A FEW months ago I wrote that one of my biggest concerns for the internet was that a barrier to entry would be placed around it because of people's fears.
Internet users are already kept on their toes by online scams and spam email, but for me the biggest cause of fear would be attempts by government to snoop and look over the shoulders of people.
My thoughts weren't terribly original but it does look as though the UK government is keen to track email use and maybe even begin to approve websites with a cinema style certification.
Whilst this second idea is clearly ludicrous, for example, what happens for websites hosted outside the UK?
The gathering of email data is extremely worrying, because if people feel they are being watched creative thoughts, ideas and skills are often chocked.
One way to be aware of just how much information you make available online is get up to speed on how sites such as Facebook and MySpace allow connections to take place, but also enable your data to be 'leaked' elsewhere.
It is something that Google has looked at in a paper, which is covered on Read Write Web, and whilst developers of websites are asked to be aware of people's information, it is just as important for ourselves to take responsibility of what we allow online.
I hope I'm not scaremongering about all this information out there, because at the same time it can be damn useful if you learn how to corral it to your advantage.
So just to prove it, here is an in-depth piece on how to track down, and follow, the best blogs covering a subject or field.
It starts with delicious.com, which might be enough for some people, but then really pumps things up by drawing together different RSS feeds and even generating a focussed search engine.
A quick dive into the newspaper world now and if major publishers weren't already struggling as advertisers desert them, it looks as though local councils might be next.
The Scottish Parliament is to trial the publication of statutory and public notices on the web, a regular money spinner for newspaper.
As budgets are squeezed and the calls for more efficiency rise, we may even see the scrapping of rules forcing local councils, at their cost, to publish planning notices in the local press.
But there is still a need for news and how it will be funded in the future will be one of the questions at a meeting in London later this month that looks to draw on the experiences of independent publishers.
Regional sports journalist, Rick Waghorn, and the man behind My Football Writer - Norwich City, is looking to bring together people from different online backgrounds to see if a set of digital tools can be developed for people to provide a news service for postcode areas.
His VIP Club - the Very Independent Publishers Club is meeting on January 28, but numbers are tight so if you want to attend get your name down quick.
And finally if you were thinking all this blogging and online publishing was new, check out the date this piece I found on Clay Shirky's website was published, titled Weblogs and the Mass Amateurization of Publishing.