[For that title, I must give props to Scott McLeod (who references Milan Kundera, the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being).  More on Scott in a bit...]

I was reading the Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere (2008) report and didn’t get very far before I noticed a glaring omission.  In the first of the five parts of the report, the authors go to great lengths to describe the population of bloggers and to tout the diversity of the blogosphere (”We are highlighting bloggers…so you can see how diverse the blogosphere really is”).  Yet, they also tell us that “[a]s a group, they [bloggers] are educated, affluent, and influential.”  They report the variation in age, income, employment, etc.  Curiously, though, NOWHERE do we get any information about the racial composition of the bloggers in their sample (certainly not of the U.S. sample).

In his report of his survey of the “edublogosphere,” Scott McLeod states that 6% (of the 419 respondents to his survey) identify themselves as “non-Caucasian.”  94% of edubloggers are white!!!

I don’t know if the Technorati folks collected data on the racial identification of the bloggers they surveyed.  If not, shame on them.  If so, shame on them for not reporting those data.

Why do I say “shame on them?”  Simple.  While individual motivations for blogging vary, I would venture to guess that a large majority of bloggers care about the “influence” of their blog.  Furthermore, in the second part of the Technorati report, the two most frequently reported reasons for blogging are: “to speak my mind…” and “to share my expertise and experience…” If that’s the case, then, we MUST consider which voices are being heard (or minds spoken) and just how representative the experiences that are being shared actually are.

Additionally, I know that those of us who publish blogs (myself included) are quick to claim the credibility, validity, legitimacy, etc. of the blogosphere.  I believe that if we are not willing to fess up to our overwhelming whiteness and to critically discuss the impact of that phenomenon, we will lose credibility, legitimacy, etc.  This is particularly a challenge for the edublogosphere, IMHO.

So, discuss away…

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The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
Mark Twain

It seems everyone and everyone is quick to shovel the dirt over the grave of blogs.  WIRED magazine calls blogs “so 2004.”  Performancing.com writes about Life After Blogs (HT: Matthew K. Tabor).  I’m not buying it.

I suppose much of the argument depends on how you define what a blog is.  A discussion about that very topic recently came across my Twitter radar screen.  In response to an inquiry about defining blogs, the ever thoughtful Bud Hunt (aka budtheteacher) wrote the following:

Defined that way, especially in the education “sector,” I see great continued value in blogs.  We might quibble over the name, but online publishing in many of its current forms is an important part of connectivism or networked learning.  If each of us is to remain a viable node on a dynamic online learning network, I believe blogging is reasonably essential.  The blog is a space where we reflect on and share our learning, and in more than 140 characters (NOTE: I think Twittering and blogging are not mutually exclusive; I often get ideas for blog posts when there’s something I can’t express in 140 characters. See e.g. this post).

I think there are also different reasons why people blog.  If the goal is to build a readership, then, in my opinion, if you build a site/space with content that’s of high quality, that’s relevant and that engages readers, the site/space will have staying power (i.e. if you build that, they will come).  For example, if you missed reading fivethirtyeight.com during the presidential election, I think you missed some awesome blogging.  I don’t know how the authors intend to proceed post-election, but they built a blog-based site that was really high quality, really timely and really engaging (their maps and graphs were so simple, yet so effective).

However, if your goal is, as Bud Hunt wrote, to “write to understand, to know,” then metrics such as Technorati rankings are much less relevant.  Such a blog only dies when the author no longer finds value in the process.

That all said, I do have a couple of thoughts/reflections/concerns about the blogosphere in general:

1. I’m mostly familiar with education-related blogs; probably 80% of the feeds in my Google Reader account are from education-related blogs.  In that “sector,” I’ve noticed a certain seasonality to blogging.  Over the summer, the blog posts were flowing in.  Now that we’re well into academic year 2008-09, they are not as frequent.  Like me, I think many edubloggers really got into the flow of publishing when time allowed over the summer.  However, it is harder to find time for blogging during the academic year.  I may just be projecting here, but I wonder what others think about this.
2. I continue to believe that too many good conversations get away from us.  I think there are too many folks out there who read an interesting or provocative blog post, and instead of commenting there, write their own blog post which references (and links back to) the original post.  I know that if the linkbacks work properly, there will be a connection between the posts.  But, in my opinion, that’s like trying to take the conversation over to your space, your network.  I think it would be OK to write such a post, but to then direct your readers over to the original post and encourage them to comment and add to that conversation.

I will certainly watch the state of the blogosphere with great interest.  But, I refuse to believe that I’m watching the end of a valuable form of writing and publishing.

This morning, as I have been doing every Tuesday morning since the school year began, I dropped my son off at preschool and drove to my office.  However, rather than taking my usual route, today I chose a different way.

As the crow flies, driving down Monument Avenue is probably the most direct route from my son’s school to where I work.  But, it’s certainly not the fastest route.  Yet, I chose this route to reinforce the enormity of the opportunity I have this afternoon when I go to cast my vote for President of the United States.

Monument Avenue was recognized in 2007 by the American Planning Association as one of the 10 Great Streets in the country.  Architecturally, aesthetically, etc., it is a lovely road, especially among the resplendent colors of fall.  However, it is also a road that gives me great pause.  Traveling as I did this morning, in order, I passed the following giant monuments: Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis (monument photo), J.E.B. Stuart (monument photo) and Robert E. Lee (monument photo). I’ll spare you the long history lesson, but these folks were all leaders of the Confederate States of America (CSA) or the Confederate army before and during the Civil War.  They fought for states rights as the CSA had declared secession from the United States.  There were multiple reasons for the secession declaration, but as historian Drew Gilpin Faust wrote, “leaders of the secession movement across the South cited slavery as the most compelling reason for southern independence.”  Thus, one cannot drive down Monument Avenue without being reminded of the enslavement of people of African descent that marks much of our nation’s early history.

The historical significance of those statues notwithstanding, there is another statue that I passed on Monument Avenue before I came to the others.  In July of 1996, a statue of a native son of Richmond, VA was unveiled on Monument Avenue.  That native son? Arthur Ashe (monument photo).  I wasn’t around for the controversy that apparently encircled the decision to place that statue on Monument Avenue.  But, as a relative newcomer to Richmond, I do find the placement of the statue very interesting.  The word that comes to mind is “contraposition.” In other words, the placement of a statue of a groundbreaking African-American athlete and civil rights leader on the same road that recognizes the leadership of the Confederacy is striking, at the very least.  For me, then, the statue stands as a monument of hope, possibility and change.

Arther Ashe is quoted as saying, “”True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”  Personally, I think Barack Obama and John McCain are both pretty heroic by Ashe’s definition.  However, when I cast my vote this afternoon, I will be thinking of all that I believe that the Arthur Ashe monument represents to me.  I will hold my 3 year old son tightly and vote for the man who follows the trail blazed by pioneers like Arthur Ashe.

To this point in our nation’s history, all 43 of our presidents have been white men.  I am so thankful and honored that later today, like I did this morning in getting to work, when I cast my vote, I have the opportunity to choose a different way.

I will vote for Barack Obama.

Tags: election, Obama, president

Tags: delpit, equity, social justice