Serendipity35

I'm not sure if we should call today a birthday party or an anniversary, but it is exactly six years (that's at least 30 years in blog years) since my first post here back in 2006. That was a post called "Why Serendipity35?" which wasn't much of a post because all I was doing was testing out our new installation of the open source serendipity software. There wasn't really any plan to start blogging seriously.

That post explains why it was Serendipity35 - a name that has proven to be a good one - but Tim Kellers (the tech behind the curtain) and I needed some sample posts for a workshop we were doing back then on three big new buzzing tools in higher ed and business - blogs, wikis and podcasts. Those were all pretty new things on campuses back then.

It only took a few weeks before the blog started to find its place as I started writing about educational technology (back then I was the Manager of Instructional Technology at NJIT) and people are still finding us and reading.

Last December, we averaged 4623 hits a day and had 143,317 hits for the month. For 2011, it was just under 1.5 million hits. I give credit to the "long tail" effect where older posts still pull in readers (and logically have the biggest total visitor hits). That rather slight first post even has 24,671 hits right now.

Thanks for dropping by and reading. We haven't made any money doing this (Truth? We did get enough off some ads for Tim and I to get 2 McGoo burgers and a few pints last year at McGovern's) but I have had some fun, and it does keep me paying attention to tech and learning.

Serendipity35 turns 6 (yikes!) today - or maybe later this week, but I think I first configured the server for it on Feb 1, 2006. For a blog, that's like being 90 - measured in cyber-dog years.  Many thanks to Ken for his tireless efforts.

It looks like October 2011 just disappeared from Serendipity35. A combination of blogger preoccupations, server mysteries, inattention and the Fates. Thanks to reader Lianna for alerting the powers that be about the problem. Brother Tim can examine server logs and Ken will meditate on his breathing, and we'll see which method works best.

See you in November...

It is anniversary day at Serendipity35.  My first post here was on February 2, 2006. It was called "Why Serendipity35?" and it was more of a test than a post. It explained the name choice, but even the idea of blogging was more of an experiment in using some open source blogging software than it was an interest in being a blogger.

I needed something to demo for a workshop that Tim Kellers and I were doing at NJIT on blogs, wikis and podcasting. Those were all pretty new things on campuses back then.

The blogging was more enjoyable than I expected and I continued after the workshops.

After a few weeks, the blog started to gather itself around the idea of technology and learning which made sense as I was then the Manager of Instructional Technology at NJIT.

And now it has been five years and 1,152 posts in 22 categories later. 

I don't know the actual grand total of hits but it's more than seven million. The number of visitors is down the past year over previous years. Blogs are perhaps less popular or maybe there are just too many of them. But there are still over 100,000 hits each month the past year, so there are other readers like you.

The "long tail" effect is still in place though - older posts still have the most visitor hits. Even that slight first post has had over 24,000 visits.


The Top 10 (and certainly not the ones I would vote for as the best) are:

1. Personal Video Online: YouTube and Beyond 64,187 visits


2. Public iTunes U Sites V4 58105 visits


3. Online Socializing: How Are Schools Reacting? 46,576 visits


4. This conference is only online (HigherEd BlogCon 2006) 45,230 visits


5. Back to the Future 44,281 visits


6. Classroom 2.0 Live: A Free Meetup 43,116 visits


7. Google Page Creator 42,326 visits


8. What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire 42,123 visits


9. About Us 2.0 41,997 visits


10. Bookmarklets and Favelets 41,744 visits

I left NJIT at the end of 2007 and moved to Passaic County Community College into a less-tech more-learning position. Tim is still at NJIT, but he moved the blog from NJIT's servers to one of his own servers.

That long tail is so long that I sometimes find myself writing a post and then realizing that I had already written about it a few years ago.

And I still enjoy looking at our stats to see who is visiting, when they visit, and how they found us. You can take a look at the stats for last month and see the countries who have clicked into Serendipity35.  Hello, all of you readers in Tuvalu!