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As Lilia picks up a comment by Denham Grey on blogs from KnowledgeBoard, Sebastian Fiedler adds his responses to those points of comment:
Denham Grey: At times I think k-logs are hyped by a few evangelists (converted bloggers). If you look closely at the record, things are not all that rosy:

  • reciprocity is very poor – bloggers tend to say this does not matter, it is
    more important to be heard, to ‘voice’ or ‘push’ and publish your view
  • ‘community’ happens from individual enclaves – bloggers retreat to their
    spaces to reply, the common ‘space’ is then fractal, distributed and walled – it
    lacks cohesion
  • the ‘record’ is fragmented even categories and RSS feeds do not produce a coherent easily readable discourse
  • empathy is low – most times it is about branding and spreading my memes
    Sebastian reacts: If you want to apply Weblogging and personal Webpublishing as a tool for “organizational change” you might want to choose “groups” or “communities” as your unit of analysis. Like Lilia I tend to focus on the (networked) individual, but then my background is psychology and education… so what else would you expect? 😉 Here are my initial comments on Denham’s points of critique:
  • reciprocity… Actually, I don’t think I fully understand what Denham is trying to say here. People do not only engage in personal Webpublishing and Weblogging to be heard. They also use it as a “listening” and “recording” device. One of the most interesting aspects of personal Webpublishing to me is the fact that I don’t have to “push” at all. I can quietly begin publishing (talking) to myself and simply wait and see what happens. This of course requires patience and the believe that holding a conversation with yourself is fun and interesting regardless of an “emergent” audience. By taking this personal conversation in the open I open opportunities for chance “meetings” that can develop in more stable relationships with growing reciprocity.
  • ‘community’ happens from individual enclaves… And how is this
    different in other parts of life? “Commom spaces” in modern societies tend to be “fractal”, “distributed”, and occassionally “walled”. Why should I even expect
    cohesion? I would say that cohesion needs to be constructed and imposed by the individual.
  • the ‘record’ is fragmented… So are all of my records. Do you hold
    “a coherent easily readable discourse” with anyone – including yourself – over
    time? If you go about any personal learning project do all the books, websites,
    conversations, etc. quickly add up to “a coherent easily readable discourse”?
  • …most times it is about branding and spreading my memes. That is largely a matter of personal style, your interests, and intentions. On
    Seblogging I have chosen to explicitly focus on other people’s voices. This
    project is certainly NOT only about spreading MY memes… Tell me about your
    purposes first and then let’s talk about the pros and cons of personal Webpublishing.