Blogging Private/Public

Here at Jerry Michalski’s “retreat” – about 50 of Jerry’s closest friends talking for 2 days in NYC – blogs keep coming up. When setting the ground rules, Jerry asked that the journalists refrain from reporting on what goes on so that people won’t feel inhibited. But how about blogs? And what about the journalists at the meeting who have blogs? Free Dan! Blogging feels different; being unable to blog would be akin to being unable to discuss the proceedings with one’s friends, turning the retreat from something private into something secret. Jerry quickly came to what I think we all agreed was the right decision: Go ahead and blog but if you’re going to get real specific about what people said, check with them first. By the afternoon, Dan had already blogged the morning.

In the afternoon there was a panel discussion about blogging. A “panel discussion” means that a few people – in this case, Dan, Meg, Peterme, and me – stood at the front of the room, talked for a few minutes and then talked with the audience. The conversation seemed to me to center usefully on the odd mix of private and public that is distinctive of the Weblog form, and that is distinctive of individual weblogs that range from the confessional to the quotidian to the demi-professional writings of fully professional authors.

Great mix of people here. And, in a confessional note, I will admit that one reason I’m blogging this is because I’m flattered to be here. (The World’s Worst Blogsticker: “Go from Low to Rah! and you’ve turned Blogging into Bragging!”)

Categories: Uncategorized dw