Birthday Cake with PineappleEleven years ago today, with an allusion to Babylon 5 and the ideas that I needed to produce my own RSS feed and experiment with new types of writing, I launched this blog. I called the blog simply DennisKennedy.Blog.

Much has happened with me and this blog over those eleven years. I appreciate the positive responses my blog has always seemed to generate, the many doors it has opened and the great people it has introduced me to.

One of the most interesting criticisms I’ve consistently gotten over the years is that I have a tendency to anthropomorphize my blog. I think that criticism is somewhat overstated. My blog, on the other hand, thinks that criticism is, well, just crazy talk.

Earlier today, my blog and I were discussing where things stood at the 11-year mark. I mentioned that I had been feeling that I hadn’t been paying the blog as much attention as I wanted over the past year or so, even though my intentions were good. In my defense, I noted that it wasn’t like I wasn’t doing any else in my limited spare time – two new books, LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers (Second Edition) and LinkedIn in One Hour, the Kennedy-Mighell Report Podcast (the 120th episode – on living in multiple tech worlds – just released), my ABA Journal tech column (the February column is on social media), speaking (e.g., at the upcoming 2014 ABA TECHSHOW) and webinars (e.g., the upcoming one on Top Tech Trends), the occasional article or interview, helping build the ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center (check out the 2013 Tech Report) and Law Technology Today blog, and dabbling in social media. Not to forget the 10th edition of the Blawggie Awards.

That was not the best approach to take with a blog that was already feeling a little neglected.

I certainly got an earful from my blog – most of which would be unprintable – and the stinging and memorable comment that my blog felt it might as well write its own posts rather than wait on me. Message heard and understood. As they say, that opened up the communication channel and we discussed the future direction of the blog, put together an action plan, and made up in time to have some blawgiversary cake.

The plan is to redesign and revamp the website, with my blog becoming even more so the main focus of the site. That will take care of a current bug that affects the ability of users of some browsers to see new blog posts – the best way to read this blog for now is by subscribing to its RSS feed). The other content of the website will be drastically streamlined and updated, all with the idea of making it easier to access all the different things I’m doing, no matter where they are located.

This plan certainly made my blog happier – and me too. I’m talking with my web designer about the path forward and a timeline.

In the meantime, I’d certainly welcome any suggestions readers might have about revamping the site, especially portions that you want to see retained and brought up-to-date. I’m also curious whether there might be interest in a free ebook version of the entire blog archive. Let me know.

It’s been eleven great years. My blog and I hope to keep it going for many more. Thanks for being a great audience.

– Dennis and DennisKennedy.Blog

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

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LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers (Second Edition), the new book from Allison Shields and me, is now available (iBook version also available). Our previous book, Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers, is also available (iBook version here). Also still available, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.