In the last post (The Blog's existence - An introspection) dealt with the genesis of this blog. It discussed the twin fold objectives of the blog. It likes to be a provider of meta-resource rather than resource itself and to be a provider of frameworks or viewpoints to comprehend Digital Image Processing concepts. It explains the concept of 'digest.' It explores the suitable digital platform to provide the digest-like content.
This post does a cost-benefit analysis of writing an articles in a blog. As expected it ends with stating benefits of writing outweigh the cost of writing.
This post does a cost-benefit analysis of writing an articles in a blog. As expected it ends with stating benefits of writing outweigh the cost of writing.
Series of operations has to be completed to upload a post in the blog. The operations are follows:
- Choosing a topic
- Collecting topic related materials from Internet
- Read the materials and comprehend
- Build a framework to write an article
- Preparation of a draft based on the framework and then refining it again and again
- Check the size of article (max 1000 words), grammatical errors and choosing a picture (less than 50 KB)
- Upload the content in the blog
Thus posting an article in a blog can be treated as a process. Every process comes with a cost and outcome. We continue the process if the benefits of the outcome outweigh the cost. Let us do the cost benefit analysis in detail.
Cost of writing
I use Google and find topic related articles that are free to download. Roughly 50 MB to 100 MB data is accessed for entire work. Cost of access may not exceed a one US dollar. So, actual money spent is negligible. Writing is a cognitively demanding process. It requires clutter free mind to do the job perfectly. It takes 10 to 12 "good" hours to complete an article. In the available spare time, only few hours are good enough to take up cognitively demanding activities like writing, resolving family issues, career advancement planning and research. Investing my productive time to pursue article writing incurs a 'hidden cost.'
Outcome of writing
Human beings expect some benefit from each and every action. Even religious people who are non-materialists crave for an outcome i.e. to reach heaven. They firmly believe that life in earth is an arduous journey and trains them to reach the heaven. As we know by maintaining a blog one can’t reach heaven. We are forced to explore what is in store for as in earth.
Let us first deal with tangible benefits like money, career advancement, and popularity. I have not seen people who thrive on writing posts on blogs. Highly visited blogs are favoured by sponsors. From them only writers can get money. As we know articles of general interest only fetch lot of visitors. Technology and science article readers are very few in numbers and reaping money from technical writing is a pipe dream. Bloggers or article writers are not recognized by Universities. Typical crime novel writers are more popular and have a thick fan following than science writers.
Even though we don’t have tangible benefits but intangible benefits do accrue by writing technical articles over a period of time. They are as follows;
1. Improves academic fitness and mental health
- Force us to read new topics every month.
- Helps in knowledge accrual.
- Helps me to hone my writing and presentation skills.
- Good academic fitness is well appreciated by students as well as colleagues and helps us to stay in academic arena.
- As I am forced to read new things, comprehend and write about new things makes my brain to stay alert. This in turn strengthens the existing neuron connections and new connections are also made. This process reduces the chance of acquiring age related diseases like memory loss, Alzheimer etc.
2. Makes us systematic and goal driven
- Quality of an article is directly proportional to quantity of time spent. Part-time writers have to squeeze time to write quality articles. It forces them to be very systematic to balance work and writing.
- Meeting ‘article per month’ target is very demanding. One has to become mentally tough to stick to the deadline. A German proverb states "starting a business is easy, but maintaining it is an art. “ It holds good for bloggers also. Most of the blogs are not updated after a year. Three year old blog with consistent updates are uncommon to encounter.
- Internet is a revolution. It has changed our lives entirely. Internet backed ‘Arab Spring’ brought freedom to several countries. It has destroyed the walls that blocked information gathering. Now, knowledge of a person is limited by his/her brain capacity and interest and not by age, race, geography or creed.
- I firmly believe Internet thrives on ‘free content.’ I use ubuntu OS (a variant of Linux) and read lot of articles in Wikipedia. Open Source is the mantra that drives ubuntu and Wikipedia. I am very much inspired by Richard Stallman (free software activist), Linus Torvalds (creator of Linux) and Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia). Posting articles in blog helps me to ‘mimic’ them in small way and contribute to ‘Creative Commons’ ideology.
- We want to live in a non-violent and poverty free society. In reality society is in a mess and lot has to be done to improve it. I can’t be socially active in the prevailing situation. Nor I can be mute witness for all the events that unfold. Even though my blog has a negligible impact on the Internet, it helps me to overcome the guilt of inactiveness. My micro-contribution in the social improvement boosts my morale.
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| Figure 1. Top row Left to Right: Mr. Richard Stallman (long hair and beard), Mr. Linus Torvalds and Mr. Jimmy Wales, Down row Left to Right: Mr. Sujatha and Mr. D. Balasubramaian |
4. Popularizing Science
- Science is not panacea for all problems but it has improved our life to an extent. It has helped to break dogmas and ushered new age thinking. New age thinkers are in right direction or not is a different question altogether. Youngsters should be hooked to science to sustain the pace of technological growth
- In my childhood I was much fascinated by writings of Dr. D. Balasubramanian. He used to write his columns under the title ‘Speaking of Science,’ in the national English newspaper ‘The Hindu.’ I have given links to his articles, please read [1]. Likewise Mr. Sujatha (Original name: Rangarajan) used to write interesting science articles in Tamil. I was inspired by their writing style and I too try follow it.
- Over a period of time I acquire the necessary skills to efficiently administer a blog. This rich experience can be shared to novice bloggers and I can create an army of part-time technical journalists. This helps me to extend my active life after retirement and contribute to creative commons ideology.
- Post retirement life is very difficult as the retired person has to tightly manage finance, long free time, and diminishing chances to socialize. Retired persons just cling with the neighbours and family. Sticking to a job automatically makes us to stay connected with the society. But retired people required to do some social work to keep them connected with the society. This improves their sociability and cuts down long free time.
7. Curbing the knowledge erosion
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is considered as the epitome knowledge accrual in the chosen field. Knowledge and skill are not static entity. If it not put into use slowly they fade away.
- Most of the doctorate degree holders loose touch with their chosen subject within few years of PhD completion. They are much sought after for their administrative acumen in academic institutes. Young researchers spend much time in publishing papers in their chosen field say 'adaptive thresholding' or 'image impainting' and loose track of their subject. Seasoned researchers spend time in managing their students’ affairs, correcting research articles written by their scholars, writing grants for research and running their labs.
- They take following measures to curb the erosion of knowledge. They teach their subject in the under-graduate or post-graduate level very religiously. To widen their subject knowledge they invariably attend international conferences, take up jury position in conferences and volunteer themselves to be editorial member of a technical journal. Alternatively writing articles is a way to stay connected with latest developments and fundamentals of Digital Image Processing (DIP).
- Learning is a wonderful thing. When we understand something we are excited and we like to share our gained knowledge with others. Writing an article helps to ruminate on cherished moments of knowledge gathering and provides a new kind of emotionally mixed experience.
- Irreligious persons often come across perplexing questions like “What is the purpose my life?” or “What I leave behind in this world after my death?” These sorts of questions very hurting and difficult to get answers. Some people turn to spirituality to fetch answers. As we know great warriors (Augustus Caesar, Alexander) and writers (Shakespeare, Wordsworth) stay in the minds of people even after their death, I chose to imitate writers. This acts as a temporary relief from annoying questions.
Even though I have given only nine reasons instead of “magical ten,” I am convinced to continue my writing. Are you prepared to continue reading my posts in future?
Source
[1] TRIBUTE To Prof. D Balasubramanian | Popular Articles ~ http://tributetoprofbalasubramanian.org/Popular Articles.aspx
