I've finally decided to spit my blogging world into two -- pushing this current one (the IU Technology Architecture Lodge) more towards the "professional" end of the spectrum and setting up a new one -- probably at http://raymondyee.net/blog once my hosting arrangments get settled. 

I'm excited about the split, one that I have been contemplating for a while and about which I wrote in April.  I think that mingling the professional and personal has kept me from fully articulating either.  Two blogs will let me stress different facets of who I am and what I'm thinking about or feeling -- without putting up a strong dividing wall either.  The wonderful thing about the Web is both blogs will be available and will sometimes refer to each other.  However, they will have an integrity of their own.

Let me try to give a concrete example of how I hope things will change.  Whether I like it or not, my life is largely split between the professional and the personal.  There are few folks who know me from both contexts.  Although I don't try to find my personal side at work or totally refrain from talking about my work with my friends, there is a soft wall between the two worlds.  My blog is thus potentially confusing to my audiences that come from either the professional or personal sides of my life.  One moment, I'm talking about XML crosswalks.  The next moment, my love for Bach and they play I saw last night.  The people who care about one is likely not to care about the other.

Moreover, the fact that my professional blog is being hosted by my employer, the Interactive University Project at the University of California, Berkeley, does constrain me in what I talk about and how I talk about it. Not that the boundaries are that hard and fast and not that I necessarily want to discourage folks from blogging about very personal matters on our server -- but I have found myself uncomfortable with writing too much about the "personal me" in this venue.  Note that my unease is not with having the stuff on the Web in the first place -- rather, it has more to do with "association by hosting".  I think that having my personal blog hosted elsewhere will go a long way to addressing that unease

At any rate, that's the theory.  What I forsee at this moment is much more writing about libraries, learning objects, amazon.com web services, the Scholar's Box, intellectual property issues on this blog -- and lots about Bach, Chinese art, Chekhov, the Pacific Film Archives, my family in Toronto, my church life, existential angst, chatting with my blogging buddies, my favorite non-profits, justice, what I'm reading, movies, community living in my other blog.  And I want to keep some personal voice regardless of what I'm writing about.

Also -- one more reason for the split.  I want to try out tools other than Manila.  I'm satisfied with keeping this blog going in Manila -- but I'm itching to experiment with systems like Movable Type.  Manila seems to have fallen so far behind, especially if one is not using Radio -- or at least, I can't get past that impression.

Wish me luck.  I'll post the location of the new blog when it's ready....

(Thanks to Laura, in particular, for the encouragement I needed to go ahead with this split. We had a good chat on Friday afternoon.)