I'm at the Society of American Archaeology Annual Meeting in Honolulu right now and today marks two years since I entered the blogosphere. It's not exactly two years but this is the day I count.
Two years ago, at the SAA meetings in Sacramento I went to the Blogging Archaeology session organized by Colleen Morgan. I was only slightly aware of blogs and I wasn't on Twitter. During the session I signed up for a Twitter account and was forever immersed in the conversation that happens behind the scenes of many activities and conferences around the world.
That evening I signed up for Squarespace and started this blog. This is my 168th blog post. I've written approximately 120,000 words and about 1,500 people read the blog every week. My Twitter account is 99% archaeologists and other scientists and has grown to over 450 followers (at least 15 new followers while at this conference!). I don't try to get more followers and just let it happen organically. I feel that getting followers just for the sake of doing it isn't very useful to me. Sure it looks good to some people, but, I want followers that actually want to hear what I have to say.
This blog has always been about my activities in CRM archaeology and has contained an educational element as well. Now that I have my own company the blog will likely begin to transition to more of an educational resource, but, I want to include posts about projects and things I'm working on in the Great Basin. If I ever get any employees I'd like them to start blogging here as well.
My hope is to get other archaeologists, and especially CRM archaeologists, to start blogging. One step to achieving that will hopefully happen in Austin next year for #SAA2014. I'm going to bring back the "Blogging Archaeology" session and I'd love it if bloggers from all over could come into and relay their experiences in the blogosphere and tell future bloggers what's worked for them, what hasn't, how blogging is good for archaeology and public outreach, and how blogging has affected them. They session could also include papers on effective use of social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and whatever new kid on the block comes around between now and then. I've never hosted a session before so I have some research to do. I think it's important that this type of session continue to be a part of the SAA Annual meetings.
Eventually I'd like to have a YouTube channel that contains instructional videos. These videos could be about everything from identifying a flake to the finer points of pedestrian survey. When a new field tech, or even an old one, searches for something related to doing archaeology I want one of DIGTECH's videos to be the first thing they see in the search results.
Thanks to all my readers and especially to the commenters. Comments keep me honest and they keep me going. I know it's difficult to comment sometimes because of the way you are reading this. Most people are not reading these posts on the website. They are using smartphone or tablet apps and different apps online. If there were a way to comment without going to the website then I would do it.
I'm working on a resource for new archaeologists in the field of CRM. It will cover everything from writing a CV, to your first interview, to living in the field. This book isn't about archaeology. It's about being an archaeologist and doing it in a way that keeps you happy and sane. Stay tuned for details.
Thanks for reading and I really do hope to see you in the field!
