The soon-to-be-launched blogs at Harvard initiative -- led by Dave Winer -- got a nice mention in the Washington Post. This effort to get a serious blogging community going here, still in its earliest stages of formation, is important to us for a number of reasons. Primiarily, it's because big universities often don't share knowledge well among their respective parts. Harvard, to be sure, has always operated as a bunch of highly productive but rarely well-integrated stove-pipes (the various schools: the Divinity School, Law School, the Business School, the College, and so on); that structure works well in certain ways (financially, some argue) but less well in others. There are smart, effective people who think a lot about this challenge, particularly in the Harvard Provost's office. We're convinced that blogging, evangelized by Dave and others here, can help spread the wealth of knowledge from school to school; from student to student; and from elsewhere into Harvard and vice-versa. The Web, e-mail and other basic Net-based apps generally have had this effect to some extent. But not in a wholly satisfying manner. I wouldn't bet again blogs making the next big step forward.
10:30:46 AM 
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