Tag: blog

Why visit this site?

Why visit this site (or any other specific site)? I read a post by Kevin Kelly that dealt with a related topic that I found quite interesting. Kelly begins with the topic of digital copies and asks the question why should we pay for anything we can get for free. I consider the copyright issue a great deal and the issues Kelly raised in identifying motivation for payment certainly apply.

The post did cause me to think about a somewhat different topic – with so much recycling of ideas/news/etc. among bloggers (as is the case with this reactive post), why visit the site of any given blogger?

Consider some items from Kelly’s list:

  • Immediacy – do you need the resource first
  • Personalization – is the resource suited to your needs
  • Authenticity – is it the real thing
  • Patronage – the desire to support a particular individual (the author)
  • Findability – free does not always imply easy access

It is pretty easy to repurpose this list to address various topics that involve “version choice”. With Kelly’s focus, an example might ask do you watch the original broadcast of a television program, watch it via TIVO, buy the end of season compilation at Best Buy, or look for a copy online? You can work your way through Kelly’s list to see how the issues apply to the decisions you make.

The same questions might be asked with regard to the bloggers we follow. We do make choices and some would argue we would be better off if we were more discriminating. Some bloggers offer the original ideas. Some we trust. Some we follow because others do. Some we follow out of loyalty.

There are probably some other issues that apply with blogs. One core idea in online social environments amounts to taking advantage of differences in the perspective/experience of others with whom you share a common interest. The “common interests” becomes the reason for commitment. That individual offers content/insights likely to be useful to you (because of core interests) but that you have not had the time to locate. Maybe this is just another variation of what Kelly calls “personalization”.

There is a downside to “common interests”. When does the input from an individual with common interests encourage deeper thinking or useful insight and when does it simply confirm biases? I think those who think of their blogs as a certain type of educational tool might offer a different approach. Can we locate the individuals who challenge us in addition to offering information to consider? Can we locate the individuals who have a way of explaining how they think and not just what they think? That may be the value added to the copy.

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Comments and CommentPress

I have followed the blog if:book for some time. I have another life as a writer and the ideas about publishing expressed in the blog interest me. BTW – interest is not the same as agree.

If:book has supported the development of a theme for WordPress and it now appears the capability of the original theme have been expanded. I was aware of CommentPress before, but it seems from the If:book post that CommentPress has been transformed into a plugin for WordPress.

Here is what this change is to enable. This is WordPress blog. It uses a theme (Blog.txt) developed by Scott Wallick that controls the general appearance of the site and several plugins (e.g. Add Meta Tags) that add specific features (e.g., the tag cloud you see in the right margin). CommentPress as a theme offers the opportunity to add comments to a post on a paragraph by paragraph basis. A “button” in the margin opens a dialog box allowing comments to be added and read. WordPress is a flexible tool allowing both blog posts and also pages. The paragraph by paragraph commentary (annotation is one phrase in:Book uses to describe the opportunity) probably makes the most sense with the pages.

I think the concept with the plugin is to allow blog hosts to control when the commenting is allowed. You may not want to offer commenting for most posts, but you may want to offer a specific document and invite detailed and paragraph specific comments. This would represent a nice technique for inviting interaction and I hope I have interpreted the if:book post accurately.

I have had issues with comments. It is not the negative comments that concern me, it is the irrelevant spam that you risk spreading if you host a blog using a popular blog engine such as WordPress. It is possible to seriously limit spam, but in doing so you also make it inconvenient for anyone to add comments to your site. I assume that CommentPress would take advantage of the spam inhibitors that can be applied. This would seem to be the case with a theme, but I am less certain about how the plugin will work. I think the strategy here is to let the more adventurous give the technique a go and see what happens.

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Maybe blogs were just the next, not the best thing

We are on the road somewhere in southern North Dakota making the long car trip to Iowa to visit my mom. I have a new tech toy to play with on the trip. The rest of my family are power cell phone users and they purchased a multiple-purpose cell phone for me in the hopes I would participate. After a year on months in which my minutes accumulated to less than an hour, I have been cut off. I now have a simple cell phone (no Internet), but I received a “wifi stick” for my laptop in trade. I prefer email and I have Internet access I can use from nearly anywhere. This was a good investment.I just read Will Richardson’s recent post lamenting the lack of group focus among educational bloggers. It is a valid observation and I would agree. Blogs are such flexible tools and the variety of purposes blogs serve is one source of the difficulty. My analysis of my own behavior is that I use this blog to store bits and pieces of info I pick up (hence the title of this blog). I do this for myself, but share if anyone else is interested. I read a few blogs written by others, but I don’t see myself participating in a group enterprise.Consider how blogs differ from other “tools”. Perhaps there are too many access points. With a wiki or a listserv, everything cycles through a common point even when different topics are addressed. With blogs there is no leader, no one to initiate or integrate for others, and an independence that encourages self absorption. You can use a blog like a listserv, but different tools afford different opportunities. Blogs are personalized publishing tools. Other tools are probably better if a group focus in desired.

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PEW Report on Adolescent Use of Social Media

The PEW Internet and American Life Project has released another report on Teens and Social Media. The report released just a few days ago is based on data collected in 2006 and allows comparisons with similar surveys from 2004 and 2000.The report indicates:

  • 93% of adolescents report using the Internet (hence the data reported on “Internet users” need be adjusted downward only a bit to reflect general adolescent use)
  • 64% of 12-17 year olds participate in at least one content-creation activity
  • 39% share artistic creations (including photos)
  • 28% have created a blog
  • 27% maintain a personal web page
  • 55% have a profile on a social networking site (mostly MySpace)

In general, participation has increased since 2004 (see chart)

2006 PEW data

One of the points the authors argue is that content creation is often a way to start conversations. Teens report a high proportion of their media receive comments.With the exception of video, girls are more likely to produce content (e.g., 35% vs. 20% for blogs).There is some evidence of an awareness of safety issues. For example, uploaded photos are offered to only some potential observers (restricted access) most or some of the time (77%).

There are data on contact with strangers in a separate document describing the survey and offering question by question data. If PEW keeps to past practices, there will be a later report on online safety.

I found some of the data in available in the description of the questionnaire to be of interest. Here are a couple of items not included in the report.

Location of access:

I find this variable of interest partly in reaction to filtering that often occurs in schools. If students access from locations outside of schools, it might be argued that filtering access within schools ignores issues students are likely to encounter elsewhere.

Access at any time:

  • 89% from home
  • 75% from school
  • 70% from home of friend or relative
  • 50% from library

It seems strange that 25% claim not to access the Internet at school (this % has increased since 2004 – school is less likely to be an access point).

Location of most frequent access:

  • 77% from home
  • 18% from school

I wish someone was doing general studies of school technology use like Becker did a decade ago. The PEW data are very general and leave many of my questions unanswered.Issues raised the data cannot answer:Very little really provided about educational use.

  • Was access from school related to a class assignment or is it more likely the school provides access used to meet nonacademic needs?
  • How frequently was access from home related to a school task?
  • What proportion of the content creation was related to school assignments/activities?

It is reported that blog activity is quite common.

  • What is the post frequency?
  • How frequently is blog activity located within a social networking site.
  • What topics do adolescents address in their blogs?

Lenhart, Amanda, Mary Madden, Alexandra Rankin Macgill, and Aaron Smith. “Teens and Social Media.” PEW Internet & American Life Project.

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The disintegration of the long tail?

Alex Iskold has added an interesting post to the Read/WriteWeb blog. The comments concern the motivation of bloggers, the concept of the long tail (Chris Anderson), and whether those in the long tail will continue to be motivated to contribute.

The “long tail” is the concept that while a few resources (books, blogs, songs) get a great deal of attention the total attention to the many resources in the long tail (the resources receiving much less attention) will be greater. Companies such as Amazon have thrived on the long tail (your brick and morter bookstore will have the best sellers, but you can find anything at Amazon).

Iskold proposes that the value of the long tail makes sense from the position of those offering access (e.g., Amazon), but perhaps not from the position of those “selling” only a few books or songs. He applies this analysis to the blogosphere and speculates that less frequently visited bloggers will become discouraged. Part of the analysis explains why he feels some bloggers receive so much attention and some of the analysis is devoted to his long term concerns.

The title of his post (No money in the long tail) may reflect a flaw in his analysis. Those with specific foci who receive limited attention are probably not expecting to monetize their blogs. Of course, without these many focused and low volume sites the companies that are supported by blogging (the aggregators, search services, and hosts) would suffer.

The Iskold post offers some interesting comments on blogging and the post links to some additional interesting material on individual motives for blogging. I am thinking this is less of an issue for those who blog on educational topics than for those emphasizing other areas. Some of the most prominent educational bloggers monetize their commitment to blogging by attracting attention resulting in speaking and consultation fees. These individuals are likely to continue their frequent posts and “no payment writing” as long as their services continue to be in demand. Other bloggers might be motivated by an immediate context for their blog (e.g., their class) and be less concerned that a more general audience make use of the resources they provide.

Finally, there are personal professional (or other) motives for blogging. I use this blog partly as a way to keep track of useful ideas and resources I encounter. It does take some additional effort to write a more publicly presentable version of this information, but the total effort expended is not motivated by whether or not anyone else reads the material. Hence, I can tolerate a lower readership because the size of my audience is not the sole reason for taking the time to blog.

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What if blogs only tell us what we want to hear?

There is considerable literature one can access that bears on the question of how and if we might benefit from web 2.0 tools (excuse this phrase if it annoys you – this is not about 1.0 vs. 2.0).On one side, there is Cult of the Amateur arguing that shared free knowledge is likely to be flawed. On the other side, you have Wikinomics; Small Pieces, Loosely Joined; Smart Mobs; parts of The World is Flat; etc. arguing that online information sharing is better than sliced bread, fresh bagels, or chocolate. I bounce between being depressed and elated depending on which book I happen to be reading.While I do not really feel I am closer to the answers I am looking for, I keep buying these books.My most recent trip to Barnes and Noble led to the purchase of Infotopia. The author examines the question of how (and if, I guess) many minds produce knowledge. Many minds in this case do not necessarily have to express their wisdom via a computer and the Internet, but blogs, wikis, online prediction markets, etc. figure prominately in the author’s agenda. The book draws on what seems a literature from social psychology or management investigating “deliberating” groups and the question of whether a group will be able to surface and integrate collective knowledge.Many times it appears that deliberation – open sharing and discussion – does more harm than good. I did pick up a couple of useful phrases. At least, if I don’t have answers it may now appear like I understand the problems. Cocoon and echo chamber – we tend to read those who think like us and we tend to repeat similar messages in follow-up interactions. I used to call this the “CNN vs. Fox effect”, but now I have some new terms. As applied to blogs, the blogs we select to inform us may tell us what we want to hear rather than challenging us to consider different perspectices. The result is a radicalization of beliefs and values and possibly the perception that we have become educated. It is true, I have not read a pro NCLB blog lately.I have been following a different kind of approach that on the surface may offer a remedy. The Economist has been sponsoring debates for the benefit of readers for some time (at least as I understand the background). The publication is now attempting to adapt this tradition to the Internet with some twists (viewer voting). The readers were even allowed to vote on questions and the questions selected for “debate” involve technology and education. After reading Infotopia, this makes some sense. No matter what positions readers bring to process, they will encounter reasoned argument on both sides of an issue. This is worth following (note – registration is free).

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WordPress Tutorial

Learning to operate open source software can sometimes be difficult because the software may not come with tutorials and you can’t always run to Barnes and Noble (Borders, Chapters, etc.) to buy a manual.

Here is a useful WordPress tutorial (the blog software I am using) you may find helpful. The first segment explains a unique method of installation that probably will not apply to your situation, but the other segments (see tabs across top of the page) are informative.

The tutorials are based on an educational context (provided by Henrico tech staff) so the application scenarios that form the basis for the tutorials are relevant.

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