Of Blogging and Reading Blogs: Connecting to your Profession through Discourse 2.0

Posted August 9, 2009 By Cloned Milkmen

If is the extended expression of thought on a subject through speech, writing, or conversation, then discourse 2.0 is extended expression whose value is enhanced by participatory technology (i.e. Web 2.0). In this post I outline how the technologies for blogging and reading blogs allow people to connect to their profession in a way that can be called as discourse 2.0.

Blogging is Discourse

Consider the following two definitions:

….
a : formal and orderly and usually extended expression of thought on a subject
b : connected speech or writing
c : a linguistic unit (as a conversation or a story) larger than a sentence
….()

Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an “architecture of participation,” and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences. (O’Reilly, 2005, October 1).

The similarity between these two definitions may only seem superficial. Consider blogging however. Blogs are “tools to publish on-line, empowering individual expression in public” (Efimova & Moor, 2005, p. 1) and typically have a chronological journal format: that is separate entries are distinguished by title and date. Even basic blogging is a form of discourse because “although a weblog is a personal writing space, its public nature suggest a need to communicate and invites feedback.” (Efimova & Moor, 2005, p. 1). Efimova & Moor (2005) argue blogging as more than a form of publication but one of conversation: “unlike other communication tools, weblogs create an environment for conversations distributed over multiple media spaces, so it is the effort that bloggers take linking to each other that holds a conversation together.” (p. 9).

In this respect blogging is certainly a form of discourse fulfilling different aspects of the definition of discourse. Blogging is writing; blogging is publication; and blogging is conversation.

However, these features of blogging are very “web 1.0″: read and write as separate activities (O’Reilly, 2005, September 30, p. 2). The Web 2.0 form of blogging offers a substantially enhanced form of discourse. Discourse 2.0 is blogging enhanced by the social web. Where blogging was ad-hoc, discourse 2.0 is orderly. Where blogging was individual, discourse 2.0 constructs social niches. Where blogging was personal conversation, discourse 2.0 enables professional dialogue.

Discourse 2.0 is Orderly

Original blogs were content management systems that enable easy publication on the web. The global collection of blog posts however, were not orderly. One found blog posts through keyword search and links provided between blogs. Organization of blogs before web 2.0 was ad-hoc at best.

Several important technologies have been developed that allow for self-organization of blog content. With these technologies, order emerges from the ad-hoc postings of individuals. Generally, this comes in the form of tagging supported by multiple different technologies. Tagging is supported with in RSS (the syndication technology that allows one to “subscribe” to a blog and automatically receive new posts), hidden inside blog posts, and externally in RSS aggregators.

Tagging in RSS. (Really Simple Syndication) is the name commonly given to a collection of protocols that allow users to subscribe to blogs. Users use software, called an RSS , which periodically downloads the RSS file of each blog the user is subscribed to. The RSS file contains a description, and possibly the content of, the latest blog posts. The descriptive information in RSS can contain tags (categorical descriptions of the content of each post). The tags can be used to allow users to sort, filter, and otherwise organize the posts they subscribe to. More significantly, the tags allow other services to identify which blogs and blog posts are similar and should be grouped together.

Tagging in Posts. The most substantial use of tags in blogging is hidden within the posts themselves. This occurs through the use of . Microformats are simple rules for using HTML to explicitly describe content. For example, the ‘‘ microformat is used widely to associate descriptive tags with the content in blog posts. Links within a blog post can have the words ‘rel=”tag”‘ hidden inside them (invisible to the reader, but visible to browsers and software). These magic words indicate that the text of a link is intended to describe the post.

Sites like Technorati look for ‘rel=”tag”‘ and create a directory of blog posts based on these emergent categories. This post contains many ‘rel=”tag”‘ links with descriptive terms such as “blogs”, “microformats”, “tags”, “rss”, and “discourse”. After this is posted, if you visit http://technorati.com/tag/discourse you will see this post listed, along with many other posts that have been tagged as “discourse”.

Other microformats exist to explicitly specify social relationships (e.g. FOAF) and geographical locations (e.g. Machine tags/Triple tags). For a large list, see microformats.org.

Tagging in Aggregators. While microformats use tags to describe blog posts, RSS Aggregators allow users to assign tags to describe entire blogs. For example, Bloglines and Google Reader both use tags to categorize all the blogs a user is subscribed to. In the case of Bloglines, these tags are used to create directories of blogs that users can search and browse through. In the case of Google Reader, the tags are used to suggest blogs that might also be of interest to you. When other people tag a blog, the describe it, and the RSS aggregators can help you find other blogs similar to the ones your already subscribed to.

For example, to see a list of all the blogs I have categorized as “Library” in Bloglines visit http://www.bloglines.com/export?id=clonedmilkmen&folder=Library.

Discourse 2.0 Constructs Niches

Consider that in traditional professional discourse, order is created, in part, through exclusion. Publishers and the peer-review system exclude those who are considered outsiders to a field. Discourse 2.0 is transparent and outsiders are free to join the conversation (be it a blunder or a blessing). Interdisciplinary discourse is enabled by the rough-edges of folksonomy classification. Where two groups share the same vocabulary, and tag their posts similarly, they are likely to discover each other through discovery mechanisms that depend on tagging and more likely to interact.

Traditional publishing followed already established groups, however, discourse 2.0 constructs new niches, which may or may not correspond to traditional social grouping.

Consider this passage from Sterelny (2007):

…social life became obligatorily cooperative, as the acquisition of crucial resources came to depend on a division of labour…. expansion into new habitats began. As this expansion continued, it co-occurred with, and sometimes depended on, an expansion of expertise and cooperation. (p. 719)

This sounds surprisingly like the kind of activity enabled by Web 2.0 and the kind of interdisciplinary connections I have mentioned. Sterelny (2007) however was describing social niche construction of early humans. In this sense, discourse 2.0 may be empowering some of the most basics aspects of human behaviours: to share and expand, something that requires cooperation and diverse group activity.

The technologies mentioned in the previous section that allow order to emerge from blogging, are precisely the technologies that allow individuals to discover others with similar interests. RSS feeds, allow us to keep up with others with similar interests. RSS aggregators allow us to organize the blogs we find according to our own constructed reality. Our own identity, our perception of what we belong to is shaped by tagging, but more fluid in discourse 2.0 than it was in discourse enabled by traditional publishing.

Weblog conversations branch into multiple paths and difficult to track and to follow, but they are also not restricted to a specific audience, making serendipitous inclusion of new participants possible. Furthermore, weblog conversations show how bloggers weave personal narratives and discussions with others into a whole. (Efimova & Moor, 2005, p. 1)

An excellent example is this post which cites evolutionary biology (“social niche construction”) in Sterelny (2007) and systems sciences (Efimova & Moor, 2005). Some bloggers are unabashedly transgressors of scholarly boundaries.

When a substantial number of individuals blog about overlapping ideas, when they discover each other via the order emerging from folksonomy, and when they engage in extended conversation as a result, they construct new niches through their discourse.

Discourse 2.0 enables Professional Dialogue

The ability to converse through blogging, and its orderliness alone, imply that professional dialogue is possible. However, the ease with which blogging can occur and the large numbers of professionals who can/do blog imposes a new problem for discourse: information overload.

How many blogs can you follow? How many conversations from emerge from those blogs? It would be easy to be overwhelmed by the volume of discussion. In traditional publishing this problem is solved through the exclusionary nature of publishing and peer-review. One reads only a few journals from one’s field. Those journals contain relatively few articles compared to the total available. In discourse 2.0, the problem is solved by social niche construction mentioned in the previous section.

I would find it extremely hard to keep up with all the librarian blogs that exist. I subscribe to a large number of them. However, the emergent orderliness of blogs enabled by web 2.0 allows me to put them into a context. They each exist in certain niches: niches that I also occupy. Some I read and follow, and others are part of the discourse I participate in.

My ability to participate in professional dialogue is enabled by discourse 2.0. I find others who are active in niche areas that I am active in: systems administration and libraries for example. While professional journals exist that appear to discuss these issues, they do not enable the kind of specific attention to issues, that blogging allows. For example, LITA’s journals do not often get into the technical detail that Usenix/SAGE’s do. However, the blogs aggregated at Planet Code4Lib come much closer to one of the niches I inhabit (and that together with others there, construct).< ?p>

The Emergence of Social Sharing in Blogging: My Experience with Google Reader’s New Features

The remarkable aspect of “blogging as discourse” emerges when you consider the effects of social sharing technology. As a form of discourse, I believe that blogging is being substantially enhanced through the kind of participation enabled by the social web. In this respect, I am referring to a suite of complimentary technologies that enable writing, publication, reading, discovery, and conversation. These technologies currently include: RSS (syndication), Ping-o-matic (announcement), Trackbacks (conversation) (Hixie, 2002), Microformats (folksonomy), RSS aggregators and (publication).

However, I would like to highlight emerging and as yet nameless social sharing mechanisms that rely upon and enhance these others. The example that I will pick is the “shared items” feature recently added to Google Reader.

Google Reader is an RSS Aggregator. With it you can subscribe to blogs, organize them by tagging them, and read the latest posts in the blogs you subscribe to. Google Reader has long been able to leverage Google’s search abilities to recommend blogs that you might be interested in. As you tag blogs, and so do others, Google can recommend blogs that you don’t subscribe to, but that others do, with the same tags or similar content. The new “shared items” feature however, offers much more fine-grained discovery potential and mimics social bookmarking at the same time.

There are two ways to use the Google Reader’s “sharing”: within Reader or to bookmark webpages.

Within Reader, as you are viewing blogs posts from your list of subscriptions, you can click the “share” icon. This tells Reader that you want to share the existence of this item publicly. Other people who also use Reader can “follow” you and they will see the items that you share. In turn, you can follow others and see what they share. This can enhance professional discourse by making is simpler and more transparent to discover items of interest. Reader gives you the option to add a note commenting on the item, further facilitating discussion. Finally, Reader gives one the ability to indicate if they “liked” the item (with a happy-face icon) and to tag the individual item.

Previously, tagging an entire blog was possible, but not individual items. However, now one can tag an individual blog post. This brings social bookmarking directly into the RSS aggregator. This brings in the second way to use Reader’s “sharing” feature. It is possible to use a bookmarklet to mark any webpage as a “shared item” with the same features as sharing a blog post. Essentially, Google Reader is a now a social bookmarking service that has a built in RSS aggregator and social network.

With these features, it is possible to discover blogs, people, and webpages through the emergent organization properties created by commentary and descriptive work of others.

Google Reader allows each user to create a public profile that includes their shared items. Much in the same way that delicious does. For example, profile is http://www.google.com/reader/shared/cloned.milkmen and there is an RSS feed for my shared items as well so that even those that don’t use Google Reader can still follow what I share and discover what I’m reading and respond to what I’m commenting on.

At this time, I have not discovered how someone might be able to browse what I “share” by tag. To truly enhance discourse, this system will have to allow others to transparently explore what I have shared and how I have described it. This is one of the greatest strengths of Delicious in my opinion.

Reference

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