“But what would I write about?”

Regardless of how knowledgeable, talented, experienced, interesting or creative an individual is, this is the refrain I often hear when I suggest someone should try blogging.  As mentioned in the background to this line of posts, blogging is so much more than simply a summary of daily events (thank god).  And when in doubt of what to write about, why not just make something up?

Fictional blogging (alternately called blog fiction or, my personal favorite, flogging), is something that I’ve always found intriguing.  In essence, the idea is very simple: using a blog to tell a story piece-by-piece through individual posts.  This method ties into the strength of blogging very nicely; just as a blog changes converts a static informational website into a living, breathing and interactive communication tool, fictional blogging can turn a story into something that readers can interact and become personally involved with.  Readers can comment and play along with the story using the comments, and the author can get feedback from the readers as the story unfolds.

Fictional blogging is also something that Christina and I have tried out for ourselves through our previous collaboration, the Blurgh.  Our story was that of two young people living in Pittsburgh 20 years from now, but the Pittsburgh that they live in is one on the other side of the problems that we face in the city now.  The goal was for it to provide a venue for people to remove themselves from the grind of dealing with the city’s current struggles and think more about what the ultimate vision of what we know the city can become.  One thing we realized later was that there was also a secondary goal: it was a way for us to remain connected to Pittsburgh, because at the time we started it we were living in Washington, DC.

It was a very interesting project, and a lot of fun.  It also gave us an idea of many of the advantages and pitfalls of fictional blogging.  One of the biggest pitfalls was that a large number of people didn’t really get it; even though we tried to make it as clear as possible that the blog was ficticious (see the calendar marked 2028 and the large year included in the date section of each post) a lot of people emailed us asking for more information about certain things we wrote about.  We were even called by the Post-Gazette about one of the organizations we made up!

One of the biggest advantages, though, were the people that did get it.  A good number of readers became very dedicated and played along in the comments, which was a lot of fun.  We also got a good response from many other blogs and received absolutely no negative emails or comments (an achievement in itself, as many bloggers know!).  Overall, fictional blogging is something I highly recommend, and honestly wish was more common.

If you know of any other Pittsburgh-based/written fictional blogs, please drop the name in the comments!

I’ve been meaning to post something for a while now about one of my favorite Pittsburgh sites, Bike PGH.  First off, it’s wonderfully designed both functionally and aesthetically.  It combines all the elements that a non-profit organization would have (Mission, Board, Staff, Events, etc), a ton of valuable resources to the biking community, and the art blends biking, crazy Pittsburgh topography and crazy Pittsburgh directions into an attractive and interesting visual diplay.  ClickNathan did a wonderful job.

As a non-profit/community resource website, it accomplishes its purpose beautifully, and to keep with the Waxing Blogosophically theme, also sports a blog.  Even in the current biking off-season it is updated 2-3 times a week on average, and serves up an array of content including advocacy, site news, tips for local bikers, etc.  My only complaint is that the blog is hard to find from the main page. A user either has to access it through the news menu, or see it amidst the content/link box in the sidebar, which somewhat resembles an ad.  This means that most users would have to know the blog is there to find it, which is definitely not optimal.  The blog is a great resource–don’t bury it!

This site is a good example of how a blog can be integrated into a non-profit/community site to better serve its members/interested parties and make the website come alive.

Other Waxing Blogosophically site suggestions, hit the comments or email brett at marginaldesigns dot com.

In my experience with blogging and seeing the value in such pursuits, people tend to fall in two camps: you get it or you don’t.  The group that gets it sees how blogs can be used effectively for a multitude of things, including neighborhood groups using them to build a community, businesses using them to promote goods and services, non-profits using them to further their advocacy goals, and, of course, for individuals to disseminate their personal musings.

The group that doesn’t get it, however, tends to fall back to the circa 1998 question, “Why would someone care about what time I woke up and what I ate for dinner?”

The truth is that blogging and blogging software have grown up significantly since the days when LiveJournal was king.  While there is still plenty of room for personal blogs, there are a growing number of ways that blogging is being used to do things that are new and innovative.  And, in my opinion, this has a lot to do with the software that the blogs run on.

Blogging software like Wordpress and Movable Type allow people to create sites, customize them, and deliver content more quickly and easily than in the past.  This allows sites to “come to life” in a way that pages updated through raw HTML coding and FTP never could accomplish.  Gone are (or should be) the days when businesses rely on static and seldomly updated pages to communicate their products and services.  People want to know what you’re doing now, and blogging is the perfect platform for doing that.

So, in this series of posts, I’d like to highlight some of the blogs that are using this medium in new and innovative ways.  Be on the lookout later this week for the first site, and in the meantime, let me know about some of your favorites in the comments!

Marginal Designs is not only interested in making kickass t-shirts, we’re also committed to raising the bar on web design in Pittsburgh. Too many websites describing our lovely city’s businesses, organizations or events are poorly-designed, hard to understand, and frustrating to use. So we thought we’d highlight those websites that do an awesome job at providing information while being nice to look at, too.

The website for the Three Rivers Film Festival, going on now, is one of those websites. It has a very clean design , great art (get a load of that top image!), and multiple ways to access information. If you’re looking for a film to see, you can browse the films page, which lists the movies in alphabetical order. You can also download the PDF listing of the films and print it out in case you find yourself at the Regent Square theatre without an inkling of what the films that are playing are about. If you know you’re free on Thursday night, though, you can just click to the calendar page and find films by date. Each of the films on this page are linked to their descriptions, too, so you don’t need to worry about remembering which films are playing on which days to find out more about them.

The site also provides a listing and map of all the theaters participating in the festival, along with contact information for the people running the shows. You can also find information about ticket prices and where/how to buy them on the site.

Overall, very well-done. Bravo, Three Rivers Film Festival!