Bloggers Series: Chris Lysy on Fresh Spectrum

My name is Chris Lysy and I am a Research Analyst at Westat. You can find me online using Twitter (@clysy) or at my blog, Fresh Spectrum.

Rad Resource – Fresh Spectrum: At it’s heart, Fresh Spectrum is a practical web and technology blog for researchers and evaluators. It is focused on showcasing tech by using tech. Rather than just spotlight the next new thing I try to take the new technology for a spin. Posts usually come in bursts, with four one week and maybe one the next. Lately I’ve been interested in the creation/publishing of simple visual objects that can act as online discussion pieces. In other words, I’ve been cartooning.

Hot Tips – favorite posts:

Lessons Learned – why I blog: I blog to learn and connect. Blogging keeps me constantly motivated to learn new things and is one of the best tools to learn the social web. It also helps connect you to others with similar interests. Last year’s AEA conference was my first but I was already connected to a number of my fellow attendees. Most of these connections came solely from my experience with social media.

Lessons Learned: If you want to blog (which I highly recommend) the first step is to find a topic you are passionate about. Fresh Spectrum is not my first blog, I’ve started several others, but I think it’s the one that will stick. Blogging is a marathon and if you’re not passionately interested in the topic you won’t have the energy to post. If you don’t post, your blog will quickly find its way into internet obscurity.

This winter, we’re running a series highlighting evaluators who blog. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.

1 thought on “Bloggers Series: Chris Lysy on Fresh Spectrum”

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.