Of user-generated content, ego trips and responsible journalism

I was sent a link to this article this morning which talks about how the web is creating online ego monsters indulging in solipsism. At the first glance it made some sense.

Yes, the anonymity of the web does lend itself to (some) people making exaggerated claims about their achievements or compensating for possibly real world limitations by indulging in virtual world fantasies. But the article took an extremely one sided stance about the issue.

''There is something about the web that brings out the ego monster in everybody… Even in their quieter modes, denizens of the web seem to lug around huge egos and deeply questionable assumptions about how interesting they and their lives might be to others.''

There are blogs out there which bring forth social, political issues people are facing forgotten parts of the world which people would otherwise have not noticed or bothered about. Collaborative blogs that have offered critical and timely help in times of crisis. Blogs discussing art, poetry, literature, business and what have you. There are blogs functioning as online help lines – yes there is only so much one can help through an online medium but it at least offers people a platform to vent their feelings and know that many others in the world go through the same issues. But Mr. Kinsley decided to leave aside ALL of these areas and talk about sites that are only host content that is personal in nature. Fair enough! Nothing wrong with that…Except – please tell me how does some one posting about his life making him an ego monster?

The web has provided a platform for people to share their experience as they go through life. So many people post pictures, videos and write about their daily life on public sites. It’s an effective way for them to reach out to their families and friends, all at once rather than sending multiple emails loaded with pics and cluttering up everybody’s mailboxes.

What I consider most important is – that people’s opinions and thoughts expressed on the web through blogs and sites have brought about some objectivity to issues. When earlier we lapped up content dished out by main stream media and other so-called authoritative sources, now there is greater choice available to the reader. User generated content offers the much needed reality check. Just read through the comments at the end of Mr. Kinsley’s article and you’ll know what I am talking about.

Sites like MySpace help people connect with others, much like Orkut or Friendster or online chat rooms of yesteryears. People go there looking for fun, companionship, titillation or an ego trip. People also build serious interest groups and learn from each other. You just get what you are looking for and Mr. Kinsley’s post is a case in point!

Signed
Ego Monster!

On Blogs, Indexing solutions and Metaphors

Some days back, I obsessed about finding a way of indexing / categorizing posts on the blog, without having to switch my blogging platform. Not that I did not contemplate the adulterous act of flirting with another service provider. I did…but something made me stay back…partly it was my fondness for this platform, partly the laziness of having to migrate content and in many ways it was that invincible annoying thought that ‘I would not take the easy way out and jump platforms…I shall stay here and look for alternatives’. Would you say…too much energy and thought invested into something so trivial…I would say maybe…but then it is my means to express myself. Don’t people invest time and money in pursuing photography or art…are those higher or better forms of self expression warranting that time and attention? Let’s leave that debate for another occasion.

So coming back to the point about indexing, I thought content on a blog is ‘dead’ if one does not have a way of indexing it. Whenever I would think about content on my blog that was un-indexed, I would feel like I have walked into a library that has books all jumbled up arranged in no particular order. Not a pretty picture in my mind. I tried a fitting in a couple of codes into the blogger template (not reducing the effort those guys have put in – in writing those hacks) – none of the ones I tried were fool proof. The fact that they can only index recent posts is known and acknowledged. But some did not even pick up the recent ones correctly.

I found an alternative in ‘tag clouds’ – though they don’t do the same job as what ‘categories’ do – tag clouds work like a surrogate for categories. It leaves you the hassle of pre-defining categories and I call it a hassle since I found it so difficult to ‘force-fit’ my posts into categories that the category called ‘miscellaneous / trivia / un-filed’ was burgeoning out of proportions. Tag clouds pick up key words from your posts and here again the method is not fool proof – but at least one can delete unwanted key words and add wanted ones and approximate how categories would work albeit with some effort.

There is no easy way to indexing posts. But I am beginning to wonder whether it’s all worth it after all – not that my love for my blog has become any less over time…not yet at least but am beginning to wonder whether the metaphor of a library for blogs is in itself passé.

Is the ‘watering hole’ metaphor then part of the dominant code around blogs? Don’t blogs today resemble ‘coffee houses’ of yesteryears? The coffee houses that dominated Europe in the mid 1600s functioned as information exchanges, centers for political or social debate and over time even acquired the reputation of specializing in a particular fields drawing clientele interested in particular subjects…says ‘The Economist’ when it talks about ‘Internet in a Cup’ (paid subscription required)

If blogs are emerging to acquire the character of coffee houses as they were or even modern day pubs, then the activity surrounding blogs would change. There would be a greater orientation to partake in recent conversations / posts rather than visiting a blog and reading on a topic of interest.

Depending on the metaphor you identify with, will influence whether you use it to ‘express’ or ‘exchange’ opinions and views; the frequency with which you post; the content that you post (topical v/s analytical); your response time to comments etc and depending on which of these metaphors become the dominant code around blogs will have a bearing on the features that publishing platforms in the future will be forced to offer.

I know I won’t be obsessing about indexing any more :)

blogs, blog metaphor, dominant code,

What is your payoff?

You have been blogging for some months or for the few it could be years...or even if you have joined the bandwagon only recently...you would know that blogging is hard work. You could much rather be sitting on your couch watching tele or experiencing life...outdoor...but instead you sit for hours, glued to your PC, writing...reading....commenting....revisiting. There is surely something that really keeps you going...something that makes you want to wake up and perhaps check your blog first thing in the morning even before you have brushed your teeth!

Do you blog to engage with words...or...ideas?
Or perhaps you like to blog to engage with People
Or Maybe Technology
Or for some of us - even ourselves....

So what is your payoff?

Alright...I know and by now I am sure you have realised too that all this talk was just to get you (in) terested...to hook you in...and ask you one simple question (ok I know i'm making my blog sound like a seedy smoked filled room where people enter and get duped but what the heck) and that is....

WHY DO YOU BLOG?

Tell me why you blog....common tell yourself that too...If I hadnt asked this would you have taken time out to think about this...perhaps not...so out of the sheer goodness of your heart and some consideration for my time...leave a comment or send in a mail. Anonymous comments are welcome too provided there are not asking me to visit a website that will earn me money....

And for the 2 and a half loyal visitors who I have...I know who you are...so dont you escape by just reading my posts and running away...

And whenever i make money using ad sense I promise to give the best commenter some of that booty. So common be a sport....

And if you have forgotten the purpose of this post by now - which I have - scroll up - I wrote it in caps for precisely these forgetfull moments :)

blogs, motivation to blog

Living on the web

Blogs have gained momentum. There are a million new ones out there being created each day and suddenly everyone seems to be blogging. It’s catching fire! In the last 10 days, I have heard blogs being mentioned at least on 4 different occasions on the morning news, the last one talking about a Blooker

So is blogging the next big trend on the world wide web that would stand the test of time and one day stop seeming like a novel activity much like chatting or emailing are today? Or is it a passing fad that eventually people will grow out of? Will blogs meet the same fate as home pages did?

Well, honestly I am no expert on blogging and have started blogging actively only in the recent past - so here I only hope to share my views and by no means speak with any sense of authority on the topic.

My concept of what a blog is has changed dramatically in the last 4 years. When I first heard the word 'blog' about 4 years ago, (at the risk of exposing my ignorance and sounding completely stupid here) I though it was a ‘weird new animal’, of course in my defense I had only heard the word and had no reference to it. Later somebody sat me and explained that it actually stood for web-log and from then until recently I though of it like an online journal – like some one’s journal / diary – only this one was available for viewing. Off late as I have started ‘visiting’ blogs and I like the language that has been created around blogs – I am beginning to feel – it is much more than just a journal.

We ‘visit’ blogs, we don’t just read them.

We leave notes and messages for people on their blogs – ‘hey I haven’t seen you in a while or i need to talk to you urgently, buzz me asap’

We tell people who visit us ‘thanks for stopping by’

If we do not intend to blog, we make our absence know – ‘I won’t be blogging for the next few days. Hope to see you soon’ since you would not want people turn up to your house and find the door locked (did I just say house – I meant site)

Then there are veterans who retire from blogging – much like when we are fed up of social interactions – we become reclusive. And some blogs do see the end of their life.

We even ‘celebrate blog birthdays’ and leave belated wishes when we miss these milestones

Are blogs here to stay? I guess we’ll all know in time but if I were to bet my money on that – I would say they’d stay. Since they have started to fulfill a fundamental human need – the need to connect!

I see life around them and life in them. (And I guess my initial idea of a blog as being something living was not too daft after all). There is one blog title that sums it all for me. It goes ‘I had a life before... now I only have a blog. It would be interesting to observe then, how long blogs live. Measuring blongevity…any takers?
web, blog, social blogging

Category: Blogs_

I will not...

In my effort to customize the content on my blog, i started playing around with the html code in the settings. Ofcourse me being me completely ignored the warning on blogger help that said i must save my original code somewhere. I changed things back and forth and the result was I saw only garbled html code on my site. Twas not possible to undo since I had saved changes every step of the way and not even kept track of what changes I was making...

Anyway - took the dumb and easy route out - and just created another blog and copied the html code from there. And it worked. My blog is alive and breathing again...

Guess there is always a way out in life *impish smile*

Categories: Trivia_