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While some UWA staff are still taking tentative steps into the digital world, agricultural economist David Pannell has been blogging for more than 10 years.

His blog, pannelldiscussions , started out as a website in 2004, where Winthrop Professor Pannell hoped to increase his outreach to non-economists and to people outside academia.

"I had observed other scientists' blogs, which had become bogged down with negative and even aggressive comments from subscribers, so initially, I wasn't keen to create a blog," said Professor Pannell, Director, Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy, Head of School, Agricultural and Resource Economics, and ARC Federation Fellow at the UWA Oceans Institute.

"But I kept getting feedback and eventually I conceded that, yes what I had was a blog, so about three years ago, pannell discussions officially became a blog."

Through his online presence, Professor Pannell has raised awareness of his research; been invited to join the scientific committee of a big European project, which led to trips to Europe and becoming the co-editor of a special issue of a science journal; and receiving a surprise cheque for $500 from the copyright agency, as a result of people making copies of pannell discussions for use in their teaching.

Would he recommend it to other academics? "It's a personal choice. You need to enjoy writing and to be an efficient writer," Professor Pannell said. "One of my colleagues started a blog, but he found it too time-consuming because he wrote very long essays for it, so it didn't last.

"One of my rules is that I would only do this as long as I enjoyed it. If it became a burden, or if other work was too demanding, I would give it a rest.

"And it has turned out not to be too onerous at all. I post something new, on average, about every two weeks, and I spend about an hour-and-a-half to two hours a week on the blog. Recently I've been very busy so there have only been a couple of posts over the past few months. You make it work for yourself."

As well as his research, pannell discussions includes Professor Pannell's interests,  from grammar to music (The Beatles), sport (long jump) and travel.

Join the discussion and read more about the experiences of a decade of blogging.