... and me.
No one told me, until barry mentioned it just today, that the UofTBulletin (pdf) has a nice article on blogs that mentions me. You think they'd have contacted me or something, but no, I guess enough of my life is on the blog that contacting wouldn't make any difference.
Here's the text:
Net News
Getting
Blogged Down
By Audrey Fong
IN CASE YOU HAVENíT HEARD ABOUT THE ìHOTTESTî THING IN THE EVERchanging
Internet subculture, a significant number of Internet users
are jumping on the blog bandwagon.
Although some portray blogging ó a daily web log or journal ó as
a faddish digital phenomena, others believe it is here to stay. In fact
some academics like Jason Nolan, lecturer and scholar-in-residence at
the Knowledge Media Design Institute, have been blogging for years.
Others, such as Professor Henry Farrell of political science at U of T at
Scarborough, are fairly new to blogging. ìBlogs are pretty much what
you make of them. They are clearly flexible in their interpretation,
manifestation, implementation and distribution,î Nolan said.
Nolan, who views keeping a daily web log as an empowering communications
medium, has been doing it for over two years. ìBack in
1994, the World Wide Web was going to give everyone access to their
own web page and the potential for them to have an online presence,î
he said. ìIíve seen how hard it is for the average individual to negotiate
all the aspects of maintaining a web presence, even without considering
the difficulty of conceptualizing and organizing content.î
Many academics see blogs as potentially useful teaching, learning and
research tools. They can be used to update course information and
provide journaling and/or research tools for students as well as the
ability for researchers to share information with colleagues. ìBlogs are a
valuable sounding board for ideas at their early stages,î Nolan added.
Farrell also sees many advantages of blogging for academics. ìItís a
medium that allows one to give forth on issues of interest without having
to write academic articles or go through the pain of getting op-eds
accepted by papers with wide circulation.î Although Farrell sees blogging
as a congenial way to mix scholarship and his interest in current
affairs, literature and various other topics, he hopes to incorporate a
blogging component into a course next spring.
Nolan is currently researching problems with blogs ó whoís
actually doing it and identifying the cultural biases of blog technologies.
To view Nolanís blog, click on http://jasonnolan.net/; Farrellís blog is at
http://www.henryfarrell.net/blog/.
so, lemmie get this straight. They quoted you in a sort of conversational tone giving the complete impression that you had talked to them, when in fact they had lifted all of that from your blog.
Where's the ownership in all of this. Shouldn't they have quoted "Jason Nolan's blog had this to say" or something along those lines? I mean really, that's too screwed up.
It also suggests that they might not have felt obligated to tell you since you are at UofT, and as such they own you. mwha ha ha ha. Later, B.
Posted by: Bernie Hogan at October 25, 2003 12:06 AMEither that or aliens snuck in at night and erased any memory of the discussion.
Posted by: jason at October 25, 2003 08:27 AMWhich is precisely WHY we need to question everything we read!
Posted by: Julia at October 25, 2003 11:42 AMFound it!!! I did the interview last JUNE! No wonder I didn't remember... here's what I said originally...
A: Prof. Nolan:
I'm currently researching for a brief Bulletin article on blogging and
had wondered if you had a moment to answer a few questions, from your
point of view as an expert on virtual communities/blogging, as referred
by Barry Wellman.
Hi Audrey;
Yes, I've problably been involved with blogging for the longest at UofT, at least daily for the past two years, and watching it before that.
A: Do you believe blogging is an Internet fad or an emerging online trend?
Not at all. Blogging is tied in with the original promise of the world wide web back in 1994. The Web was going to give everyone access to their own web page, and the potential for them to have an online presence. And this potential is rooted even more deeply in the structure of the Internet itself. These potentials were never really realized, largely in part due to the difficulty of creating and maintaining web pages. I've been teaching online since the late 1980s, and I've seen how hard it is for the average individual to negotiate all the aspects of maintaining a web presence, even without considering the difficulty of conceptualizing and organizing content.
Blogs turned this problem around. The key to blogging is that it represents a group of tools that make it very easy to update and organize online content. As well, blogs incorporate a conceptual model of journal writing, which is a form of communicating that predates digital technology. This allows for new bloggers to have a sense of what they're trying to accomplish.
Many people said that with digital technology writing would become a thing of the past. However, with the advent of blogs, more people are writing more than ever before.
A: How widespread is blogging?
Hard to say. Livejournal.com has 1 million blogs, 500k of which are regularly updated. Blogger.com has over a million users as well. There are many other blogging tools that people can use, making it difficult to develop a full picture of the total numbers of bloggers.
A: Are academics catching onto blogging?
Many academics see blogs as a useful teaching and learning tool. They also have advantages as research tools. They can be used to keep students abreast of course information and news. They can be used as writing, journaling, research tools for students, in the place of more formal writing. And research teams use them to share information with both other researchers and members of their own teams.
What are the benefits and/or downfalls of academic blogging? I've been reading on various academic sites, noting the blogger will note their blogs within their CVs. Do you think there's validity to the concept that blogging is a form of online publishing?
There is a place. Blogs are not peer reviewed, so they do not have the status of academic publications. But they have value as an informal place to share and workshop ideas. I tend to share my ideas in my blog, learn from the feed back, then develop my ideas for publication. Blogs are a valuable sounding board for ideas at their early stages.
A: Are you currently researching blogging?
Yep. Click on my papers link from my blog, and there are some papers listed there. They are mostly drafts of publications, but they'll give you an idea. What I'm interested in are the problems with blogs in terms of who gets access and the cultural biases of these kinds of technologies. I've also lectured on blogs around the university, up at York, and at this year's South By Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin Texas.
I've noticed you've had your web log since May 2001 (obviously not a new development). How many site visitors do you receive on a daily/weekly/monthly basis? Who generally reads and posts on the blog? Are there many U of T bloggers?
All of my students at KMDI, OISE, and the Division of the Environment over the past couple of years have kept a blog or similar reflective/analytic journal as part of the course requirement. Many of them have continued on. Each year, more students admit to already having a blog. I hosted about 70 blogs on my server this year.
I tend to get about 30 visits a day. More if the topic is interesting, and fewer if I'm not able to update daily.
A: As usual, I'm working on a tight deadline (Thursday June 5, afternoon) and I apologize for such short notice. Any comments/insights would be
most welcome. If it's easier to contact me by telephone, I may be reached at 978-4111.
Useful info? Let me know if you need any more info.
Jason
Posted by: jason at October 25, 2003 12:29 PM