the presentation on "weblogs" is over and judging from the time we spent discussing the "phenomenon" in class i think it went quite well. however, the real exciting stuff happened a few days later, which in a way proved to me that "this community is alive". I will try to illustrate what happened here for other "newcomers" briefly:

in my first post i asked a few general questions relating to weblogs in the hope that someone "out there" would by chance stumble across them and find the time to answer them. looking back, i think part of the motivation behind asking them was to see how dynamic and responsive the "community of webloggers" is to a new "text with questions" suddenly emerging in their web.

well, to get right to the point: i got my answers! Only five days after i posted the questions Al Macintyre took the time to respond to them in an "Open Letter to me and other Weblogger newcomers" Not only did he take the time to try to answer each and every one of my questions in detail, but he did it in a way which would enable others to profit from his answers (and my questions) too!

but how did i find out about his answers? well, i received an email from him, with a simple link - notifying me that he had found a pointer to my questions on Seb's Open Research and had attempted to answer a few of them. at first i didn't quite understand what was happening and might have been a little suspicious, but i followed the links and soon figured out what had happened:

Sébastien Paquet, who's informative overview on Personal knowledge publishing and its uses in research i found helpful in trying to understand weblogs, somehow came across my questions and made a reference to them on his site. Then Al Macintyre came across this reference, followed the link to my questions and decided to take the initiative and time to answer them. wow!

what a brave new world:
a few questions "thrown out into the void" have begun to take on a "life" of their own. thanks to Sébastien Paquet and Al Macintyre i have had the chance to (start to) personally witness the potential of this new form of communication and community first hand. and now others, stumbling across these inter-linked pages have the chance to begin to understand it too! And while i don't quite know if and how i should personally thank both of them for this, i will try to do so by compleating the circle and link to Al Macintyre's answers to my questions and Sébastien Paquet's "gateway reference" below:

The following webloggers have taken the time and initiative to answer my initial questions and have helped me (and maybe other newcomers) find their way through the blogosphere:

- Sébastien Paquet (came across my questions and posted them here on Thursday, December 05, 2002
- Al Macintyre (followed Seb's reference and answered the questions on Saturday, December 07, 2002. On Sunday, December 08, 2002 he posted his open letter )

- FK

so here we are in the middle of the presentation...discussing weblogs...

today i entered the blogosphere and found myself navigating through what John Hiler has coined "the emerging Media Ecosystem". While i know i am still only an observer, glimpsing into this vast textual universe - from the outside, i do think i am beginning to understand what "it" is all about.

without giving any definite answers, i have begun the process of letting go of the familiar, linear-knowledge-transfer-mode and have unconsciously started filtering through the different "informational worlds" i have some how come across. what you see on the right is my first "blogrolling list" , consisting of links to sites, which have been helpful and interesting in my attempt to understand and possibly become part of this organic-personal-hyper-text. i also realize that these are definite anker and entry points into the "mind worlds" i have come across so far and that they are nodes from which others can discover and make their "own hyper-text-readings". and yes, i am also beginning to get a feeling for the importance of linkages between the "right" texts. the web is no where as free and personalized as in this sphere.

As for the presentation tomorrow: I will be happy if i can at least trigger a little curiosity for these "new-text-worlds":

WEBLOGS, WEBBLOGS, BLAWGS, WARLOGS, WARBLOGS, THEMATIC BLOGS, TECHBLOGS, PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE PUBLISCHING, EYEWITNESS BLOGS, BLOG-BASED GRASSROOTS REPORTING and what ever else you want to call them!

-FK

so here we go. a room for my words. online. readable all over the globe. (well, all over the networked globe.) to tell you the truth, i only actually made the step to sign up, because of a presentation on "weblogs" i have to give in a media studies class in two days time. you see, i am faced with the task of actually telling "your story" to a group of students trying to figure out the essential differences between offline and online publishing. my task is to give you and your products "meaning" to an audience which has - to the most part- never heard of weblogs before. so instead of trying to understand the phenomenon of "weblogs or webblogs" from the point of a mere observer, i decided to jump right in and give "webblogging" a try for myself.

maybe over time, this might help me understand the essence behind this "new" form of communication better? Maybe those of you who are part of this "world" already can actually help me understand "it" better...

1.) why? why do we write? what are the motivations to publish all that is published?

2.) and for whom? who is the audience? who -exactly- are weblogs created for?

3.) are they, can they be an alternative source for news?

4.) how do you find your way around? how do you NOT get lost in the matrix of personal entries and worlds? or is that the point?

5.) what role does weblogging play in your life? how much time do you spend updating your own weblog?

6.) is there a community of webloggers? and what are the "rules"?

ok, that's about all i have in terms of questions for now.

while typing i already figured out one thing: it is fun to write to an imaginary "reader/viewer/listener" - i just hope someone "out there" will find my questions and try to answer them...

looking forward to any reply...

-FK feel free to: email me!