First Post...

Welcome to my blog.

And three questions for my first post. Firstly the two posed by Thing 2. What do I hope to get out of 23 Things Cambridge version 2.0 - and why am I doing it at all, as I'm not even a librarian? And secondly, what is my experience of Web 2.0 so far? But also thirdly - why Ursula Small?

I owe my interest in this course to my husband, Aidan Baker, Haddon Librarian and poet, who blogs at Blurtmetry. Aidan has said often enough that the original Cam23 was the best thing that his 2010 had to offer, and that has been enough to intrigue me.

I have been using a handful of Web 2.0 tools since possibly before the term was invented, but in a rather amateur fashion: some, such as RSS feeds, I've simply ignored (giving the poor excuse of lack of time) and others, such as Linked In and Aidan's favourite, Twitter, I feel I don't get as much out of as I could. I will post my experience of the various "things" so far in my next post. I hope that I will be allowed to dip in and out of 2011's "extra things" as my very mixed levels of prior experience suggest.

But my main reason for tackling this now is that it gives me an excuse to get up a personal blog, and learn about blogging while doing so. From time to time, the Association of British Science Writers (of which I am an associate member) discusses the thorny issue of whether a science writer needs to have a blog. "Suck it and see" has been the usual answer. Will I keep blogging after Cam23 2.0 is done and dusted? Time will tell.

And why Ursula Small? Since long before we got engaged, Aidan's affectionate nickname for me has been "Little Bear". I first thought of Ursula Small as a pseudonym that I could use if I ever took to writing fiction. But I don't realistically think that I ever will, and when, earlier this year, I mentioned it to a friend who does write fiction, she said it was too good to forget...

Oh, and while on the subject of pseudonyms, I answer to "Clare Baker" just as readily, but not when I'm working.