point future employers or clients to my weblog and say: “Look, this is what I’ve done and therefore what I can do for you.” That’s the beauty of the personal publishing revolution, it enables me to drive myself forward both creatively and (hopefully) career-wise.

Of course I’ll do loads of other interesting things too…in fact I’ve got a cool idea I want to try out soon that isn’t related to the goals mentioned above. As always, stay tuned 😉

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001815.php))*