Miércoles, 31 de Julio de 2002

Oh boy, more logging about logging: A formal definition of "weblog" is a first step towards understanding what the medium can achieve and where it can go. This definition can be found in Meg Hourihan's essay, "What We're Doing When We Blog," here presented and introduced by Dave Winer himself: "[Ms. Hourihan] explains what a weblog is, from a technical standpoint, better than I had seen it explained before... As one of the pioneers and leading writers in the weblog world, her view of weblogs is uniquely valuable." Indeed. Her definition of weblogs may put to rest those questions about their purpose: When we talk about weblogs, we're talking about a way of organizing information, independent of its topic. What we write about does not define us as bloggers; it's how we write about it (frequently, ad nauseam, peppered with links). So, with no ill will to Mr. McLuhan, the weblog is the medium, not the message. As Ms. Hourihan concludes, "Weblogs simply provide the framework, as haiku imposes order on words." It is the weblogger, with their intelect and curiosity, who provides the ore and shapes it into unique forms through the weblog forge. And yes, some smithies might end up producing more slag than gold, but such is the nature of the trade. 9:40:53 PM    comment []

Kenneth (whose My Stupid Mind! Stupid! Stupid! displays great nuance for someone so self-deprecating) wonders what the whole purpose of a weblog is. Is it a journal? A community of individual sites à la the crap served up on GeoCities or Tripod? ("Hi, I'm Jeffrey, and welcome to my homepage. I'm 12 and love fishing...") Or is the blog concept simply an unilateral discussion forum, with the discussion being anything but interactive? A Hyde Park soapbox to say... what? I guess whatever catches the fancy of the blogger. I rant, and you comment if you feel like it? Being unable to pass a chance to display my ability to bullshit my way through any topic, lectured thusly: So. "The blog concept seems amorphous." Yes, it is. Think of it as a journal that's been left where everyone can read it but you hold the only pen. Do with your journal whatever you want: Use it as a clip-book where you keep links to whatever catches your fancy. Post a new joke a day. Turn it into a dream diary. Pontificate from it about how much weblogs are like those shitty pages in GeoCities. Just remember, whatever you post here, if it remains on-line long enough, will haunt you when Google starts returning it on a Web search. Damn lithium hasn't kicked in yet. Kenneth's quote has been edited to resemble house style. This scribbler's quote has been kept intact to show how full of it he is. 2:12:45 AM    comment []