Round — a natural rock; photo by me, as fotogail
I am not really a blogger, because more immersive architectures totally capture my limited and scattered attention.
Immersed in groups of people, in a place that looks and feels like a third place, in other words, a commons, I get captivated. (I like this classic definition by John Coate, in context, presented in antique format) But what is difference about places where others are “on the page” from the beginning, by default? I am thinking of my intense involvement with friends and regulars at Flickr and The WELL, where I have invested a lot of care and learning about people, and where the connective structures are in place. It’s not hard to see what is needed to build out a network in blog “space,”making those connections, yet I haven’t taken that tiny extra bit of effort, since it is so easy to be captivated where I already play.
This almost a preamble to a little rant on addiction that I posted at Flickr yesterday, in the Utata discussions. (Which uses Flickr’s barely functional forum software that doesn’t keep track of what you have already read in a friendly way yet, where the intention to “create a salon” — see the Utata description — overrides design features utterly.)
And I follow by hitting the WordPress dashboard, and noting the various ways that this service does make others available for finding and bonding, with a little bit of devotion and the acceptance of the premise that the blogosphere is not commonspace. Come over to my pad, that’s how the blog meme feels, or with group blogs, our pad. The feeling of commonality is certainly attainable and richer for a lot of people, it’s just a question of putting in the time and attention actively building the connections.
(I’m going to ask some of the WELL Bloggers about this in the Blog Conference. Look for it there if you’re there.)
