When my book Secret Manoeuvres got published, I started this blog and set up a Twitter account (@evelinelubbers) to promote my work. I had to find my way on Twitter, and must say this took more time than previewed. Difficult to decide who you keep following, and what to retweet. As any newbie – and I guess anyone who is tweeting on a regular base – I struggle to find the right balance between the time spent on Twitter and the dedication that proper blogging requires.
Although I have come to appreciate the ease and speed of connecting with like-minded people who send me recent examples of corporate and police spying which I eagerly pass on, I think building up a collection of case studies needs more than that. Pumping round news items, just adding another voice to the existing noise in the echo chamber is a looming risk. Although retweeting examples of Secret Manoeuvres informs a larger public – I am afraid that at this point in time the information hardly reaches beyond the like-minded and the usual suspects. Not necessarily a bad thing of course, but not enough – I think – for me…
So maybe, in the end this posting is not so much about blogging vs. tweeting, but more about what I want with the Secret Manoeuvres project in general, and how blogging and tweeting fit in. If I had more time I would probably be on Twitter more, but at this moment that is impossible. For now I just decide to focus on blogging for a while, put new stories in context, to understand them as case studies, which need following up. Because writing helps the thinking, and the building of new research projects.
Secret Manoeuvres 