On Writing Gizmo

Gizmo the Geek and friends were created as a response to the wealth of learning on the Methods Module of the Online MA in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University.

During campus week the subject of blogs came up on many occasions and there was much discussion about the vastness of the Internet and the prolific use of blogging as rant platform. There was also a view that possibly blogging was dead or at least dying. Being new to blogging myself I decided that this was something I was keen to investigate.

I have researched the phenomenon of blogging extensively and searched for quantitative and qualitative research about blogging as a platform and particularly hoped to find some kind of demographic data about blogging in the UK.

As there was very little data to be found I started to look into creating my own data from empirical research.

I set up a blogging survey, which has been distributed to some extent and produced interesting responses, but will be further distributed towards the end of January 2009.

I also conducted an informal interview with a group of 14 to 15 year olds to discover their Internet usage habits. This discussion confirmed my own views (from general observation) that few people of that age group had an interest in blogging. Their Internet usage of preference consisted of MSN, Bebo and YouTube.

In addition to this research into blogging I also looked into social networking, taking particular note of how writers use blogging and social networking currently.

A third feed, came during the discussions about the closure of the CWNM, which appears to be a financial decision in response to the difficult economic climate we are facing globally. Through our course representatives I and others have asked questions about whether other sources of funding have or could be sought, but to date no satisfactory response has been received on this matter. I felt a strong desire to create a project that had the potential of a revenue stream.

Out of all this emerged Gizmo the Geek and friends.