TITLE: Shopping Blog Entries to a Wider Audience
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: February 06, 2012  6:26 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Over the last couple of years, our university relations
department has been trying to promote more actively the
university's role in the public sphere.  One element of
this effort is pushing faculty work and professional
commentary out into wider circulation.  For example,
before and after the recent presidential caucuses in
Iowa, they helped connect local political science profs
with media who were looking for professional commentary
from in the trenches.

Well, they have now discovered my blog and are interested
in shopping several pieces of general interest to more
traditional media outlets, such as national newspapers
and professional magazines.  Their first effort involves
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2012-01.html#e2012-01-23T16_06_26.htm">
   a piece I wrote about liberal education</A>
last month, which builds on two related pieces,
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2011-07.html#e2011-07-15T16_25_44.htm">
   here</A>
and
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2011-06.html#e2011-06-17T12_28_19.htm">
   here</A>.
I'm in the process of putting it into a form suitable for
standalone publication.  This includes polishing up some
of the language, as well as not relying on links to other
articles -- one of the great wins of the networked world.

Another big win of the networked world is the ease with
which we can get feedback and make our ideas and our
writing better.  If you have any suggestions for how I
might improve the presentation of the ideas in these
pieces, or even the ideas themselves, please
<A HREF="mailto:wallingf@cs.uni.edu">
   let me know</A>.
As always, I appreciate your thoughts and willingness to
discuss them with me.

When I mentioned this situation in passing on Twitter
recently, a former student asked whether my blog's being
on the university's radar would cause me to write
differently.  The fact is that I always tried to respect
my university, my colleagues, and my students when I
write, and to keep their privacy and integrity in mind.
This naturally results in some level of self-censorship.
Still, I have always tried to write openly and honestly
about what I think and learn.

You can rest assured.  This blog remains mine alone and
will continue to speak in my voice.  I will write as openly
and honestly as ever.  That is the only way that the things
I write could ever be of much interest to readers such as
you, let alone to me.
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