Ok, Will Richardson did what I was trying to do, but better and more thoroughly. Not surprising, that. The bottom line is that trying to follow a conversation that’s split up liek this is darned hard to do. It’s brain-stretching.
The question I still have is, is this medium fundamentally any different? Is there something unique about blogs as a communications medium – as opposed to email lists or threaded discussions or ham radio or town hall meetings – that engenders this kind of activity? And if it does, is the activity of blogging fundamentally any different from other kinds of reading-writing-feedback?
Brian Lamb and the commentors on his site make an important point about the digital divide. Those of us who blog are a tiny fraction of the Internet population. And many people just aren’t interested. Yet, anyway. There’s a fair amount of technology to be mastered, and a lot of instructors are still barely understanding email.
Technology does not change people’s needs. It changes the way they get their needs met. Kids today email and IM like crazy. When I was in school we talked on the phone or hung out in the tree-fort, and passed notes in class. Same thing, different tools.
