Made a pitch to my IMC staff today to start implementing Web logs as ways to not only create content but push it to the people that want/need it. I swear when I start talking about this stuff and explaining the “big picture” that is Web logs and RSS, I even amaze myself with the potentials that come up. And the best part is that none of it is overwhelmingly difficult. Just step by step, and the library is the first.
I’m going to mock up a site for them that follows the lead of Tim at Buckman in terms of setting up simple Web logs that feed into a more complex design for a home page. They want one where the book club does reviews, another for adding relevant links that can be sorted into various departments based on discipline, and perhaps another for news. Being able to “file” all of these infobits into relevant collections really caught their fancy. (And I think they even got the idea of having just, let’s say Science links eventually feeding to the Science Department homepage. The whole concept of being able to create one piece of content that is categorized and stored and at the same time for made available for easy consumption by many is just very cool.)
David and others have been writing lately about seeing the pieces coming together:
“I’m becoming more convinced that our ultimate content management solution at my work will include a significant weblog component with integration performed by aggregators and rss.”
When he says it, it somehow validates what my feeble left brain only marginally grasps. But this is the best part isn’t it? Watching each other “get it” and pushing on down the road.
As much fun as Key West was, it’s good to be back…
I am struck by how much hope and optimism among Ed-Bloggers that blogs and RSS technology will allow powerful new educational communities to emerge.
I share this excitement, but yet I am also very much aware that we have a long way to go. In particular, I think that we need new tools to promote interactivity.
The basic problem: On the one hand, the venues that allow open and free discussion (individual blogs) use a cumbersome commenting system that isn’t designed in a way that promotes or places a high value on intensive interaction. On the other hand, the place where the best discussions take place (inter-blog discussions carried out when one blogger references another and makes comments) are not at all inclusive because the bloggers act as strict “gatekeepers”.
So, the places that support free discussion (individual blogs) aren’t set up to promote it in any strong sense and the place where the best discussion takes place (inter-blog discussion) does not support free, inclusive discussion.
My sense is this: We need creative, powerful, and simple tools to promote intensive, extended interaction. Otherwise, the optimism that so many folks have about communities within blogspace is going to prove to be tragically optimistic.
I think we also need to come to grips with the “ego-boo” factor: not many bloggers seem interested in contributing comments to others’ blogs. I think that competition to have the most traffic at one’s own blog gets in the way of our making the most of the opportunities the existing technologies provide. If we can get past this and develop new interaction-centered technologies, then I think that the optimism that so many folks have will prove to be justified!