MLA Posts

“How do you find time to blog” is the question I get asked most often when I meet people for the first time.  Often I respond that it doesn’t take long to jot down my thoughts and that a normal blog post (not an in-depth product or database review) can take me about 10 minutes to an hour to write. 

If you watched Clay Shirky’s keynote speech yesterday at MLA (view it online here if you registered for e-conference or the regular conference) you might remember that he mentioned that there are 100 million hours put into Wikipedia which illustrates how big of a project it is.  But did you know watching television has taken 200 billion hours in the US alone every year, according to Shirky? So while Wikipedia takes a alot of peoples’ time, Americasn spend much more time on less productive activities such as watching TV.  In fact I am sort of watching TV as I write this post.  

In normal times I am able to find a few minutes out of my day to squeeze out a post.  I guess you could call the time I use to do that my television time.  However, this week I don’t even have television time to write my blog posts.  This year is the first year in a VERY long time that I am not an Official (or unofficial) blogger at MLA. I am just too busy.  This year I am the 2012 NPC co-chair and I am busy attending meetings, thanking vendors, and promoting next year’s meeting.  I am also the incoming chair for MIS and must go to MIS business meetings and section programs.  Last but not least, I am incoming MLA Board member and must attend almost everything MLA and meetings for my liaison committees.

So for once in my MLA meeting life I have no “TV time” to write a steady stream of blog posts.  I hope to write a few posts about the meeting when I get back home but in the mean time don’t forget to check out the Official MLA Meeting Blog.