OK, this is going to be very long and convoluted.
I cannot link directly to the post because it does not appear to have a separate entry page, but here is a quote from the
InfoToday Blog about the Computers in Libraries conference happening this wk.
(written underneath an obviously posed picture)
"Two more of the CIL show bloggers, captured here in a wi-fi zone created just for those officially on blog detail.
Foreground: Nancy Garman, ITI's Director of Conference Development, lead blogger for our CIL Show Daily blog, and genius behind the idea of tying our blog officially to the work of independent bloggers.
Background: Tara Calishain, author of one of those independent blogs. Check out Tara's take on the conference on her ResearchBuzz Weblog by following the link at the top of this page."
First things first: someday I will be very happy when I have a reason and the finances to go to Computers in Libraries. Everyone in all the blogs I read is there right now (with some room for exaggeration). And of course, InfoToday is to be credited on the 20th anniversary of CIL.
But what I'm wondering is, do these people thing they invented blogging, or have somehow discovered it and are bringing it to the rest of us?
I guess in some way they are, since the kind of people who read InfoToday, Inc. might be relying on ITI to keep them up-to-date on the latest tech trends. But there are some of us who do that for ourselves by reading blogs in the first place. The only way I ever read anything on the ITI website is if someone in a blog thinks it's good enough to link to (and now in Library Stuff).
I would never have known about CIL if it hadn't been for reading blogs. Even if it had crossed my radar, it wouldn't have registered because I had no personal connection to it. Granted, I have no personal connections to any of the bloggers I read, but at least they have individual personalities and after a few months of slogging through my feedreader, I have some idea of who these people are and how they are connected to each other. The fact that they are going to CIL is enough for me. CIL and their official blog have absolutely no street credibility to me otherwise.
My second problem with CIL's attitude towards blogs is their selection of a group of "core bloggers" that are officially linked to the ITI blog. Who chose those words anyways and I really would like to know (not pulling a Gorman) why any self-respecting blogger would want to be identified as part of an exclusive group of "core bloggers". Perhaps I am being naive/idealistic and any officially sponsored focus on blogs should be seen as a good thing, or maybe anyone in that position would take the opportunity of big time exposure as too good to pass up.
It's not even that I mind so much that there is a specific set of links to officially blessed blogs at the top of the ITI blog (which has been dedicated to CIL for the time being). What really gets me is the way these blogs are being aggregated in Blogdigger.
The good thing is that blogs other than the ones listed at the top of the ITI blog are included and there is some indication on the ITI blog that others are welcome to join the list if they send an email requesting to do so. Heck, they even let a lowly library school student in.
My only problem is that it seems to be a rather limited solution to the need to compile all of the personal knowledge that is being generated as a result of the conference. The problems with using Blogdigger have been pointed out by Greg Schwartz, but maybe he's just saying that cause he isn't one of the "core bloggers".
I checked out his point that Blogdigger will include all of the entries in the listed blogs, whether or not they are actually about CIL. Currently of the 2700 entries listed as part of the CIL2005 Blogdigger group, only the first 5 pages (about 50 entries) are really about CIL.
So, the Technorati tag page for CIL2005 isn't too far behind with 7 posts from 4 blogs, tons of Flickr and an assortment of links from Furl and Delicious. Of course it was Greg's idea to use Technorati tags in the first place, but the technology failed not just him, but even a "core blogger" who was dedicated to the concept of tagging.
Perhaps we shall have to rely on Blogdigger after all and Andrea Mercado's promise "to add a search feed from Blogdigger that searches all blogs for "Computers in Libraries" and terms like it, and aggregates those posts in one bahuge feed. So if you, too, are blogging CIL 2005 on your blog, mention the conference in your posts, and the search feed will gobble them up for the masses." Hasn't happened yet.
So in honor of Greg and other non-core bloggers as well as in hope for a brighter tagging future, I resolutely tag this entry, cause I'm pretty sure that technorati tags are working on this Movable Type blog.
Posted by cminor at March 16, 2005 9:53 PM | TrackBack