David Akin

Blogging at the CAJ

The Canadian Association of Journalists is holding its annual conference this weekend in Toronto. Among the thousands -- well, it seems like thousands -- of panel discussions and workshops was one on blogging and journalism. I was a panelist along with Alan Bass, a professor who leads the journalism program at the University College of the Cariboo in B.C. and Rannie Turingan. There was about 40 folks in the room for our discussion. We spent some time trying to define a blog. What makes a blog different from a discussion board? I think, if we are defining 'blog', one of the key characteristics is that information in a blog arrives in and is sorted in a chronological order. But beyond that, what makes a blog different than a discussion board? Hard to answer that one.

There's a conference, incidentally, in Europe this weekend called: BlogTalk: A European Conference on Weblogs and the site contains a definition:

What is a weblog? A weblog is a form and a format: a frequently updated website containing entries arranged in reverse-chronological order. But this simple form is infinitely malleable, and weblogs have huge potential for professional and private use. Easily maintained via computer or mobile devices, weblogs are organizing businesses, creating and strengthening social ties, filtering the World Wide Web, and providing a platform for ordinary people to publish their views to the world.

Not sure if this gets us any further along towards a definition for those who've never seen a blog. Again: Wouldn't a discussion board or an online bulletin board qualify? Perhaps one of the other defining characteristics, as far as the form goes, is the existence on most blogs of a calendar index, that is, a calender which contains hyperlinks to blog entries from that date. Sheesh. I don't know. But you know who would? David Weinberger. He's one of the smartest cookies I know when it comes to thinking about tech and Internet things. I've sent him a note asking to help me out.

We also chatted about the future of blogs and journalism and the relationship of journalists to blog and vice versa. A healthy discussion and an interesting one. Still waiting to learn of other blogs maintained by journalists who are staff writers/employees of media outlets in Canada.

I'm on a panel tomorrow talking about media convergence in Canada.

You say tomato . . .

Like most journalists, I don't want to be reminded about the boo-boos and I'm happier the sooner everyone forgets about them. But this is one typo I made in a recent Globe and Mail story that was such a good mistake -- you'll see what I mean -- that I'm happy to be associated with it:

Nanotechnology is terra incognito, scientist says

March 1, 2003
....
Many Canadian scientists are playing a leading role in the exploration of the nanoscale world. The University of Toronto, for example, offers the world's only undergraduate degree in nanoengineering. It was students in that program who invented Mr. Eigler to address them this week.

I'm advised that this was such a good slip-up that the New Yorker published it in its May 16 issue.

What he said!

I'm still not sure about this blogging thing and thank heavens for Bill Thompson who is definitely not sure about this blogging thing:

"In theory, it should be easy to find out what went on at ETCON - after all, it is probably the most heavily blogged event in the world. Every talk, keynote, informal session, water-cooler conversation, party and failed sexual encounter was extensively covered, in real time, by bloggers who would rather write 'I am sitting here' than sit there, and note that 'the audience is not paying attention' rather than consider that they aren't paying attention either.

Sadly, hours spent with my head down the wirelessly-enabled toilet that is today's blogosphere revealed only that these many and varied comments form such a complex tapestry of overlapping meanings, that they make the reports from embedded journalists in Iraq seem like models of clarity.

Not only are the blogs of individual attendees, like the BBC's Matt Jones, available to be read, but various collaborative authoring tools have been used to create summaries and commentaries on many of the talks and discussions. This creates a seamless and essentially author-free porridge of commentary - lacking substance, structure or meaning.

Reading the blog coverage may not tell us much about what actually happened, but it does reveal something of interest. Within the blogosphere, we can identify some that belong to a new intellectual elite - a small influential group of people, who have managed to turn their self-publication obsession into a power base."