the pod bay door

:: I was going to write a piece on the edu-blogging session which Geoff and I presented this afternoon on campus, but Geoff already has posted a good summary here.

:: I’m thinking, my previous post garnered 18 responses, a new PBD record. How can I ever post again? It’s like, I don’t want to post another entry because I’ll break the spell or something…

:: Today’s NYTimes has a fascinating article by Warren St John, Dating a Blogger, Read All About It. The article details how what is written and published in a personal blog may return to haunt the writer: hurt feelings, relationships permanently harmed, employers ticked off, and the like. A wakeup call for some of us? St John also writes about the state of NYC blogs, including Gawker, a NYC web site that describes itself as “a live review of city news and Manhattan culture.” NYC Bloggers, a site I’ve listed on my page since last year, lists >2,100 blogs in NYC, grouped together by distance from subway stations. (Note: NYTimes member ID and PW: podbay)

:: Here’s a compelling and interesting essay from Andrew Grumet: Deep Thinking About Weblogs.

:: I didn’t buy shoes tonight, but gave the idea some deep thoughts.

:: Seen this term popping up lately?: social software. Here’s an article about it by Stowe Boyd. There is a social software blog. There is a Social Software Alliance Wiki. Wiki?

:: In an effort to keep up with developments in all things web-like, Wiki came up in conversation today. I investigate a few sites before my brain exploded, including the original site and the FAQ, which notes that “this Wiki thing” is: “A collection of web-pages which can be edited by anyone, at any time, from anywhere.” Wiki Wiki is Hawaiian for “quick”. One major project is the Wikipedia, a “multilingual project to create a complete and accurate open content encyclopedia. We started on January 15, 2001 and are already working on 120,700 articles in the English version.” How did they create 120,700 entries in just over 2 years? Regardless, the creators think Wikipedia is great. A Wiktionary is also being created.

:: An entrepeneur in Spokane purchased 10 Segways, and is renting them to people looking for cheap, quick transportation. He couldn’t do this if he lived in San Francisco, however. In the end, it may not matter.

:: We try to stay in at least the slow lane on the information superhighway, but lately I feel like I’ve pulled over on the offramp to change a flat tire.

:: The Guardian maintains a fascinating and detailed weblog site. In addition, check “Onlineblog.com, a weblog covering internet and technology news produced daily by the Guardian Online team.”

:: I’ve watched this blog unfold and grow since July 2002 (when it was a Blogger site), never really knowing what my next entry will be. I’ve waffled back and forth between posting library-related entries, and everything-else-besides-libraries entries. Recently I started another blog, The (sci-tech) Library Question, which may soon take on a collaborative life of its own, and is a place for me to post library-related items of interest to colleagues working in science, engineering, math, life sciences, agriculture libraries, and the like. Geoff and many others are doing a stellar job of covering an increasingly widening array of library issues on a daily basis.

All of that said, I may choose to concentrate on the rest of my interests here, at the risk of boring my six or seven regular readers. For example, I’m fifteen minutes away from leaving to see The Good Thief. At work today, I neared completion of my talk on guerrila marketing of engineering libraries, to be presented as part of a panel at SLA in NYC on June 10th. Is anyone else watching 24 and cursing when each episode ends? How weird is this? Scientists have discovered a bizarre jellyfish in deep California coastal water.

Snow is still on the ground, the sky is still dark and grey, and I am all over the place.

:: William Gibson, who started blogging in early January 2003, has (apparently) decided, after three months and such, to give up the activity, at least for now. Or has he?

Gibson is currently in Ireland on a book tour for Pattern Recognition. In an interview with Karlin Lillington in The Irish Times, he notes that to prepare for his next book, he’ll have to give up the blog:

I do know from doing it that it’s not something I can do when I’m actually working. Somehow the ecology of writing novels wouldn’t be able to exist if I’m in daily contact. If I expose things that interest or obsess me as I go along, there’d be no need to write the book. The sinews of narrative would never grow.”

I’ve enjoyed reading his blog entries, as have others, and I will buy the new book soon (I need a break from non-fiction). I met Gibson in Vancouver in the 80s, while still an active member of sf fandom, and saw him a number of times afterwards. He was invited to be a co-Guest of Honour at the ConText’89 in Edmonton, the conference that served as the launchpoint for what is now known as SF Canada, and for the nifty Canadian magazine, Edmonton-based On Spec. The last time I saw him was when he was on tour for Virtual Light, and came through Edmonton. After his reading, Derryl and I rescued him from the masses and took him for a beer on Whyte Avenue.

He said in the interview that he’s giving it up, but he’s posted an entry today. Can we expect more?
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