This
book will satisfy the reader hoping to gain some insight into the relatively
new phenomenon of weblogging. Rebecca Blood manages a scholarly job in
contextualizing the diverse themes arising from the book’s numerous chapters
(both in her introduction and second chapter), in my view highlighting the most
important sociocultural transformative aspect of weblogs, i.e., the
perpetuation of private discourse into the public arena (or online
self-publishing). We’ve got blog
presents the collective memory of an emergent and evolving weblog genre.
Indeed, perhaps the most significant contribution of this book to the cyber
community itself, lays in its compilation of written narratives produced in the
midst of this new weblogging phenomenon (or "self publishing," as it
is often described by many of the authors contributed to the book). This
collection provides mostly personal, first-person accounts concerning some of
the ways in which weblogs could conceivably transform the communicative culture
of specific blogging communities. Such may be seen to occur via the very
diverse array of perspectives and presentation formats currently in use (e.g.,
personal narratives, interviews, poetic writing, listing of manifestos, etc.).

For
the reader unfamiliar with weblogging (or ‘blog’ for short), we are introduced
here to an online communicative format or "blogspace," which may be
best characterized by its supporting information, lists, and
"interesting" links (at least from the specific blogger’s point of
view), which are then regularly updated by the blogger, together with relevant
commentary and personal anecdotes. The book also includes a glossary of terms
and ‘links’ section which will be useful for the novice bloggers in grasping a
better understanding of the playing fields and game rules for successful
blogging. Reading either as "web-log" or "we-blog," the
weblogging phenomenon can be traced back to David Winer, the "godfather of
the blogging movement" (see p. 179) as recently as 1995. However, some
bloggers might argue that weblogs sprang into life in 1997, when the currently
used term was coined by Jorn Barger (p. 7).

This book
contains a total of thirty-four short chapters (written by a large pool of
authors) categorized into six thematic parts covering major issues such as the
history of weblogging, bloggers’ experiences of blogging, the meaning of blogs,
advice for blogging, the debate between weblogs and conventional journalism,
and other discussions of, and by, the weblogging community.

Chapters 1-6
(Part I) address the love-hate relationships associated with weblogs, and the
emergence of the weblogging community from the perspective of online personal
voices over time. It would appear that from this history, such enthusiasm as
there is for weblogging is motivated predominately by the bloggers’ desire for
agency and self-expression. The second section (Chapters 7-15) shares the
passion and experiences of weblogging through the voices of such self-motivated
bloggers. Chapters 16-21 (Part III) highlight the social function of weblogging
in human interaction, including voice- and community-building. Part IV
(Chapters 22-28) emphasize important advice concerning the "quality over
quantity" (p. 151) of weblogging. Chapters 29-32 (Part V) challenge the
domination of traditional journalism over weblogging, the latter often being
seen as an emergent "soft journalism" (p. 178) such as warblogs. In
the last section of the book (Part VI, Chapters 33-34), Matt Haughey and
associates conclude their illustration of weblogs by offering a meta-pragmatic
account based on his/their own experience(s) regarding the management of
weblogging, and the weblogging community. The authors also discuss their
argument as to whether or not weblogs should be framed for its "good
links" or  "good
discussion" (p. 209). In my view, this is all the more interesting as the
reader comes to find it located in print, as part of a book written ‘offline’
by/for a major publishing company.

Bloggers
tend to have strong beliefs about the potentially powerful influence of their
weblogs. Indeed, weblogs provide a creative cyber space for like-minded
bloggers to come together, allowing for the connection of self-publishing minds
through blogging and the subsequently evolving "chain of interaction"
(p. 170) which can result. However, these authors perhaps overemphasize both
the artifacts, and the mechanics facilitating their online self-expression and
social alliances by focusing too much on the issues concerning computer
interface and software. In so doing, the authors might have underestimated the
importance of considering the critical details pertaining to some of the deeper
questions which might have been asked here. For example, in what specific ways
might an online discourse, mediated by the action of weblogging, affect the
quality of a virtual community ? (otherwise not found in face to face
community). What might be its impact upon our culture in the broader
sociohistorical context ? How might such an impact reflect the social
structures of our increasingly fast changing societies ?

One
recurrent concern that I have with this book is that little is discussed with
regard to the meaning(s) of weblogging. There was a tendency for webloggers’
accounts to suggest a movement towards competition as to who can be the first
to report the latest happenings in the world. However, throughout the book, the
authors are not explicit about their collective views with respect to the
meaning of blogging. Here I take meaning to refer not only to the reasons for
blogging and/or to the consequences of blogging, but to the extent to which it
involves more organic, humanistic concerns, i.e., how our culture might shape
and be shaped by weblogging ?, or how weblogging constitutes, and is constituted
by, the thoughts, language(s) and semiotic expressions by which bloggers choose
to express themselves ? 

The
authors are not clearly overt in their discussion of the reality underlying
weblogging, e.g., the extent to which different bloggers may be equipped with a
range of specialized skills such as "tech skills" (p. 101),
"design and writing skills" (p. 132), journalistic skills, searching
skills, and so on and so forth. It would appear that weblogging might tend to
privilege a self-selected specialized group of professionals, rather than
including the general public at large. Therefore, the representativeness of the
weblogging community might be more biased than suggestedly democratized by the
authors. Nevertheless, there are always exceptions. Some people who do not have
those specialized skills may nonetheless make for proficient bloggers.

  In her chapter, Rebecca Blood concludes that
weblogs provide a powerful means for us to "reflect" upon the quality
of the mass of data with which we are increasingly overwhelmed in our
information age. With this view, I must agree, – reflection provides crucial
criteria in helping us differentiate an engaging and sustainable online
community from less engaging and less sustainable ones. This issue was unfortunately
not taken up here, neither was it fully explored by any of the other authors in
the book.

However,
this volume’s authors’ open-mindedness in considering a variety of
perspectives, including the critiques for weblogging, is admirable. The book
contributes much to our understanding of the potential connectedness of minds
(a new society of mind) via weblogging. It is good to read that weblogging is
not portrayed as a replacement means of communication, and the use of
alternative communicative means is addressed in at least two places (Chapters 8
& 12). Nevertheless, beyond the anecdotal description of the emergence of
an exciting cyber cultural phenomenon (and taken my own theoretical interests
into account), there is plenty of room for further systematic investigation and
analysis concerning the critical, as well as the reflective, aspects of
weblogging, in greater depth. Hopefully, a second volume will serve this
purpose as the weblogging phenomenon grows and evolves in the future, but in
the meantime this book has provided a new publishing phenomenon with a fine
introductory voice.

©
2003 Diane Hui

Diane Hui, Department of
Education, Washington University in St. Louis

Categories: General