(That's one of my favorite Pogo quotes of all time. So glad I've found a way to use it as a post title.)
Sam Ruby points to a wonderful post by Phil Ringnalda entitled "There is No They."
What Phil describes--the "small town" feel of weblogging where change is effected by "us" rather than "them"--is a big part of why I like using weblogs in classes. I'm often asked by colleagues why I don't just use the conferencing tools already available to me--the Prometheus-based courseware, the FirstClass conferencing system, etc. The reason is that when I use weblogs in a class, we become a part of the big small town that is the technical weblogging world. The example I like to use is how Shelley Powers, author of the new O'Reilly book Practical RDF, stopped by our XML class weblog to comment on students' posts when we talked about RDF and metadata.
When you know that the author of the book you're discussing may be reading your posts, and may stop by to debate with you, it has a significant impact on the tone and content of the discussion--and that influence is primarily positive.
(As I was writing this post, Anil Dash [of Six Apart] commented on my last post about TypePad. An excellent example of exactly what I'm talking about! Knowing that Anil and others in the technical development community read this blog keeps me honest in my comments and criticisms, because I know I'll be called on it if I'm out of line!)
While this post would have been well worthy of Ben Hammersley, this time Phil Ringnalda should get the credit for this wonderful post.
Oy. I hate it when I do that. Especially when it's tracked back to the person's blog.
Excuse me while I go flog myself repeatedly with a wet noodle.
Sorry, Phil. :( I've fixed it now.
No worries: I'm just glad I got some of it out, since it's been stewing around for several months. And fascinated by seeing which parts of it different people see. (Though Ben's still getting credit for the description, in the third 'graph ;)
By request, I've corrected the trackback.