Sidepodcast

Thursday Thoughts - Why Do You Blog?

This week as the off-season comes to a close, it's the final Thursday Thoughts for awhile. Unusually we have a question in front of us that both Christine and I can answer, but in different ways. So this is my take.

Maverick has put bloggers in the spotlight by simply asking, why do you blog?

This is a bit of a tricky subject to approach, because originally Sidepodcast was about audio and about video. The written word was, and still to a degree is, a secondary consideration. Two scenarios have driven the direction of site in a more textual direction - it is expensive to create two-way conversation using other media, and when time is of the essence, text delivery is faster and more convenient.

The latter is especially true when working on projects on a part-time basis.

Mr. C and Me

I only write blog posts for Sidepodcast and very occasionally for F1 Minute. You might consider me the lesser productive half of the team. I can't remember how I ended up getting roped into writing (I swear I only agreed to a speaking part), so a trip back into the archives is in order.

59 words made up my first post back in 2007, and it wasn't F1 related. A further month passed before I had a go at Ferrari. Following the archive trail through '08 and '09 it's easy to conclude that I primarily blog to promote things.

Catching right up to date, I can see that my text output has increased as more things have needed selling or explaining. My typing speed has not.

I'm confident that if project Sidepodcast ended tomorrow, my writing would cease along with it. There just isn't a burning desire within me to type anything.

All for F1

A year or so ago, we had a problem with people suggesting that we were F1 journalists, or reporters, or some such thing that we weren't comfortable with. For me, Sidepodcast was never a stepping stone into the Formula 1 circus, it wasn't a way to showcase any skills to the wider world, it was simply a vehicle with which Christine and I could work together. To that end it's work incredibly well, despite all the writing I've had to do.

This final Thursday Thoughts question closes the 2009-2010 off-season for me, and I've appreciated reading every question and all the posts that have spilled forth from them. I may not give so much back as some, but I love being a part of the F1 community.

Daily: 30th January 2010

Today is Saturday, the penultimate day of January and the start of the weekend. Most importantly this means we can sleep. Both halves of Sidepodcast are officially under the weather today, and the lovely Christine is suffering the most.

Despite us working at less than full capacity on Friday, there were plenty of events to discuss both inside and outside of the F1 scene.

• Kimi got his full time rallying career off the ground on Friday, and we're committing to covering his progress this year, starting with a dedicated Arctic Rally thread. It's a new and confusing category of motor sport for us to fathom, and Räikkönen appears to have much to learn too.
• Yesterday's Friday Fun topic got everybody reminiscing on classic Formula 1 launch parties in year's gone by. I'll happily go on record and say things certainly seemed more exciting back in my day.
• The McLaren team threw back the covers on their 2010 challenger the MP4-25 less than 24 hours ago, but an early leak of press images via Dank on Twitter took the edge off the silver machine's unveiling. That said, the rest of the event in Newbury went off without a hitch, with the live stream offering far more useful coverage than Ferrari's pathetic efforts the previous day.
• If you haven't already, please take a look at Adie's write-up from a day inside Vodafone HQ. It's commendable that McLaren took the initiative to open doors and recognise bloggers efforts to break into mainstream F1 journalism. Although it has been noted that the team from Woking happily opened someone else's factory doors, rather than their own.
• As a final word on launches, I recommend reading Joe's thoughts on viewing from the comfort of one's armchair. With zero hope of an exclusive, why would professional journalists travel from far and wide to experience the same thing as those watching at home (or even less if you factor in the leaked photographs)? There's plenty more to be discussed on this subject, do watch for more posts later today.

Apologies to anyone waiting on F1 Minute or F1 Big Picture, I may be trusted to handle a stand-in daily post, but my talents only stretch so far (plus I charge by the hour, don't ya know?). Here's wishing Christine a speedy recovery.

Daily: 17th January 2010

Thankfully there were no announcements from Autosport International yesterday that made us scratch our heads. I mentioned in the comments that in prepping for the offline podcast this week, Mr C couldn't stop swearing when it came to talking about the rankings. Stay tuned for whether he manages to tone it down in the podcast or not! Meanwhile, here's what we're talking about:

• Pat has done the sensible thing and moved his website over from Blogger to Wordpress, and with a new title as well: I Watch Too Much Racing. Make sure you bookmark his new home on the web. Likewise, my own personal blog has made the switch back to hosted Wordpress, but it shouldn't affect your rss feeds, if you subscribe. Yay for Wordpress! (You don't hear that often round these parts so make the most of it!)
• It looks like Steven's wish could soon be granted and Paul di Resta will make the step up to Formula 1. At the moment, though, he's looking like filling the situation vacant as Force India's reserve driver, which doesn't really get a lot of miles under one's belt. Still, getting into the paddock is the first step, and di Resta is confident that's about to happen.
• A new blog has been brought to our attention in the best way possible - Ken asked if he could use one of our Flickr pictures as his header. You certainly can, Ken. He also has an interesting idea to compare the qualifying results rather than races - well, qualifying is the best part of the weekend, so I can't blame him.

That should do it for now, hope your weekend is going smoothly, let us know either way and I will see you in the comments.