About this blog

Clarification - I am the owner of this blog ... simply because I am using it to experiment with how a blog might work.  

However, I suspect that this will be a good tool for Networking for Wellbeing and all the related "plus" networks.  

I suspect that before the end of the year N4W and 7+ will have clarified that it is worth developing a single N4W blog, perhaps hosted by   7+ - but before we get there we need to test out how well this works.  

Meantime, I am the one who is leading the game of experimenting - but it is a team game - at this stage, Karen is linked in - and Niki will be when she returns from holiday.  Both have experience of using blogs in the past.  

I have set up several blogs over the last 25 years - and am gradually recalling my experiences. 

About blogs

 A blog is a "web log" - a place where it is possible to post information in a way that allows readers to comment.  It is easier to collect ideas about a single thread if all the comments appear within the thread/post, or at some point, a fresh thread/post appears, and the earlier one becomes history.  The earlier thread/post can be accessed easily because labels are used to track a thread. 

Elaine has developed a blog at tcpraxis.blogspot.com  It is experimental at this stage because she is reminding herself about how to work out the details of how to operate an effective blog, and make it accessible to us all - but not before we have made it attractive and useful.  

So, she is seeking help from people who are willing to be early adopters of this blog.  

At the moment the blog has the list of posts on the left - the most recent posts appear at the top.  

On the right there are several links to other parts of the blog, or of the web:

• direct access to Wikipedia,
• a list of pages (which are semi-permanent descriptions of each of the key networks within the blog) 
• a search engine to find words within this blog 
• a list of the labels that give access to various threads and posts. 

All these things are flexible and there are heaps of other gadgets/(widgets on a cell phone?) that can be added.  At this stage there are no visuals - but there will be - Blogs are much more friendly and usable with better graphics - but good things take time.  

About TCP - Toward Collective Praxis -

In 2003 I completed a PhD thesis: Toward Collective Praxis: Complexity, Pragmatism and Praxis. In 2013 I created a photo-book that reminded my of the detail of the thesis and posted some additional and more recent ideas. In 2023 I plan to weave together ideas from the thesis, and from the past, within this blog.

I am not aiming at some conclusive document - the ideas I express will often be just jottings - and I hope those with whom I share meaningful conversations will join me in adjusting and adapting them.  This blog, TCPraxis@blogspot.com is a living document.  

Why does the thesis matter? The thesis was written during my fifties, at a time of my life when I had a chance to looked back on my life and to try to sense of what really matters.  I was recently widowed.  I wondered about fundamental social issues.   The thesis has shaped that way I have chosen to live my life over the years since 2003.  I want to write about all these ideas in a way that is relevant to now.  

Background snippets

• I wrote the thesis during my fifties - I became a widow within a month of my fiftieth birthday - Kev died in February 1996 - I completed the big essay (TCP) seven years later.  Those seven years were a time of grief, growth, and insight.
  
• Over the last 20 years I have grappled with finding technologies that enable Collective Praxis - and today, as I start this blog, I suspect that this is as good as any - so I am trying it.  
• One of my problems is that I keep creating fresh ways of looking at issues and questions.  This problem has led to my great accumulation of papers with stray ideas in them.  I aim to throw out heaps of paper because the key ideas will appear in this blog.  
• The blog will waffle around all over the place - yet I hope for meaningful connections and insights to arise because it is open to whanau (by which I mean interested family and friends).  My TCP whanau includes anyone who would like to join - but is not of interest or relevance to some of my closest friends and family. 
• In order to track ideas, I need to develop a useful, purposeful set of labels (tags).  I also need to provide access to items that expand on various issues.  This means that I will use my DropBox account to store documents that are referred to here.  It also means that certain phrases or words will gradually develop specific connotations - these will take the form of a glossary.  Perhaps "gloss" will be a tag. 
• The development of the blog will help me sort my thinking.