Comments on: Comments: What If?

By: Richard Reeve

Richard Reeve — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:59:02 +0000

Hi Susan,
The agenda angle is an important issue and I’m glad, even after all that been said, you raised it. I suppose on some level we all have goals and goals beget agendas…but to twist every communication into the service of that agenda can be counter productive. If someone adds value to the stream for the sake of adding value, I tend to consider them able to do the same where ever they apply themselves. But if someone is always forcing the agenda, then likewise, I’ll tend to think they have no ability to see the bigger picture. It tends to reek of manipulation. Thank you for bringing that up!

By: Susan/Together We Flourish

Susan/Together We Flourish — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:42:40 +0000

It seems to me that commenting on blogs and on Twitter is, or should be the simple art of communication. As a society, have we lost the ability of conversing for the simple reason of learning more about someone and sharing a little of yourself? Has it become more common to always have an agenda than to simply share and learn? Susan/Together We Flourish´s last blog post..CONTACT Beaver County offering “Skills for Better Listening”

By: Richard Reeve

Richard Reeve — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 04:00:07 +0000

Zoe,
Thanks for the return comment…The light I hoped to shine on the practice of commenting seems to have happened for a little band of us at least. If we can treat all of our activity as valuable publishing opportunities, can embrace that practice knowing that in this media every pad, text holder, or field can be a creative opportunity, then I think our little band might just be able to expand upon something that’s already pretty spectacular. Sometimes it takes awhile for practice to fulfill the potential in the media…

By: Zoe

Zoe — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:52:06 +0000

Richard, PJ, and Luis, Thank you for expanding and clarifying your points. If, as PJ said, the goal is an 'open blog' that elicits genuine discussion, then I must say it is precisely what I've been striving for in my own blog. I'm not looking to be the last word on any topic, so many of my posts are my explorations on a topic... explorations that I truly hope my readers will expand further, challenge, or take along a new tangent. It's exhilarating to cut down barriers and crack the shells of limiting definitions... allowing "comments" to follow an organic path to something bigger -- that is completely attainable, and wonderful. Zoe´s last blog post..Reclaim Your Dreams: An Uncommon Guide to Living on Your Own Terms

By: Richard Reeve

Richard Reeve — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:15:50 +0000

PJ,
I’ll enjoy watching and hopefully participating. I tend to believe that we can throw our content all over the place, micro blogs, twitter, other blogs…everything gets captured through friendfeed where we and anyone else for that matter can evaluate the consistency of our words and the validity of our arguments. This is no vacuum, put a public marketplace…very much the agora that I was invoking with Plato and the dialogues.

By: PJ Mullen

PJ Mullen — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:28:41 +0000

Richard, thanks for your kind words, I have an end game in mind, but I don't yet know the true path, but I will get there. Zoe, I agree with Richard's comments on blog vs. forum. What I am envisioning is converting commentary into content. There are lots of "great post", "thanks for the post", "keep up the good work", but that truly isn't engaging. What I hope to figure out how to do is create a blog environment that invites and engages people to create their own post on an "open" blog. Forums, as Richard mentioned, are more closed, not necessarily public. My vision would be to enable anyone that has something constructive to add to the conversation to be able to post on a blog - even if it is just that one time, or by becoming a regular contributor. I see this unfold by starting off with brief posts that finish with questions to hopefully elicit follow up posts from the interested parties at large. What I hope is that those follow up posts will also engage the audience and allow the content being published to grow organically. I'm still working on how to make this work from a technical aspect. I'm very much a novice with all this Web 2.0 stuff. PJ Mullen´s last blog post..Wordless Wednesday #2: Guy Smiley

By: Richard Reeve

Richard Reeve — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:18:51 +0000

Thank you for returning and clarifying that Luis.
Posts and amplifications, here’s to hoping we can break the format wide open…

By: Luis Andrade

Luis Andrade — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:10:56 +0000

While the forum format is a natural analogy, I do not think it exactly what I’m getting at. Blogs are the creative construct of the blogger.

That's the point that I was trying to make, yes. Zoe's comparison was an expected observation. However, blogs are past the thematic centralization of forums, and, using your metaphor, ceding the keys to the "post" rather than to the perceived thematic tastes of the blogger. Of course, associations and affinities are unavoidable and will be created along the way. However, new traffic and interest is derived in great measure by serendipity.

I do not think that the blog format will be undermined by increasing the vale of participation.

Certainly not. Blog format, and their well groomed and selective third party opinion stream, are an evolutionary step. L Luis Andrade´s last blog post..Parisology and Perissology pits

By: Richard Reeve

Richard Reeve — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:06:17 +0000

Laura Jane,
I can relate. It’s been amazing for me to learn these tools over the last nine months and become comfortable with how they function. But they are just the tools, and as we tend to take the telephone for granted, as these options become more familiar it becomes possible to focus on what they are designed to do. There a huge data bloom coming over the next two decades, one which we are only at the leading edge of. As content producers, it’s crucial to position ourselves in a way that we are comfortable swimming in the ocean.

By: Richard Reeve

Richard Reeve — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:01:26 +0000

Hi Susan,
Great question. I think it comes down to practice. Until the new year I flattered myself that I was getting comments, like catching a fish. It’s a bit embarrassing but I didn’t recognize the value of each and every commenter, nor the role my own comments could play throughout the blog-o-sphere.

So, just as Socrates could generate amazing dialogues, at least in the imagination of Plato, my sense is that our intent backed up by the consistent practice of engagement does bring around the results. Well, the growth of it in this space since I opened my eyes might be proof enough for some. My “traffic” has grown at that slow steady pace it seems to be comfortable with, but the engagement level has soared…