Recommitting to Your Scholarly Blog in 2013 #BlogTank

A few days ago, I floated the idea of a work-group for scholarly bloggers who hail from a range of backgrounds and affiliations: graduate students, job seekers, and independent scholars as well as people in alternative academic, postdoctoral, tenure-track, and non-tenure track positions.

The goal of the work-group is simple: to recommit ourselves to blogging not only as writers, but also as readers and curators of others’ content.

A few tweeps I interact with (@lianasilva and @anneperez) voiced interest – which was exciting! After soliciting feedback via a Google doc, I’ve finalized plans for the group, which will begin on January 6 and conclude on February 1.

The group, which I’ve christened Blog Tank, differs from other communal and/or digital writing initiatives like Digital Writing Month or Academic Book Writing Month—both of which I joined and enjoyed.

CC-licensed photo by flickr user larkery

For one, the Blog Tank community will be massively (massively) smaller and hopefully, more intimate. I’m not sure how many participants to expect (this is, admittedly, an experiment), but it would be great if we could get at least 10-15 bloggers for the first run.

Secondly, much like #DigiWriMo and similar efforts, Blog Tank encourages bloggers to create content; however, it also equally cultivates the consumption and sharing of others’ content. Blog Tank thus deliberately facilitates what one twitter user I follow called “cross pollination.” I’m hoping that the connections that bloom during Blog Tank will survive and thrive long after Blog Tank ends.

For additional information about the group and how to participate, keep reading after the jump. Note that the sign-up deadline is January 4.

How Blog Tank Works

Structure
Participants will be divided into three teams, labeled A, B, and C for simplicity. Each team will be assigned one of the following tasks:

(1) Write and publish a blog post on his/her individual blog
(2) Read and comment on blog posts created by the writing group
(3) Share or “curate” blog posts by the writing group using established social media networks

Each team will be asked to complete tasks 1 through 3 at some point; in other words, everyone will have the opportunity to write, comment, and curate — but not all at once!

Schedule
Blog Tank will last from January 6 to February 1. We’ll rotate through the 3 tasks once by switching to a new task every 3 days. If you’re having trouble visualizing the work flow, check out the Blog Tank Master Schedule.

To sign-up, send me a DM on twitter or email me with your name and email address. I’ll add you to the Google group and also make a Google Doc available to you.

Update for Jan. 6: The response to Blog Tank was more than I expected, and we’ve got a full house!