Why on earth am I blogging?

I've resisted for years any thought of blogging. It seemed to me to be an extra task in an already crowded agenda but increasingly people live their lives online and interact with the rest of the world that way. I have learned to have fun and make contact with new friends and colleagues on Facebook which have translated into "real world" relationships. I have learned to Tweet and to develop a whole new way of sourcing information from known contacts and many unknown. Linked-in is a developing tool for me as I develop a network of professional contacts. But blogging? Well at least let's put my feet in the water at the shallow end. @bizmarketingpro tells me that I should blog from a place of passion and about myself and my work, keep it short and simple and showcase my expertise. The first three seem very easy to me but perhaps the fourth may be a bit more difficult. Perhaps however after 11 years in a Regional Development Agency in a variety of policy roles from SRB onwards, taking in experience in sub regional regeneration and moving into health and equalities plus my political role in expressing that knowledge into practical effect I may just have picked up a thing or two. So this is what I will do. I will blog about my passion for regeneration and the transformation of localities taking in practical examples from my day to day work and I will keep it short and simple. I will leave it to others whether in that process I display any expertise.