New year, new site, new blog!

So here we are – 2011, and starting it with no resolutions as such, but instead a list of things that I think would be good for me, or that I’d like to try. One such thing is starting a proper blog… and sticking to it!

Firstly, on a serious note, the whole blogging thing is actually something I’ve had to put a lot of thought into in terms of balancing my voice as an individual against that of my employer. It’s obviously a fine line to tread – I have a full time job and am proud to be a representative of my company, but at the same time I really want to stress that the views in this blog may not necessarily be shared by my employer. I’m aiming for this to be a personal site, but am aware that my personal tech interests will inevitably cross over into the realms that my day job covers. Where possibly I’ll be keeping the distinction very clear.

Right, with that out of the way, I want to touch on the sort of things I’ll be covering. My professional background and a lot of my interests are heavily web/tech-related, so that’s the kind of realm we’re looking at. I’ll hopefully be putting up topics of interest to the developer community, which may cover reviews of books, information from events and conferences, and I’ll be sharing the source code from any useful developments I get around to outside of work.

One of the other things that falls under ‘things that I think would be good for me’ is that I’m contemplating re-enrolling with the Open University in 2011, not to take any development-led courses, but to grow other complementary skills. Whether or not I’m able to spare the time for study is dependent on a few key things out of my control, but if it happens I’ll definitely be updating about what I’ve learnt and how it might help others.

So on that note, thanks for reading, and here’s to a great 2011 for everyone!