A year ago I was sitting with my laptop in Chile setting up wordpress on my self-hosted domain. It was very exciting to approach publishing something that was mine on my own space.

I didn’t have much to write about then as I was cautious about opening up too much on the internet, I thought I’d write a few posts about travelling and my experience as an Australian living in Chile.

Personally I was going through some challenges back then, in all areas of my life actually. I had a lot of free time on my hands but also things to worry about. Perhaps I shouldn’t ellaborate too much but uncertainty definitely marked my reality back then. Since then I’ve had to battle with more frustrations and personal challenges, from my academic life, my professional life and my financial situation.

Today is a different day. I stand tall and proud of what I have accomplished. I look back on my hardship and release a smile knowing that I needed to go through those times to be able to appreciate what awaits me. With patience, grattitude and perseverance, my reality has changed completely. All my expectations for this year are being realised to an extent that I could never have imagined.

There are three things that are going unbelievably great for me, they are; my love life, my academic situation and my professional career. I am also so grateful for the good health I enjoy as well as that of my family.

With grattitude, self belief and a winning attitude, I don’t know how you could fail. I never expected for opportunities to pursue me they way they have. I feel so blessed at the moment and it’s great to be able to express and share this with the world through my personal blog.

Today for me is a celebration as I have finally realised my self-worth. It’s not ideal that I have to depend on recognition from others to be able to see it for myself. So I finish this post by encouraging people to follow their own dreams towards happiness.

• Create New Year’s resolutions (you can write them down and then forget about them but at least have them
• Don’t shy away from dreaming big (even if this means keeping it to yourself)
• Be grateful for what you have while at the same time visualising and idealising how you’d like your life to be
• Celebrate other people’s victories, put yourself in their shoes and sincerely congratulate them for their accomplishments
• No matter what you’re doing, strive for excellence and do your name proud
• Be nice to people and always maintain a high level of integrity
• Always look for people to admire whether they are your peers, mentors or heroes and learn from them
• Expect the best, sooner or later you’ll get it or be the best

One year on from when this blog was first live, things can only get better from here on. I realise I’ve written more about my life than the evolution of this blog but it’s worth expressing in my opinion.

1. To learn about setting up a website. Despite not knowing how to program, I was able to learn how to run a Content Management System (CMS) with little if any assistance.
2. To establish an internet presence in case anyone wanted to learn more about me. Better they learn through what I publish than to not find anything or content that is not flattering.  I allow people to get a picture of what type of person I am without needing to meet me.
3. To practise expressing my thoughts and opinions. I’ve always got things on my mind so it’s good to write about them. I expect my skills to improve with time.

Another benefit I have noticed from blogging is that it helps against procrastination. By writing a post, I endeavour to get it done and published so that it’s out of the way and sometimes I prepare posts in advance so that my blog remains as active as possible.

I like the service for 3 reasons:

1) Easy access with little effort

2) Simple to learn and no frills design

3) Adequate compatibility for different publishing mediums (at least in my experience)

The fact that Buzz lives inside your gmail inbox is fantastic. After I’ve checked my emails, Buzz is just one click away. It’s just a matter of opening up the Buzz pane and you can quickly scroll over recent activity. A much simpler task than viewing your RSS reader. And just that one step more convenient than viewing your twitter account.

Another bonus is the simplistic design that Buzz has. No skins, themes, confusing colours. No multiple columns, boxes, side menus either. Now I’m not a facebook user but I have seen the interface, it’s actually part of the reason why I haven’t signed up. Just by looking at the facebook home page it speaks out to you: “EXCESS TIME CONSUMER” or “PROCRASTINATE HERE, YOU WON’T LEAVE IN HOURS”.

Buzz was quite easy to learn, much to do with the fact that it doesn’t do all that much. BUT THAT’S GOOD! Don’t turn it into a Drupal admin page.

The integration with social media publishing tools. I like the fact that youtube links automatically get embedded. I can share a photo from my picasa album, links to websites retrieves images from the site to display. I can send my blog posts and tumblr entries through. Buzz makes it easy to express myself and my interests. I like the fact that you can have “shorter than blog posts, longer than twitter entries”. In this case, it looks a bit like a stripped down version of tumblr, although I think Buzz is more fluid and connected with larger audiences. It’s an interaction rather than a viewing service.

Buzz’s Limitations

• Not so much limitations but things I would like to see.
• The possibility to log in without gmail. I can go to youtube.com and log in without being in gmail. Same goes for picasa, reader and calendar.
• Having the opportunity log in separately would be nice to have.
• Hide replies to a particular Buzz
• Hide people’s twitter streams, without having to block that person entirely. It would be nice to filter this so as to get that person’s more meaningful entries.
• A separate window for viewing a list of your followers. At the moment I have like 60 followers who I don’t know. I am checking there profile one by one but this takes time. Make it easy to view a list in one page and then be able to drop down a list of their recent activity in a fast sort of way.

I can’t think of any more limitations. I know some people are complaining that they don’t use gmail and feel left out. I’m sure they didn’t mind having to fill out forms when they signed onto facebook, myspace, linkedin, youtube etc. Get another email or google account and start exploring. Heaps of google users have more than one google account. Twitter made you sign up to use their service, you need to sign up to Buzz too.

I’m sure google will start to add more things to Buzz. I think they’ve thought this one out. It may seemed rushed to some but I think it came at a good time.

What else do users like about Buzz?

The longer you maintain a blog, the probability that you’re leaking out your private life increases. This is the case for personal blogs.

I’ve gotten to the stage where my posts have slowed down and I’ve less things to write about. The next hurdle will be whether I decide to open up completely and start blogging about my every day. There are certain things I’ve kept private about my online profile. This includes the schools I’ve attended, the places I have worked and personal contact information.

I think all bloggers need to draw a line as to where their online profile stops ans where their private life begins. I’m not necessarily afraid to disclose more information about myself but I don’t think it will contribute to anything, nor is it important. Another reason might be that not a lot is going on in my life and I don’t have interesting things to share.

My real reason as to why I don’t open up more is because once I share information, I can’t then un-publish it. There is a chance that excess information about me might work against my favour. At this stage my main concern is what impression I’ll be giving my future employers. At the moment what I’ve posted is quite adequate and non-controversial. By sharing more personal history and opinions, could I be disadvantaging myself? Would I be considered trust worthy If I am too willing to share information? Many, if not all organisations today place a high regard to confidentiality and privacy. Could I convince a potential employer that I am trustworthy if I start publishing my life occurrences on a daily basis?

Just writing this makes me want to log into Linked-In and limit the information that appears on my public profile.

So there it is, my thoughts on privacy for people with online profiles.

The big exception to this issue is the group of Social Media Entrepreneurs who dedicate their careers to becoming professional bloggers. The rules are the opposite for this group as opening up and creating relationships is fundamental to their success. Sharing your life and appearing likeable/approachable/normal is important.

So what do you think about maintaining a blog and maintaining privacy too?