On things maturing… maybe

Posted on | October 4, 2007 |

You may have noticed that my response to the blogging conference was to avoid my blog for a while! This has as much to do with pressing projects than my experience on the day. Greg and I have been busy sending feedback to our contributors for The Affect Reader, and I had a birthday to celebrate too. It’s true I did find the evangelical vibe of some of the conference participants a little disconcerting, and I thought it was unfortunate that the event wasn’t advertised widely enough to enable a more fitting national representation. But the day was extremely successful based on the feedback I’ve seen, and the commercial and Queensland focus of this year will likely even out with future events in other cities.

I guess my main worry when I think about evangelism is not the popularisation that would come as a result (someone in our session suggested that perhaps too many new blogging voices will threaten what was good about blogging for early adopters: being able to gain a profile and enjoy a cosy blogroll community - heh). It’s rather that I think we are at an interesting moment of transition. If the wrong voices are listened to by people who make decisions about certain things, I’m concerned that people who have no desire to blog (whether they are students or employees, to take the most obvious examples) will be seen as suspicious or difficult or odd. If university course writers see blogging skills as the solution to the crisis the internet now poses to traditional pedagogy (or administrators see Facebook or Second Life presence as the other answer) this is a fundamental mistake - it’s a BandAid that confuses broader social and economic change with fashionably-marketed, temporary platforms. Similarly, I think it’s important to make very clear that the will to blog is an objective that isn’t shared by all or even many, if you think about the ratio of people online in the first place, then take account of those who actually comment or participate in a sustained way, and then consider those with the time, energy, talent or reason to write original content.

In that sense I’m not convinced that the Australian blogosphere (whatever that is) has to mobilise itself towards some tipping point of acceptability and influence - to convince people we are important. I’m especially suspicious if this equates to being palatable for, or worthy of the attention of the mainstream media, which is usually to say, being allowed to talk back in response to established priorities. And this is what I find so bizarre about the apparent high watermarks of successful blogging in this framework. Whether it is uber tech-geek or political commentator, always, the gauge of impact is “EYEBALLS”. Perhaps it is the residual feminist in me, but I don’t understand what is new, liberating or revolutionary about these identities or metrics, and I don’t see why the vast majority of the population should feel energised that blogging gives a new ‘platform’ and ‘profile’ for them (these terms surely aren’t incidental). If we are serious about understanding the future potential of blogging, asking why these types in particular are being reified is one question, as is the matter of how other models, functions and possibilities might be raised and promoted. Please leave me a comment if you know of some.

The participatory style in our session thankfully allowed a lot of ideas and projects to be exchanged. Following the trackbacks I’ve had here over the past week will give you a flavour of the discussion (more reflections on the conference are available here). I’m really grateful to everyone for sharing their work and opinions!

Something we didn’t touch on that I thought we might have was the notion of academic blogging as self-promoting and careerist. I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately, in light of various e-list discussions about the place, accusations I’ve heard aimed at myself, and also in relation to my research on online social networking. After going to This is Not Art in Newcastle on the weekend I feel somewhat better, or rather, as though my studies of self-promotion and concerted friending practices have a whole new location to mine for data! But seriously, listening to so many energetic, creative, articulate and confident young people describing and promoting their work left me feeling a) on the X rather than Y side of the generation divide and b) ridiculously sheltered and careful in having chosen academic work as my outlet. I learned a lot. I guess what remains important to me, and particularly after so many days of listening to others, is the silence I get as a scholar. Bloggers, writers, artists and musicians are all defined by having something to say. Still, increasingly in our Web 2.0 culture I think there is a distinct dignity in knowing when to be silent. It certainly helps in the discovery of how much energy it takes to truly listen.

Blowing candles

Category: Events, Saturn Returns, Travel, Web(log) Stuff

Comments

5 Responses to “On things maturing… maybe”

  1. blogoz - Australian Blogging Conference Roundup : deswalsh.com
    October 4th, 2007 @ 9:49 pm

    [...] I’ve read a couple of times the post On things maturing…maybe on the Home Cooked Theory blog and I can’t figure out whether the author enjoyed the conference or didn’t. [...]

  2. M-H
    October 4th, 2007 @ 11:52 pm

    My take is that she thought it was good in parts… :)

  3. WildlyParenthetical
    October 5th, 2007 @ 7:15 pm

    Interesting. I’d wondered what kind of discussion would occur at a gathering like this (I suspect you’re right about the non-national advertising… I don’t recall catching any sign of it until a week before - and that may well have been via you!). I’m always a bit disappointed with the whole ‘new technology = new liberation’ tendencies of some people, which seems to be articulated as this kind of evangelism. To your concerns about the consequences for those who don’t want to, say, blog, I’d like to add that people who don’t want to blog in particular ways may also be seen as ‘odd’. Reading some of the ‘how to blog’ guides out there (say the Lorelle’s blog, advertised all over wordpress.com) feels awfully like ‘how best to sell yourself’: ‘Write often!’ ‘Write interesting!’ ‘Comment on (very) current news!’ ‘Take a stand!’ I can’t remember where, at the moment, but I read someone who recommended taking a ‘controversial’ issue, researching it for an hour and then ‘taking a stand,’ even if you were unsure. Part of what I like about blogging is the processural, partial and developing style it permits, which makes it (or can make it!) in many ways looser than other forms of writing. Many of these ‘profile’ and ‘platform’ inclinations feel, as you say, remarkably conservative in this respect. I suppose I’m just feminist-ing alongside you, but I wonder how much of the optimism/evangelism is part of a lingering hope that the web is inherently democratising, overlooking the heavy Western liberalism that tends to shape it?

    Thanks for reporting back!

  4. Mark Bahnisch
    October 6th, 2007 @ 1:00 pm

    I wonder if it’s unkind to note that the uber evangelist at the conference revealed he used to be a Liberal staffer! (though in fairness he did say he’d never vote for them again).

    But, yep, agreed totally. The whole “tipping point” thing appears to be about the desire to commodify and “monetise”. As with the media, content as such is just a platform to hang eyeballs on.

    TINA! is great. I was really kicking myself I didn’t get my act together to go down this year. There is enormous energy. And then there’s that ginger beer…

    Happy birthday Mel!

  5. Larvatus Prodeo
    October 8th, 2007 @ 11:52 am

    The state of political blogging II - links post…

    A bit more of a wrap-up from the Australian Blogging Conference. If anyone missed my piece on where political blogs are and where political blogging is going, it’s been published in an edited version at New Matilda. Somewhat different reaction i…

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