Welcome to the new Writing and the Digital Life blog

Welcome to the new Writing and the Digital Life blog, going live today on BlogDay 31st August 2005

Writing and the Digital Life began as an email list earlier this year, and quickly acquired a critical mass of around 250 users in many countries - currently Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niue, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA, United Kingdom & Zimbabwe.

We are interested in the impact of digital technologies upon writing and lived experience within an interdisciplinary context. We talk about the relationship of writing and reading in the context of many subjects including 'new and old' media; craft, art, process and practice; social networks; cooperation and collaboration; narrative and memory; human computer interaction; imagination; nature; mind; body, and spirit. Contributions related to research, writing and teaching in the arts, sciences, and humanities are all welcome. The list is managed by Sue Thomas, Professor of New Media at De Montfort University, England.

This blog is an experiment. We discussed long and hard whether to switch to a blog, or stay as an email list, but when we voted on it the result was pretty well 50-50 so we have decided to try both at the same time. Some of us are old hands at blogging and some of us are completely new to it, so bear with us - there may be some small glitches as everyone gets up to speed. The luxurious Typepad software upon which we reside has been made available to us gratis by Alistair Shrimpton, the friendly UK Business Development Manager for Six Apart (thank you Alistair!).

Anyone is free to join us - just go to Participate at the top of the right-hand panel.

If you join, you get to discuss issues, share news and information, and vote each month to choose a discussion topic. But you don't need to join to read the list archives or this blog - although if you do join we guarantee a warm sense of togetherness and companionship ;)

Text, in whatever language or script, is the passport to digital life. Without it we cannot use email, web content, chat, discussion boards, or instant messaging. In the ecology of global connectedness it is vital we understand how writing and reading are being used, extended and changed.

We are 25 writers from several different countries including India, Africa, and South America - see the left-hand panel for details. We are interested in anything that addresses the impact of digital technologies upon writing and lived experience, from vague, barely expressible notions to passionate manifestos. This is the place for conjecture, imaginings, mappings and propositions. With luck we will birth some inventive projects, successful collaborations, and unusual networks. We hope you enjoy what you find here.

technorati tag: BlogDay2005