Curious to discover more, I asked a group of them the following four questions:

1. When you started writing your blog, how and why did you decide which blogging tool to use (Blogger)?
2. What are the main things you like about Blogger now that you’re blogging?
3. What (if anything) have you found hard to use in Blogger?
4. Had you heard about Wordpress before choosing Blogger? If so, what made you decide to use Blogger?

Their answers were fascinating.

To those new to blogging, Blogger was actually all they’d ever heard of. I wonder if this a confusion with the term and name; ie. to become a blogger you use Blogger? Many hadn’t heard of Wordpress at all, or had vaguely heard of it but didn’t know anything about it.

They found it incredibly easy to get going and start writing blog posts and adding photos in Blogger. They felt it was great for non-technical type people to just start writing. However, the majority said they found it hard to get the rest of the blog looking how they wanted it to (design and functionality) and complained that they needed to know HTML (which many didn’t) to change things around.

As more and more of the general population (read: non-technical) find a reason or two to start blogging, does Wordpress need to find a new way to reach out to beginners, or is Blogger still an appropriate starting point for someone just wanting to get going? Is Wordpress still too techy for someone new to the world of blogging? And does the name Wordpress need more explaining to people? (“It’s the new Blogger?”)

To me, when I compare Blogger and Wordpress, there really seems no competition. Wordpress is much more powerful, flexible and still easy to use. You don’t have to be a technical person to use Wordpress and benefit from all the vast code under the hood.

However, there’s probably still a long way to go before Wordpress is the first tool people think of when launching their first blog.

If you’re a developer, this code will help but if you’re a Wordpress user wanting to jump straight on board, Jonathan Dingman has written a plugin for you which can be downloaded here:

Facebook Like Wordpress Plugin.

It’s yet to be added into Wordpress’ plugin repository. Expect other plugins to be developed over the coming days and weeks with added options, but if you’re wanting code now, give his plugin a go!

The Wordpress-run site shows what people are saying on Twitter about the book, enables readers to keep track of the author’s media appearances and reviews and to get a bit of an insight into what the book is all about.

Check out Mandela’s Way!

The Drupal-run site is full of features – such as comprehensive guides to “who’s who”, networking events, exclusive interviews and how brands are innovatively using bloggers to engage with potential customers.

Editor Esther Brady-Crawford was an absolute pleasure to work with and we wish her the best with She Posts!

Oddly, despite all the unknowns in this world while one is pregnant (or just living), when someone explicitly says they don’t know the effects of the unknown, we tend to pay attention and err on the cautious side… or do we?

The ubiquitousness of social networking, recording devices and ease of worldwide distribution in merely a few years has changed what each generation understands as being public versus private.

I’m all for engaging with social media and I love using Facebook and Twitter, reading blogs, video conferencing and using my iphone. But at the same time, I found myself reflecting on some of the comments made in the documentary – made years before the advent of these things:

• How people find their self-worth based in the number of comments, or reads, or likes or numbers of “friends”.
• How people are crying out to be heard and to get their 15 minutes of fame every day.
• How we think we’re getting community online but we often feel more alone.
• How we trade privacy for connections with people.
• How we forget how public things are when we’re immersed in a culture with no privacy.

When I found myself in the emergency room of hospital ten days ago, I sent txt messages to close friends and family – but didn’t tweet about it. I wanted to know that the people I love deeply knew first. Years ago, news would take quite a while to circulate in a circle of friends and acquaintances but now it can be done in an instant – globally.

I’ve seen numerous times people forget this on Facebook or Twitter and stress about making sure someone knew before they were told by someone else – rather than directly. From the outside, it may seem silly that someone should “forget” that anyone can read it, but once immersed in social media it is hard to remember what private means.

Another result of watching the documentary: I recently did a cull of people on Facebook – names I didn’t recognise, or people I had never exchanged communication with on there. There were surprisingly lots of them and it actually felt good to do a spring-clean.

I also was reflecting on my sister’s comments about how she always left a comment if she looked through a set of someone’s photos on Facebook – she felt a bit stalkerish without doing so. That’s quite a nice thing to do and it really doesn’t take time – let someone know you’ve noticed, you’re interested, you’re there. We read so many blog posts and then skip on to the next interesting thing without stopping to engage – because it’s not required. We’ve swap ease of access for probably less engagement. Yes we don’t have to sit through boring slideshows of other people’s trips and can pick and choose what we want to see, but we’ve lost all those real conversations, the context around the photos – the laughing together, the eating, the swapping of stories. They can be gained online, but it’s more work than we’re used to.

PS, I’m fine!

Editor Udi Turosh has also created the fabulous Bokeh Masters Kit, one of which is winging its way over here.