Disruptive Conversations

I must admit that I honestly forgot today was "BlogDay" or I might have saved my three new security blog recommendations that I posted on Wednesday for today!  Since I already blogged about them, I can't really use them, but that's okay because the reality is that pretty much every day I find myself stumbling upon new and interesting blogs.  I could easily list more than 5, but in the spirit of the "Blog Day" effort, I'll recommend these five blogs that readers of this blog may or may not have seen:

• A View from the Isle by Tris Hussey
  Given that we turn out to move in similar circles, I was rather surprised that I had never run into Tris before meeting in Robert Sanzalone's Pacific IT (Bonus - Robert's blog is also a great one) Skype group chat.  Tris writes here on his blog about "Social Media, Blogging, Tech and Opinions", but these days he's spending more of his time writing over at his new gig: http://catech.blognation.com/  Over time I've definitely come to value Tris' insights and commentary on a wide range of issues.
  
• Future Visions by Jon Burg
  Started just back in July, this blog has the subtitle "Chasing the longtail of digital media as it increasingly empowers our everyday lives".  I don't know much about the author (there was no "About" page or sidebar comment I could find), but I've enjoyed many of the posts and commentary on social media issues.  A recent post on lifestreams was quite good.  I also like the fact that the author offers suggestions for improvements (see here for Second Life and for Twitter) rather than just complaining.
  
• The Visual Lounge by Betsy Weber and others at TechSmith
  Although this blog has been around since August 2005 (happy 2-yr birthday, by the way!) by TechSmith, the makers of SnagIT, Camtasia Studio and now Jing, I only recently discovered it as a side effect of my post about screen capture tools when folks from TechSmith contacted me. (It turns out they discovered the Windows Live Writer plugin for SnagIt from my blog post.) While obviously a corporate blog, I've enjoyed reading the entries as the whole area of graphics, screen captures, screencasts, etc. is of great interest to me.  My background includes a long stint in corporate IT training, so I have a passion for tools that help make things like courseware production easy.
  
• The Inspired Protagonist, The Official Blog of Seventh Generation
  I can't live in Vermont and NOT include at least one environmental blog! (I'll be ejected from the state if I don't!) I've enjoyed The Inspired Protagonist because it aims to provide positive news.  I mean, what's not to like about a blog that includes this in their "About" section: "In an age when despairing doom and global gloom rule the wires and extinguish those inspired fires that could ignite the needed change, the Inspired Protagonist seeks to cut the cords of negativity that bind us and replace them with hopeful strands of thought and deed that weave new worlds of possibility."  Yes, it is the "corporate blog" of Seventh Generation, but it's not really about the corporation as much as it is about environmental changes happening in the larger world and also about what people are doing to address those changes.  (Bonus blog - it's great to see that ZDNet has started up their "GreenTech Pastures" blog.)
  
• the flatlander, by "joey"
  Speaking of Vermont, I'll end my list of five with this local blog subtitled "A New York City ex-expatriate's life in Vermont: It's not half bad."  The writer, "Joey", says in her "About" section "I live in Burlington, VT. I used to live in New York City. Now I'm confused."  I've never met her, although obviously she lives in the same "city" that I do, but she provides a fun and entertaining view of "Big City Girl Moves to Dramatically Smaller City" throughout her various posts.  It's nice to see the area you live in through the eyes of a newcomer.  (Although we, ourselves, made a similar although not quite so dramatic move when when moved from Ottawa to Burlington in 2005.)  I also like how she illustrates each of her blog entries with her own drawn illustrations.  Nice touch to spicing up the text.

So there you are... five blogs to check out (plus a few more)... hopefully at least one of those will be "new" for you!