Blog stuff: April 2004 Archives

Working it out

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A blog of a Catholic father and husband, struggling to work out his salvation with fear and trembling in the People's Republic of Massachusetts.
Link via Dom Bettinelli

just noticed

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I've been bumped up to marauding marsupial from adorable rodent! thanks to all my fans.

more on bloggercon

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Velveteen Rabbi posts a good summary of the first part of the session on religion and blogging. If only I hadn't lost my notes!

Another mommy blog!

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Musings on Muses from Flambeaux's lively wife!

Raw notes from Bloggercon 2

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Hope you can make sense of it!
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Listening now to a session for library type stuff, a gentleman who does a blog for a science research kind of place made the statement that ‘scientists don’t blog’ – got me thinking about the scientists I know in St Blogs and how they do blog but not necessarily on science. Maybe that has to do with things like patentability, caution, publishing prematurely ?

Story telling as value exchange (per a futurist)

Librarians talking about how the internet can add to or subtract from the physical space.
Blogwithoutalibrary.net
Content management, how to scale. Just in time information. How to access the information – taxonomy, indexing, categories,
What is the diff between a webpage and a weblog? Dynamism?
Tone – blogs more informal, chatty, friendly - personalities
Pages more formal and structured – impersonal
Find your voice – filtering data into info?
Fletcher School of law and Diplomacy at Tufts has a blog.
Trust factor important
Information gatekeepers
Sharing spaces
How do students own and manipulate information? Incremental changes vs state change?
Community of interest around ideas.
Remaking of social conventions around passions – new infrastructure for self-organizing communities. Knowledge sharing.
What are the differences between blog communities and email based communities – forums, etc. Fixed topic vs moving targets.
Email based communities vs weblog based communities
Weblogs are less susceptible to peer pressure and personalities in the conversation
Filtering and self-filtering is less in blogs – the ‘expert’ syndrome is less of an impediment to expression of ideas.
A blog is a bit of private property – there is a different dynamic – politeness etc?
How do we index data, retrieve it, categorize it. Reputation networks taking the place of top-down authority. (kind of like the volunteer book reviews on amazon). Network effects and power laws, leading to breakdown of democracy?
Citation linking? Authority is more fluid. Knowledge and authority linkage. Popularity does not equal authority. How expert is the expert? How expert is the user? Critical thinking is key.
Blogs adversely affected google (ratings by popularity ) because of all the linkages found.
Blog as a tool for the self to keep information organized, especially the recurring needs information.
Weblog based book clubs etc.

technology again

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I still haven't figured out what the problem is with my hardwired connection, but I am sitting in the Nashua NH Borders using the wi-fi connection with no trouble.
The next post will be a cut and paste of my notes from the librarian session at bloggercon 2.

some very random notes

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strictly from memory!
The religion/blog session was interesting and I wish that I had my notes. The session was webcast and I hope that there will be some kind of archive published with at least the IRC notes/links and the stuff that made it into recording. I checked the site, and so far nothing yet, but I think it probably is just that the principal organizers are still doing other stuff.
An interesting observation from a Jewish blogger was that blogging is very much like Talmudic study. My take on this statement was that bloggers, link Talmud scholars, work by taking a bit of verbiage, linking it here, there, bringing in all kinds of potentially relevant stuff, trying to make sense and to rediscover that sense as times change.
Others brought out an idea that the blogosphere is very much like the concept (quotation cited to Martin Luthere, I have no idea if this is real) "Every man his own priest". Very Protestant (American style, Congregational or whatnot) in that there is not a hierarchy. There were questions about how/why blogs in religious areas act to question authority or foment dissent.
I pointed out that most Catholic blogs are not about questioning authority or trying to set up one's own church, but rather about trying to apply the existing authority/hierarchy/belief system to everyday life.
There were also conversations about blogs as spiritual journals, inspirational readings, and if this replaces or supplements more traditional forms of religious or spiritual practice.
I am pretty sure I was the only Catholic in the room. There were Atheists, Wiccans, at least one Jewish gentleman, a Buddhist, and I think some Muslims and assorted others. I didn't hear anyone identify themself as Evangelical or generic Christian.
There were a few who were offended or upset by the term 'godblog' - and there was some discussion about definitions. There was also some conversation about Truth (with a capital 'T') and conviction and how there are many bloggers (particularly in the religious blogosphere) who really do believe that we have possession of an absolute truth and how that truth informs all that we do.
I wanted to talk a lttle bit more about the place of authority but I kept my mouth shut, as there was a LOT going on - all at the same time. It was an ADD environment, with the conversation taking place verbally and through IRC and the IRC person also pulling down links to various sites and posting them in real time to the projection screen. Someone would mention a site, and bingo, there it would be. One person asked if there were any blogs run by pastors or persons on staff on behalf of a church, and I popped up with Catholic Ragemonkey as one I know personally. (It probably should have been Dappled Things - oh well!) I was also able to supply a link to a blog run by a Calvinist (of the Puritan type Reformed Church) for someone who asked. There was also discussion of Little Green Footballs as being emblematic of something, but alas I don't remember what!
Anyhow, if more stuff pops into my brain, or if MS Word mysteriously restores my missing two pages of note, I will post further. And if I get my laptop reconnected to the net, I will cut and paste my raw notes on the library session. I am afraid that the International session is lost and gone forever unless the written notes reappear. I know that it was interesting and that there were a lot of good thoughts drifting around - but it was also right after lunch and the data was going straight from my eyes and ears to my fingers without staying overly long in my brain.

bloggercon woes, part 2

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Some days it just doesn't pay to trust any technology more sophisticated than paper and pencil. I have already blogged a bit about how I was never able to access the wireless network down there, but I at least took notes on the laptop so I wouldn't feel too stupid about having lugged it down there. My thought was that I would just cut and paste my notes to the blog. Well, I haven't been able to get online with my laptop since I got home, so there goes that great idea. So I printed out hard copy of my notes, only to discover that I am missing the last half of what I entered. Great. My notes end with the stuff about library blogs, a topic which I personally found very interesting, but not the sum total of what I wanted to share with you all. I also lost URLs for links that I had typed in. I'm getting very frustrated with this whole thing.
Did I tell you that I got lost not once but twice on my way down to Cambridge? I had been looking for a park and ride and the only thing that was suggested was parking at the Alewife station for the MBTA Red Line and taking it in to Harvard Square. Turns out that Alewife is actually pretty close. The directions for getting to Alewife and getting to Harvard Square were almost identical in terms of getting off the interstated and driving around in circles. It took me almost as long to find Alewife (going around and around and asking three different people for directions ) as it did for me to drive to the MA state line from my home in NH. Then, when I got off the subway, I walked 2 blocks in the wrong direction before getting properly oriented. Dyslexia. Fun.

I will try to blog a bit about bloggercon later, after I figure out how to beat my laptop into submission. I will say that I was upset that I could not log onto the wireless network at the con, and that there was no one there who could help me to trouble shoot. Now that I'm home, I can't log on to my high-speed access and I think that I may have screwed something up in trying to get logged on down at bloggercon. I am posting from another computer in my house, but my notes are all (of course) on my laptop.
As far as I can tell, I was the only one there from St. Blog's.

Blog changes

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In honor of Easter, I have changed the predominant color to Gold (or as close as I could get).

to some friends still on blogspot

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like my domestic church, the inn at the end of the world, video meliora.
I have not been able to access your sites for over 24 hours now. Blogger seems to be playing some kind of game. Or have your URLs suddenly been changed?
update: I figured out the problem. Apparantly the www prefix was messing things up. I've edited my blogroll and so far, so good.

tomorrow

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I will be off to Boston to attend bloggercon 2. Anyone who is going, let me know! I am not terribly fond of Boston traffic or parking.....

I'm adding a link

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Reformed Musings
is written by a dear sister in Christ who I know through the Association of Christian Childbirth Professionals. You will notice that she is definitely not Catholic in her outlook or theology. However, we have in common our love of Jesus, and a whole host of other ideas. Please bop over to her site and say hello.

secular blogger's con

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Jeff at The Revealer passed on information about what looks like a marvelous opportunity - right in my (figuratively speaking) back yard.
I just registered to attend. I would be interested in meeting up with any Boston area bloggers who might be around on April 17. I may have my 15 y/o daughter in tow, as my husband will be on his way to the NAB national meeting that weekend.

blog roll update

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Christus Medicus, miserere nobis
a blog by a medical student.

eutychus fell is a convert blog.
Links via the Curt Jester.

must be going around the parish

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Amy Welborn has some great news.

So does Bill White.
Congrats! and may Blessed Gianna, and all the saints and angels, watch over you!

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About this Archive

This page is a archive of entries in the Blog stuff category from April 2004.

Blog stuff: March 2004 is the previous archive.

Blog stuff: May 2004 is the next archive.

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