Blogtalk

Day one over: surveying the damage...

Yikes! I've been weblogging for a couple of years now, but never gotten so many substantive and thoughtful comments on a posting before, much less in a single day. Sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to offer their views.

It's clearly beyond my abilities to respond thoroughly and fairly to every comment, so instead I've decided to simply quote a few excerpts absurdly out of context, and then react with whatever fool notions pop into my head.

Let's begin, shall we?

Wendy Burton describes a sensation common to many who are new to the form:

I feel as if I've been dumped into a conversation in mid-hurl.... This site seems quite - busy, frenetic, and gang-busterish, rather like coming in the kitchen door to a party and discovering everyone in the pool already.

That sense of showing up mid-conversation is customary when encountering a weblog... because most weblogs post their newest material at the top of the page, the site's internal narrative is chronologically inverted: the reader goes deeper into the past the further that she reads. (Kinda heavy, huh?) I'm sure that the structure of weblogs is enough in itself to deter some readers, and they have every right to respond negatively. Speaking for myself, when I read a weblog I don't expect a clean linear progression of ideas... and I have adjusted my expectations to the point that I almost instinctively "read backwards" for additional context as I scroll down the page. But that's learned behavior, and possibly indicative of a disordered mind.

It's a weird party to walk into, no doubt... but in my experience there's some big-time fiesta fun to be had if you get into the festive spirit.

Incidentally, we have tried the soften the ill-effects of this weblog's reverse chronology by placing links to the introductory postings at the top of the right-hand sidebar.

Colin Brittain writes:

I would like to know what others feel are the most important issues to address when presenting information in an academic setting, to a wide audience, via blogging. I'd also love to hear about anyone who is using blogging in academics.

We plan on surveying some of the educational applications of weblogs over the next couple of weeks. The way you frame your interest ("in an academic setting") encompasses research as well as teaching, and seems to suggest we should take some time to explore how a weblog can support academic research and activities outside the classroom. Do I understand you correctly Colin? Even if that's not what you mean, I think it's a great idea.

Scott has already responded to Glenn Millar of Sidebars, but I'll quote one of his observations anyway: "the blogging discussion is probably more frank, because its your soap box."

That's a good point to make: gathering information from a collection of webloggers is not the easiest strategy, but there are few ways to encounter a more diverse range of perspectives in the process. I like that my weblog is my own... it's one space where I don't need to accomodate or compromise with anyone.

Kate Britt makes a number of good points:

I think I'm beginning to "get it", but it's not as easy as regular bloggers make out. Getting the concept was the first learning curve; after that it's understanding what makes it all happen, followed by decisions about applications to use.

[As he stares shamefacedly at the floor...] It's true that webloggers can exaggerate the ease of the process. It's facile to note that it only takes a a few clicks to publish a posting to the web, that no special authoring tools are required, and then simply leave it at that. If you want to move beyond the most basic functions (maybe adjust the look of your template, or add a feature such as categories) there will be a learning curve, one that can be steep for non-techies. And as Kate notes, there's some conceptual work to be done as well. She continues...

Finally, accepting the whole thing is a real hurdle. I'm active online, so that's not the issue. I don't mind innovative approaches to course content, so that's not the issue. All in all, I still can't get past thinking of blogs as personal diary entries, and time-consuming to keep up with let alone post to. ...How to fit all this in to a typical teacher's day is the question."

There's no question that writing is hard work, and if you are conscientious about adding original thought and content to every posting (lots of webloggers aren't) it's going to take time out of the day. I feel that the effort I expend is amply rewarded, but obviously not everybody will have that experience.

Paul Stacey offers a related concern:

The continuous daily diary format of many blogs seems to create an obligation for bloggers to post even when there is little to say. This creates a sifting challenge requiring readers to process volumes for nuggets.

The format of weblogs lends itself to this sort of shotgun approach, though it needn't. Lot's of good pages proceed with a more deliberate pace. I myself don't come close to posting every day... some days I'm too busy, some days I consciously decide to minimize my online activity, some days I just don't feel I have anything to say. If a large number of webloggers have already posted on an interesting story, even one that I have very strong opinions about, I'll often avoid mentioning it myself, not wishing to contribute to the echo chamber effect.

Life is full of obligations. Let's not create more of them.

Paul adds:

What aspects of blogging's form factor are essential? When does a blog cease to become a blog?

I'd rather not get into the business of excommunicating anybody from the weblogging fraternity... it's not like it's some exclusive club -- we don't even get matching t-shirts. Sometimes in all the babbling about software we can lose sight of the reality that weblogs are in essence just easily updated webpages, and can be applied in any number of ways: personal or professional; whimsical or factual; focused or eclectic; scholarly or profoundly goofy; geared to a small, specific readership (like a family) or striving for vast online notoriety.

I could go on, but I suspect that the few readers who have made it down to the bottom of this screed would prefer I didn't. So I'll just thank everyone for an interesting day, and I look forward to seeing how things continue to unfold.

What are weblogs, anyway?

You may have encountered some of the breathless pieces hailing weblogs for their revolutionary impact in fields such as publishing, journalism, politics, and education. Some zealots go so far as to suggest that weblogs herald fundamental shifts in social organization and the way we work. The resulting backlash to such hype has already kicked in, with critics charging that these claims are radically overblown, that weblogs are ill-suited for many of their purported applications, and that they have already peaked as a web phenomenon.

You'll be reading variations on both positions over the next couple of weeks, but of course the true significance of weblogs lies somewhere in between. The technical elements of weblog software are far from revolutionary -- they are really just easily updated webpages. But it is precisely that simplicity that makes them so interesting. Even if some new form renders weblogs as this year's equivalent of the pet rock, being able to publish to the web without sophisticated geek skills remains an important advance for online users.

And there's no question about their rapidly growing popularity. The following statistics from Technorati, a weblog index:

Technorati is now tracking over one million weblogs. We hit 100,000 back on March 5, and 200,000 on April 6; We hit the 400,000 mark on June 21. Technorati is currently tracking about 7,000 new weblogs per day, which means that a new weblog is being created approximately every 12 seconds. And I know we're not catching them all.... [from Sifry's Alerts]

It's impossible in a short space to review all the potential applications of the form. Personally speaking, my own weblog serves numerous purposes for me:

* I use it as a personal management tool, collecting useful resources and links in an easily accessible and searchable online location.
* I treat it as something like a public brain, floating ideas, speculating on future developments, giving shout-outs to work that I like and shooting off ill-tempered criticisms to things that I don't.
* It's an ongoing personal portfolio, where I archive my articles, presentations and project updates.
* Perhaps most importantly, my weblog has been my interface to a vibrant group of professional peers. They provide me with a steady stream of useful resources and information, feedback on my work, and the sense of belonging to a very real (if unstructured and far from unified) community.

But the diverse approaches to weblogging are best experienced for yourself. A handful of my personal favorites:

wood s lot: frighteningly prolific and eclectic, with minimal commentary.
Cassandra Pages: the weblog as online diary and space for personal reflection.
Fotolog: an amazing collection of photographic weblogs from around the world. An extremely effective time-waster.
Ongoing: Tim Bray's site is intended to be "a coherent, catalogued essay about the world" organizaed around the "unifying themes are Truth, Technology, and Business."
Boing Boing: "a directory of wonderful things."
Arts & Letters Daily: comprehensive page supported by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Feel free to recommend your own favorite weblogs by linking to them in the comments field below. We also encourage you to contribute your thoughts on any of the following questions:

What has been your experience with weblogs (either as a reader or as a creator)? What is it about weblogs that you most want to discuss? Have you considered starting your own, and if so what do you need to know to get going?

Thanks to ETUG for organizing this discussion, and thanks to you for checking in. We hope this rather unconventionial online happening proves to be an interesting and useful experience for everyone concerned.