our manifesto

Last spring I was excited to try running my own blog. After a few weeks I realized that all I did was collect and post artifacts; I was not generating any writing of my own really and I was certainly not typical of other new and seasoned bloggers. Those folks are extremely unself-conscious about posting their words—they are prolific, regular, confident.

And while I put up the blog to share, I was simultaneously attracted to the idea of strangers reading my page and uncomfortable with any potential audience that might find it. I told few people I know about it.

What I know about thriving blogs is that their audience is also prolific, regular, and confident. Bloggers read lots of other blogs: daily, or more likely many times a day, they cruise through a list of web pages preset to be checked on, added to, and borrowed from. Blog groups are like swarms or nests with many of the same blogs seen by the same clusters of bloggers, like big extended families, with some members hanging way out there and connecting to a whole other big cluster of bloggers. I wanted this family and this connection but I just couldn’t break into it freely. What was supposed to be a template basically allowing me to “freewrite” turned into a strange requirement to be avoided. But I still crave to do it. I think if I could feel a part of that family I might trust it more.

somebody else's

“If what we are going to value is the essay proper—whether it is Bartholomae’'s or Elbow’s—then by all means, let’s turn the Internet off. . .However, if we are going to embrace the ‘readymade’ as Geoffrey Sirc suggests…if we are going to talk about what we value in the ready made and ask students to theorize it in some way—well, then, why sure, let’s turn the Internet on. But this is what we are facing: a conception of democratic in the fullest sense of the word: something we create together.”

As Geoff Sirc found out: “Duchamp wanted art that moved, which is what drew him to chess.”

dialogues and exchanges

Session Start (mehonda2000:ringey): Tue Feb 15 16:26:59 2005

[16:27] mehonda2000: hey there

[16:27] ringey: howdy!

[16:27] ringey: how's it going?

[16:39] mehonda2000: http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4106&n=3

[16:40] ringey: i read that on the onion... pretty funny!

[16:40] mehonda2000: oh you saw it already!

[16:40] mehonda2000: no flies on you!

[16:40] ringey: haha

[16:41] mehonda2000: try this and let me know what you think: http://faculty.goucher.edu/writingprogram/sgarrett/plage1.asp

[16:41] mehonda2000: bfn

[16:43] ringey: i chose 'not plagiarized' but when i clicked Submit i get an error

[16:43] mehonda2000: hmmm...I said not plag. and it told me a long story of why I was wrong...

[16:44] ringey: i'd like to read why i'm wrong!

[16:44] ringey: oh it only works in internet explorer

[16:44] mehonda2000: also, look at this plagiarism test: http://faculty.goucher.edu/writingprogram/sgarrett/

[16:46] ringey: i don't agree with the rule that says if you use a comma separated list of items they have to be in a different order than the original work. so "a, b, c" is plagiarism but "b, c, a" is not. what does that accomplish?

[16:52] mehonda2000: if you get a chance...let me know what you think of this product...Five Across, makes Bubbler, a collaborative blogging tool with a drag and drop interface: http://www.fiveacross.com/index.shtml

[16:54] ringey: this bubbler program looks great! i'll try it out see if it lives up to its promises

[16:54] ringey: i'm skeptical

[16:54] mehonda2000: thanks seany...miss you...see you soon...stay sweet and skeptical...

[16:55] ringey: i will... see ya!