Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Making waves. The CCCC ripples 
continue with Will Richardson extending the discussion of blogging as reading over at his weblog today, where he generously takes the time to link to, digest, and speak kindly of the lengthy post I wrote yesterday. He mentioned earlier some doubts about whether K-12 students can really blog, and today he talks briefly about
the disconnect [he's] been feeling between the act and the tool of late. The tool requires writing. (There is no blog without writing.) The act requires reading. (There is no blogging without reading.) Without reading, you're just writing, not blogging... #
It's clear that weblog software is a pretty good web posting tool, and educators can use it to collect and pass around student writing, all well and good, without there being any blogging going on. Blogging as a genre (or more likely, a whole series of genres) uses the software's ease of posting, linking, and commenting, along with our regular practices of writing about reading, to build a community engaging some topic of shared interest.
So there is writing and then there is writing -- kind of like Truman Capote's old joke from the Tonight Show, when Carson would name a popular author and Capote would say, "That's not writing, that's typing!"
Writing, the good stuff, reads the unfolding materials of culture with some urgency, with a project, with a point of view, with something at stake, and takes the time to try to make a mark on some bit of the culture, to reinterpret it, to reorder its priorities, to cast it in a new light, to set it in a new context, to have a say about some part of it, and in doing so creates a voice and a position of authority for the speaker. If there is a chance for a strong person to change the world a little bit, this person will change the world.
Writing, the weak stuff that is not much more than typing, repeats stock phrases in pre-established order, preaches to the choir, summarizes without a point of view, catalogs without passion, tells you things you already know, and buries the speaker in a pile of pre-fab materials that have no fingerprints on them, or maybe so many sets of fingerprints that no one's prints can be made out any longer. If they are passing out rewards to conformists, this writer will get a reward. When the secret police pass down the block, they'll know in a glance they don't need to arrest this person.
So we say to our students, you are each an intellectual, you have an active life of the mind, you care about some things deeply, you want to move ahead and fulfill certain goals and dreams for yourself, you want to see your community thrive -- you have projects that matter to you. In light of those urgencies, in light of your projects and the best work of your heart and mind, which of these writers speak to you and which do you challenge or resist? Which of their concepts could be used to carry your projects further, and how? Which challenge the way you've named the world to yourself, and what do you make of that? In the conversation of humanity that you hear going on around you, what do you want to insist upon saying? Where do you want to make your mark? Where can you see a chance for common ground?
So there is something about the web and weblog software and our historical moment that has made it easy for lots of people to see blogging as a way to be that strong kind of writer who creates and resides, virtually, in that kind of community and who reads and rewrites her culture a little bit at a time at the top of her blog's main column every day. [0 & P]
continue with Will Richardson extending the discussion of blogging as reading over at his weblog today, where he generously takes the time to link to, digest, and speak kindly of the lengthy post I wrote yesterday. He mentioned earlier some doubts about whether K-12 students can really blog, and today he talks briefly about the disconnect [he's] been feeling between the act and the tool of late. The tool requires writing. (There is no blog without writing.) The act requires reading. (There is no blogging without reading.) Without reading, you're just writing, not blogging... #
It's clear that weblog software is a pretty good web posting tool, and educators can use it to collect and pass around student writing, all well and good, without there being any blogging going on. Blogging as a genre (or more likely, a whole series of genres) uses the software's ease of posting, linking, and commenting, along with our regular practices of writing about reading, to build a community engaging some topic of shared interest.
So there is writing and then there is writing -- kind of like Truman Capote's old joke from the Tonight Show, when Carson would name a popular author and Capote would say, "That's not writing, that's typing!"
Writing, the good stuff, reads the unfolding materials of culture with some urgency, with a project, with a point of view, with something at stake, and takes the time to try to make a mark on some bit of the culture, to reinterpret it, to reorder its priorities, to cast it in a new light, to set it in a new context, to have a say about some part of it, and in doing so creates a voice and a position of authority for the speaker. If there is a chance for a strong person to change the world a little bit, this person will change the world.
Writing, the weak stuff that is not much more than typing, repeats stock phrases in pre-established order, preaches to the choir, summarizes without a point of view, catalogs without passion, tells you things you already know, and buries the speaker in a pile of pre-fab materials that have no fingerprints on them, or maybe so many sets of fingerprints that no one's prints can be made out any longer. If they are passing out rewards to conformists, this writer will get a reward. When the secret police pass down the block, they'll know in a glance they don't need to arrest this person.
So we say to our students, you are each an intellectual, you have an active life of the mind, you care about some things deeply, you want to move ahead and fulfill certain goals and dreams for yourself, you want to see your community thrive -- you have projects that matter to you. In light of those urgencies, in light of your projects and the best work of your heart and mind, which of these writers speak to you and which do you challenge or resist? Which of their concepts could be used to carry your projects further, and how? Which challenge the way you've named the world to yourself, and what do you make of that? In the conversation of humanity that you hear going on around you, what do you want to insist upon saying? Where do you want to make your mark? Where can you see a chance for common ground?
So there is something about the web and weblog software and our historical moment that has made it easy for lots of people to see blogging as a way to be that strong kind of writer who creates and resides, virtually, in that kind of community and who reads and rewrites her culture a little bit at a time at the top of her blog's main column every day. [0 & P]
Blogging by Seuss. I ran across a lesser-known Dr. Seuss book in a waiting room today, the 1973 volume called The Shape of Me and Other Stuff. Each page speculated about what it would be like to be shaped the way this or that object, animal, or person is shaped. About 2/3 of the way through I was pleased to find this lively sequence, which I'll reproduce here without the silhouette illustrations:
Suppose
YOU
were shaped
like these...
...or those!
...or shaped
like a BLOGG!
Or a garden hose!
I gladly forgive Dr. Seuss for predicting the wrong spelling for our favorite 21st century word, and as for the illustration he created to represent the BLOGG, all I can say is that we're all still trying to figure out what a blog is, so he did pretty well. [0 & P]
Suppose
YOU
were shaped
like these...
...or those!
...or shaped
like a BLOGG!
Or a garden hose!
I gladly forgive Dr. Seuss for predicting the wrong spelling for our favorite 21st century word, and as for the illustration he created to represent the BLOGG, all I can say is that we're all still trying to figure out what a blog is, so he did pretty well. [0 & P]
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
CCCC waves and ripples. The CCCC conference sessions on blogging are still sending out waves, as Will Richardson writes about some of the problems Richard Long and others helped me think about during and after the conference. Over in the comments to that post, Tom Hoffman and Will see a virtue in looking at blogging as reading, which strikes me as a wonderful chance to think freshly about the process.
Maybe some folks write flat, empty posts or bad diary posts because they don't know any other genres (they just aren't readers, in one sense) and because aren't responding to anything (that is, they aren't reading anything right now). If they aren't readers in general and aren't reading anything now in particular, then they both won't have the genre chops and won't have any particular content to bounce off of. They will be literate in a basic and functional way, but for two reasons their literacy won't be the active and generative kind we see in people who are really writers.
This sounds like a version of the Burkean parlor*, where people have to hang around and listen to how the insiders talk the talk for some time before they can really join in themselves.
If you are a reader and if you are reading, you start to be able to find something you want to say beyond shallow commonplaces, and you start to know how to say it, and maybe even who to say it to. Then the later comment from Dennis Jerz seems right to me: links and comments can then help you form networks and create audiences, as he says. He points out that this is a constructive act, rather than mainly an interpretive act, and I agree in part: the linking does construct the relationships with others that make audience possible. But prior to making those links and animating them, I think, are the acts of interpretation necessary in Burke's parlor -- you have to learn how to read or hear, which is interpretation, before you can write or speak or before you can make those constructive links to others, it seems to me.
We can tell that Dennis is right at least in part because we've all seen complete blog posts that are, implicitly, like this one that I'll make up here:
I'm such an important blogger that I don't have to give you any reason as I urge, even command, you to visit this link.
But when famous A-listers write those self-satisfied one-line posts, they aren't really blogging well. Instead, they are just spending the social capital they've already accumulated. They accumulated that social capital by first learning how to listen and read the professional and blog genres that interest them (interpretation on one level), then following the conversation closely enough to know how to contribute something (more interpretation), and then, when they are at their best, linking in richer, fuller posts that build social networks, yes, but that also discuss what they are linking to (interpretation again). I think Jorn Barger said that good links add value to the thing being linked to -- for interpretation, Kurt Spellmeyer sometimes says, is saying something the text has not already quite said. Not just quoting it or pointing to it, not just linking alone.
And of course it becomes useful to end the thought experiment, to stop thinking about blogging as reading and start thinking about it as writing again, as usual, but maybe Will was onto something even better when he chose Jay Rosen's quotation for his masthead: "Every reader is a writer, every writer is a reader." Properly understood, reading is writing and writing is reading. Could it be that students who don't read, even though they can, are people who, on one important level, don't and can't write?
And maybe that means that links are vital for new bloggers for a completely non-constructive reason. Instead of assigning students to go write, we should assign them to go read and then link to what interests them and write about why it does and what it means, not in order to make a connection or build social capital but because it is through quality linking (not the flaccid A-list stuff I spoofed above) that one first comes in contact with the essential acts of blogging: close reading and interpretation. Blogging, at base, is writing down what you think when you read others. If you keep at it, others will eventually write down what they think when they read you, and you'll enter a new realm of blogging, a new realm of human connection.
If there is any truth to this line of thought, then we should place more emphasis on, have more faith in, reading. We should teach close and careful reading as the essential practice of blogging that allows us to generate something worthwhile that may enage an audience and create a community. And with that thought I bring this rambling post to a close.
*Where does the drama get its materials? From the "unending conversation" that is going on at the point in history when we are born. Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress. -- a quotation from Kenneth Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form (110-11). [1 & P]
Maybe some folks write flat, empty posts or bad diary posts because they don't know any other genres (they just aren't readers, in one sense) and because aren't responding to anything (that is, they aren't reading anything right now). If they aren't readers in general and aren't reading anything now in particular, then they both won't have the genre chops and won't have any particular content to bounce off of. They will be literate in a basic and functional way, but for two reasons their literacy won't be the active and generative kind we see in people who are really writers.
This sounds like a version of the Burkean parlor*, where people have to hang around and listen to how the insiders talk the talk for some time before they can really join in themselves.
If you are a reader and if you are reading, you start to be able to find something you want to say beyond shallow commonplaces, and you start to know how to say it, and maybe even who to say it to. Then the later comment from Dennis Jerz seems right to me: links and comments can then help you form networks and create audiences, as he says. He points out that this is a constructive act, rather than mainly an interpretive act, and I agree in part: the linking does construct the relationships with others that make audience possible. But prior to making those links and animating them, I think, are the acts of interpretation necessary in Burke's parlor -- you have to learn how to read or hear, which is interpretation, before you can write or speak or before you can make those constructive links to others, it seems to me.
We can tell that Dennis is right at least in part because we've all seen complete blog posts that are, implicitly, like this one that I'll make up here:
I'm such an important blogger that I don't have to give you any reason as I urge, even command, you to visit this link.
But when famous A-listers write those self-satisfied one-line posts, they aren't really blogging well. Instead, they are just spending the social capital they've already accumulated. They accumulated that social capital by first learning how to listen and read the professional and blog genres that interest them (interpretation on one level), then following the conversation closely enough to know how to contribute something (more interpretation), and then, when they are at their best, linking in richer, fuller posts that build social networks, yes, but that also discuss what they are linking to (interpretation again). I think Jorn Barger said that good links add value to the thing being linked to -- for interpretation, Kurt Spellmeyer sometimes says, is saying something the text has not already quite said. Not just quoting it or pointing to it, not just linking alone.
And of course it becomes useful to end the thought experiment, to stop thinking about blogging as reading and start thinking about it as writing again, as usual, but maybe Will was onto something even better when he chose Jay Rosen's quotation for his masthead: "Every reader is a writer, every writer is a reader." Properly understood, reading is writing and writing is reading. Could it be that students who don't read, even though they can, are people who, on one important level, don't and can't write?
And maybe that means that links are vital for new bloggers for a completely non-constructive reason. Instead of assigning students to go write, we should assign them to go read and then link to what interests them and write about why it does and what it means, not in order to make a connection or build social capital but because it is through quality linking (not the flaccid A-list stuff I spoofed above) that one first comes in contact with the essential acts of blogging: close reading and interpretation. Blogging, at base, is writing down what you think when you read others. If you keep at it, others will eventually write down what they think when they read you, and you'll enter a new realm of blogging, a new realm of human connection.
If there is any truth to this line of thought, then we should place more emphasis on, have more faith in, reading. We should teach close and careful reading as the essential practice of blogging that allows us to generate something worthwhile that may enage an audience and create a community. And with that thought I bring this rambling post to a close.
*Where does the drama get its materials? From the "unending conversation" that is going on at the point in history when we are born. Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress. -- a quotation from Kenneth Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form (110-11). [1 & P]
Monday, March 29, 2004
Not actually blogging. Richard Long of 2River makes a good point in his post-CCCC post about using blogging software simply to carry out assignments that we used to do other ways:
Throughout the conference I went to several sessions on blogging. I'm not convinced, however, the presenters who claimed to be blogging are actually blogging. They're using blogging software, their students use blogging software, but I'm not convinced that using the software is the same as blogging. For example, does posting writing prompts for students constitute blogging? Are students blogging when they use blogging software to write to those prompts? #
My first semester with weblog software, as I learned the software itself, I mainly asked people to use it for trading information, drafts, and feedback -- all things we might have done other ways in the past. [The software was, by the way, very good for that.] My second semester extended that to research projects chosen by students, with other students reading the work by classmates along the way -- a not very pure imitation of a weblog with a topical focus. But still these were not quite weblogs as you would see them in the wild, and not all the students could see the opportunities the genre offered them. Those that could see it wrote the most blog-like sites. This semester I'm not using the software in classes, as I regroup.
It was a pleasure to meet Richard and other bloggers at CCCC, and his point stays with me. While the software can do several things, weblogs themselves are a more particular set of practices with their own virtues. So here is a hypothesis:
The more you recognize what you see on the web page from some other genre or some other place, the less the thing is a weblog. Or maybe: ...the less the thing is taking advantage of being a weblog. And that is all the more true of wikis, I'd say.
A next step would be to talk about what we take advantage of when we write blogs or wikis, then. We should be able to name what all the features of a blog or wiki really accomplish, then. [0 & P]
Throughout the conference I went to several sessions on blogging. I'm not convinced, however, the presenters who claimed to be blogging are actually blogging. They're using blogging software, their students use blogging software, but I'm not convinced that using the software is the same as blogging. For example, does posting writing prompts for students constitute blogging? Are students blogging when they use blogging software to write to those prompts? #
My first semester with weblog software, as I learned the software itself, I mainly asked people to use it for trading information, drafts, and feedback -- all things we might have done other ways in the past. [The software was, by the way, very good for that.] My second semester extended that to research projects chosen by students, with other students reading the work by classmates along the way -- a not very pure imitation of a weblog with a topical focus. But still these were not quite weblogs as you would see them in the wild, and not all the students could see the opportunities the genre offered them. Those that could see it wrote the most blog-like sites. This semester I'm not using the software in classes, as I regroup.
It was a pleasure to meet Richard and other bloggers at CCCC, and his point stays with me. While the software can do several things, weblogs themselves are a more particular set of practices with their own virtues. So here is a hypothesis:
The more you recognize what you see on the web page from some other genre or some other place, the less the thing is a weblog. Or maybe: ...the less the thing is taking advantage of being a weblog. And that is all the more true of wikis, I'd say.
A next step would be to talk about what we take advantage of when we write blogs or wikis, then. We should be able to name what all the features of a blog or wiki really accomplish, then. [0 & P]
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Notable food blogs. The group food blog Too Many Chefs ("Spoiling the Broth Since February, 2004") points out an article in the April issue of Gourmet that names a half dozen strong food blogs, for those interested in that genre or in the effect of having a tightly-focused topic on blogging. One of my regular reads was named there: Chocolate & Zucchini. All the blogs look very good on my first visit, but one of them, Bourrez Visage, includes a thorough food blog aggregator page as a bonus.
I don't think the Gourmet article itself is on the web. [0 & P]
I don't think the Gourmet article itself is on the web. [0 & P]
Home again. After a good conference held in the Epcot-like downtown area of San Antonio, and having gotten through the Chicago O-Hare airport with far fewer hassles than hundreds of other people yesterday, I'm back home and enjoying easy access to the New York Times and wireless (my hotel was just installing DSL and wireless this week, and had no business computing center). On the plane I read three strong articles a student chose for a seminar presentation and found myself eager to attend Monday's class to see where she would lead her portion of the discussion. Family members liked the small gifts I brought back from the trip; we had waffles for breakfast; the youngest had made real advances in her ability to play chords on the ukelele while I was gone. Life is good.
[0 & P]
Saturday, March 27, 2004
After the conference. Attending a few blogging and wiki panels and talking shop with folks, I come away thinking this:
1. I am all the more interested in blog genres that have a project or focus that doesn't remind one of a diary. People write diaries for good reasons, but school has other fish to fry, for the most part, and if students write diary blogs for school it is probably because we haven't taught them any other genre and its value.
2. Each kind of blog may appear to be a genre, but is really a series of mini-genres or common rhetorical moves that make up the big genre. We need to elaborate on that genre or rhetorical knowledge if we are going to teach via weblogs as well as we might.
3. Aim big. Create something with your students that has real value -- something that would deserve 50,000 visits. Why not?
4. Don't let the archive suck all the life out of your writing -- one way or another, via wikis or elsewhere, make something with a lasting shape, not just a column that slides off the screen into oblivion...
5. ...even though the audience relationship you can build in blogging is real and substantial, once you get there.
6. I have a hunch that half the problem with student blogs is a problem with audience, but not the problem mentioned in conference papers. It's just that there is, for all practical purposes, no audience for a new blog, and only a skilled writer knows how to write with no audience (and even skilled writers are sometimes defeated by that prospect for months or years). If you have no clear project, no clear audience, no clear purpose, what can you write about except how bad the dorm food is?
7. The passion of bloggers is a thing to behold, in person, and may lead to new wonders. Otherwise, though, they seem as varied as you might expect -- though easily more men than women.
Anybody else want to report? [0 & P]
1. I am all the more interested in blog genres that have a project or focus that doesn't remind one of a diary. People write diaries for good reasons, but school has other fish to fry, for the most part, and if students write diary blogs for school it is probably because we haven't taught them any other genre and its value.
2. Each kind of blog may appear to be a genre, but is really a series of mini-genres or common rhetorical moves that make up the big genre. We need to elaborate on that genre or rhetorical knowledge if we are going to teach via weblogs as well as we might.
3. Aim big. Create something with your students that has real value -- something that would deserve 50,000 visits. Why not?
4. Don't let the archive suck all the life out of your writing -- one way or another, via wikis or elsewhere, make something with a lasting shape, not just a column that slides off the screen into oblivion...
5. ...even though the audience relationship you can build in blogging is real and substantial, once you get there.
6. I have a hunch that half the problem with student blogs is a problem with audience, but not the problem mentioned in conference papers. It's just that there is, for all practical purposes, no audience for a new blog, and only a skilled writer knows how to write with no audience (and even skilled writers are sometimes defeated by that prospect for months or years). If you have no clear project, no clear audience, no clear purpose, what can you write about except how bad the dorm food is?
7. The passion of bloggers is a thing to behold, in person, and may lead to new wonders. Otherwise, though, they seem as varied as you might expect -- though easily more men than women.
Anybody else want to report? [0 & P]
Friday, March 26, 2004
Conference highlights. Different for each person, of course. I liked very much hearing Robert Scholes talk about reimagining the English major so its value would be more well understood. A panel of folks talking about Kurt Spellmeyer's work addressed some of the same problems. Both sessions urged us to look squarely at the skills and values and knowledge we profess as they play themselves out in our students' lives. We ought to be able to answer these questions: what are we teaching and what is it good for?
I liked meeting bloggers whose work I have been reading and discussing, and I was very happy to hear a whole panel on wikis whose highlight, for me, was M. C. Morgan's clear discussion of wiki rhetoric, with its thread and then document phases and their democratic implications. Suddenly I was tempted to throw blogs out the window for the radical space of wikis! Or at least post a seed wiki page listing the major challenges our department faces in its various writing courses, teach everyone how to post, and stand back and see what happens.
I had the funny realization as I talked for a few minutes at the blogging SIG session and as I listened to one or two blogging presentations that bloggers face a conference dilemma that others don't face: when it comes time to stand up and talk, a portion of our audience has already read our best ideas weeks or even months ago.
And of course it was good to see old friends doing well there in the shadow of the Alamo, which was surrounded by posh catering tents and stage lights for Saturday's premier part for the new movie about the historic battle. [0 & P]
I liked meeting bloggers whose work I have been reading and discussing, and I was very happy to hear a whole panel on wikis whose highlight, for me, was M. C. Morgan's clear discussion of wiki rhetoric, with its thread and then document phases and their democratic implications. Suddenly I was tempted to throw blogs out the window for the radical space of wikis! Or at least post a seed wiki page listing the major challenges our department faces in its various writing courses, teach everyone how to post, and stand back and see what happens.
I had the funny realization as I talked for a few minutes at the blogging SIG session and as I listened to one or two blogging presentations that bloggers face a conference dilemma that others don't face: when it comes time to stand up and talk, a portion of our audience has already read our best ideas weeks or even months ago.
And of course it was good to see old friends doing well there in the shadow of the Alamo, which was surrounded by posh catering tents and stage lights for Saturday's premier part for the new movie about the historic battle. [0 & P]
Thursday, March 25, 2004
CCCC blogging session. Though I'm not finding it easy to post here, I did attend a session on blogging by faculty members of Belmont University. Most of the student blogs mentioned frequently involved personal rather than academic writing, and I went away from the session continuing to think about genre: weblogs as involving more than one genre choice, and our assignments also involving a range of genres, and students bringing with them expectations about genre and skill (or not) in various genres.
So it is not surprising that students often pick up on the personal elements of weblogs, unless we have a shared project that directs our work elsewhere -- they may very well know journal or personal genres much better than other weblog genres, and we may or may not teach or even require any other genre in course weblogs. I think we should make a choice for our courses, and if a more academically-focused or professional or community-service weblog, say, makes sense in the course, then we should teach and require that genre. There are great weblogs that are focused like this, and we can read these with our students and learn more about the genre together.
Weblogs being what they are, I suspect that we will find some blurring of genres in the posts our students write, but part of the work we do is to teach genre, so even in the blogosphere I'm in favor of carrying on that work. Let's do something particular on course weblogs. Let's have a project. [0 & P]
So it is not surprising that students often pick up on the personal elements of weblogs, unless we have a shared project that directs our work elsewhere -- they may very well know journal or personal genres much better than other weblog genres, and we may or may not teach or even require any other genre in course weblogs. I think we should make a choice for our courses, and if a more academically-focused or professional or community-service weblog, say, makes sense in the course, then we should teach and require that genre. There are great weblogs that are focused like this, and we can read these with our students and learn more about the genre together.
Weblogs being what they are, I suspect that we will find some blurring of genres in the posts our students write, but part of the work we do is to teach genre, so even in the blogosphere I'm in favor of carrying on that work. Let's do something particular on course weblogs. Let's have a project. [0 & P]
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Field of Dreams syndrome. Yesterday I speculated briefly about good blogs being signs of a blogger with a project, and to the degree that this is true I conclude, then, that blogging in college classes can fall victim to what we might call Field of Dreams syndrome. Build it and they will come, the hero said in that movie. Assign a blog and students will learn and write well, we might be tempted to say or think. But if yesterday's post was right, that good blogs represent shaped projects with some identity, some sense of purpose, then it is by no means enough to ask students to turn on the weblog software. We should not fall victim to Field of Dreams syndrome. We should not assume that blogging necessarily leads to learning.
It sounds naive to have to say that, but when I look at classes that include blogging, I think I see a clear difference between students who have found a way to see the blog as their own project and those who haven't. Perhaps most classes will include a couple of students who can't engage the course on that level, but we need to write that into the goals and procedures. We need to talk directly about all writing as a kind of engagement with the world, and blogging, as a result, must take on a very familiar kind of seriousness we associate with people who have projects. They might love and enjoy their projects, their projects might save the world or make something lovely or simply entertain, but in any case the writers are serious about the projects. They are engaged. Once they are engaged, they can find weblogs or any kind of writing tempting in a whole new way. [0 & P]
It sounds naive to have to say that, but when I look at classes that include blogging, I think I see a clear difference between students who have found a way to see the blog as their own project and those who haven't. Perhaps most classes will include a couple of students who can't engage the course on that level, but we need to write that into the goals and procedures. We need to talk directly about all writing as a kind of engagement with the world, and blogging, as a result, must take on a very familiar kind of seriousness we associate with people who have projects. They might love and enjoy their projects, their projects might save the world or make something lovely or simply entertain, but in any case the writers are serious about the projects. They are engaged. Once they are engaged, they can find weblogs or any kind of writing tempting in a whole new way. [0 & P]
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Blogging CCCC. I thought I might be blogging the CCCC conference in San Antonio later this week, and maybe I will, but for now I'm blogging the flu. I'm impressed by my desire to write between various flu symptoms -- just the desire, not the actual product, let me say. In the space of a year I seem to have taught myself to enjoy writing again.
This makes me wonder about how to share that enthusiasm with students. I suspect it has to do not only with helping them gain pleasure and confidence in writing, but also helping them find an intellectual project they connect to. I like thinking of some bloggers and their blogs as "people with projects" -- that seems to be a good explanation of the energy you find there. Let's assume that our students have projects, or would like to have projects, of their own, and let's try to connect there. [0 & P]
This makes me wonder about how to share that enthusiasm with students. I suspect it has to do not only with helping them gain pleasure and confidence in writing, but also helping them find an intellectual project they connect to. I like thinking of some bloggers and their blogs as "people with projects" -- that seems to be a good explanation of the energy you find there. Let's assume that our students have projects, or would like to have projects, of their own, and let's try to connect there. [0 & P]
Monday, March 22, 2004
Working the archive. I spent a couple of hours going through this site's archive over the weekend and discovered a few things. For one, I found out that I have selective amnesia and blog about a few sites over and over as if I've never heard of them before -- now that's kind of a shame. And then I discovered that there were a good number of posts about other sites that I had forgotten, but which are still interesting sites to visit. So that means that there are good links to useful material fairly often in the archive, as one would hope. I also found, even in posts less than a year old, that some site were gone -- link rot had set in, which is a reminder to capture enough of the other site by quoting and discussing to make the post meaningful even if the site vanishes.
Of course I found that I worked certain themes again and again. For the most part, I take that to be normal -- a sign that this writer has a point of view and a project or two underway. For academics, this kind of blog should lead to writing longer pieces anyway, once in awhile, I have come to think. [0 & P]
Of course I found that I worked certain themes again and again. For the most part, I take that to be normal -- a sign that this writer has a point of view and a project or two underway. For academics, this kind of blog should lead to writing longer pieces anyway, once in awhile, I have come to think. [0 & P]
Sunday, March 21, 2004
Un weblogueur. Tim Bray discovers a wonderful French word, weblogueur.
[0 & P]
Prepping the CCCC conference. Here are some links I'm organizing for a handout for the blogging roundtable at this week's CCCC conference in San Antonio. I will be adding to this over the next few days.
Blogroll: the list of links to other weblogs maintained in the right or left column of most blogs. This list can be stored on one's own software in html code, imported from a service such as Bloglines, or maintained as a mini-blog coded to appear there beside the main weblog entries (a somewhat advanced feature of weblog software).
Use the blogrolls of these blogs to check out a particular realm of blogging:
Food Blogs: Chocolate & Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier here
Education Blogs: Will Richardson here
Journalism: Jay Rosen here and Ed Cone here and The Blogging of the President here and The Campaign Desk here and CyberJournalist here and Warblogs here
Nature: Lisa Thompson's Field Notes here
Government: Tom Watson, a British Labour MP keeps a blog here
An introduction to the A-list of blogging: Dave Winer, here ['A-List' is blogging slang for the most famous, most visited weblogs.]
People with Projects: some of the most interesting blogs are tightly focused on the writer's project. Students could certainly collaborate on this kind of weblog.
Nature writing: A Donegal Hedgerow by Stuart Dunlop, a weblog in which Mr. Dunlop offers pictures taken nearly every day of the flora and fauna of a picturesque rural area in Donegal, Ireland. The site has attracted much attention, and now Mr. Dunlop teaches schools how to set up their own nature studies on the web. here
Land and culture of Vernon Burton's Mississippi flood plain project here
Food writing: Julie Powell's Julie/Julia Project traced her successful attempt to cook all 500-plus recipes from Julia Child's French cooking masterpiece in the space of one year. This will no doubt become a book sometime soon. here
The Secret Life of Bees: Will Richardson's students made a website about the book that is still getting thousands of visits long after the course that made it ended here
People or groups using weblog or weblog-like software to create web periodicals:
In These Times -- here
The Campaign Desk -- here
On the Trail (New York Times) -- here
The Revealer -- here
Hotelmarketing Newsweekly -- here
Good News India -- here
Butterflies and Wheels -- here
Web Tools Newsletter -- here
Progress Report -- here
National Geographic News -- here
openDemocracy -- here
Washington Monthly -- here/
The Gadflyer -- here
Information Commons -- here
AlterNet -- here
CounterPunch -- here
Documents and resources:
Conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan's early Blogger's Manifesto here
Joi Ito's Emergent Democracy essay here
M. C. Morgan's online courses on wikis and web rhetoric here and here
Electronic portfolio programs here and here
A toolkit for holding electronic discussions here
An interpretation of the blog-influenced fall of Trent Lott here
How to make authentic alien crop circles here !
NYU's Virtual Casebook Project for in-depth study of culture here
A glossary of web terms here
One way to use a weblog to compile bibliography here
Three elements of a dynamic website here
Bloglines: a free news aggregator that can gather all your RSS feeds into one location, maintain your blogroll, search weblogs for our favorite subjects, and present a focused weblog collection for your students here
Blogroots: a news listing devoted to developments in blogging and its technologies here
Danchan, a provider of free weblogs here
Jose Luis Orihuela provides links to academic weblogs in Spanish and Portuguese here
Kairosnews collects a number of weblogs on rhetoric and writing here
PhDweblogs collects links to blogs kept by Ph.D. candidates in a variety of fields here Professors Who Blog is here: here
Oliver Wrede's conference essay on weblogs and discourse here
Rebecca Blood's collection of her major pieces about the history and nature of weblogs here
Jorn Barger's instructions on good linking practices here
Tim Berners-Lee's 1997 vision for the web here
Web Tools Newsletter here
UTT Weblog Cyber-journalistes (Journal sur l'usage des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication dans l'enseignement et la formation) here
A group of links about the nature of blogging here
Jay Rosen's two posts about the conservative and radical traits of weblogs here and here
Weblogs: A Swiss Army website, parts one and two here and here
Web 2.0 theory here
Genres
Commonplace book -- a genre suited to collaboration and solo meditation here
Rubrics for rating a weblog? here [0 & P]
Blogroll: the list of links to other weblogs maintained in the right or left column of most blogs. This list can be stored on one's own software in html code, imported from a service such as Bloglines, or maintained as a mini-blog coded to appear there beside the main weblog entries (a somewhat advanced feature of weblog software).
Use the blogrolls of these blogs to check out a particular realm of blogging:
Food Blogs: Chocolate & Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier here
Education Blogs: Will Richardson here
Journalism: Jay Rosen here and Ed Cone here and The Blogging of the President here and The Campaign Desk here and CyberJournalist here and Warblogs here
Nature: Lisa Thompson's Field Notes here
Government: Tom Watson, a British Labour MP keeps a blog here
An introduction to the A-list of blogging: Dave Winer, here ['A-List' is blogging slang for the most famous, most visited weblogs.]
People with Projects: some of the most interesting blogs are tightly focused on the writer's project. Students could certainly collaborate on this kind of weblog.
Nature writing: A Donegal Hedgerow by Stuart Dunlop, a weblog in which Mr. Dunlop offers pictures taken nearly every day of the flora and fauna of a picturesque rural area in Donegal, Ireland. The site has attracted much attention, and now Mr. Dunlop teaches schools how to set up their own nature studies on the web. here
Land and culture of Vernon Burton's Mississippi flood plain project here
Food writing: Julie Powell's Julie/Julia Project traced her successful attempt to cook all 500-plus recipes from Julia Child's French cooking masterpiece in the space of one year. This will no doubt become a book sometime soon. here
The Secret Life of Bees: Will Richardson's students made a website about the book that is still getting thousands of visits long after the course that made it ended here
People or groups using weblog or weblog-like software to create web periodicals:
In These Times -- here
The Campaign Desk -- here
On the Trail (New York Times) -- here
The Revealer -- here
Hotelmarketing Newsweekly -- here
Good News India -- here
Butterflies and Wheels -- here
Web Tools Newsletter -- here
Progress Report -- here
National Geographic News -- here
openDemocracy -- here
Washington Monthly -- here/
The Gadflyer -- here
Information Commons -- here
AlterNet -- here
CounterPunch -- here
Documents and resources:
Conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan's early Blogger's Manifesto here
Joi Ito's Emergent Democracy essay here
M. C. Morgan's online courses on wikis and web rhetoric here and here
Electronic portfolio programs here and here
A toolkit for holding electronic discussions here
An interpretation of the blog-influenced fall of Trent Lott here
How to make authentic alien crop circles here !
NYU's Virtual Casebook Project for in-depth study of culture here
A glossary of web terms here
One way to use a weblog to compile bibliography here
Three elements of a dynamic website here
Bloglines: a free news aggregator that can gather all your RSS feeds into one location, maintain your blogroll, search weblogs for our favorite subjects, and present a focused weblog collection for your students here
Blogroots: a news listing devoted to developments in blogging and its technologies here
Danchan, a provider of free weblogs here
Jose Luis Orihuela provides links to academic weblogs in Spanish and Portuguese here
Kairosnews collects a number of weblogs on rhetoric and writing here
PhDweblogs collects links to blogs kept by Ph.D. candidates in a variety of fields here Professors Who Blog is here: here
Oliver Wrede's conference essay on weblogs and discourse here
Rebecca Blood's collection of her major pieces about the history and nature of weblogs here
Jorn Barger's instructions on good linking practices here
Tim Berners-Lee's 1997 vision for the web here
Web Tools Newsletter here
UTT Weblog Cyber-journalistes (Journal sur l'usage des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication dans l'enseignement et la formation) here
A group of links about the nature of blogging here
Jay Rosen's two posts about the conservative and radical traits of weblogs here and here
Weblogs: A Swiss Army website, parts one and two here and here
Web 2.0 theory here
Genres
Commonplace book -- a genre suited to collaboration and solo meditation here
Rubrics for rating a weblog? here [0 & P]
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Blending genres. I attended 
a stirring lecture on Friday evening about the history of race relations and the struggle for civil rights in South Bend, Indiana. The speaker was Les Lamon, history professor and head of the Civil Rights Heritage Center here at Indiana University South Bend. Les hails from Tennessee and carries his heritage not only in his interest in the differences between northern and southern civil rights struggles but also, as we all do, in his voice. Just as I have the accent of some parts of St. Louis, he speaks with a softened southern accent I associate with more northerly parts of the south. And of course his speech carries the marks of his education in its wit, its sense of formal occasion, its graceful phrasing.
But Les also chose to speak not just as an academic but to some degree as a preacher, with clauses and sentences that built, that rolled across the room in his deep voice, that exhorted and illuminated and appealed as they worked through stories toward points pressed home and ethical demands made upon the audience. He chose to blend styles or genres, to speak from the podium as well as from the pulpit, and his audience came with him all the way, I think, as we saw from the standing ovation at the end.
I mention this because I continue to be interested in mixed genres and new genres for the academy and because weblogs themselves may be best understood as a new mixture of old genres and new genres. We want to think freshly and be moved, and new genres and mixes of genre may be called for. It certainly seemed so on Friday night. [0 & P]
a stirring lecture on Friday evening about the history of race relations and the struggle for civil rights in South Bend, Indiana. The speaker was Les Lamon, history professor and head of the Civil Rights Heritage Center here at Indiana University South Bend. Les hails from Tennessee and carries his heritage not only in his interest in the differences between northern and southern civil rights struggles but also, as we all do, in his voice. Just as I have the accent of some parts of St. Louis, he speaks with a softened southern accent I associate with more northerly parts of the south. And of course his speech carries the marks of his education in its wit, its sense of formal occasion, its graceful phrasing. But Les also chose to speak not just as an academic but to some degree as a preacher, with clauses and sentences that built, that rolled across the room in his deep voice, that exhorted and illuminated and appealed as they worked through stories toward points pressed home and ethical demands made upon the audience. He chose to blend styles or genres, to speak from the podium as well as from the pulpit, and his audience came with him all the way, I think, as we saw from the standing ovation at the end.
I mention this because I continue to be interested in mixed genres and new genres for the academy and because weblogs themselves may be best understood as a new mixture of old genres and new genres. We want to think freshly and be moved, and new genres and mixes of genre may be called for. It certainly seemed so on Friday night. [0 & P]
Friday, March 19, 2004
Quotation for the day. In Observing the Nixon Years, Jonathan Schell says, "The truth rarely makes a good slogan" (93).
I thought, however, that his sentence would make a good slogan for our political web publication, launching in June or early July, because it would remind us to favor the role of inquiry over the role of advocacy. In fact, a good test of some of the concepts we'll be using might be this: does the concept help us think freshly about both parties rather than just one? (Schell's concept does.) [0 & P]
I thought, however, that his sentence would make a good slogan for our political web publication, launching in June or early July, because it would remind us to favor the role of inquiry over the role of advocacy. In fact, a good test of some of the concepts we'll be using might be this: does the concept help us think freshly about both parties rather than just one? (Schell's concept does.) [0 & P]
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Quotation for the day. Who knows only his own generation remains always a child. -- Cicero
Thanks to Tom Vander Ven,
whose lively column on the shortsightedness of translating Shakespeare into contemporary language ends with Cicero's advice. Another way to put it: if we can't be bothered to understand the words of others, whether they live now or lived in the past, then they are dead to us. In their words people try to name what they have seen of life. They try to pin down their fears and activate their hopes and make their lives move ahead. They offer their best insights. If we can't be bothered with the specificity of another's words, then down deep we can't be bothered with anything human besides ourselves.
[0 & P]
Thanks to Tom Vander Ven,
whose lively column on the shortsightedness of translating Shakespeare into contemporary language ends with Cicero's advice. Another way to put it: if we can't be bothered to understand the words of others, whether they live now or lived in the past, then they are dead to us. In their words people try to name what they have seen of life. They try to pin down their fears and activate their hopes and make their lives move ahead. They offer their best insights. If we can't be bothered with the specificity of another's words, then down deep we can't be bothered with anything human besides ourselves.
[0 & P]
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Deliberative practices. Jim Moore points to the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, a group working on ways to enrich deliberative practices in government. They share concept pieces and good resources such as the World Bank's very organized toolkit for holding electronic discussions.
[0 & P]
Site rating scale. If you 
have a rubric you can give a more systematic rating for a website or a student's project or your own work. The Muncipal Website Scoring System is the (CPEC) Connecticut Policy and Economic Council's rubric for evaluating the websites of town governments. One hundred points are possible, and the top twenty Connecticut towns were awarded between 61 and 85 points -- with West Hartford at the top of the list and the average town coming in at 35 points. CPEC includes links to the top twenty sites.
Rubrics help people accomplish goals, but, for students involved in blogging in courses, even better than assigning a rubric might be writing one together. I'd publish the results to a class web site, certainly, but maybe also offer the rubric as a discussion-starter for the next semester's students as they address the particular project or assignment. We might also rate a few weblogs as an analytical project, and then try to translate the good thinking that the rubric provoked by reviews of the weblogs. Weblog into numbers; numbers into prose analysis -- these two acts of translation might be challenging and useful, helping us to clarify what we value in our public writing. [0 & P]
have a rubric you can give a more systematic rating for a website or a student's project or your own work. The Muncipal Website Scoring System is the (CPEC) Connecticut Policy and Economic Council's rubric for evaluating the websites of town governments. One hundred points are possible, and the top twenty Connecticut towns were awarded between 61 and 85 points -- with West Hartford at the top of the list and the average town coming in at 35 points. CPEC includes links to the top twenty sites.Rubrics help people accomplish goals, but, for students involved in blogging in courses, even better than assigning a rubric might be writing one together. I'd publish the results to a class web site, certainly, but maybe also offer the rubric as a discussion-starter for the next semester's students as they address the particular project or assignment. We might also rate a few weblogs as an analytical project, and then try to translate the good thinking that the rubric provoked by reviews of the weblogs. Weblog into numbers; numbers into prose analysis -- these two acts of translation might be challenging and useful, helping us to clarify what we value in our public writing. [0 & P]
Writing in time. That's 
the title of Jonathan Schell's 1997 book, a collection of his columns from the first half of that decade, writing he did for Newsday and New York Newsday after more than two decades of work at The New Yorker, where he very often wrote the political lead pieces for the Talk of the Town section. Those New Yorker pieces are collected in other strong books that offer with great clarity the complexity and the feel of such things as the long struggle over Watergate.
I like Schell's title as a clue to to work journalists, columnists, and even bloggers do. In his introduction he says:
By writing in time, I mean, in the first place, simply writing and publishing quickly enough to be of service to citizens and other actors as they make their decisions. If reporters give citizens the facts they need to carry out their responsibilities, columnists round out the picture by trying to make sense of the facts. You could do worse than describe a columnist as a citizen who has the privilege of devoting all his working time to the duties of citizenship. An ideal columnist would be an ideal citizen. (x)
He goes on to say that the second meaning he sees in "writing in time" is the ethical obligation to the past and the future, trying to honor the complexity of the past and to work usefully for the future.
But let's stay with that final sentence for a moment. Is a good blogger also in the running to be an ideal citizen? If so, on what terms? What are those duties and how does blogging intersect with them?
I suspect that we're still living in a time where citizenship is more closely associated with freedom than with responsibility, and many blogs clearly emphasize the one value over the other.
Schell also writes about a "systematic transformation" of American political life in those years:
Its apparent cause is the virtual takeover of politics by the burgeoning techniques of comunication (those used to measure opinion as well as those used to influence opinion); its broad effect has been to move the system away from its formal representative character toward a kind of informal, passive plebiscitary system; and the danger it poses is a radical reduction in the role of judgment and deliberation by the people's representatives in the formation of policy. (xiii)
It has been, I seem to recall, about a quarter of a century since the focus group, for example, came into prominence in our political lives. We have seen an attempt to create tools and practices that more powerfully turn public discourse into careful shaping of largely emotional responses to images. We may be losing the words we need to discuss ideas as our handlers reshape our emotional lives through images. This leads me to the closing sentence of Schell's book, where he says in a somewhat different context:
For without a language to speak, how can the people's will be heard? (273)
I might add this: without a language to speak, how can the people even discover their own best interests and name their own smartest wishes? [0 & P]
the title of Jonathan Schell's 1997 book, a collection of his columns from the first half of that decade, writing he did for Newsday and New York Newsday after more than two decades of work at The New Yorker, where he very often wrote the political lead pieces for the Talk of the Town section. Those New Yorker pieces are collected in other strong books that offer with great clarity the complexity and the feel of such things as the long struggle over Watergate.I like Schell's title as a clue to to work journalists, columnists, and even bloggers do. In his introduction he says:
By writing in time, I mean, in the first place, simply writing and publishing quickly enough to be of service to citizens and other actors as they make their decisions. If reporters give citizens the facts they need to carry out their responsibilities, columnists round out the picture by trying to make sense of the facts. You could do worse than describe a columnist as a citizen who has the privilege of devoting all his working time to the duties of citizenship. An ideal columnist would be an ideal citizen. (x)
He goes on to say that the second meaning he sees in "writing in time" is the ethical obligation to the past and the future, trying to honor the complexity of the past and to work usefully for the future.
But let's stay with that final sentence for a moment. Is a good blogger also in the running to be an ideal citizen? If so, on what terms? What are those duties and how does blogging intersect with them?
I suspect that we're still living in a time where citizenship is more closely associated with freedom than with responsibility, and many blogs clearly emphasize the one value over the other.
Schell also writes about a "systematic transformation" of American political life in those years:
Its apparent cause is the virtual takeover of politics by the burgeoning techniques of comunication (those used to measure opinion as well as those used to influence opinion); its broad effect has been to move the system away from its formal representative character toward a kind of informal, passive plebiscitary system; and the danger it poses is a radical reduction in the role of judgment and deliberation by the people's representatives in the formation of policy. (xiii)
It has been, I seem to recall, about a quarter of a century since the focus group, for example, came into prominence in our political lives. We have seen an attempt to create tools and practices that more powerfully turn public discourse into careful shaping of largely emotional responses to images. We may be losing the words we need to discuss ideas as our handlers reshape our emotional lives through images. This leads me to the closing sentence of Schell's book, where he says in a somewhat different context:
For without a language to speak, how can the people's will be heard? (273)
I might add this: without a language to speak, how can the people even discover their own best interests and name their own smartest wishes? [0 & P]
Swiss Army Knife with USB. I smiled 
when I saw on BoingBoing a picture of this Swiss Army knife with USB drive.
The one I use looks like a Star Trek-era lipstick tube on a lanyard, so this one is much cooler. But I guess I'll stay with what I have -- I can take mine on the airplane, after all.
In the computer lab the other day I heard a student say she never uses a disk anymore. Come to think of it, neither do I. [0 & P]
when I saw on BoingBoing a picture of this Swiss Army knife with USB drive. The one I use looks like a Star Trek-era lipstick tube on a lanyard, so this one is much cooler. But I guess I'll stay with what I have -- I can take mine on the airplane, after all.
In the computer lab the other day I heard a student say she never uses a disk anymore. Come to think of it, neither do I. [0 & P]
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
The library as a magazine. The Shifted Librarian points to Joho blogging from a librarian's conference session and out of the mouth of Dinah Sanders of Metagrrrrl comes this stroke of transformative genius:
Dinah: Could libraries become a magazine, aggregating local sites?
As Jenny Levine notices, too, through RSS a library, a school, a university, a business, or whatever, can become a publication of some real complexity and reach. Why not a library? With weblog software at the core, but not limited to blogging -- there are many genres, blogs included, that syndicated feeds and blog-format pages can serve. And librarians, like faculty members and many other professionals, and like students, write all the time, and if they don't, they do the reading and searching that gets a person ready to write, all the time. Turn the work we ordinarily do just a little, give it just a bit of a different angle, and it starts to be appropriate for certain kinds of publication, really serving new audiences. [0 & P]
Dinah: Could libraries become a magazine, aggregating local sites?
As Jenny Levine notices, too, through RSS a library, a school, a university, a business, or whatever, can become a publication of some real complexity and reach. Why not a library? With weblog software at the core, but not limited to blogging -- there are many genres, blogs included, that syndicated feeds and blog-format pages can serve. And librarians, like faculty members and many other professionals, and like students, write all the time, and if they don't, they do the reading and searching that gets a person ready to write, all the time. Turn the work we ordinarily do just a little, give it just a bit of a different angle, and it starts to be appropriate for certain kinds of publication, really serving new audiences. [0 & P]
Monday, March 15, 2004
The news about news. From Tim Porter, a pointer to an annual report on the The State of the News Media, produced by The Project for Excellence in Journalism. The writers take an interest in blogging, but see weblogs as just taking off:
Web logs, or blogs, such as instapundit.com and kausfiles.com, are an exciting new prospect for the Web. And some of these bloggers are influential. For now, though, bloggers appear to command only a fraction of the online audience. During the first week of the Iraq war, for instance, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that only 4 percent of Internet users had visited a blog.
In fact, most of the news being written for the Internet comes from the usual suspects:
In the meantime, a handful of giant media companies have come to dominate Web news, at least for the moment. Time Warner, the largest of them, controls two of the top four news sites. Nearly 69 percent of the most popular news Web sites are owned by one of the 20 biggest media companies.
Tim Porter's post, however, focuses on the end of the report, where the writers describe a loss of public confidence in media seen as trivial, driven by money, and unconcerned with public welfare. It's hard to imagine gigantic mdia corporations -- things we've allowed to come into existence -- changing their character very easily and taking on a more high-minded view of journalism and civic responsibility. We get what we pay for, yes? [0 & P]
Web logs, or blogs, such as instapundit.com and kausfiles.com, are an exciting new prospect for the Web. And some of these bloggers are influential. For now, though, bloggers appear to command only a fraction of the online audience. During the first week of the Iraq war, for instance, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that only 4 percent of Internet users had visited a blog.
In fact, most of the news being written for the Internet comes from the usual suspects:
In the meantime, a handful of giant media companies have come to dominate Web news, at least for the moment. Time Warner, the largest of them, controls two of the top four news sites. Nearly 69 percent of the most popular news Web sites are owned by one of the 20 biggest media companies.
Tim Porter's post, however, focuses on the end of the report, where the writers describe a loss of public confidence in media seen as trivial, driven by money, and unconcerned with public welfare. It's hard to imagine gigantic mdia corporations -- things we've allowed to come into existence -- changing their character very easily and taking on a more high-minded view of journalism and civic responsibility. We get what we pay for, yes? [0 & P]
Sunday, March 14, 2004
Weblog course. Substantial parts of Christopher Allbritton's digital journalism course are visible on his course weblog and the weblogs of his students, listed in the blogroll. Reading over some of Allbritton's entries, you can see him taking care to help students approach weblogs as a a genre, grapple with substantial posts and essays by others about the nature of digital journalism, and take on serious beats in their own weblogs. This gives every sign of being an excellent example to watch closely. I've forgotten who pointed it out.
[0 & P]
Families who blog together. My beloved spouse just walked into the room and said, "I can't believe it. Half of our household is blogging at this very instant." It was true. Yesterday I taught my daughter how to use the IMG SRC code on a Blogger site, and now she finds blogging much more interesting than before. In case you're wondering, she's working on an informational site rather than a personal journal, and I suspect that other 9 year olds with the right hobby will enjoy looking in. It may be good to remember the appeal of images for young readers and writers, though I suspect that people of any age appreciate an attractive web presentation. Time to remodel this site.
[0 & P]
Newspaper weblog. Tom Regan at the Christian Science Monitor has a column-like weblog, My American Experience, posted on the paper's site. The first piece I found there was about his college writing teacher's care with language:
Prof. Monk used to tell us that there was one very important reason to take her course. As long as you know how to use language, she would say to us again and again, no one will ever be able to use it against you.
Or not as easily, let's say. [0 & P]
Prof. Monk used to tell us that there was one very important reason to take her course. As long as you know how to use language, she would say to us again and again, no one will ever be able to use it against you.
Or not as easily, let's say. [0 & P]
Fact-checking. The 
University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center offers a website called FactCheck.org, where the staff tries to sort out the facts and distortions in leading political advertisements, speeches, and press releases. I don't see an RSS feed, but they will email you their reports, if you wish. A typical posting on the site includes a summary of an advertisement and two or three perspectives on its facts and interpretation of facts. Via Tim Dunlop, who also points to a section of John Kerry's website devoted to a more partisan review of political ads and speech.
[0 & P]
University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center offers a website called FactCheck.org, where the staff tries to sort out the facts and distortions in leading political advertisements, speeches, and press releases. I don't see an RSS feed, but they will email you their reports, if you wish. A typical posting on the site includes a summary of an advertisement and two or three perspectives on its facts and interpretation of facts. Via Tim Dunlop, who also points to a section of John Kerry's website devoted to a more partisan review of political ads and speech.
[0 & P]
Saturday, March 13, 2004
A good glossary. Motive, a New Zealand company specializing in media design, offers a free glossary of clearly defined terms of use on the web. It is hard to imagine, for example, writing a more concise discussion of the practice called deep linking -- the custom of linking to the relevant portion of a web site rather than its front page. Or saying more quickly and clearly what these two kinds of weblogs are:
Filter blogs. A filter blog is constructed around commentary of selected hyperlinks. On a particular topic the editor may draw attention to contrasting articles on other sites and build these into a single narrative or discussion.
Short-form journal. A stream-of-consciousness record of thoughts, observations and events. The journal oeuvre is characterised by personal expression.#
A glossary is the kind of things a class could work on together, too, making judgments about the important concepts in the field, assigning drafting duties for each concept, revising and editing and posting, updating as the group's understanding of new material grows. And students in a later class could review and update the site. It would be sad for this kind of material to reside behind the usual security barrier of most campus content management systems, instead of being out there in the world for people to use.
Motive presents examples of their work with clients, such as their discussion of the lovely Wellington Zoo website. [0 & P]
Filter blogs. A filter blog is constructed around commentary of selected hyperlinks. On a particular topic the editor may draw attention to contrasting articles on other sites and build these into a single narrative or discussion.
Short-form journal. A stream-of-consciousness record of thoughts, observations and events. The journal oeuvre is characterised by personal expression.#
A glossary is the kind of things a class could work on together, too, making judgments about the important concepts in the field, assigning drafting duties for each concept, revising and editing and posting, updating as the group's understanding of new material grows. And students in a later class could review and update the site. It would be sad for this kind of material to reside behind the usual security barrier of most campus content management systems, instead of being out there in the world for people to use.
Motive presents examples of their work with clients, such as their discussion of the lovely Wellington Zoo website. [0 & P]
Typography resources. Motive maintains 
an informative site on web typography for those who are learning how to use CSS to design or redesign their pages.
That image of a short text over there is set in the font called Georgia, which has a nice old-fashioned character to it, I think. Or is it a modern character masquerading as an old-fashioned one? [0 & P]
an informative site on web typography for those who are learning how to use CSS to design or redesign their pages. That image of a short text over there is set in the font called Georgia, which has a nice old-fashioned character to it, I think. Or is it a modern character masquerading as an old-fashioned one? [0 & P]
Friday, March 12, 2004
Bloggers talking on the phone. Over the last week I've had phone conversations with two of the group of people who will be presenting together at a roundtable session on academic blogging at the CCCC conference later this month in San Antonio. 
Until now the group has done most of its prep work by email, and many of us have never met. I enjoyed both of these brief conversations, and they helped speed up certain aspects of our work together, I believe. Based on the experience of the two conversations, I suspect that the session itself, with its conversational format, will be very energizing for the panelists and the participants.
I mention it because the experience has pointed out to me how attenuated the human contact we have through blogs can sometimes feel. This has got to be part of the challenge for students, especially if they don't get a feel for weblog genres very quickly or don't spot the best ways to join the conversation very quickly either. But we may have a counter measure in courses that use blogging -- we can get students together in class for more familiar kinds of conversation and exchange that might help the writers imagine a richer relationship to their classmate audience when they are writing on the web. We may need to do group identification exercises in class for students who are going to be working together through blogs, then.
This imagining of a richer relationship happens, too, when a weblog becomes a place for more intensive exchange between the writer and particular audience members, or when email exchanges spring up around a weblog. You build a more vivid and particular sense of audience through those exchanges, and the blogging starts to become a different task in the days that follow. I know that I have a keen sense these last few days that my audience here may at least briefly change because of the panel presentation. I have had the same feeling this week as I have made repeated presentations around campus about how to use this software for a new kind of university publication -- I know that there is a good chance that my weblog has been visited by new readers with different interests than previous readers here. And when I first had a reader here who made clear by his replies how closely he was reading certain posts, I felt a new pleasure in writing, a new pressure to think and write well, and a new sense of opportunity to build something through the weblog.
Bloggers should, I think, try to get together with other bloggers, or talk on the phone, or meet at conferences, or have campus clubs, to speed the development of the richer sense of audience that is possible on a weblog.
Information for those attending the conference: The CCCC roundtable in San Antonio is at 6:30 in Room 206A of the Gonzalez Convention Center. The title is "Calling All Bloggers: Academic Bloggers Sharing Strategies and Resources." [0 & P]
Until now the group has done most of its prep work by email, and many of us have never met. I enjoyed both of these brief conversations, and they helped speed up certain aspects of our work together, I believe. Based on the experience of the two conversations, I suspect that the session itself, with its conversational format, will be very energizing for the panelists and the participants.I mention it because the experience has pointed out to me how attenuated the human contact we have through blogs can sometimes feel. This has got to be part of the challenge for students, especially if they don't get a feel for weblog genres very quickly or don't spot the best ways to join the conversation very quickly either. But we may have a counter measure in courses that use blogging -- we can get students together in class for more familiar kinds of conversation and exchange that might help the writers imagine a richer relationship to their classmate audience when they are writing on the web. We may need to do group identification exercises in class for students who are going to be working together through blogs, then.
This imagining of a richer relationship happens, too, when a weblog becomes a place for more intensive exchange between the writer and particular audience members, or when email exchanges spring up around a weblog. You build a more vivid and particular sense of audience through those exchanges, and the blogging starts to become a different task in the days that follow. I know that I have a keen sense these last few days that my audience here may at least briefly change because of the panel presentation. I have had the same feeling this week as I have made repeated presentations around campus about how to use this software for a new kind of university publication -- I know that there is a good chance that my weblog has been visited by new readers with different interests than previous readers here. And when I first had a reader here who made clear by his replies how closely he was reading certain posts, I felt a new pleasure in writing, a new pressure to think and write well, and a new sense of opportunity to build something through the weblog.
Bloggers should, I think, try to get together with other bloggers, or talk on the phone, or meet at conferences, or have campus clubs, to speed the development of the richer sense of audience that is possible on a weblog.
Information for those attending the conference: The CCCC roundtable in San Antonio is at 6:30 in Room 206A of the Gonzalez Convention Center. The title is "Calling All Bloggers: Academic Bloggers Sharing Strategies and Resources." [0 & P]
Thursday, March 11, 2004
A writer's risk. It's good to remember the feeling of risk that sometimes goes along with writing, especially for students in unfamiliar circumstances. In a poetry writing class today I asked students to write a full draft of a poem during the 75 minute session, using as a first line any one of the 100 or so first lines I selected from some anthologies.
When I walked into class, one student mentioned that people were nervous about the exercise and didn't know what to expect. When they saw how many choices there were, most relaxed, and some drafted three or four poems during the class. And we spent the last few minutes decompressing, and most people seemed upbeat about the work they had done.
Out of a sense of fairness and secretly hoping to get a tolerable poem out of the process myself, I did the exercise along with them. After about twenty minutes I had a few lines that seemed promising and a topic that I cared about that also surprised me a bit -- fresh territory, I thought, which was a good sign. After forty minutes I wasn't sure I was going to end up with a draft, but soon enough I got a clue or two about how to make the images cohere, and all along I remained interested in the problem that had arisen and one or two of the images that presented themselves. So far so good.
But I noticed also a bit of nervousness -- a bit of pressure to make the exercise work, maybe to have a few lines to share if I decided to have others read a few lines. I noticed the risk of writing under time pressure or in unfamiliar circumstances, something I'm sure students feel fairly often. It's good to remember the fact of it and to return to the feeling, too, as an aid to framing assignments that respect the difficulties students face.
All the while knowing that we need to take on something difficult together if we are going to get anything done. And will my draft turn out? I don't know. For sure, it's time to revise. [0 & P]
When I walked into class, one student mentioned that people were nervous about the exercise and didn't know what to expect. When they saw how many choices there were, most relaxed, and some drafted three or four poems during the class. And we spent the last few minutes decompressing, and most people seemed upbeat about the work they had done.
Out of a sense of fairness and secretly hoping to get a tolerable poem out of the process myself, I did the exercise along with them. After about twenty minutes I had a few lines that seemed promising and a topic that I cared about that also surprised me a bit -- fresh territory, I thought, which was a good sign. After forty minutes I wasn't sure I was going to end up with a draft, but soon enough I got a clue or two about how to make the images cohere, and all along I remained interested in the problem that had arisen and one or two of the images that presented themselves. So far so good.
But I noticed also a bit of nervousness -- a bit of pressure to make the exercise work, maybe to have a few lines to share if I decided to have others read a few lines. I noticed the risk of writing under time pressure or in unfamiliar circumstances, something I'm sure students feel fairly often. It's good to remember the fact of it and to return to the feeling, too, as an aid to framing assignments that respect the difficulties students face.
All the while knowing that we need to take on something difficult together if we are going to get anything done. And will my draft turn out? I don't know. For sure, it's time to revise. [0 & P]
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Learning from the Dogwood site. For the university publication we're planning, I think there is much to learn from Jon Stahl's analysis of the Dogwood Initiative site. 
They have "established themselves, he says, as leading-edge communicators in the Northwest environmental movement by creating a website that focuses on publishing original news and analysis about environmental issues in [British Columbia]." I can see that our site will reach for original analysis, but I don't know how much original news reporting we'll manage. In any case, we'll think of ourselves as communicators involved in trying to deepen the conversation in our region about the strengths and weaknesses of American democratic practices. In that sense we'll aim for a clearly defined focus, as the Dogwood team does.
If our site works in part as a weblog -- I'm not sure it will yet, though I hope so -- that will help us reach for another value Stahl describes, "the advocacy power of making news," or if not quite that, then "commenting in real-time on breaking news." [The Kennedy School of Government case study of the role played by bloggers in the downfall of Trent Lott suggests how important it is to stay in the unfolding conversation that surrounds the breaking news.]
Stahl points out five "beats" or topics that they've taken as their responsibility, too. I can see the virtue of our publication being wider than that, reaching out to more faculty members with a variety of interests and strengths, but even if we take that path there may be a virtue in also selecting a few points of focus that we are careful to address regularly, as they do.
They shape their content into nicely-patterned forms or genres that must help readers see how to use the site and must help writers produce new work. They've chosen to offer what they call " Dogwood Bulletins -- short, original, informally-written analysis and opinion pieces. Plus occasional "breaking news." These, says Stahl, are influenced by blogging style. Then there are "News Stories -- short summaries of news stories from the mainstrem media, as well as pieces called "In the News -- news clips specifically mentioning Dogwood Initiative." They also produce "occasional reports [and] action alerts" -- genres Jon Stahl sees as more common work by environmental groups.
Stahl also raises issues about site design, mentioning that they focus their pages around the most original content and then assemble the best of that into a regular series of email newsletters. They support the work of the newsletters by placing sign-up boxes on every page. I see here another clue that they have worked to understand their goals and their strengths and then shaped the site accordingly. The page design includes a regular pattern for placing their features and a news page that serves as an archive point for all the site's content, says Stahl. In other words, focus and organize, all the way through. And because they have created good content, they gladly offer a syndicated feed for others to use in their sites.
New site tools are under consideration or development: a commenting area for readers to get involved, a diary or posting area for more extended contributions by readers, "an image library; an online activism center (that's "centre" if you're Canadian); site search; and issue-specific RDF feeds." All interesting, I'd say.
I've taken the time to summarize Jon Stahl's impressive posting in detail because I think it is an exemplary account of a very strong site design. We're probably all fans of the informality of weblogs, but I think there is also much to learn about naming one's project clearly enough to do this level of design work. It's something to reach for. [Photo credit: Doug Williams] [0 & P]
They have "established themselves, he says, as leading-edge communicators in the Northwest environmental movement by creating a website that focuses on publishing original news and analysis about environmental issues in [British Columbia]." I can see that our site will reach for original analysis, but I don't know how much original news reporting we'll manage. In any case, we'll think of ourselves as communicators involved in trying to deepen the conversation in our region about the strengths and weaknesses of American democratic practices. In that sense we'll aim for a clearly defined focus, as the Dogwood team does.If our site works in part as a weblog -- I'm not sure it will yet, though I hope so -- that will help us reach for another value Stahl describes, "the advocacy power of making news," or if not quite that, then "commenting in real-time on breaking news." [The Kennedy School of Government case study of the role played by bloggers in the downfall of Trent Lott suggests how important it is to stay in the unfolding conversation that surrounds the breaking news.]
Stahl points out five "beats" or topics that they've taken as their responsibility, too. I can see the virtue of our publication being wider than that, reaching out to more faculty members with a variety of interests and strengths, but even if we take that path there may be a virtue in also selecting a few points of focus that we are careful to address regularly, as they do.
They shape their content into nicely-patterned forms or genres that must help readers see how to use the site and must help writers produce new work. They've chosen to offer what they call " Dogwood Bulletins -- short, original, informally-written analysis and opinion pieces. Plus occasional "breaking news." These, says Stahl, are influenced by blogging style. Then there are "News Stories -- short summaries of news stories from the mainstrem media, as well as pieces called "In the News -- news clips specifically mentioning Dogwood Initiative." They also produce "occasional reports [and] action alerts" -- genres Jon Stahl sees as more common work by environmental groups.
Stahl also raises issues about site design, mentioning that they focus their pages around the most original content and then assemble the best of that into a regular series of email newsletters. They support the work of the newsletters by placing sign-up boxes on every page. I see here another clue that they have worked to understand their goals and their strengths and then shaped the site accordingly. The page design includes a regular pattern for placing their features and a news page that serves as an archive point for all the site's content, says Stahl. In other words, focus and organize, all the way through. And because they have created good content, they gladly offer a syndicated feed for others to use in their sites.
New site tools are under consideration or development: a commenting area for readers to get involved, a diary or posting area for more extended contributions by readers, "an image library; an online activism center (that's "centre" if you're Canadian); site search; and issue-specific RDF feeds." All interesting, I'd say.
I've taken the time to summarize Jon Stahl's impressive posting in detail because I think it is an exemplary account of a very strong site design. We're probably all fans of the informality of weblogs, but I think there is also much to learn about naming one's project clearly enough to do this level of design work. It's something to reach for. [Photo credit: Doug Williams] [0 & P]
Tuesday, March 9, 2004
Change the terms. There is a very nice example in the realm of recycling of how much difference a change of terms can mean to one's understanding of a problem or issue. In a document on Extended Producer Responsibility or EPR, Pat Franklin points to a change in the language used to describe a manufacturer's obligations to the environment here:
"The responsibility, that the waste generated during the production processes could be taken care of in a proper way, from an environmental and resource-saving point of view, should primarily be of the manufacturer. Before the manufacturing of a product is commenced it should be known how the waste which is a result of the production process should be treated, as well as how the product should be taken care of when discarded."
EPR is based on the premise that the primary responsibility for waste generated during the production process (including extraction of raw materials) and after the product is discarded, is that of the producer of the product.
Weblogs and common classroom assignments both can benefit from discussions of the key terms, the premises they imply, and the differences between analysis guided by one set of terms and analysis guided by another set. We've all had the experience of arguing fruitlessly with someone because the founding terms or premises were simply incompatible. When we are aware of the founding terms, rather than taking them for granted as an unquestioned common sense, we have a chance to think beyond them if they aren't serving us well.
Juxtaposing sets of terms may be another genre to explore, then, with students in a variety of classes. Because this kind of exploration involves tentative discussions of perspectives and examples, it may be well-suited to the process-oriented work of bloggers.
Franklin's piece was pointed out by Good News India. [0 & P]
"The responsibility, that the waste generated during the production processes could be taken care of in a proper way, from an environmental and resource-saving point of view, should primarily be of the manufacturer. Before the manufacturing of a product is commenced it should be known how the waste which is a result of the production process should be treated, as well as how the product should be taken care of when discarded."
EPR is based on the premise that the primary responsibility for waste generated during the production process (including extraction of raw materials) and after the product is discarded, is that of the producer of the product.
Weblogs and common classroom assignments both can benefit from discussions of the key terms, the premises they imply, and the differences between analysis guided by one set of terms and analysis guided by another set. We've all had the experience of arguing fruitlessly with someone because the founding terms or premises were simply incompatible. When we are aware of the founding terms, rather than taking them for granted as an unquestioned common sense, we have a chance to think beyond them if they aren't serving us well.
Juxtaposing sets of terms may be another genre to explore, then, with students in a variety of classes. Because this kind of exploration involves tentative discussions of perspectives and examples, it may be well-suited to the process-oriented work of bloggers.
Franklin's piece was pointed out by Good News India. [0 & P]
Monday, March 8, 2004
Dozens of tartines. More than two dozen web sites participated in the tartine distributed blogging event I mentioned yesterday, and Clotilde at Chocolate & Zucchini has the links to them all. I haven't eaten breakfast yet, so the list is making me hungry, and so are the pictures of the food.
[0 & P]
New RSS feed. I've written lately about some political pieces by Andrew Wimmer and others at the weblog of the Center for Theology and Social Analysis. I want to mention that they've set up their RSS feed just now, for those who like to read that way.
[0 & P]
Sunday, March 7, 2004
Starting year two. I just noticed the date -- that makes it a year of blogging, with 575 posts and a lot better idea what the software is good for. Also, a keener sense of the value of writing every day and the meaning of earning an audience.
[0 & P]
What weblog genres are. I was posting last week from Florida and not able to respond to email or spend time online, and so I missed a note from Will Richardson asking about this phrase I've started using, weblog genres, but I can't claim any ownership -- see Will's post of yesterday for others talking about weblogs and genre. He quotes Joe Moxley, Patricia Roy, and Anne Jones saying weblog genre as a singular, but in their next sentence they show plural genres that make up many weblogs and the plural audiences and contexts that these genres serve:
Our work explores the various metaphors applicable to blogs -- blog as journal, blog as news column, blog as annotated bibliography, blog as meeting place -- in order to more fully realize the potential blogs have for preparing students for advanced learning and professional writing situations. #
The plural seems more useful to me. Students need to see the several genres that make up weblogs and learn the customs, strengths, and weaknesses of these genres as they practice them. But I also believe it is useful to talk about smaller genres we see over and over again in weblogs -- links and the sentences that introduce them / quotations from other blogs and print sources and the sentences that introduce them, to make two quick examples. Is there a good term for these? Micro-genres?
I'm interested, for example, in juxtaposition as a weblog micro-genre. Yesterday Andrew Wimmer posted a substantial discussion of Mel Gibson's movie and juxtaposed two things in his concluding paragraphs: the recent White House call for the Coast Guard to send people back to Haiti rather than helping them flee the violence that was erupting there, and the violence we are urged to attend to in Gibson's movie. He also wove in quotations from an old hymn about the cross and comments from movie-goers, but I think the juxtaposition of his concluding section is the essential move he makes there. With minimal comment, he brings into view the Haitian violence, where Americans proposed to do nothing and to look the other way, and the movie, where we are urged to let the violence touch us and shape our thoughts and actions. I could quote Andrew's conclusion here, but I suggest interested people read the whole piece instead. The juxtaposing allows the writer to put his finger on what looks like hypocrisy in our society.
The technique is an essential rhetorical skill for writers, a common weblog (micro-)genre, and, as Andrew Wimmer shows, a tool of great power. I'd like to keep talking about the genres and finding strong examples of them for further discussion. Perhaps other people will point out other weblog genres?
An earlier post on juxtaposing quotations is here. [1 & P]
Our work explores the various metaphors applicable to blogs -- blog as journal, blog as news column, blog as annotated bibliography, blog as meeting place -- in order to more fully realize the potential blogs have for preparing students for advanced learning and professional writing situations. #
The plural seems more useful to me. Students need to see the several genres that make up weblogs and learn the customs, strengths, and weaknesses of these genres as they practice them. But I also believe it is useful to talk about smaller genres we see over and over again in weblogs -- links and the sentences that introduce them / quotations from other blogs and print sources and the sentences that introduce them, to make two quick examples. Is there a good term for these? Micro-genres?
I'm interested, for example, in juxtaposition as a weblog micro-genre. Yesterday Andrew Wimmer posted a substantial discussion of Mel Gibson's movie and juxtaposed two things in his concluding paragraphs: the recent White House call for the Coast Guard to send people back to Haiti rather than helping them flee the violence that was erupting there, and the violence we are urged to attend to in Gibson's movie. He also wove in quotations from an old hymn about the cross and comments from movie-goers, but I think the juxtaposition of his concluding section is the essential move he makes there. With minimal comment, he brings into view the Haitian violence, where Americans proposed to do nothing and to look the other way, and the movie, where we are urged to let the violence touch us and shape our thoughts and actions. I could quote Andrew's conclusion here, but I suggest interested people read the whole piece instead. The juxtaposing allows the writer to put his finger on what looks like hypocrisy in our society.
The technique is an essential rhetorical skill for writers, a common weblog (micro-)genre, and, as Andrew Wimmer shows, a tool of great power. I'd like to keep talking about the genres and finding strong examples of them for further discussion. Perhaps other people will point out other weblog genres?
An earlier post on juxtaposing quotations is here. [1 & P]
Tartine day. Today is 
the day that food bloggers and interested others are posting recipes for tartines, open-faced bread creations such as the one pictured here, taken from event host Clotilde's Chocolate & Zucchini blog. Clotilde promises to post links tomorrow to all participants who email her about their contributions. This kind of "distributed blogging event" (DBE) is a weblog genre of some interest, I think.
I can imagine that students and teacher might occasionally be able to launch a DBE that extends beyond the school -- after all, one hears of stories of students winning publicity for causes and changing the minds of corporate and government leaders occasionally. (There is a nature preserve in Fort Myers, Florida, Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, that was created in response to instigation by high schoolers.)
And certainly we can participate with our students in any DBE that we come across that has been launched by others. And we can study these events with our students or use them as resource banks for topics that interest us.
I wonder, though, if the best option might not be creating a local DBE among the bloggers who already know each other in a school or class. That seems within the reach of most teachers, I'd say. Here's a quick version, then, for a writing class addressing the fall election:
First weeks of September: the class chooses four election issues to study in depth.
Mid September: on a particular day, all the students launch their findings on issue one on their personal blogs. In the days that follow, they read and respond to the work others have contributed.
Late September: again, on a particular day, all the students launch their findings on issue two on their personal blogs, and in the days that follow they read and respond to others.
Early October: issue three, as before, on a particular day, with exchanges of comments in the days that follow.
Mid October: issue four, the same way.
After the election, with students, a review of how the process worked, whether it attracted readers outside the class, how it served the complexity of the issue. Then, also with students, write up an advisory memo about how best to carry out this sort of project in the future. [0 & P]
the day that food bloggers and interested others are posting recipes for tartines, open-faced bread creations such as the one pictured here, taken from event host Clotilde's Chocolate & Zucchini blog. Clotilde promises to post links tomorrow to all participants who email her about their contributions. This kind of "distributed blogging event" (DBE) is a weblog genre of some interest, I think. I can imagine that students and teacher might occasionally be able to launch a DBE that extends beyond the school -- after all, one hears of stories of students winning publicity for causes and changing the minds of corporate and government leaders occasionally. (There is a nature preserve in Fort Myers, Florida, Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, that was created in response to instigation by high schoolers.)
And certainly we can participate with our students in any DBE that we come across that has been launched by others. And we can study these events with our students or use them as resource banks for topics that interest us.
I wonder, though, if the best option might not be creating a local DBE among the bloggers who already know each other in a school or class. That seems within the reach of most teachers, I'd say. Here's a quick version, then, for a writing class addressing the fall election:
First weeks of September: the class chooses four election issues to study in depth.
Mid September: on a particular day, all the students launch their findings on issue one on their personal blogs. In the days that follow, they read and respond to the work others have contributed.
Late September: again, on a particular day, all the students launch their findings on issue two on their personal blogs, and in the days that follow they read and respond to others.
Early October: issue three, as before, on a particular day, with exchanges of comments in the days that follow.
Mid October: issue four, the same way.
After the election, with students, a review of how the process worked, whether it attracted readers outside the class, how it served the complexity of the issue. Then, also with students, write up an advisory memo about how best to carry out this sort of project in the future. [0 & P]
Saturday, March 6, 2004
City RSS feed. Also via Dave Winer, the RSS feed of the city of Cosa Mesa, California. Can a university be far behind?
[0 & P]
Lott case study. Teachers may want to hold onto a copy of this case study of the role played by bloggers in the downfall of Trent Lott. Produced by the Kennedy School of Government, pointed out by Dave Winer.
[1 & P]
ExpressionEngine, continued. Rick Ellis was kind enough to point to a very good comparison of pMachine and their new product, ExpressionEngine (EE) here on his weblog. I think I'll have to call the software EE -- that five syllable name still doesn't sing for me as a name, but the product looks better and better for the more complex cluster of weblogs, resource banks, and magazine-style pieces we have in mind for our university's new publication.
[0 & P]
Friday, March 5, 2004
Using RSS feeds for software updates. I was pleased to notice that the folks at pMachine offer RSS feeds for their software updates and bug fixes -- a smart use of the technology that may be common, but it's one I hadn't spotted before. The feeds come from their User Support Forum pages.
I believe they are creating this feed very easily because their forum is essentially a pocket version of their weblog page. That's a bonus feature, then.
I can't quite figure out, this late on a Friday afternoon, whether there is any additional virtue for teachers and students to read a forum in a news aggregator, but there is the feature all ready to go. Any ideas? Perhaps this would allow people to review several forum sites more quickly, just to see what's developing? [0 & P]
I believe they are creating this feed very easily because their forum is essentially a pocket version of their weblog page. That's a bonus feature, then.
I can't quite figure out, this late on a Friday afternoon, whether there is any additional virtue for teachers and students to read a forum in a news aggregator, but there is the feature all ready to go. Any ideas? Perhaps this would allow people to review several forum sites more quickly, just to see what's developing? [0 & P]
Thursday, March 4, 2004
Teach the site. A study by the Readeship Institute of ways of improving newspapers suggests that readers enjoy and benefit from more promotion or explanation of new content and different sections of the paper and its web site. (See Imperative 7 on page 12 of the report.) I wonder if the same might not be true of more complex weblogs, which offer many categories and the usual problem of content dropping off the page and vanishing into the archive. The study also recommends clearer navigation aids for the paper/site.
People want more of this kind of news, they say:
1. Intensely local, people-focused news. The specifics of this
factor are community announcements, stories about ordinary
people and obituaries.
2. Lifestyle news, which includes health, fitness and medicine;
home, garden and real estate; food; fashion and beauty; and
travel.
3. How we are governed and global relations. This includes
coverage of politics, government, war and international conflict.
Via Tim Porter. [0 & P]
People want more of this kind of news, they say:
1. Intensely local, people-focused news. The specifics of this
factor are community announcements, stories about ordinary
people and obituaries.
2. Lifestyle news, which includes health, fitness and medicine;
home, garden and real estate; food; fashion and beauty; and
travel.
3. How we are governed and global relations. This includes
coverage of politics, government, war and international conflict.
Via Tim Porter. [0 & P]
Wikipedia software. Clay Shirky points out that the snazzy Wiki software that runs Wikipedia is available. I am happy with the PmWiki I've been using, but it doesn't have the more complex features that make Wikipedia possible.
[2 & P]
ExpressionEngine. I'm trying out the 30 day demonstration of the new software from the team that built pMachine, which runs the site you are reading. I've been very happy with pMachine all along the way, but their new software looks like it makes room for more complex work groups and sets up a snazzier set of behind-the-scenes procedures for running the data base, and some other things I'm not sure I understand yet. It's called ExpressionEngine, a synonym for the more graceful name pMachine, but it's a new product. My first impressions are all good -- smoothly operating, smart control panel designs so far.
My trial site won't last, but it's here. I'm looking for the right software for the hybrid news and weblog site I expect to help the campus launch in early summer. [0 & P]
My trial site won't last, but it's here. I'm looking for the right software for the hybrid news and weblog site I expect to help the campus launch in early summer. [0 & P]
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Quality and quantity. It's been good for me to try to write every day -- it will have been a year on the 7th of March, with breaks of a week's duration when I've needed it, but no more than one a quarter. I've written tens of thousands more words this year than the year before -- easily a step in the right direction.
But I'm thinking about quality, too. When I took the kids to a children's museum in Florida the other day (no names, since this is not about the museum) I noticed that the place was a bit run down, a bit skimpy on good exhibits. There were some lively exhibits, but not enough that I'd want to go back for a second look any sooner than a year from now. And that got me thinking about blogging posts, the need to write every day vs. actually having something to say.
Maybe we reach for and then reach a new level when we start combining virtues that we had achieved only in isolation before. I know I've thought new thoughts and started some (for me) rewarding conversations by writing every day. I know that the dailies can grow thin sometimes, though, unless I monitor the work and press myself not just to writer but to write better. I want to vote against just skipping a day and, instead, vote for getting back to work and staying there until something comes to mind. I want the 2 Q's together.
I also want to earn the confidence that I can write every day, something worthwhile every day. Maybe that's unrealistic, but let's not leap to conclusions. In this, at least, let's assume the best until proven otherwise. [0 & P]
But I'm thinking about quality, too. When I took the kids to a children's museum in Florida the other day (no names, since this is not about the museum) I noticed that the place was a bit run down, a bit skimpy on good exhibits. There were some lively exhibits, but not enough that I'd want to go back for a second look any sooner than a year from now. And that got me thinking about blogging posts, the need to write every day vs. actually having something to say.
Maybe we reach for and then reach a new level when we start combining virtues that we had achieved only in isolation before. I know I've thought new thoughts and started some (for me) rewarding conversations by writing every day. I know that the dailies can grow thin sometimes, though, unless I monitor the work and press myself not just to writer but to write better. I want to vote against just skipping a day and, instead, vote for getting back to work and staying there until something comes to mind. I want the 2 Q's together.
I also want to earn the confidence that I can write every day, something worthwhile every day. Maybe that's unrealistic, but let's not leap to conclusions. In this, at least, let's assume the best until proven otherwise. [0 & P]
Tuesday, March 2, 2004
The fifty states. I was looking for the state motto of Senator Kerry's home state ("By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty") and came across the generous collection of information and links at 50States, including the Latin for that motto:
Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem. [0 & P]
Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem. [0 & P]
J-blogs should still be blogs. Since we're likely to launch an election site very soon here at the university, I'm keeping an eye on people who talk about the intersection of journalism and blogging. Ed Cone shares some advice today to the local newspaper, for example, about setting up blogs for staff writers. For sure, Ed advises, these blogs should really be blogs, with independent voices that help the sites take on their own character. That means that the writers should own their own sites.
For our project, this means that we should think about syndicating the blogging voices into the site, rather than having them exist only on the site. If the university is a publication (a la Dave Winer), or becomes one through this process, it will do so by aggregating the voices of the participants rather than corraling them as staff writers, if Ed's advice applies as I think it does to this new context. [0 & P]
For our project, this means that we should think about syndicating the blogging voices into the site, rather than having them exist only on the site. If the university is a publication (a la Dave Winer), or becomes one through this process, it will do so by aggregating the voices of the participants rather than corraling them as staff writers, if Ed's advice applies as I think it does to this new context. [0 & P]
Monday, March 1, 2004
Make vivid for us again. Jay Rosen talks about the way a reporting team from the Sacramento Bee used backroads travel to try to get past the stock narratives of political reporting and report something fresh during the recent state recall election. One way of saying what they did is this:
Admit complexity in the electorate. Crunch the numbers, look at the map, go back in the state's history, find the trends that are picking up steam. Think. Read. Analyze. Puzzle through the data again. Then pick places where the political parts of California are revealed... #
I see this as a way of trying to recover the specificity of the data -- trying to let their preconceptions be troubled by the specificity of what they would find as they visited different parts of the state. No doubt a reporter and photographer could travel in order to confirm the familiar narratives, or could fool themselves into thinking they were free of those narratives. But their belief in complexity and their faith in going back to the data send them in the right direction.
Openness doesn't come easily. Rosen points out that our cherished methods come with their blind spots -- seemingly objective survey data, for example, such as
...a questionnaire[,] wipes out most of the data respondents are prepared to offer.
If we assume that people have something to say, that they have desires that they wish to see fulfilled in their community and things they hope to accomplish in their lives, and that they have opinions of some merit about how well government and society are working, then there is a real ethical obligation to attend to their speech. Journalists can serve and help politicians serve, if they listen well and reflect on and write about what they've heard.
Rosen see's the Bee's project this way:
Marjie Lundstrom's incredibly straightforward assignment, "talk to people," attempts to fill in--make vivid for us again--a space of public conversation, which the more schematic measures of opinion might erase, or leave blank.
There is the task: to "make vivid for us again" the thoughts and wishes of the people around us, or to restore the public sphere as a place of exchange. [0 & P]
Admit complexity in the electorate. Crunch the numbers, look at the map, go back in the state's history, find the trends that are picking up steam. Think. Read. Analyze. Puzzle through the data again. Then pick places where the political parts of California are revealed... #
I see this as a way of trying to recover the specificity of the data -- trying to let their preconceptions be troubled by the specificity of what they would find as they visited different parts of the state. No doubt a reporter and photographer could travel in order to confirm the familiar narratives, or could fool themselves into thinking they were free of those narratives. But their belief in complexity and their faith in going back to the data send them in the right direction.
Openness doesn't come easily. Rosen points out that our cherished methods come with their blind spots -- seemingly objective survey data, for example, such as
...a questionnaire[,] wipes out most of the data respondents are prepared to offer.
If we assume that people have something to say, that they have desires that they wish to see fulfilled in their community and things they hope to accomplish in their lives, and that they have opinions of some merit about how well government and society are working, then there is a real ethical obligation to attend to their speech. Journalists can serve and help politicians serve, if they listen well and reflect on and write about what they've heard.
Rosen see's the Bee's project this way:
Marjie Lundstrom's incredibly straightforward assignment, "talk to people," attempts to fill in--make vivid for us again--a space of public conversation, which the more schematic measures of opinion might erase, or leave blank.
There is the task: to "make vivid for us again" the thoughts and wishes of the people around us, or to restore the public sphere as a place of exchange. [0 & P]