What is a blog?
Monday, July 23, 2007
Months ago I read a fascinating paper by Danah Boyd that provides an insightful perspective on the complex question of "What is a blog?" As a term that seemed to have lost its meaning before most people had found it, "blog" has quickly outgrown the limited confines of its early definition. Boyd argues that we've fallen into a trap by attempting to define blogs based on their various genres of content, rather than by a set of practices, i.e. focusing on the "what" instead of the "how." This leads us to use familiar, yet inadequate, frames like diaries and journalism as metaphors for a wholly original means of communication.
I completely agree with Boyd's thesis, and would like to add that the conception of a blog as a destination is also outmoded. Traditionally, blogs, like all websites, have been thought of as online destinations - a unique place where an audience gathers to receive the content created and/or collected by the blog's creator, as illustrated below (please forgive the over-simplification of the illustrations - sometimes quick is better than perfect):
With the promulgation of publishing tools that enable creators to repackage their content and ship it out in generic containers like RSS feeds, the notion of a blog as a virtual dock, awaiting its visitors, is quickly losing relevance. I propose that you think of my blog simply as a unique curated stream of content. My blog needn't be identified by its URL address, but rather by its collection of thoughts and links; a farrago of ideas and experiences drawn from the hundreds of sources, both virtual and real-world, which I encounter every day. Blogs should be conceived of as waves of information flowing from an original source out to a community of subscribers, as illustrated below (see qualification above):
At lunch this afternoon, Noah Brier said that blogs can be like The Simpsons in their evolution: poorly animated and lacking a charismatic lead in the early years, and requiring some time and exploration in order to eventually achieve their full potential. Also, like The Simpsons, the plot-lines may vary while the quirky characters stay consistent. With this in mind, I invite you to join my community of subscribers by adding my RSS Feed to your feed reader of choice. Have a little patience, and hopefully I'll prove to be a sufficiently quirky character for you to follow.
I completely agree with Boyd's thesis, and would like to add that the conception of a blog as a destination is also outmoded. Traditionally, blogs, like all websites, have been thought of as online destinations - a unique place where an audience gathers to receive the content created and/or collected by the blog's creator, as illustrated below (please forgive the over-simplification of the illustrations - sometimes quick is better than perfect):
With the promulgation of publishing tools that enable creators to repackage their content and ship it out in generic containers like RSS feeds, the notion of a blog as a virtual dock, awaiting its visitors, is quickly losing relevance. I propose that you think of my blog simply as a unique curated stream of content. My blog needn't be identified by its URL address, but rather by its collection of thoughts and links; a farrago of ideas and experiences drawn from the hundreds of sources, both virtual and real-world, which I encounter every day. Blogs should be conceived of as waves of information flowing from an original source out to a community of subscribers, as illustrated below (see qualification above):
At lunch this afternoon, Noah Brier said that blogs can be like The Simpsons in their evolution: poorly animated and lacking a charismatic lead in the early years, and requiring some time and exploration in order to eventually achieve their full potential. Also, like The Simpsons, the plot-lines may vary while the quirky characters stay consistent. With this in mind, I invite you to join my community of subscribers by adding my RSS Feed to your feed reader of choice. Have a little patience, and hopefully I'll prove to be a sufficiently quirky character for you to follow.
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