Someone has started a blog entitled Concerned Parents of TA (Baltimore). From the first post on the blog:
It is the goal of this blog to provide a forum for parents to provide candid feedback to the school, but also to explore, in a constructive manner, ideas that can be implemented to make TA the school that we all know, hope, and expect it to be.
It will be interesting to see if this works. I'm sure there will be lots of anonymous venting, as well as impassioned defenses of the school. I would encourage everyone to either comment under their real names or to adopt a consistent pseudonym, so that there is a sense of conversation, rather than a free-for-all. Also, the administration of the school should be following this blog very carefully, as well as participate in the conversation non-anonymously, which will show that you're listening and help to keep the conversation civil. The feedback you'll get from parents commenting on the blog will be very valuable. Also, it's just about a given that this blog will end up on the first page of Google results for searches for TA, etc., which means people looking for and at the school for the first time will find this blog. If there's silence from the administration, it will look bad from the outside.
The blog was brought to my attention by a commenter on my previous post. If I had to guess, I'd bet that the person who left the comment is the one who started the blog.
It's May, which means you can once again vote for HPProgs on Podcast Alley (or use the direct voting link). Thanks!
I wanted to post my thoughts on R. Gottlieb's drasha, but I wanted to do it as a separate post, so there would be no confusion as to what I am saying and what R. Gottlieb said. There will be much news that will be coming out over the coming weeks, and I will have to decide if, what and how I want to comment on it. In the mean time, I wanted to offer a concise thought on how and why these changes came about.
My main thought about this is that it shows the positive value of the Internet in contemporary Orthodox society. I firmly believe that the reason this issue is finally being dealt with in a forthright manner by the rabbinate is that they have no choice but to do so. The way information is controlled and disseminated to and within the community has fundamentally changed. This is due in large part to the web in general, and blogs in particular. That is not to say that everything done on the web is done appropriately or in the best possible fashion, but the very existence of the medium, and the fact that information can be published and circulated freely and quickly, has made past approaches to this problem no longer viable. That is not to say that past approaches were correct, either; the existence of the web has enabled a more accurate understanding of the magnitude of the problem to become apparent to those who erred with good intentions and now have the ability to make changes.
Let me make it clear that I do not mean this to be critical of the rabbinate; on the contrary, the fact that they are addressing the issue, rather than not, is responsible and commendable. I do think, however, it is important to recognize the crucial role that the "grass roots" had in bringing about this change.
As a general rule, in any social ecosystem, those in positions of authority by definition maintain the status quo; change must come from the people, and it is the responsibility of those with authority to be sensitive to the needs of the people and judge how to best respond. There is a famous interchange between two poskim that beautifully illustrates this point. The Terumat HaDeshen would often invent theoretical cases to server as the basis for responsum. The Magen Avraham frowned on this practice, arguing that a posek receives special divine guidance when weighing an issue of halachic jurisprudence from an actual real, live person. I don't think it's homiletics to explain this as meaning that halachic decisions are more meaningful when considered in the context of those that practice them, and that the posek must first and foremost respond to the individual.
At any rate, those of us who believe that blogs in particular, and the web in general, have a positive role to play in the Jewish community can count this as a point in our favor.
For more thoughts check out Kefirot's post on the subject.
Just noticed that the Baltimore Jewish Times has launched a blogs section, Buerger Bites, authored by Andrew Buerger, publisher of the BJT; On My Mind, by Phil Jacobs, executive editor.
Both blogs have RSS feeds (scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page), so you can subscribe to them in your favorite RSS aggregator, and have comments enabled, so you can communicate directly with the authors. I did notice that the blogging software used does not create permanent link pages on the home page for each individual blog post; creating and exposing a linked, individual page for each blog post is a good idea, as it allows for other to directly link to your posts, and increases a posts visibility in search engines like Google (which brings in traffic, increases readership and advertising revenue). As an example, I want to link to Phil Jacobs' recent blog post entitled Too Much Fear, where he gives his personal thoughts about the state of abuse in the frum community, but I have to look in the RSS feed to find the link). It's also nice when comments appear with the article, as it creates a sense of conversation around the post. It's possible that these options are available with the current blogging software they are using, it may just need to be configured correctly.
The JTA has published a collection of articles on abuse in the Jewish community.
One article focuses on how the Internet in general, and blogs in particular, are changing the way abuse is treated within the community. R. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb is quoted:
"I read everything with a grain of salt," he said. "On the other hand," Weinreb said, the Awareness Center and the blogs "have served the purpose of keeping this in the public spotlight and keeping the pressure on established institutions to police their constituencies."
[Hat tip: A Town Crier]
Conflicting reports from the Agudah Convention. Gil seemed to think the whole things was pretty parve, while a few comments on his blog said otherwise. Other than that, there's really very little substantive information to come out of the convention.
On a related note, I've been getting a ton of new visitors searching for agudah, convention and blogs (this blog currently rates in the top 10 on Google for various combinations of those terms). From the Agudah's perspective, this is a reputation management issue, one would assume that they would want their information to appear prominently in major search engines results.
S. at OnTheMainLine has a post wondering if the Agudah is up in arms over just the "bad" blogs, or blogs in general. I was rather pleasantly amused that my blog and banner (see above) are used as examples of what might be found objectionable about blogging by the Agudah (the coexistence of Torah and other things; not the things in and of themselves). In the comments, my banner is referred to as "a horror show for the Agudah." That certainly made me smile. ;)
For what it's worth, I think it's an issue of power and authority. I understand the Agudah's concern, although I think they're a bit off as to where that authority shoud reside. And even if they were right, when power is abused, it must be confronted by any means possible.
I stumbled across a new blog entitled My Jack Abramoff Story. The author opens with an introduction:
My name is Brian J. Mann and I was involved in The Jack Abramoff Scandal, and I'm going to be using this blog to tell you all about it.
His second post goes into a bit more detail. I have no idea if this is legit, but I thought it was interesting.
Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel, on the theme of this years' Agudah Convention, "Torah Wisdom/Torah Authority: Are We Losing the Connection?":
"In recent years, though," the Agudah leader observes, "due to a variety of factors, the authority of daas Torah has been significantly undermined, even within our own chareidi circles. Most troubling has been the proliferation of Internet 'blogs' where misguided individuals feel free to spread every bit of rechilus and loshon hora about rabbonim and roshei yeshiva, all with the intended effect of undermining any semblance of Torah authority in our community. It is most appropriate for an organization like Agudath Israel, whose very essence was built on the recognition of the authority of Torah leaders, to address this issue head on, and formulate concrete plans to reinvigorate public awareness of this essential element of the Torah way of life."
[Hat tip: Aishel]
Thank God for the Internets. It enables us to learn so much about all types of people we would never have access to in normal life.
For example, check out Chasidic Stud, who describes himself as a "20 Year old Chassid who is muscular and very good looking." In his inaugural post, he writes:
...as I was growing up I noticed that I want to be different in my physical appearence without giving up my Chassidic beliefs, it was hard at first but after I succeded I knew that all the hard work was worth it, I also noticed that there are more out there like me and I am not the only one.Before I go into my body details I want to say that I am not Gay, I am a very happy married young man.
Of course, you're not gay...
Then there is Shmekidik, who I suspect might be the same person, starts off his blog with:
This blog is especcially geared to let all Chasidic people know that it is important to look good and smell good by dressing neatly bathing daily and using underarm deoderant every day...
It's like an accident on the highway...I want to look away, but I can't. [Hat tip: GH]
It would seem there would be a question as to the propriety of blogging on the intermiediate days of the festivals (less problematic would be podcasting, by the way). As the olam seems to be adopting a leinient approach, I'll follow suit. Fortunately for me, my wifi reaches into the Sukkah.
A Life in Transition is the blog of a member of the Toronto Orthodox community who is in the process of transitioning gender from male to female. What I find interesting is how this person has involved not only his close friends, but the entire community, in the process, by starting a blog (which, until recently, had comments). I'm told that this person is also very open in discussing the issue with friends.
Along the way, I read about an interesting teshuva from the Tzitz Eliezer (discussed in an RJJ journal article from Fall 99 by R. Alfred Cohen entitled Tumtum and Androgynous, who says that ones gender is defined by ones genitalia (but in the context of where ones gender was ambiguous or unknown to begin with). My understanding is that almost all other poskim disagree with his position.
News from our gracious hosts, the Terrablogs; they've added a new feature to Baltiblogs; now any Baltimore blogger (even those that aren't hosted on baltiblogs.com) can include their latest posts on the Baltiblogs.com home page. This is a great idea, as it will make the Baltiblogs home page an even better destination for the best Baltimore blogs. Way to go, Terrablogs!
So, all you Baltimore bloggers out there, sign up!
Talk about irony! The Jewish Week has an article entitled "Are Blogs Kosher?"
Strong words, considering The Jewish Week's recent article on the conversion issue was nothing more than heresay, slander and made-up lies, which caused untold suffering and anguish to many fine upstanding citizens. Perhaps we should be asking if The Jewish Week is kosher, hmm?
[Hat tip: Ricky Ricardo]
I've made some small adjustments to the site layout, to allow for better seperation and placement of advertising. I've also moved most of the navigation stuff over to the left hand side (I add to the links section semi-regularly). I know the banner image is a bit out of whack, I'll have to fix that later.
Love it? Hate it? Let me know what you think.
I'm sure many of you have been saying, "If only I could advertise on Presence, I'd be able to reach a great audience of Baltimore/DC-area Orthodox Jews!"
Well, now you can! I've joined BlogAds, so if you look just over to the right, you'll see the "Advertise on Presence" link. Just click through, and you can reach the myriads of Presence readers with your message.
As an incentive to get things going, the first person to leave a comment or email me (greggersh AT yahoo DOT com) will receive a free week's worth of advertising (you must leave a real email address for me to send you a discount code).
Lately, I've gotten many emails or calls from people wanting to offer their opinion of what's going on, but did not want to leave a comment, for fear of having their opinion associated with their identity. While I feel very strongly that anonymity has a detrimental affect on a conversation (we humans are, as far as I can tell, almost categorically subjective, and it helps to know who you're talking to in a discussion to understand their point of view). Nevertheless, I understand that there are legitimate reasons where one would like to remain anonymous. I'm going to detail how to do that on this blog (techniques may not apply elsewhere), towards encouraging broader participation in the conversation.
When commenting, you are asked for three pieces of information: Name, Email Address and URL. Keep in mind that you don't need to tell the truth for any of these bits of info. So if you'd like to comment anonymously, you have two choices. The first is what I prefer: enter a name (not your real name), and an email address that you check regularly. Then, for the URL, put in any URL you choose (a URL is a typical internet address). You can use http://presence.baltiblogs.com, or http://www.google.com or anything. If you do this, the only information visible to readers of this site will be the name you enter, and the URL. I will get an email message with your email address. The reason I prefer this method is I can contact you offline for follow-up information, if needed.
If you really don't want your identity known to me, you can do two things. You can create a fake email address with Yahoo Mail or Gmail, and use that. This way I can contact you without your identity being revealed. The other option is to enter false email information. While I don't encourage this, if it makes the difference between an intelligent comment adding to the conversation, by all means, do it.
A note of warning: if you simply enter a name (real or false) and just an email address (leaving the URL field empty), even readers of this site will be able to see your email address.
Hope this help, if you have any questions, I can always be reached at greggersh AT yahoo DOT com.
Naming things is a daunting task. A good name is more than just a nice sounding word, it's a combination of past, present and future. It's a tremendous responsibility. Regardless of what your naming, whether it's a child, a blog, or a blog post, thought should be put into enhancing the meaning of what you are trying to convey and represent in bestowing that name.
I've been ragging on a few folks to rename their blogs because their titles were pathetic. Those were Ponderings, Musings and Opinions. BORING. The titles are so non-descript, and tell me absolutely nothing about the person or what they are going to write about. I've taken to referring to Opinions as BO until he updates his title. I finally got Ponderings to change his title to Laz-a-fare ('cuz his name is AlanLaz). I think the name fits well, the "laz" part functioning as a pointer to his identity, while at the same time evoking the image of a frat boy guy lying on a couch drinking a beer while watching a basketball game. Combine that with the obvious reference to laissez faire, recalling the authors backwoods upbringing and you have a pretty good name. If only we could have gotten a more explicit references to Frederick or flutes in there, things would be perfect.
Jewboy and BO, feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to come up with something for you as well (free of charge).
SoccerDad has a link to the second edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival. Lots of good links to recipes and many good kosher food blogs I had not heard of. I am currently devouring Jerusalem Soul Foodies, a blog detailing a trip to Israel, from a gastro-intestinal point of view. Oh. Yeah.
As a side project, I've started a Blogdigger group of kosher food blogs, it's available at http://groups.blogdigger.com/KosherBlogs. Email me if you see something that should be added to the list.
I came across a new blog, Baltimore Opinions, which looks to be, from the topics of discussion, a Shomrei member, and perhaps even someone from the 8:15 minyan. Who could it be, I wonder?
Also recenlty found is Jewish Cube, by Jack Davidov, who I suspect, but have not confirmed, is from Baltimore. He gets bonus points for linking to Presence, as well as being a software guy (Torah and Design Patterns? I'm am so there).
Also check out some new blog called gregword. I have no idea who this is, but I like his name, and he seems to be really, really smart. ;)
Update: I would be remiss if I didn't link to Princess D'Tiara, who gets bonus points for being hilarious and making really great ribs.
A few good posts I've read in the past few days:
- I See Dead People - Dan Rabinowitz details the arcane history of dead Rebbe cards. It's posts like this that make me thank God for the open distribution network that is the Internet.
- Searching for the Middle Ground - Jewboy contemplates his son's future education. I feel much the same way about this topic.
- The Names of God and Biblical Criticism - approaching the Torah as a narrative (as opposed to a historical) text offers a better explanation than a documentary hypothesis approach. It's things like this that I think the Rav was talking about when he said modern biblical scholarship didn't bother him.
- and finally: Vote Torah - now that I understand that it does actually make a difference, make sure to vote in the WZO elections.
Have a Good Shabbos!
Holy Cow. I saw eebmore posted about new Terms of Service for Baltiblogs, and that he was considering moving because the terms could be seen as encroaching upon his freedom to discuss any number of things in the unique fashion in which he discusses them. Today I noticed a Terrablogs post about the new Terms of Service and decided to take a look to see what all the fuss was about, and noticed a few things that, frankly, shocked me.
For one:
2. Privacy Policy. By using this Service, you agree, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this Privacy Policy: You have no privacy.
Ooooo-kay...that's pretty vague, and although it might just be a matter of expedience, it's a bit ominous. I guess I don't really put anything here that I wouldn't mind someone else seeing, as it is a blog and all. But still, a bit more finesse in explaining what you inteded to do with my information would be nice.
So I started worrying about things like copyright, and sure enough, further down:
6. Information Rights. The Proprietor does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service, including without limitation comments you post to the Service, you grant the Proprietor world-wide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty free, non-exclusive, fully sub-licensable license(s) to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed. (emphasis added)
Whoah! So basically, the price of a free blog is the Terrablogs gets free use of your content. I don't like that one bit, to the point that I am seriously considering moving off Baltiblogs. Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress.com, none of them make these kinds of restrictions. I've been nothing but happy with the service up to this point, in fact, I think the idea of a locale-centered blog portal is a brilliant idea, and a major reason why I chose Baltiblogs to begin with, and Penny and I have always contributed monetarily to the service. And I know Josiah and Nathan fairly well, and would consider them friends. But ownership of content is a big deal, and a deal-breaker, as far as I'm concerned.
As far as I can tell, Terrablogs would have the right to do whatever they wanted with any of my content, including photos I've uploaded. That would include photos on luminouslens or opinion pieces on Soccer Dad.
I'm hoping that we can work something out with Terrablogs, to ammend this clause in the policy. At the very least, I would have hoped that changes of this magnitude would have been communicated to the users in a more personal fashion. The nice thing about Baltiblogs has always been that we are all friends here, yet this is the type of move I would expect from a big corporation. Let's hope we can get this resolved.
Update: I've heard from Josiah and Nathan (see below) and they've been very helpful and are taking care of things. Awesome.
I will add, I am generally appalled by the increasingly common practice of using blogs as a form of interpersonal communication. All the time I see people blogging things as a way to expose a wrongdoing without first communicating with the other party and attempting to resolve things privately. I think it's generally a bad practice, and that we should not lose site of the fact that blogs and other social technology are meant to bring people closer together and enhance communication, not allow us to flame with greater ease and affect. I debated whether or not to post this or to resolve it privately, and made my decision based on the fact that this affected others and had the potential to strengthen the community as a whole if handled properly. That might all be BS, but whatever, I'm on codine.
Check out Maven Yavin, a new group blog aimed at filling the "void" left by GH. I'd say it's more like Protocols, but for intellectuals (no offense meant to SIW; Protocols was awesome in it's own right...for a while). Then again, most of the folks blogging nowweren't around for Protocols. Gosh, I feel so old.
Anyway, I've got nothing right now, other than this mind-blowing thought that I stumbled across on Bloghd:
* On Rosh Hashanah, we read of the two sons of Abraham, one of whom is exiled into the desert, and the other of whom is taken for sacrifice Har haMoriah (= the Bet Hamikdash).
* On Yom Hakippurim, we read of the two goats, one of whom is exiled into the desert, and the other of whom is taken for sacrifice in the Bet Hamikdash (= Har haMoriah).
Besides being so amazingly spot on, this made me think that, really, we as a culture have no clue what Chumash is really talking about. Our educational system just barely enables us to make these kinds of observations, let alone put them into some sort of context that makes any sense. Despite what they'll tell you, our current incarnation of Judaism puts very little value in Scripture. I'd make some comment here about written/oral traditions, but that would just belie my true feelings about The Nature of Things, and I've done enough tree-chopping lately as it is. But I digress.
This also points to something I've been saying for a while (not here, though). Parochial Jewish secular education tends to view Math and Science as more beneficial to the modern boy of faith, probably in the hopes that he become a doctor, or contemplate the universe in the style of Maimonides (ironically, or not, Bais Yaakov girls do not seem to suffer the same prejudices). I would argue that a thorough background in literature and liberal arts would provide the greatest benefit to the religious person, in terms of providing a framework of textual interpretation and artistic expression. Not only for Chumash, but for Gemara as well (for example, you can read Maseches Sotah like a novel).
And for the record, I have an unpublished post from Rosh HaShannah time that examines the language used in The Expulsion of Ishmael, essentially equating it to The Sacrifice Of Issac; it's still in production, till I can figure out what I'm trying to say with it.
For those of your in town, I'm speaking tonight at the Maryland Apple Corps User Group on everything you ever wanted to know about blogging. I'll be covering everything from the basics on how to blog to topics like syndication, RSS and blog search. The gathering is free to all, here's the details:
November 8, 2005, 6:30 - 8:45 pm
Towson Library, 320 York Rd., Towson, MD 21204, Lower Level Meeting Room
Stop by if you're in the neighborhood!
Via Hirhurim comes Cross-Currents, a new blog featuring some heavyweight Orthodox Jews, in both the rabbinic and political spheres.
Things are starting to get interesting. While Orthodox Jewish use of the Internet as a means of social expression and communal interaction began with those on the fringe (meaning, people like me with somewhat skewed theologies, or the kollel-wives-cum-posekim over at Hashkafah.com), expect the mainstream, beginning with organizations like Torah.org to enter the conversation. I'll wager organizations like the OU or Star-K will have blogs (or blog-like pages) up by the end of 2005. Overall, this means a net increase in the quality of ideas and dialogue available, but I wonder how long before the censorship and stigmatization common to the traditional, offline Orthodox world sets in to the point where it is no longer worth it to participate in the conversation. It wouldn't surprise me if, in three years time, your kids could get suspended from school for what you write on your blog.
The latest edition of The Commentator has an opinion piece entitled, "An Evil Empire?" I clicked through, expecting a rant on the recent crash-and-burn of the Yankees, but, to my surprise, found instead an article on blogging. The author, Zev Nagel, Editor-In-Chief of the Commie, puts Jewish bloggers directly in the crosshairs, takes aim, and fires away.
Nagel's main gripe with blogs is, in his mind, their pretense towards journalism. He sees Jewish bloggers as increasingly focused on scandal, impropriety and the negative goings-on in the Jewish community, overlooking the positive, and taking an overly and openly subjective tone in their writing. While he is correct, to some extent, that there are particular Jewish blogs that are sensationalistic and overly negative, I think he's missing the greater point as to what blogging represents to the Jewish community. But let's address some of his main points.
First off, to level a claim of negativity at blogs is a bit unfair; old-school journalism outlets broke all the major scandals of recent memory (The Jewish Week or The Forward? Take your pick). The fact that blogs focused on these issues is incidental; they're providing perpsective, not information. And there are plenty of blogs that don't focus on the negative, but provide information and insights on niche areas of Jewish life that other would otherwise not know about.
Another claim made is that blogs are inherently subjective, and make no bones about it; often their authors hide their identity, enabling them to make statements no journalist would make. The assumption is that our media is wholly objective and transparent, but the truth is, it's not. Media inherently caters to an audience; The Jewish Press, The Forward, Yated Ne'eman (whose authors are often citied with first initial, last name only, to protect their identity and modesty) are completely subjective from front to back. There's little chance the The Forward will feature a column by Dr. Yael Respler (and good for them), as their audience doesn't care for it. As a society, we're at the point where we complacently accept the subjectivity of the media; Fox News has become the media outlet for the right, CNN for the left. Blogs are no more subjective, and if they are, at least they're open about it.
Putting the journalism aspects a side (I'm not even touching the "Are blogs journalism question"), I think Nagel missed the chance to analyze the role blogs are playing in the evolving social structure of the Jewish community. The fact that blogs are so easy to use lowers the bar, but the "market" so to speak, has a way of sifting through the chaff. Given time, the blogs of merit emerge, and the ones that spew filth are abandoned or degenerate into sillyness. What's left is a diversity of opinions freely available and open to conversation. With the parocialization of our schools, communities and even our shuls increasing at an alarming rate, blogs could comprise a key component in the salvation of our community.
Just some thoughts, there's more to say, but that's all for me. Check out the rest of the latest edition of the Commie, overall, it looks pretty good.
Presence is one year old today.
I'm celebrating by making a donation to Baltiblogs. Thanks to Nathan and Josiah for this unbelievable free service.
If you're not reading PaleoJudaica, well, you should be. PaleoJudaica, brought to you by Dr. Jim Davila, is one of the best resources of all things biblical, archaeological and historical relating to Judaism. Among other interesting topics covered, PaleoJudaica has been focusing on the current situation regarding the Temple Mount, namely the widespread Temple-denial among Muslims and the architectural damage inflicted on the existing structure by illicit, unsupervised excavations (the latest: the Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount is in danger of collapsing).
Recently, I emailed PaleoJudaica a question which, besides highlighting my extreme ignorance of Tanach, was answered quite comprehensively. Can't ask for much more than that!
Protocols was one of the first Jewish blogs I read consistently. Started by a handful of guys from my alma mater, Protocols provided a consistent source of news and witty banter relating to the goings-on of the Jewish world, with a focus on the Orthodox community. There is no question in my mind that, sometime last year, Protocols was, by far, the best Jewish blog on the Internet. There was no better resource for Jewish-related current events online. Period.
And then things started to change. Even before the guest bloggers started, I noticed a change that, to me, signaled the end of Protocols. Weiss started talking more about topics like blogging and journalism, less about Israel, YU or Lakewood. There were other, more subtle, signs; there was no question that things had changed. Then the guest bloggers started. I can't say I cared very much for what any of them had to say (other than Uri, who had one of the most thought-provoking posts in Protocols' history). Nothing against any of them in particular, I just don't think they were coming from the same place myself and others who had been reading Protocols for a while were coming from. The latest guest blogger, enigmatic to say the least, brought a tone to the table which turned me off even more. Protocols has morphed into a sort of collective Jewish journalism experiment; while that might be a worthy endeavour in it's own right, it's not what I read Protocols for.
With Weiss heading off to Fiddish (what does that mean? Is that a contraction of "Forward Yiddish?"), Protocols is, in my mind, finished. I've been reading Fiddish, but Weiss has changed his tone considerably; he sounds like the Jewish version of Gawker, a far cry from the irreverant yeshiva bocher days of yore. That's fine, especially if it puts food on the table; a man's got to eat, after all. But I'll miss following the Protocols of old.
The Happy Hour was a bit more than an hour, but plenty happy. Good to meet the new folks (Fool's Fate, Tuesday's Coming, who's blog is not named after the O.A.R. song) and see the rest of the old gang MB, Bre, Seadragon, Gemini, DaB and EEBmore (who is now powered by Baltiblogs). I was also happy that everyone got to meet Maphet, cause he really does an incredible job keeping Baltiblogs up and running. Rachi (Technomind) apologizes for his absence; he was off at an Evan and Jaron show.
And, of course, who could forget the now-infamous Mike the Waiter. I didn't think he was all that bad, but that blog of his is some weird stuff.
Anyways, it was good times; I'm definetly up for another one!
I have scant time these days to write up my thoughts; I have a tendency to agonize over my posts, the average taking about an hour. So I've wanted to set up a link blog (besides, all the cool kids have them), which would allow me to quickly and painlessly pass on cool stuff without the pressure of writing up a whole rig-a-ma-role about why this is important, or what I think about this, etc. The result: I can focus my posts on important stuff, like how, at 1 AM last night, I figured out how 24 will end this season (I'll tell you later).
The big question I faced when setting up a link blog was, "How do I do it?" There are any number of ways to accomplish this, and I'm quite persnickity when it comes to these things. I has to be just so. In an ideal world, I would have one tool that allows me to create posts like I'm doing now, but also has additional "post-type" interfaces that allow me to create posts that are focused around other things besides text. The current blogging appliactions are geared towards text content, not other types of content, and certainly not metadata about that content. In this case, the type of content would be a "link." For something like a link, I don't want to have to format a bunch of HTML; I simply want to click a button, fill out a few form fields (including the one where I make a witty one-line rejoinder about the link), click another button, and be done with it.
There are a few services out there that provide such an interface for links. Del.icio.us is one, and another is Furl. I chose Furl, due to its super-simple interface that allows me to categorize, rate, and even store a copy of, the linked item with just a few clicks. Furl also neatly exports your latest links via Javascript, so you can easily place them on your homepage, and provides an RSS feed for your links. It's a spectacular application.
Here's the catch - 'le crochet,' if you will: my Furl links and my blog posts are handled by completely separate applications; like I said, in a perfect world, these would all go into a single application, and I could muck around with them as I please. Unfortuneately, it's not a perfect world, so I have two seperate applications for my content. There's no easy way, for example, to integrate my links with my posts; unless MT has some sort of link blog plugin that you haven't told me about, I'm up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle.
I would still, however, like to offer you, the audience, the ability to subscribe to a combined feed of both my links and my posts. What I need is a way to combine multiple feeds into a single feed. Which, of course, is where Blogdigger Groups comes in! I created a Blogdigger Group comprised of my main feed and my links feed, and, viola, I have a single, combined feed for all my content. And that makes me happy.
A few issues; Presence is updated in Blogdigger super-speedily, thanks to the Blogdigger XML-RPC interface (What the...? - MovableType and many other blogging programs use a special protocol - XML-RPC - to alert other services when they update; adding http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2 to your MT->Weblog Configuration->Preferences->Publicity list sends a ping to Blogdigger whenever you create a new post), but the Furl feed does not, so the combined feed will have a bit of lag for the links. Not a big deal, though. I'm hoping that someone will come out with an application that makes this this type of link blogging, as well as other content- or post-types, simple and easy. I guess it's back to work for me.
In the mean time, I've added the links from link blog to the sidebar of Presence. Enjoy!
Blogger relaunched today, complete with a snazzy user interface, new top-o'-the-line templates, improved URL formatting and comments! I took a look at the new features, via to my Blogger account, and overall the improvements look good. The comments leave a bit to be desired. For one, the default setting is to allow comments only from registered users of Blogger - this means, if you don't have a Blogger account, you can't leave a comment! The default should be "comments off", or "anyone can comment." I also don't like being redirected off the page I'm viewing; much better would be a pop-up window.
The new templates are very, very slick - already some older Blogger blogs have updated with the new look (check out Sweet Rose, for example). Blogger enlisted the help of some of the finest web designers out there to come up with templates that rival the smoothness previously the trademark look of SixApart/Typepad/MT blogs. So we owe a big thank-you to the people at SixApart; by setting the style bar so high, others like Blogger had to step it up a notch as well. Nothing like good old-fashioned competition.
MovableType (best when used via Baltiblogs!) remains the most powerful option; features like categories, plugins, trackback and search are still missing from the free Blogger package. But for a basic blog, Blogger is shaping up to be a more viable option. At this point, if I had to choose between Radio Userland and Blogger, I'd go with Blogger.
The Barblog - Senator Barbara Mikulski's Typepad Blog (via TheBaltiblog).
Hopefully the Gores won't stumble upon The emerBlog. I mean, Al goes and invents the Internet, only to find his closest friends using it against him.
It's like another Emerson once said, "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."
He also said, "I hate quotations." Go figure.
Blogging has become a regular part of my life. When contemplating a particularly "blogable" topic, I often find myself composing a post in my head. I have no doubt that I will continue to blog for many years to come. The idea of a blog that is five, ten, or even twenty years old, is a bit mind-boggling. Most blogs out there are, at most, two years old; very few were around before then, and if they were, they most likely weren't blogs yet. How will our current blogging platforms handle five years of data? What about ten years? Blogging platforms notwithstanding, five years is a heck of a lot of information to sort through if you wan't to pull something up quickly (thankfully, some guy has been working on a thing called Blogdigger...).
This all points to the fact that a little pre-planning can save a whole lot of time later on. There's lots of little things that could be called good blogging practices; one I've been wanting to implement for a while has to do with the URL structure for individual entries. By default, MovableType generates a URL that looks like this:
http://presence.baltiblogs.com/archives/001045.html
The page name, 001045.html, is generated by MovableType, corresponding to the number entry of total entries on this server (which means something weird is going to happen when Baltiblogs goes over 999,999 posts). You'll notice that this URL tells you absolutely nothing about the entry it points to.
Starting today, however, with a little help from Maphet, I set MovableType to generate a new URL for each entry composed of the date of the entry and the title. A new URL looks like this:
http://presence.baltiblogs.com/2004/04/09/pesach_food_spotlight_t_abrahams_crispyos.html
Now, by just perusing the URL, I get information about the date and title of the entry. This adds just a tiny bit more information to each of my blog posts, making my wisdom just a bit more accesible for future generations.
To set up your MovableType blog to publish your archives this way, go to Weblog Config/Archiving/, and for Individual Entries, replace the blank text with:
<$MTEntryDate format="%Y/%m/%d/"$><$MTEntryTitle dirify="1"$>.html
There comes a time for each of us when we must walk into a room, approach a complete stranger and ask, "Uh, are you here for the, um, blog thing?"
For me, that time was tonight. Lucky for me, the people I approached were the right ones.
The Blog Baltimore meetup was great. The blogroll:
I'll add more tomorrow; all in all, I had a great time, it was really great to meet everybody, and I hope we can do this again some time. Thanks to Kelly and MB for organizing this!
For all you speech pathologist's out there, Noam Chomsky has a blog. Yeesh. This might be the day that blogging officially 'jumps the shark.'
So far, however, the site is providing excellent comic relief; check out the first post's comments; they are Hi-larious, with a capital "H."
drumroll please...
Maphet made the official announcement - TheBaltiblog.com is live! Check out the opening message to get an idea for the type of information the site will present.
I'm excited about this (although, I wish I had more time to devote to it). The site is meant to be open, so, please, if you're interested, send Nathan an email and get started!
According to Google, this site is your number one resource for:
religious favicons
Ironic, as I'm generally against idol worship.
In a strange reversal of protocol, I found an article on blogging in a real live paper newspaper. The cover of last week's Baltimore City Paper had a blurb at the top that read, Keeping up with the Bloggers (for the record, I actually picked up the paper copy and read it, rather than going to the computer and searching for the virtual copy. What a novelty!).
The article lists a few of the bloggers out there who are actually contributing original content (as opposed to just commenting on stuff already out there), such as how Joshua Micah Marshall's blog helped to bring the Trent Lott scandal to the fore. The article gives blogs a lot of credit, saying how the job of a reporter has changed significantly with there advent. Good stuff.
On a related note, The City Paper Blog still looks to be relatively inactive. Oh well.
I covet: Well-designed Weblogs (volume 1 and volume 2).
Here's me wishing I had the time and skill to put anything like this together.
Blogdigger search for "passion". See what they're saying.
Balitblogs has a few new members (check them out from the Baltiblogs home page. In particular, I'm looking forward to the thoughts of Technomind, a close personal friend and fellow Greenspringer. If we can get him talking, some good stuff is bound to come out.
Welcome to Baltiblogs, and thanks to Maphet for this great (and free) service.
I do believe this was my idea.
Update: This kind of thing is apparently very popular. cf. GoogObits. This one is more what I had in mind.
A note to all the Blogger bloggers out there, particularly the ones that I wish had an RSS feed:
Blogger now allows you to publish a syndication feed for your content. All you have to do is go to your Settings page, select the 'Site Feed' tab, and choose to publish a site feed. Please choose to publish full content, if you don't mind.
Wow. I know this doesn't mean much to most people, but this totatly changes the playing field in the blogging world. A very bold move by Blogger/Google.
I happened to be watching "Meet the Press" yesterday (I assure you, this is not a typical Sunday afternoon morning activity for me), and all of a sudden, Tim Russert starts talking about blogs, mostly in the context of the presidential campaign. I really don't have much to add to what Jeff Jarvis said. I do think that Roger Simon acted like a big doofus, putting down blogs, while at the same time claiming that he is a blogger, but his writing is somehow above regular blogs. All Roger does is post his U.S. News & World Report column on his page. No personal voice, no personal opinions; in other words, just the kind of stuff that I avoid the big print media because of.
Of greater interest (to me) was the attitude the journalists had towards blogs. Some were incredulous, which makes sense as they are "big media." But others acknowledged that blogs are putting the personal voice back into the public discourse. The bottom line, which none of these guys seemed to get, is that a blog is just a tool; what you do with it is what really makes the difference. To blow off blogs as just a passing fad is equivalent to treating the Internet with indifference in the arena of media, journalism, popular opinion and popular culture. In my opinion, this is short-sighted and frankly, wrong approach. The Internet does, and will, play a major role in all these areas, and blogs are the first step. The future will likely take us places we can't even imagine.
As a techie, I tend to assume others know what I'm talking about when I discuss technical topics. I requested that certain blogs I read provide RSS, without really explaining why. Part of the problem is that RSS is an acronym, which immiedietly sends most non-technical folks straight into vegetable mode.
So from now on, we're not going to talk about RSS. We're going to talk about Syndication. RSS, as far as you non-technical folks are concerned, means syndication. RSS = Syndication.
Now that we're all speaking the same language, let's revisit syndication. Previously, I explained why I, as a reader of your content, benefit from you syndicating your content. But, you might ask, what are you, the author, gaining by syndicating your content? Dave Winer, of Scripting News, has a good answer:
It's true you are being generous by publishing what you write in RSS; and it does make it easier for the reader, but you get something in return -- commitment. A person who subscribes to your weblog is saying they want a permanent relationship, they want to read everything you say. Someone who doesn't subscribe comes when they remember, or when someone else points to you. Not much commitment there.
Remember:
Make sense?
The City Paper has a blog, although it appears to be in stagnation since the beginning of December. [via SupaMB]
This has huge, huge potential. Picture it: they could offer extended information from articles in the print edition, letters to the editor that don't make the print edition, breaking news, and who knows what else. This is where it starts(although the Baltimore Sun does have RSS feeds for its content. Blech). I really hope this gets going again.
My one comment would be to ditch Blogger's free service. I'm sure the City Paper has the resoruces to set up MovableType (or something) on their server. Then they can have RSS, comments, trackback, etc., etc. That would be cool.
SoccerDad saw my post about blogs I wish had RSS, and sent me an email asking what the main advantages of RSS were. Excellent question. Here is my answer:
The biggest advantage of RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is that others can get information about your site without having to visit it. I have close to 60 blogs I follow, but I rarely visit their web (HTML) page. Most of them provide RSS feeds of their full content, which allows me to read them in a News Aggregator. I use an online News Aggregator, Bloglines; there are many desktop based ones as well. These News Aggregators read the RSS file at regular intervals, and when I open the application, I am presented with a list of updated sites. This way, I can efficiently monitor many sites, since I dont have to visit them each to see if they have been updated. What this means, practically, is that I end up reading more from sites that provide RSS, because I get their updates pushed to me. I dont have to visit their page and figure out what is new and what isnt; the News Aggregator (via RSS) takes care of this for me.
Most of the blogs I read publish their full content in their RSS feeds, which means I can read their content as well in the News Aggregator. If I want to comment, I can then click directly through (from the aggregator) to the site, because RSS provides links to the content.
For me, is the main advantage. I would love to see statistics about readership in relation to RSS; I'm convinced that more people will read a blog that has RSS because it is more easily available and trackable.
Not to mention the fact that blogs with RSS can be added to Blogdigger, an RSS Search Engine. The main point is that with RSS, your content is freely available (you can still copyright and license it with a CreativeCommons license, to protect your rights) in a format that allows other to consume it however they want. Ultimately you win because more people can get to your writing.
So what does RSS offer you? A closer connection with your readers, and a wider distribution of your content.
If anyone has any questions about RSS, leave me a comment or send me an email. If you want to sign up for a Baltiblogs account (which comes with RSS out of the box, for free), go to the sign up page, and Nathan will set you up.
Now this is just a short list, there are others that I can't pull off the top of my head. I guess that is part of the point.
Update: I'm going to add to this list as I think of other blogs that I wish had RSS. Perhaps I'll write a bit more as to why I wish they had RSS. The short answer: so I can monitor the site with a News Aggregator (notice I didn't say read, although I'd like this as well; just monitor so I know when sites have been updated).
I have trouble composing blog entries. I have always considered myself to be an able writer, but when I sit down to blog (or write, for that matter), it seems to come out disjointed and unclear (at least to me). Others have told me I am a good writer, but I still have doubts in my ability.
Part of it has to do with the nature of blogging. There is a tendency to simply spill out your thoughts, in an unorganzied fashion. Quoting sources, references and the like is a somewhat exhausting task that usually gets thrown out the window. This leads to writing that is more rantish in nature than intellectual. I suppose I may be overestimating things a bit.
Anyway, I apologize for this little bit of self-awareness. This post was not meant to inspire laudatory comments, but, of course, they are always welcome.
In case you're wondering where the future of blogging is, check out Jason Kottke's redesign. The home page is still your traditional blog style - new posts at the top, older as you go down, but the types of posts are different. Some are one-line links, others are movie reviews, book reviews, etc.
The future is a blogging client that can automatically fill in information from web services, like Amazon (I enter in that I'm writing about a particular book, the blogging client goes out and fetches the rest of the information for me). Then each post for each "post-type" is formatted in HTML according to the specific template selected. In addition, metadata information is made available in some sort of XML format on a per post basis, not only within the context of a syndication feed (I would personally prefer this to be RDF, since it was really created for this...).
So many projects to do...so little time.
I've always been interested in how blogs can be used as a medium for artistic expression. I am sure there are a few good examples out there. The best example I know of is Unbroken Glass. Unbroken Glass is a blog that chronicled the ups and downs (mostly downs) of an Orthodox Jewish ba'alat teshuvah's dating life (the name comes from the custom at a Jewish wedding for the groom to break a glass immiedietly after the ceremony, symbolizing that our happiness can never be complete without the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash/Temple in Jerusalem). She (as She is known; I thought this play on words was brilliant) would post story after heart-breaking story of how she was mistreated and how she mistreated. Each story was written with a gut-wrenching honesty and candor, in a expository style that I thought heart-felt and evocative (and quite impressive for an Israeli and non-English speaker). I read the site regularly, and the sense of despair and loneliness created by the weblog-style postings, along with the cryptic ruminations from She on her personal blog, clearly conveyed the pain and angst experienced by the author.
And then, a few weeks, perhaps a month, of nothing from She. No posts, no comments, no updates. I began to suspect, I began to hope, perhaps things have changed. And sure enough, after several posts from readers, the good news was announced.
And of course, the site would not be complete without the piece d'resistance, the broken glass. With that post, we get a sense that She is no longer alone; with the breaking of the glass, She becomes complete.
I'm interested in other ways that blogs can be used to convey artistic expression. Peninah mentions my suggestion for a blog that summarizes or links to inspirational stories of those that have recently died. Something about the temporal nature of the blog post (and really all journalism), contrasted with the conclusion of a life, strikes me as meaningful and artistic. Each day another life ends, and as time moves on, that person's life moves off the home page, into the archives...
If you have any thoughts, let me know, and if you know of any other sites that use blogs as means of artistic expression, leave them in the comments.
I'm using a tool called w.bloggar to create and post to my blog. I'd heard about w.bloggar, but I had never tried it. I can already tell I'm hooked. It is basically like Microsoft Word for your blog. All the power of a desktop application, and all the convenience of a web-based one. Did I mention spell-check, text-formatting and lots of other good stuff? Very cool. I know one person who would really dig it. I'm not sure if I can associate a post to multiple subjects, but I'll deal with that. Thanks to Nathan for recommending it.
Mesh mentions he is altering the structure of his blog, and McKormick takes him to task. I think they are both right.
I've seen this discussed a few times in the blogospehere, and time and again the answer is, "Whatever works." For some, daily thoughts are the way to go, while for others periodic, thoughtful essays work best. It doesn't really matter. For some people, blogging itself doesn't work. And that's ok too.
Some might see this as a problem, since they are going to keep checking back to Mesh's website four times a day for more words of wisdom. Luckily, RSS has the solution. Get yourself a nifty RSS News Aggregator, and subscribe to Mesh's site. In most News Aggregators, this will create a Mesh channel. It will look a lot like Microsoft Outlook or some other email reader you are familiar with.
Here is the cool part: you never have to check Mesh's site again! Your News Aggregator will monitor the site for you, and collect new entries as they appear. You can read them at your leisure, save them, delete them, or whatever. And now Mesh needn't worry about his blog's homepage disappearing - cause no one will be going there anyway (just in case, there is an easy way to fix this in MT...)!
Check out this article from PC Magazine for reviews of a few good News Aggregators. Once you've learned all about RSS, we'll talk about Blogdigger ;)
Check out this recent post on how to enable full-content in your RSS feed for MovableType. This was one of the first things I did when I got this blog. I would generally say this is a good thing to do, unless you are adamant that people come to your actual site to read your thoughts.
As an added safety precaution, consider licensing your content with a Creative Commons license, easily done from the Weblog Config/Preferences/General Settings/ screen in Movable Type.
Look for a post later today on the Blogdigger blog for a geekier and somewhat more technical perspective on this.
Writing a blog is not easy. It may look easy, but it takes a certain amount of faith. You must learn to trust yourself, and not be afraid for others to disagree with you.
For some this is easy; for others, it is not.
Every once in a while I see something in the bloging world that exemplifies how blogs are changing the world we live in. I don't mean as a new technology; the technology behind weblogs is trivial and basically irrelevant. A high-school student could whip up a decent weblog tool in a few hours. What I mean is the community that forms around the weblogs that makes it such a powerful force. Here is an excellent example.
Previuosly I linked to a post on Protocols where they review the movie Trembling before G-d. Protocols was discussing Mordechai Levovitz, who appears in the film (or the special features), and was a contemporary of theirs at YU (I was there at roughly the same time, and while I remember Mordechai, I have never met him, nor any of the Protocols guys). So far, no big deal. Then people start in with the comments, voicing their views on homosexuality, pretty much the usual fare you would expect.
And then the proverbial 'other shoe' drops.
In comes a comment from none other than Mordechai Levovitz. And you can sort of watch as the collective mouths of everyone reading the site hang open (notice that Mordechai posted at 1:32 AM, and the next response is not until 6:24 PM later that day). I have seen this a number of times, at least twice relating to homosexuality and Orthodox Judaism, where the empassioned response of someone who has actually experienced and dealt with the issues first hand, and has a real personal voice to add to the conversation, shows up and stops the show. Suddenly the pejoratives end and dialogue begins.
Take a minute to think about how revolutionary this is. When in history has an accused party been able to plead its case so plainly and openly to its accusers? When in the past have the asinine arguments of the mob been so utterly silenced by a single voice? When in history has the personal voice of the other been so present, that it makes sterotyping and generalizations about them impossible to sustain?
This is dangerous stuff, for the world in general and Judaism in particular. I'm not sure how this fits in with a concept of Halacha (my gut feeling would be that it makes not a whit of difference), but from the perspective of awareness and debate, this is ground-breaking. Sooner or later, Judaism is going to need to respond to these changes, and the response can not be to simply ignore it.
Even the President of the United States has a blog...
As maphet notes, Dean pokes a bit of fun at the Bush campaign's efforts to jump on the blog bandwagon. I think it is a step in the right direction. Despite the fact that the blog is less interactive than the Dean blog, it is a good first step. It gives us a place to refer to (after all, we can still link to things posted on the Presidental blog). It may not start the discussion on the site itself, but it will start the discussion in the blogosphere. People will link, people will comment, and the people who run the blog will, hopefully, be following those links and listening to what they have to say.
The power of the weblog comes not so much from publishing, but from the dialogue created by the published artifact.
I've been thinking about how blogging 'fits' with Judaism, considering what role blogging might play in religious discourse and experience (others have made comparisons between blogging and Rabbinic discourse, and identified the Talmud as the precursor to the web page).
One aspect which fits nicely is blogging along the Jewish calendar. Time in Judaism is not linear, but cyclical (actually, a spiral is probably a better representation, incorporating both historical and experiential components). As we progress through the year and celebrate the holidays, we are not co much commemorating events in history as we are re-experiencing them through each one's associated Mitzvot and themes, along with the shared commandments amongst all the holidays. As we spiral through Time, we revisit and relive the experiences of being Jewish.
From this perspective blogging the Jewish experience works very well. Using a blog, it is easy to follow the course of the Jewish year and get a sense of the change in experience from Moed to Moed (Moed is used in the Torah to signify a holiday; the closest literal English translation would be 'meeting'). Each year, we can revisit our discussions from the previous years, adding, expanding and enhancing them as we move through life (Cool blog feature request: a plugin that retrieves posts from previous years and associates them with current posts. This could be done using categories, and the differences between the Lunar and Solar calendars would make it tricky for Judaism).
So I think the Jewish conception of Time fits well with blogging. More on other ways blogging does or doesn't fit with Judaism in the future.
Blogdigger search for 'BloggerCon Yom Kippur'.
Looks like 2 Nays, 1 Yeah.
Hopefully next year there won't be a conflict, 'cause I'd really like to go.
In case you haven't heard, BloggerCon is coming up on October 4 and 5. BloggerCon is a conference about Blogging (not specifically the technologies involved, but the "art and science" of blogging).
I've been following the development of this conference on Scripting News, and I will have to say, the line up is impressive. I would seriously consider going up to Boston for the second day (which is free), if it weren't the day before Yom Kippur. It's too bad, as I would enjoy this, both as a blogger and as a developer. There holding an infrastructure session on Day 2 that would be perfect for Blogdigger.
A few years ago, I was reading an article on something or other on Yahoo. By chance, I happened to go into the messages section, and found a conversation going on about the article. Then I noticed something amazing: the guy who the article was written about was commenting on the message board! In real time, without anyone censoring or rewording what he had to say, the subject of the article was telling his own version of the story!
This changed the way I looked at the Internet. When the Internet started out, it naturally manifested itself as an extension of the media world that we know from newspapers, magazines and television. As time went on tools and such became available and things started to change. The web started to live, with people interacting, the power of communication enabling the real story to be told.
A bit later I discovered weblogs, and I was hooked. What they'll be talking about at BloggerCon is this kind of stuff: how the world we know if going to change because of the Internet (the real dot.com revolution). How the opening of the Web, the channels of communication, is going to change the way we get news, how we learn about the world, how we interact with those with similar interests. And the fun is just beginning.
So if you happen to be in or around Boston next week, drop by BloggerCon (and let me know what you learn!). I'm going to try and catch as much of it on video as I can. Feel free to hype Blogdigger as well!
[Via the Blogdigger referrer logs:] PC Magazine has an article reviewing RSS Readers, dated October 1, 2003.
If you're not familiar with RSS readers (also known as News Aggregators) or RSS, check out the article. RSS is a seperate technology from blogs, but it is blogs that have made RSS so popular. If you read more than one blog regularly, check out one of the RSS readers from the article. I guaruntee it will change the way you view and use the Web (Dad, I am talking to you).
The last page lists a bunch of places to find feeds, and they have included Blogdigger! I'm not sure if this is going into the print version or not, but if it is...I better 'batten down the hatches,' if you catch my meaning.
Thanks PC Magazine!
Tom Coates of PlasticBag.org comments on what weblogs represent. Check out the whole article, but in particular here is an excerpt which sums things up nicely:
This flexibility of publishing creates a fluid and living form of self-representation, the 'homepage (as a place)' has become the 'weblog (as a person)' that can articulate a voice. And when there are a multiplicity of voices in space, then the possibility arises of conversations. And where there is conversation there is the sharing of information. And conversation about what? Well everything from music and movies and animation and medical information. Weblogs are becoming the bridge between the individual and the community in cyberspace - a place where one can self-publicise and self-describe but also learn, debate and engage in community.
Good stuff. (Note: the name of this blog has a few different intended meanings, one of which is hinted at in the above excerpt). I would recommed reading the rest of the article, if you have an interest in blogs, or like to read about cultural trends, specifically in how they relate to the Internet.