Why Tumblr?
It is simple and versatile. You can easily embed videos, pictures, links, photos or just write your own text. Of course, you can do all this with conventional blogs, but I have found them to be a bit fiddlier. With tumblr, you can install a button in your bookmarks, and as soon as you read something interesting on line, stick it straight on your blog.
You can also post through a unique email address. This appeals to me as someone who spends a bit of time on trains everyday. I can send my morning thoughts straight from my mobile phone to my blog.
You control your tumblr through the dashboard, and once we have all set one up we can “follow” each other. That means we can see each time one of the other group members updates, and click over to respond or just have a further look.
There are a couple of downsides – the first is that is not totally private. However, you can disable the search engine function which means it won’t be listed on google, yahoo etc. That means people will only find it if directed towards it.
The second problem is getting comments. If you register with http://disqus.com/ using the same email address you use to register your tumblr, they will give you a small piece of code and tell you where to cut and paste it. It’s really not too scary! If you have any trouble, let me know….
But apart from anything else, it’s a conceptual choice. Conventional blogs ask you to “publish”, you hone your words carefully, arrange them on the page, play with the fonts, the links, the colours…. when you open tumblr, you get an empty box. You type in it, and click. It seems so much more suited to the stream of consciousness of reflection and the process over product approach.
