Tom Bowden wrote:
I have been reading over summer about the power of blogs and I am
intrigued at how their use is changing our daily lives... apparently
George Bush's plummeting popularity is accelerating because of the
effect of blogs. Their instant communications ability is changing the
media paradigm almost overnight.
I agree that our ability now to communicate rapidly with large groups of
people is having a massive effect in facilitating rapid changes in our
society.
However, in my experience to date it is email discussion lists like this
one that have had the larger role in enabling rapid communication with
large groups of people, rather than blogs.
I am relatively a blog ignoramus. I'm not sure whether my low use of
blogs and my high use of email discussion lists reflects simply my age
(have I somehow missed being washed over by the blog wave?) or the fact
that I devote most of my online time to communication with other GPs and
people working in or with general practice, like Tom Bowden, and
therefore participate in some of the available email discussion lists.
In my limited understanding of blogs, a blog belongs to one person and
tends to provide one way communication from that person, whereas in an
email discussion list like this one everybody participates on an equal
basis. To date, I have found it easier to read David More's latest
ideas on this list rather than to have to go to his blog to find them
out. It is also more interesting to me to read and participate in
discussion and debate about David's ideas on this email list rather than
on his blog site. Some of the reason for this I am sure is just my habit.
It seems that part of the purpose of running a blog, and one which David
does so well, is to provide a space for longer essays which members of
an email list may not always want to receive. Blogs and email
discussion lists seem each to serve their own different but often
related purposes.
It is interesting that having somebody recommend an article on another
person's blog site, as Tom has done today, is so valuable. We get the
benefit not only of the blogger's ideas and views, if we make the effort
to go to the blog site, but also some explanation, recommendation and
perhaps a critique from the referrer (Tom Bowden in this case) about
what he or she found useful in the article on the blog site.
--
Oliver Frank, general practitioner
255 North East Road, Hampstead Gardens, South Australia 5086
Phone 08 8261 1355 Fax 08 8266 5149 Mobile 0407 181 683
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