Thursday, November 09, 2006
One reason why blogging is great
I just read a post at Bodarko referring to a great short post about "why blogging is great" at timbl's blog. I had just finished doing a class about Google tricks and had briefly addressed the idea of credibility, verifiability, trust, ranking, linking, etc. And then here comes this timbl guy with a very elegant explanation about social bookmarking and trust.
"People have, since it started, complained about the fact that there is junk on the web. And as a universal medium, of course, it is important that the web itself doesn't try to decide what is publishable. The way quality works on the web is through links.
It works because reputable writers make links to things they consider reputable sources. So readers, when they find something distasteful or unreliable, don't just hit the back button once, they hit it twice. They remember not to follow links again through the page which took them there. One's chosen starting page, and a nurtured set of bookmarks, are the entrance points, then, to a selected subweb of information which one is generally inclined to trust and find valuable."
Well done, sir. WELL DONE!
He goes on to state that blogging is a great example of "a gently evolving network of pointers of interest." Then he goes on to bemoan that in a recent interview his message was misinterpreted, stressing concerns about blogs and the failures of the Internets.
He continues:
"In fact, it is a really positive time for the web. Startups are launching, and being sold again, academics are excited about new systems and ideas, conferences and camps and wikis and chat channels and are hopping with energy, and every morning demands an excruciating choice of which exciting link to follow first."
I am especially interested in what timbl extrapolates from blogs and FOAF files: a trust infrastructure. How cool is that?
"People have, since it started, complained about the fact that there is junk on the web. And as a universal medium, of course, it is important that the web itself doesn't try to decide what is publishable. The way quality works on the web is through links.
It works because reputable writers make links to things they consider reputable sources. So readers, when they find something distasteful or unreliable, don't just hit the back button once, they hit it twice. They remember not to follow links again through the page which took them there. One's chosen starting page, and a nurtured set of bookmarks, are the entrance points, then, to a selected subweb of information which one is generally inclined to trust and find valuable."
Well done, sir. WELL DONE!
He goes on to state that blogging is a great example of "a gently evolving network of pointers of interest." Then he goes on to bemoan that in a recent interview his message was misinterpreted, stressing concerns about blogs and the failures of the Internets.
He continues:
"In fact, it is a really positive time for the web. Startups are launching, and being sold again, academics are excited about new systems and ideas, conferences and camps and wikis and chat channels and are hopping with energy, and every morning demands an excruciating choice of which exciting link to follow first."
I am especially interested in what timbl extrapolates from blogs and FOAF files: a trust infrastructure. How cool is that?
