Matthew Berk: Digital Self Fashioning.
Digital Self Fashioning Defined: A framework for understanding… (missed the rest)
Catalysts: Community is a borrowed metaphor; wanted to optimize for the medium. Example: movie sites. Not sales Example: personals. Offline vector. Rich repositories.
Other frameworks for Digital Self-Represerntation. Anthropomorpic (what a word) approaches: Avatars. Visual embodiement. Metaphors. Topological constructions. Network as an extension of place. Conversational interation Virtual extension of community.
The Political Backdrop:
Freedom of the self: Boundry transcendence. Extended communities.
Alientation of the self: Loss of presence
What is Self Fashioning?
Technologies of the self
Usually takes the form of writing. Self is defined by documents.
Double construction of the person. People explicitly act to fashion their identities. At the same time, they are fashioned by their context.
What is Content? Human-legible destiny of data, information resources. Possesses structure within, between. Can enrich, cement ties between people, groups of people.
Digital Self Fashioning: The Rules
On the Internet, people constitue themselves as assemblies of content
The more structure in between this content, the greater its action potential
Content, like identity, is always plural, differential
Blogs: Technology of the Self
Pure expression of content management application. Few metaphors. Markup independent.
Tool for Self fashioning. Self as content container, relay. Community as network of interlinked content.
There are no legacy formats. Weblogs are by definition networked. Under the hood is a syndication engine that makes content portable and malable.
Digital Self Fashioning. How people constitue themselves online.
Phil Windley's notes
Jason Shellen: Where Weblogs Matter
Write. Read. Connect.
What is a blog post? An atomic unit of individual expression. Its the most granular we can get. There is always an audience. Digital photos from phones. (Moblogging.) Audio. http://audioblogger.com/
Avid readers are clamoring for another way to read weblogs. Aggregators. Shellen is showing us NewzCrawler. He's shifted to the Read It To Me service which will read your blogs.
Connect. BlogRolls. Google. Shellan says for the last time: GOOGLE IS NOT REMOVING BLOGS FROM THEIR SEARCH ENGINE. Some one from the audience asked that Shellen repeat the line Orlofsky is an asshole.
He was too kind and did not, but did mention that Evan Williams had a good response.
Blogs for Business? Remember what the Cluetrain Meanifesto says: Speak in a human voice. I hate when an entity talks.
Blogs as Community: Have been around a long time – especially in Internet time. What we know today picked up steam in 1999. Shellen is walking us throw some weblog community: MetaFilter. BoingBoing. Other weblogs have a single author but there is community. Doc Searls, Jason Kottke. Kottke made a post on the Matrix and opened comments. Shellen reports its up to 400+ comments. There are people speaking out to say I read this blog.
Does Joni Mitchell have a blog? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
Shellen is showing some examples of good blogging and nit picking and few things wrong.
Who is using blogging? External: Macromedia. Groove. MSNBC.
Internal: Cisco Systems. Sun Microsystems. Stanford University.
Blogs are a great way of establishing yourself as a perceived expert in the fields. Shellen is showing VentureBlog as a good example of weblog in business.
Another weblog example. http://loosetooth.com/: I am the economy. Please stimulate me.
Eating your own dog food. B.I.G. Blogger In Google. Shellen is howing screenshots of their internal blog which is running on the next generation of Blogger code.
Google Saved My Dog
from Google love notes. Internal.
They don't have a product per se yet, but Shellen says are thinking about the Blogger appliance.
Blogging – this push button publishing – has changed the way content is authored online.
Weblogs: New Syndication Models or Uncontrolled Platforms
David Shnaider moderators a panel with Rafat Ali (PaidContent.org), Jeff Jarvis (Advance.net), Elizabeth Spiers (Gawker.com), and Vin Crosbie (Digital Deliverence).
Shnaider points out an article on blogging and Gwaker in the NY Times and likens it to Woodstock the movie where that guy
gets up shaking a newspaper and exclaims its the NY Times and where in it!
Despite our issues with traditional we have a sense of pride and accomplishment when people notice.
Jeff Jarvis steps up to the mike.
Why Weblogs work. My yard. Linking means the cream rises to the top. Interactivity improves quality.
Weblogs can make a difference.
What makes the better? Speed. Variety. Voices. Tools. Interactivity.
Weblogs are nothing magical. Its the fastest cheapest publishing tools with widest distribution ever. Community. Nanomedia. Advertising. Personal.
Webloggers are influencers. Forget pitch.
Jarvis notes that I thinkits a mistake that AOL and Yahoo are not here.
Elizabeth Spiers takes over now. She notes that Nic Denton is editing Gawker these past two days and ask everyone to send email statins how bad its been these days. (Audience laughs.) Spiers is talking about the reaction of mass media to Gawker. Its gotten a lot of attention.
She tells a story about NY Post's Page Six gossip column. Some months back she noticed that 5 of the 9 items they published where posted on Gwaker the day before. She recently met some of that team and joked with them that they where stealing her stuff and one of them said Yeah, it makes my work so much easier.
Says she has never read a press release where she didn't wish she had that 30 seconds back. Engage bloggers on a very personal level. Don't send them a press release. Speak to them about something that they said.
Rafat Ali from PaidContent.org is now up. Blogging for trade magazine.
The profit motive for a formal operation is too high
The open-source ethic
Google – repeat 100 time before going to bed.
Honesty/Neutrality: Understand what's you're not: a consultant.
Strategic relationships are next.
From Rafat's former boss Jason Calacanis: Blog database research reports = big business, blog plus nothing = a hobby.
Blogs have killed the newsletter business.
Rafat notices that Silicon Alley Reporter is dead and his PaidContent site is its replacement to some degree.
Vic Crosbie is now up. Lewis & Clarke. Charles Darwin. Henry David Thoreau. They all wrote journals. You can bet your ass they would a weblog if they where around. Can you imagine if Lewis and Clarke photoblogging their expedition? This is what we will call Buffalo.
Keeping a journal is human nature. So is publishing that journal.
Accuracy & Honesty, no conflict. Then blogging is journalism.
Blogging is not assigned but by enthusiasm and expertise.
Media will use Blogs. Do it not for profitability, but as a service and strategic necessity. The smart media prganizations have already begun blogging.
The Law Of The Blog
Mark Young (PARTNERS+simons) leads a panel of Denies Howell (Reed Smith Crosby Heafey, John Palfrey (Harvard Law School), Arik Hesseldahl (Forbes.com) Catherine Reuden (Robinson & Cole LLP) and Maurice Ringel (Ringel Law Group).
(My commentary: You can tell these are the lawyers. All men in suit and tie and women in business attire. Young is not wearing a tie, but I think I see it hanging out of his pocket.)
Howell tells the story of a colleague that had a woman in the file room blogging. Her firm did not have any web presence that when you Googled the law firm you got this weblog as the number one link. The problem is the blogger had less then glowing comments of what was happening in the law firm and off color personal fantasies about one of the married associates. Business' must choose
Interaction is the root of all litigation.
She is going over the legal considerations that expose a business to risk.
John Palfry is up. Internet law in the US is a mess. You have to hire a lawyer. You need to be prepared. People are going to do stuff that will make you wonder if you are doing the right thing.
Catherine Rueben is speaking. Blogs are good for the web. Original content, syndicated, is a good thing. Manage your copyright up front. Creative commons needs to be synced up and baked in. Shellen mentions from the audience his concern that people are assigning right that they do not understand and cannot legally take back. Palfry says education is needed.
An employer learns something through a weblog. Employees bad mouthing the company are an issue. Employer are not bound or subject by free speech. Free speech refers to asks of state. Confidental information is not allowed to be disclosed as free speech.
Dos and Don'ts.
Employees: Not on company time. Do not reveal your employer. Don't write anything potential employer would see. DO NOT sign those form confidential forms. They are too restictive. Employees have more bargining power. Agreements are commonally everything you breath on is ours. Your employer owns that. NLR allows for protective concerted activity – WE think the pay stinks here.
Employers: Have a confidentiality agreement. Don't use a form. Have a policy specifically on weblogs. Talk with your intelligectual property about ownership of IA and tone down who owns what. Employers cannot terminate for any reasons.
Maurice Ringel is speaking. Weblogging (in business) may be subject to regulation because they may be a form of advertising.
Young notes that we are probably glazed over. (Correct.) The problem is that lawyers are seen as the can't do people.
Lawyers need to have a can do
attitude. (My commentary: that would be VERY nice.)
Arik Hesseldahl is speaking. He states for the record that he is not a lwayer. He has every word he writes reviewed by lawyers. Make friends with lawyers when you have to deal with them. Its good to know who you call.
Hesseldahl takes us through some some examples of journalists running into trouble with their employers over weblogging. Most examples are where a journalists had a blog very similar to what they are covering for them.
If you are challenge the establishment you have to be ready to deal with the legal issues. What constitues a fact? Be sure to be able to backup your statements and be constitent to what you call a fact over time.
Tony Perkins: The Open Source Media Movement
I took a long lunch and I'm late to this one. Tony runs AlwaysOn and is taking questions. The questions are mostly about around how he balances a traditional publication style in a blogging media format. AlwaysOn has gotten sponsorship through large technology stalwarts such as Sun, Accenture, Novell and Microsoft. The conversation has been a little bit tense.
Heath Row is a transcribing machine and got it all here
Using Weblogs In Large IT Organizations
Phil Windley leads a panel of Paul Perry (Verizon), Rock Regan (State of Connecticut), Tim Ireland (Bloggerheads), Martin Roell and Bill Seitz.
During introductions the topic of knowledge management (KM) and knowledge capture keeps coming up. Cost saving is also prevelent.
Bill Seitz thinks a Wiki-style format is better for collaborative interactions then a weblog. Seitz also says when a crisis occurs it's just the end of an illusion.
Blogs for Project Management
Traction Software allows for users to control how often they are notified with a digest email message.
Paul Perry has had good success inside of Verizon. Had to get the CIO on board.
Regan says his biggest struggles was with middle management. Knowledge is power. They are using weblogs tools for knowledge capture. They desperately want to use it for project management. Huge budget and cut backs. They desperately need to capture knowledge because of the changes.
Phil Windley says Weblogs require a culture about them. A culture of candor. Organizations that are open to the truth. People have to feel that sharing is the right thing to do and the best thing to do.
Bill Zeitz points out that the transparency of candor get things out in the open and may expose some conflicts. He says its better then the simmering conflict that is common in organizations where staff feels they are victims and slaves to their environment. Flames are a manifestation of larger organization issues.
Perry reports that in his organization, very technical people didn't want to post until they say others post. Leeting people find their own voice is crucial. He does not see any additional candor though. Complex issues or a certain level of trust requires face to face conversation and a self-organizational circles of trust to form rather then blogs. The size of Verizon is an issue.
Seitz says it can helps visionaries fill in the blanks that they can't see. Its takes though and makes it more explicit. A little bit more structure in your communication then email and IMs.
Regan says they are starting to see the beginning of some great discussion, but its too early to report. They think they have start to identify ways to save money. Weblogs have started these meaningful discussion across groups that haven't communicated well (or at all) before.
Perry speaks of starting people off weblogging and once the information getting entered into systems later refining it further. He encourages them to use a wiki to summary a topic for themselves. This way they are ready for getting up to speed before going into a meeting or something later. He thinks its important. He thinks the two (Wikis and Weblogs) need to be part of one package.
Perry continues: This stuff is about the real world and is constantly changing and evolving. When you build a system like this the tendency is to dedicate one person to the effort of knowledge capture. The person you pick may be good at it, but they may want to do something else that they are also good at. He believes in distributing it across the group is more important.
Live Blogging
Christopher Lydon is professing his love for Dave Winer. He says he's the Dave Winer without the money, the mind, or the corporate experience etc.
He has misgivings about where our nation is going. Used to run a talk radio show called The Connection. Lydon is tells the story of Amber from Boston a regular caller to his show that would take on and nail people to the wall
like William Saffaire and Gore Vidale. Amber was a well-educated, under-privledged waffe of an illegal immgrant that was making a difference. Amber is the ideal blogger. He wants his blog world to be a place for people like Amber.
Points out the problem from Iraq. We went to war with a coountry we don't know. We (the US) knows shit about the world. The English knew the world they had artists, explorers and so on all over the world that would bring the culture and understanding back.
Calling the Jayson Blair issue to light. We don't believe. What we are seeing is that mass media may not be the best way to communicate.
He says: We could together something better then the NY Times. The culture of the candor is priceless. The NY Times was never about candor.
I've misquoted people in the NY Times. I'm sorry. I've been misquoted in the NY Times. We need to learn to live in a more open media society.
Wants to define a radio broadcast around blogging. Wants to know how to define it. Discussion ensues. See Heath for more.
5 Experts/5 Opinions What's Your Questions?
Kathleen Goodwin leads the closing panel of Dave Winer (Userland/Harvard), Tony Perkins (AlwaysOn), Rebecca Lieb (Internet.com) and Jason Shellan (Blogger/Google).
Will weblogs be any different then spam? Lieb says yes because weblog is harder to setup and weblogs are pulled not pushed. Winer notes that porn sites try and spam
through weblogs to improve a Google rank. Shellen is not as optimistic that spam
in weblogs will not happen. Shellen paraphrases David Weinberger – you're looking at the wrong end if you think the Internet is over.
Do you think people are blogging so they can say they are blogging? Winer doesn't think so. He thinks its silly question. Do you think email tools will integrate into weblog tools? Lieb thinks that people do blog to say they do. She likens them to Saturday night goths. It takes staying power to blog says Shellen. It would make it easier to write if there was a response encouraging them to keep writing. (What happened to the email question?)
What defines a weblog? What is a business blog?Winer starts, he asks is it the style of the writing or the technical features? He found it the style. He defines it as the unedited voice of the individual. That rule can be broken though. Shellen says, refering back to his keynote, its the atomic units of personal expression. Parts of AlwaysOn can be said to be a weblog. Lieb answering the business blog part as an unofficial way to futher a defined agenda. (?) She believes it needs to be an open loop.
What are the two to three thing that need to happen for business to adopt it. Blogging needs to happen in education especially higher education says Winer. It can happen. Perkins points out Sun hoteling office and the use of weblogs for executive management to communicate vision and strategy as a promising trend. Shellen encourages some to take risk. He encourages a liberal intereptation of what the legal panel said. If you listen to hard you'll be so scared you'll run from the building. Lieb stresses the cultural control issues in business that will be a hurdle she names businesses like Disney, record companies and so on.
From the audience, Anil Dash refutes Lieb statement that some industry will not blog. Anil knows there are people blogging in each of these industries. He said you forget what an effective communication medium these tools are.
Shellen stresses bloggings individual space and personal space that it provides.
Perkins points out that Winer is criticizing him and saying that he does not have a blog on AlwaysOn yet no one can agree on a definition.
A member from the audience points out that the experts are wasting our time with a religious debate. He says now is our opportunity to turn blogging technology into something real for business.
Lieb says weblogging gives voice to passion. That's not always the case in business. Those who do have passion will gain from this.
A question on the creative commons is raised. Winer says he works with lawyers now and they say there is no way to publish something that isn't copyrighted. There are very pragmatic reasons for the creative commons.
Denise Howell points out that there are a few hundred lawyers blogging now and are involved out of their own self interest. Creative commons is also very excessible. She also notes the Ben Hammersley's Lazyblog is a good place to get feedback.
In closing, Shellen notes that we are all visionary for being here and realizing weblogging potential. Perkins says AlwaysOn is NOT a blog. The people that post to his site do not know what a blog is or how to do it. He asks do you want it to expand beyond your little cult group?
(Asked in jest.) He notes that he's taken a lot of pot shots today, but encourages bloggers to help educate these users. Do you want spread the culture of blogging.
Winer thinks we should give every person in the State of New Hamsphire a weblog that the last election doesn't happen again. He thinks anyone who starts blogging is a victory – even if its Blogger or MovableType. Winer also stresses the need for interoperability is key. We have the opportunity to define that now. Will we solve that problem before it happenes? That is the $64K question.
Heath delivers the more detailed transcription
Fin.
Update: Wrap-ups
