Who are you - Name, age, profession.

Jane Dallaway, 31, Software Developer

Where do you live?

Brighton, UK

What is your blog address?


When did you first discover blogging?

Early 2001 although I can't remember how. I think I just stumbled across blogger.com.

What tempted you to become involved?

It just seemed like a really easy way to keep our website up to date with minimum effort, and from anywhere with an internet connection

How did you set up your blog?

Through blogger.com. We just went there and signed up. It's a pretty easy process and doesn't require too much technical knowledge. As we have access to a shared web server we chose to host it ourselves rather than use the blogspot.com hosted method. It took at the most an hour before we were happy that it matched the basic design of the rest of our site.

How much time did it cost to set up and how much time do you devote to it now?

Not much, we just add content when we have something we think is interesting enough to share. Sometimes that will be a review of a restaurant which needs a bit more thought, and sometimes it'll just be a link to something we've found that's fun.

Does it interfere with the rest of your life?

Not really, although we sometimes catch ourselves saying "Ooh, we must blog about that"

How do you benefit personally from it?

The main benefit for me is that I can re-find useful websites far easier if we've blogged about them, in that way we sometimes use it as a memory aid and hope that if we find something useful then other people will too

What do your family and friends think?

Most of them think its a good way of keeping up to date with what we've been upto, especially those who aren't living in this country any more.

Any funny or peculiar incidents?

Not really, I guess the most peculiar thing is that we get abusive comments left sometimes. It seems odd that people take the time to write comments rather than just moving on to a site that holds some interest for them.

Have you branched out?

Last year when we were organising our wedding we had a wedding blog. It proved to be a really useful way for friends and family to stay up to date with how our plans were progressing. We were careful not to mention too much personal information like dates, times and places though as we didn't want any uninvited guests! We even put a poll up on it to decide what flavour soup we should serve (the result was tomato and basil).

What are your blogging ambitions?

We don't really have any our blog isn't really meant to win any prizes, or serve any greater purpose. It's just a place for us to jot down things of interest, to help us remember and to share with friends.

How does the blogging community benefit the Net?

It certainly seems to have opened up the internet to the "normal" people. You don't need to be a corporation, or in the IT industry to be able to share your thoughts. For instance, during the recent war the Where is Raed? blog made very interesting reading as it was written by an Iraqi guy living in Baghdad sharing his experiences.