A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally in reverse chronological order) - from Wikipedia.

People have been publishing personal pages on the web over a decade, but the development of blogging applications has encouraged a resurgence of people taking to the web to share their thoughts with the world.

Several members of the Concordia community have begun blogging. We have put together a selection of blogs by faculty, current students, and alumni. We hope to draw a bit of attention to some of the more interesting voices in our community.

We are planning an ongoing series of profiles of Concordia bloggers. If you would like to present your blog to the Concordia community, or know of a Concordia blogger that deserves our attention, please e-mail us the URL and contact information.

The opinions expressed in these blogs are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the university.

Faculty Blogs

• Critical Pixels - Matthew Soar, assistant professor, Communication Studies, writes the occasional brief entry about his personal life, professional projects, and the odd thing that catches his eye.

  Sample post topics: Hell in a handbasket?; DesignInquiry ‘05 Poster Series

  First post: August 4, 2003

  Technology: Movable Type

• Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean - Phil Harland, assistant professor, Religion, posts on topics directly related to his academic interests, namely religious life among Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians in the Roman empire and on the social history of Christianity.

  Sample post topics: “Real Child Sacrifice at Carthage?”; “Jacko’s Boy-cchanalia and Livy’s Bacchanalia”

  First post: May 24, 2005

  Technology: Blogger

• Learning Rocks - Johannes Strobel, assistant professor, EdTech, engages in debates with other academic bloggers in his professional domain, but also posts about blogging and academia in general.

  Sample post topics: “Do we need pre-publication review at all?”; “Revolutionary Conceptual Change”

  First post: February 19. 2005

  Technology: WordPress

Student Blogs

• Skrud.net - Eitan “Skrud” Levi, a second-year Software Engineering student, writes regularly about his daily life, music, movies and technology. He also posts the occasional photo. He runs a discussion forum that seems to be at the center of a large community of Concordia computer science and software engineering people.

  Sample post topics: “The Meal”; “Battle of the Nomad and the iPod”

  First post: November 28, 2003

  Technology: WordPress

• emergentbehaviour - Adam Harvie, a student in Fine Arts and Computer Science, covers a bit about his personal life, but primarily links to interesting sites he’s come across in the overlapping worlds of design, public art and technology.

  Sample post topics: “Corporate Shenanigans”; “Open Source Boozin’”

  First post: February 10, 2005

  Technology: WordPress

Alumni Blogs

• s y n o p t i c i n e m a m o n t r e a l - a bilingual blog with reviews and tips on all the cinema-related events in the Montreal region put together by Synoptique, a journal of film and film studies, founded in late 2003 by Concordia Masters students.

  Sample post topics: “New Canadian Film Review Site for the People”; “FANTASIA 2005 Film Festival Report #1”

  First post: May 05, 2005

  Technology: ExpressionEngine

• Shattering Rose-Colored Glasses - Donna Barker, an alumna in Communications, is a self-employed writer, documentary filmmaker and social change activist, living in Vancouver. Her blog has a strong, distinctive voice. Her postings mix colourfully recounted personal experiences with critical analysis. Her primary theme is the challenging of orthodox views of children’s medical treatments, such as vaccinations and drug prescriptions for personality disorders.

  Sample post topics: “I think my head is going to explode”; “A nice cup of tea with a dash of milk and a spoonful of fear”

  First post: April 01, 2005

  Technology: Blogger

• opinionated lesbian - Eleanor Brown is a full-time freelance writer, reporter and editor based in Montreal. An alumni of Concordia (enrolled 1989, graduated 2004 - according to her blog), she regularly posts commentary on gay and lesbian issues in the political sphere, media and popular culture.

  Sample post topics: “Aliens need to know the names of everyone you’ve ever slept with, or, Scientology and queers”; “On camp and the caped crusader”

  First post: January 21, 2005

  Technology: .Text (changed name to Community Server)