The aim of this blog is to publish a weekly reflection on a topic which has attracted my interest. Each piece will be 500 words exactly.

I have written these short reflections for a number of years. Very few of them have been seen by other people, and even fewer by large numbers of people.

I have debated for years whether to share them and in what form. The advantage of a blog is that there is very little extra work and no cost involved. And it does not matter if no one reads them.

What made me decide that now was the time to start a blog? A discussion about the nature and value of blogs led to a number of unresolved questions. Is there any value in a format which effectively has no editorial or quality control other than the laws on publication? Is there any selection process by which some blogs survive and others do not? How might quality and value be measured? Are blogs which meet the interests of one group inherently more valuable than those that meet the interest of other groups? Is it the content or the readership that determines value - or the appearance? How does the readership develop?

What was missing from the discussion was any experience of blogs. Remedying this by reading blogs did not really provide the answer. The next step was to experience blogs by creating them.

In one sense creating a blog is easy. A few simple steps and you are in the publishing business. A few moments searching the internet and thinking about the numerous hosts for blogs soon complicates the issue. What really is the difference between the different hosts? How do you find a host where your blog will fit and find people who might read it? Does it matter, or will quality blogs always attract readers? Are you aiming at any particular group, using it to air your own views or exploring the experience?

If anybody reads this, it implies that they have explored the first stage of blogs as readers. How many are surfing, how many are dedicated blog readers and how many are bloggers themselves? Does it matter? Do they behave in any different ways? No doubt there has been research which will answer some or all of these questions.

Why 500 words? It is easy to write extensively, but much harder to write within a limit. 500 words are more likely to be read than 5000. A lot can be said in 500 well-chosen words.

Why did I start writing reflections? There were a number of reasons, primarily to remember ideas and discussions and to think systematically about issues that triggered a reaction which on reflection might not have been the logical or rational one. Having started as a purely personal exercise, some of them gained wider audiences as they coincided with opportunities for publication.

How long will the blog last? Who knows. Probably until I cease to enjoy writing it.