“The conversation is getting away from me…” (more reflections)
blogging April 11th, 2008
Thanks to all who’ve commented on my last post and who’ve caused me to think and reflect deeply (and who’ve caused me a lack of sleep…).
I’m now reconsidering the cocktail party metaphor because, as Vicki suggests, the bloggers who generate the most conversation are not actually conversing much with each other (i.e. Richardson doesn’t comment much on Warlick and vice versa). Also, Will commented that there’s no saturation point for good ideas. So, now I’m thinking about the “marketplace of ideas.” If the blogosphere is idea-centric and not author-centric then each blog is like a booth at a giant, amorphous flea market of ideas.
If we accept that metaphor, then I’m still left wondering if that marketplace can get too diffuse. Maybe Will is right in that there is no saturation point for good ideas, but is there a point at which there is too much diffusion? This conjures images of the AERA conference a couple of weeks ago. Gobs and gobs of good ideas (and plenty of bad ones) about education were being presented, but the conference is so damn big that the conversations are dispersed and not particularly participatory. And, walk into the exhibit hall and there is literally a marketplace of ideas in print form; dozens of publishers of books also presenting good ideas. But, many of those books are part of the same conversation and, yet, they don’t get connected.
So, is there a need for organizational structure? With full recognition that the blogosphere is amorphous, non-linear, etc., I feel a need for an aggregator of ideas; I need an aggregator of aggregators. For example, I got 9 comments on my post (whoops…#10 just came in as I was writing). Vicki wonderfully took my idea and wrote about her thoughts at her blog. As of this writing, she has 18 comments to that post. I wanted to stay a part of the conversation, and felt I had three options: add another comment to my post, comment on Vicki’s post, or write a new post. Obviously, I chose the latter. And, Scott is threatening to take me to task. That will certainly generate more related conversations over at his blog. I feel like the conversation is getting away from me.
Something similar happened not long ago. I posted a graph showing the relationship between math achievement and levels of computer use. I got two comments. But, apparently Scott e-mailed Dan Meyer (he of dy/dan fame) who blogged about it. He did link to my post, but I didn’t hear or know about it until a week or so later when I happened to see on Technorati that there was a response on his blog. His post generated 20 comments on his blog. That conversation definitely got away from me.
So, yes, it’s great that I started a conversation (actually, I probably just re-ignited a previous conversation) that is spawning additional related conversations. But, I guess what I feel a need for is some kind of conversation aggregator (BTW, blog carnivals don’t do the trick for me; they’re more like electronic newsletters and articles/posts/ideas have to be submitted). I don’t want my own learning to become like herding cats of information.
Tags: blogging
“Yahoo, faced with the possibility that they could organize things with no physical constraints, added the shelf back. Since then … we learned that we might not need complex hierarchies to find information …”
[from Michael Wesch, Information R/Evolution, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM
Watch the video (again, if need be!). Read the books Everything is Miscellaneous and Here Comes Everybody. Get used to the idea that there’s no way anyone’s going to be able to reimpose any kind of hierarchy on the Web. And, hopefully, one day we’ll have better tools that allow us to track conversations across multiple blogs, Twitter, e-mail, IM, etc.!
@Scott
Thanks for posting the link to he video from Michael Wesch. Very eye opening.
[...] Now, what inspired me to write this post was first noticing that everyone who wrote ABOUT Jon got more comments than he did, as well as his next post “The conversation is getting away from me…..” (more reflections) [...]
Track your backlinks — or use statcounter to find people who are talking about you… you cannot track or follow everything and open, freely flowing conversation is what it is all about. I have over 4000 readers, of course I’ll get more comments. And when tech crunch blogged about me they got like 100 comments… that is just how it works. I don’t own what people say about what I say any more than I own the blogosphere.
It is tough to get used to because it is a complete paradigm shift. Focus on the students. Focus on the classroom. Be here for the right reasons.
It isn’t about the stats or how many comments you get. It is about the conversation.
Hi Jon
So, I seem to have followed some of the ancillary conversations from other people’s blog to your blog, and I don’t have any set opinions on whether this world is a closed loop or not. Sometimes, I feel it is and sometimes, I feel it isn’t.
My feeling is there is a group that many people look up to for direction and that group did not come into play with that intention. It’s just that they are insightful and work hard at their sharing and reflection, etc.
I do believe that many edubloggers want to help others and advice and help is often just a click away. I have never gotten the feeling that anyone has been shunned or purposely kept out of the conversations.
Take care and I am glad to have your blog in my RSS reader.
Kevin
If people are commenting on your ideas and you can find those comments, how important is it that they comment here?
Referring to Scott’s comment - we do already have tools that can track conversations across multiple blogs. You can use co.mment or cocomment then subscribe to their RSS in Google Reader to easily track the actual comments on posts. Plus set up an RSS feed from technorati and/or Google Blog Search for the main term in the conversation - in your case it would be your name in quotes. That way you can remain engaged in the conversation.
As Vicki Davies highlights the most important part of blogging is the conversation. But it does take time, effort, commitment and patience to learn how to engage effectively in these conversation. We can’t control this conversation just like we can’t control any face-to-face conversation.
I’ve never thought about someone taking my idea using it on their blog and getting more conversation. Perhaps if I’d had friends early on that were well known bloggers maybe I would feel disappointed because I was working hard (but knowing me it would drive me to learn more). Normally I just honored that others have liked my thoughts enough to blog about them and link to me
(okay occasionally they’ve liked the idea and not linked — which isn’t that nice).
Good luck Jon and there is nothing wrong with reflecting with where you are at