New times are under development for changemod.

Blogging is a productive, thought-provoking experience; but it is also a time consuming experience. To blog does not only mean to write. It also means interacting, reading and participating.

This blog came to life within my Master Thesis and I find it hard to continue writing now that my studies are finished.

This means, that the changemod blog will remain online, but will be updated seldom.

Stay tuned though, because changemod will reinvent itself behind a new facade.

I’m now officially a contributor at the pandemiclabs blog. The blog is concentrated on online and viral marketing strategies, but studies issues beyond these fields: social media, social networks, online video and blogging.

The pandemicBlog is hoping to bring together a team of specialists on the subject of online marketing and contribute in this highly misunderstood discipline.

A good start at PandemicBlog

I’ve already written a couple of posts there, which succeeded in getting popular both in Sphinn, StumbleUpon and started a very interesting discussion in the comments. My goal is to continue writing quality posts (both in changemod and PandemicBlog) and contribute my best to the social web.

Take a look at my posts in PandemicBlog:

• The importance of avatars

• Why you shouldn’t stumble yourself

I’ll be posting at pandemicBlog at least once a week, so wait to see more articles there. Subscribe to the PandemicFeed to get the latest posts.

Changemod

My participation in the PandemicBlog will certainly not influence my writing rate at changemod. For those of you who enjoy this blog, I will continue writing here as usual, discussing the latest issues of the web and social networks.

I just joined Friendfeed. At first glance, it seems to be quite an interesting application. It supports 28 services about news (digg, reddit), social bookmarking (del.icio.us, su), music (last.fm), videos (yotube), etc.

Unlike other social sites, friendfeed is not about having a massive amount of friends. You just choose a few, which you know pretty well and you share the same interests.

It’s not about expanding your network, it’s about getting information you are really interested in.

Anyway, I think friendfeed is worth it. My profile is public, say hi anytime.

You might have noticed, that lately I don’t post that often as I did some weeks ago. Time runs short. I still surf and find new, interesting stuff, but it is at the moment difficult to daily write extensive posts.

You might have also noticed, that you get in your feed not only the stuff I write, but also the stuff I bookmark in del.icio.us. I try to write a small note for every site I bookmark, so that you can read a short description and see if you’re interested.

Do you like getting my delicious bookmarks in your feed?
Please let me know. If it just gets on your nerves, I’ll deactivate it.

Maybe the very observant of you have noticed that I changed the design of the blog (as promised last week).

As already said, it is based on the Integral Theme. By based, I mean I left the php files intact (just a few minor changes) and made a new CSS file.

It is a wordpress theme, widget ready. I’m planning to make more versions of it (and more designs in general), so send me your feedback and I’ll work on it.

If you like it, feel free to download it here. (I have also included the rss icon in the *.zip file)

(The widgets running are: Configurable Tag Cloud, Highest Rated, Recent Posts, Community Cloud, Recent Comments, Links)

I’ve been working on the new design. Its not ready yet, but I would appreciate some feedback. Here are a couple of screenshots.

Its backbone is the Integral Wordpress theme. But I did quite a few alterations. The major changes of the interface are:

• No more categories, only tags

• Better footer

• More visible subscribe buttons
• I’m still thinking what to do with the top commentators widget. I find it very important (a thank you to you all), but where should I have it?

Anyway, I’ll keep on working on the whole thing. I’ll upload it in about a week or so.

Terry Heath started a blogging meme yesterday, inviting bloggers to explain why they blog. An additional point of this question is to - hopefully - start a tagging wave. The two simple rules of the ‘game’ are:

1. Answer the question, “What do you expect from your blog?” and try to be as specific as possible. Avoid warm-fuzzy answers unless that really is your thing. Link back to the blog who tagged you so your readers can check others’ answers.
2. Tag at least five bloggers with the same question.

In that way Terry (me too) hopes to get as many reactions as possible in an interesting topic.

So why do you blog?

• Surely I like traffic and billions of zillions of subscribers. This blog is my little creation and I find it very rewarding to see it grow. So, yes, that is a point - a minor one, but still a point.
• Blogging is about interaction. When I see 300 unique visitors and just 2 comments on my post, it kind of dissapoints me. To be honest I would rather have more comments and less visitors. (and I don’t mean 300 comments and 2 visitors).
• A variable that directly derives from my previous point is diversity. Surely, it boosts my ego when I read mail and comments praising my writing. I really do, and hope to get more of it. But I also like (constructive) criticism. I like to see my readers, posing questions that show that they have really concentrated on the post. Diversity helps me improve my writings, encourages discussion even more and brings the debate forward.

Who do you tag?

And for the second part of the meme, here are my tags:

Insight Buzz,

GeekAlerts,

Wayne Porter on Attention Revenue,

Gadgetastic,

Every single one of us is a little civilization.