Acknowledgements

I must firstly thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Robert Gordon University Research Development Initiative (RDI) for funding parts of the research on which this book is based.

I am particularly grateful for all the assistance given to this project by Dr Caroline Macafee, both as a researcher on the RDI-funded research on British bloggers 2005–6 and for reading through and commenting on a draft of this book. In addition, I am grateful to my husband, Dr Frederik Pedersen, who also read and commented on the book. It goes without saying that any errors in the book are, of course, mine.

I would also like to offer grateful thanks to my students Alistair Chivers and Tracey Forbes, whose work on blogging has been interesting and beneficial to my own research, and Dr Janet Smithson of Exeter University for her collaboration on our online parenting communities project, which has expanded my understanding of the motivations of women online.

My grateful thanks to all the bloggers who generously responded to my surveys, commented on my blog and have allowed me to quote from their blogs.

I would also like to record grateful thanks for all their support to Professor Rita Marcella, Dean of the Aberdeen Business School, and Professor Dorothy Williams, Director of the Institute for Research in Management, Governance and Society, of which I am a member. I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Department of Communication, Marketing and Media for their support throughout the years, in particular Jo Royle, Dr Peter Reid, Nicola Furrie, Izzy Crawford, Dr Fiona Smith, Dr Robert Halsall and Tim Conner.

Finally, my repeated thanks to my husband Frederik and also to our sons Thomas and Nikolas for all their support.