Thursday, February 10, 2005

Finding Fault with the Blogosphere? In my morning scan of the local news, I noticed that Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks had a piece on the reports concerning the firing of Governor Ehrlich's former congressional staffer for his role in the fomenting of rumors about Mayor Martin O'Malley's marital infidelity.  The article is here: The politics of humiliation and hurt spin nicely on Web.  I took umbrage with one of the main points of his article: "The Internet is wonderful, but it has created a vast diaspora of the unengaged, the isolated and the cynical. These are not people interested in building bridges or communities. They are about tearing down, and trashing anyone they don't like on some petty, personal level. They are the other side."  Since I was at the office much too early this morning, I decided to fire off a note to Mr. Rodricks.  To summarize, one of the things I mentioned in my email was that since the web has a low barrier to entry--anyone who wants a blog can get one for free and a domain name is rather inexpensive to acquire--it is easy to encounter the isolated and single-minded types he identifies.  For each of these unengaged and single-minded types, however, one encounters bloggers who do contribute to the public discourse.  There is a community that is growing, and that community is actively engaged.  I pointed to the recent discussion on the role that blogs and bloggers play in the workplace as an example of useful and interesting discourse.  I also mentioned the role that bloggers played in challenging the veracity of CBS report of President Bush's National Guard service.  Finally, I mentioned the growth of bloggers as citizen journalists and the growing attention citizen journalism is gaining.  I also pointed him to the interesting discussions that were taking place at the Blogging, Journalism & Credibility conference that took place last month.  I think this, in some respects, is just another example of the problem that mainstream media has with respect to the blogosphere.  12:48:55 PM    comment []  trackback []

The Home Jersey Wins! I decided to purchase the home jersey of my beloved BU Terriers.  For those of you that do not remember, that is the white jersey from yesterday's post.  Thanks to ACDub, Fool, Broad-Sheet, and messy_hair_girl for their opinions.  Amazingly, they were all in agreement.  Look for me to be wearing this jersey come Monday, cheering BU on against Northeastern in the Beanpot.  You know you want a tourney like the Beanpot, Broad-Sheet.  ;-) Now, I need to find out where to watch it in Federal Hill/South Baltimore.  My quest for college hockey continues.  12:24:04 PM    comment []  trackback []