This is not a blog.

And this is decidedly NOT a blog post.

I have been so unfond of the term Blog for so long now that i have avoided use of this format entirely until now. Well, until I decided to call it something different, in this case a Voice. My Voice.

Since I've just arrived in London I'm feeling particularly sensitive to the possible mortification of the Brits at the term Blog and Blogroll, sounding gushingly familiar to Bog and Bogroll (of toilet and toiletpaper fame). I am actually at Oxford University today and attended a Mobile Social Networking Conference (with an excellent and innovative presentation by Tomi Ahonen and Alan Moore)

Back to the bastardization of blogs though since i seem to be on that topic. Having recently launched comments on Articles with SFGate, the home of the San Francisco Chronicle online, I wonder how journalists will feel that they are now bloggers (after all, if you enable an article with comments is it not a blog?), or similarly how bloggers, who appear to think of their "blogosphere" as a place rather than a publishing format, will react to the demise of this fabrication over time.

A new section on a social network I recently launched on Olivia.com, a social network for Lesbians, will profile a section called Voices in its next iteration where users can publish just that - their Voices. In a meeting with the team I expressed my disdain for having a navigation header called Blogs since it represents a technology and not an expression. Together with Sabrina Riddle and UI designer Lea Winters, we decided on Voices as the section header. So from now on the messaging will be Create Your Voice. Featured Voice, etc. We love it. Hope the users do too. Will link to it here when it goes live.

Most importantly, hope you enjoy my voice here on tracecohen.com