I wrote my first blog post 19 October, 2003, 1 year ago today. Since then Joe’s Ramblings has received approximately 250 posts containing more than 50,000 words.

What first put the thought of blogging (I didn’t know it was called blogging then) in my mind was seeing a visiting American AIESECer in Adelaide write her blog in April/May 2003 (sorry, I can’t remember her name). I was slightly jealous of the ease with which she communicated on the ‘net. Tom’s An Irish Experience also inspired my start in the blogging world. Prior to 2003 I am certain I had surfed hundreds of blogs all over the ‘net but I obviously wasn’t ready to take extra step and start my own.

I had a website at Taheny.com for more than a year before I started Joe’s Ramblings. Unlike the blog, the website was painful and time-consuming to change.

A short while after Alicia visited in October 2003 I took the plunge and signed up at Blogger. Now life without a blog would seem very strange. I have put hundreds of hours into this blog. Sometimes I feel like I waste too much time on it and I should be sleeping, eating, socialising or doing something else instead.

The blog was established with four main purposes:

*to keep family and friends informed: much better than spam emails

*to be informative and entertaining enough for casual visitiors to return

*to provide an insight into both Turkey and Mersin

*to record my experiences, an online diary as such

I hope these purposes have been met.

Although one year is not very long in life, it is in blogging. The number of blogs and their importance is growing every day. A year or two back I predicted in 10 years time everyone will have a website. I did not know the websites would take the form of a blog.

I still have many more plans and improvements for the blog in mind. I want to change the formatting and colour, add a left column, improve the links and focus the content more. I may even experiment with advertising, not to make money (I don’t expect to), but to learn and experience the process of website advertising so I understand it better. I would also like to categorise all my posts into 5 or 6 categories, for example: Travels; Mersin; Turkey; Food; Personal: Internet. Some other blog programmes like Movable Type have this feature but Blogger does not.

I want to write a brief AIESEC trainees coming to live in Adana and Mersin, a FAQ about the blog, and other articles. Does anyone have any suggestions for content, formatting or features?

Blogging will only become more and more important in the future: politically, socially, economically and technologically. I plan to ride the crest of this blogging wave into the future.