a new blog and a new digital self for a new year...

happy new year! i can't believe it's 2009 - it seems only a few moments ago that we entered a new millenium.

so i have redesigned the blog and here's a few headlines about the new approach

1. presences
i realise we all have different digital habits to manage the flow of information and friendships and hang out in different spaces and places - facebook, twitter, flickr, or whatever. it's partly taste and partly what we have time for and partly where our networks of friends hang out. so i have created a set of presences ( a term i stole from jenny brown who is personally responsible for catalysing these changes by suggesting my blog or blogs in general were a bit 2004!). this is simply a set of icons in the middle column. so if you are in any of those worlds you know how to find me there. and yes i know - first facebook, and now twitter!

2. incarnation and the digital self
ok i admit utterly pretentious title! but here's what i mean. most people do not want to visit my blog even though i have just spent a few days making it look wonderful (please come once and let me know what you think!). why should you come to my world? life's too short. but it should hopefully be easy enough if you want to follow my stream of consciousness for me to flow in your world/sphere/network/set of presences. so click the feed or add me in twitter or facebook or myspace or bloglines or your newsreader and the latest blog posts or titles will appear automatically.

3. categories
typepad which i use to blog and am still a big fan of has categories - i have singled out 5 main areas that i blog under that are the buttons in the navigation section on the right hand side, but all the other categories still exist so if you are interested in a particular category then just click on it and scroll through the posts.

4. recycling
i started blogging in 2002 which is a scary thought in itself. but it means that there is a ton of stuff buried in the archives. now a lot of it was in the moment and is best left buried but actually there is also a ton of stuff that is worth recycling. so there is a section on the home page with 10 recycled items and on the (new) faith, photo, and create (yet to be done) pages is a ton of recycled links . this may be of interest - it's actually pretty useful for me so it's as much for my benefit as yours.

5. upcoming
one of the cool and weird things about writing a blog is that it has definitely connected me with you - readers all round the world which i have loved. and i have been invited by people who have never met me to speak in various places round the world. this has amazed me and i have loved it! i have signed up with upcoming.org (haven't added much to it yet) to post places i am speaking/leading/hanging out and there is an automatic feed of those on the front page right hand column so you can see where i will be.

6. simplified
the front page has less stuff - or at least it's better ordered. if you really liked something that has gone or wonder where it is now let me know... the blog is as ever a work in progress. but two big things were a huge list of blogs and a list of other things. they can be found by clicking on the two icons in the middle column under the title linkage. the other links are now simply going to be my favourites in delicious. i haven't been that up to date with it but intend to improve my habit there.

7. new look
the black look was fun for a year but i have changed to white as a background as in the end it's easier to read and looks cleaner. i have also gone for something colourful as a header and buttons - not sure why - was in a bright mood! if you are a typepad user and wondering about the technical side of it, then i have simply use a 3 column right template but had to add some extra css code to get the central column the size i wanted so i haven't had to go to the advanced template and can work within typepad's design system. happy to share that if anyone is interested - i am really pleased with it anyway.

8. it's all about you
it amazes me still that people read my blog - i should be used to it by now. i am busy so blogging is a habit that i manage to keep going but sometimes don't give enough time to you the readers though i do try and respond to comments. but hey thanks for your interest/friendship/tolerance/fellow travelling/reading/comments. i haven't finshed everything off but that's detail now... hope you enjoy the new approach and see you in some digital presence or other. and thanks jenny brown and bob carlton for kicking my digital backside in 2008 into another gear for 2009!

best love one and all xxx

Comments

[wilsonian]

Love the colour. Love the clean white fresh-page look.
You're clearly a man with presence(s)!

Thanks for continuing to post such great stuff.
Happy New Year...
Peace.

[Alan Wilson]

Congrats on new design. Thanks for sharing logic, which surely computes.
Feedback: White space is beautiful. Legibility improved incl for restricted access readers. Presences a key concept, and full integration with other social media deeply impressive. Very much way to go, and the five colour thematic archive brilliantly elegant access strategy. Looks good ok an iPhone, too... or maybe everything does.

[Paul B]

I do enjoy visiting your blog... the new look is class! Happy New Year!

[Steve K.]

looks good, Jonny!

Good explanation of the changes too.

All around good stuff!

[David Derbyshire]

Great Jonny! I just wondered if you are planning to rotate the 10 recycled posts on the home page or if they are a sort of top ten?

[Bill Kinnon]

I like this a lot, jonny and may need to consult you on a "repristination" of my humble corner of the blog world as I enter blog year five in March.

[Adam Walker Cleaveland]

Stuff looks great Jonny! Love the new layout and focus on "presences"

I think you need to schedule another trip across the pond to the Bay area - we need to hang out again!

[bob c]

um...wow

you given any thought to sharing the theme ?

[Greg The Explorer]

Change is always good - well almost always...keeps people on their toes. Thanks for posting your world where we can all share parts of it with you...your thoughts and resources are a great help to those of us out here trying exploring creative/alt.worship and emerging church issues in a mainline church world. Thanks you, cudos and a Happy New Year to you Jonny

Peace

Greg

[jonny]

thanks everyone - glad the reaction seems to be positive! yes i'll change the recycled every so often david.

[si johnston]

one of the only blogs i keep an eye on, after departing the blogosphere several years ago! enjoy it as a means of keeping track with you fella. hope you enjoy the year and will watch it unfold here...

[Mark]

Looking good mate... though not sure about the final "presence"! ;-)

[Existential Punk]

Like it except too much white. The white hurts my eyes. Love the layout and how you have cleaned up the main page. Miss the blog links on the main page. i don't usually like to click to another page for links. It's your blog and i appreciate you and your writings, so that's the MOST important thing.

Warm Regards,
EP

[Existential Punk]

oh, and i could use your help and creativity in designing my blog to get away from templates even though i like my recent redesign with a new typepad template!

Happy New Year!

EP

[charity]

This is much better, I like all the white really clean and easy to navigate.
Happy New Year.
Charity

[dave]

Looks like you could do with Ping.fm to update all your networks in one hit.One can do updates there which flow into all your different networks. So for example it will update both Twitter and Facebook status updates. Aldo does Flickr, Bebo, various blog platforms

http://ping.fm/dashboard/

[jonny]

i actually have done that with twitter feed - so when i tweet my facebook updates and when i blog my twitter and facebook status link to the post (that's through typepad). but yes it's great to find these smart tools ...

[Jenny Brown]

love the new site!
reminds me I must turn my attention to mine.

[jonny]

jenny thank you! high praise indeed coming from the guru... and thanks for the kick to make some changes. we must do another coffee.

[andrew jones]

simply LOVE those gorgeous stripes on your banner . . . very very Paul Smith.

[David Keen]

very nice - personally I don't care what colour your blog is as long as it stays up, it's great.

[andrew jones]

actually, Jonny, your whole site looks superb which is not easy to do with typepad. wordpress has many cool templates but you have built this up with class and taste.

it looks better than mine. i need to start mine over again now to keep up.

[jonny]

ha - andrew you have led the way and inspired me for many years so if i can nudge you in good directions it's not before time! i'm actually still working with typepad templates - the only thing i have changed is a bit of css to get a thinner middle column. happy to share any insights when we hook up in a week or so

[jonny]

p.s. it's staying white everybody - i like it! you'll get used to it... and overall people find it easier to read