Blogtrax

Anya left a comment on my post here. explaining how disappointed she was that a colleague who writes about Reality TV nevccer actually watches it and made her feel small for doing so.

It links a little with the thing I mentioned in my last Blogtrax post, about the way academics usually have a blurring of the boundaries between their academic and their ‘other’ lives; that it is sometimes diificult for them to think about where the boundaries actually are.

For the academic that Anya was talking about , there is however a clear distinction between what he is prepared to write about and what he values in his life generally. His attitude is very different to mine and it has revealed to me an assumption that Ihave, which is that researchers see the intrinsic worth in what they are researching. This is clearly not bon out by Anyaa’s observations ofher colleague and it is clear she had a similar assumption as me - hence her disappointment.

Academics who blog as part of their research are probably showing they value that activity; it feels more respectful to me to value the integrity and worth of what you are focussing on in your study. But I guess that is a feature of an ethnographic approach and not necessarily of other approaches where there is a determination to be objective, detached and to soberly assess a situation from the outside.

Motivation, for me is to become more deeply involved in something I like and think is valuable; but I guess others are motivated by a determination to improve society, to change what they are studying. (And I guess I am a bit more like that in other projects I am involved in. )

Many of the photographs on Flickr are images of the photographers themselves and of the photographers’ families and friends.
These are often accompanied by comments which give further details of family lives, friendships and collegial relationships.
The co-existance of the private/public space so often associated with online groups,is illustrated really clearly on the Flickr site and some of the shots I have seen are really intimate or of really important family moments - weddings, births even.
Meta photography is very popular and some people put deliberately provocative photos of themselves online. TT has a lovely post on this topic here.
It is as if in some spaces on theInternet there is a very strong sense of affinity, of trust and of defiance of all the stranger danger and discourses around the abuse of digital affordances by pornographers.
I had noticed when I was looking at Wiccan teens that in say 2002 - 2003 there were a great number of teens putting photos of themselves on thier webpages. Yet now this has massively decreased, presumably because of increased awareness of the danger discourses I referred to above.
I don’t know why, therefore there is this diffrence on the Flickr site. Maybe the ‘danger’ factor has fallen into obeyance since the stronger discourses are abbout the value of the photograph and the value of the affinity space itself. Maybe because of the ubiquity of digital cameras, digital photos etc that people feel less threatened by what can happen. The Flickr community maybe values the digital image so highly they cannot see the fear factor anymore?
People seem to want to offer a visual narrative of parts of theirlives, seeing themselves online, presenting a particular identity, and telling people in their comments, how to read the pictures.
Is there too much trust on this site?

I have done a lot of different types of post over the last few months.
There have been some which have related very specifically to literacy and an exploration of what a text is.
I have reflected on ideas I have read about or heard about, which have been totally academic related. I have reported on conferences and seminars.
I have written lists of books I want to read - thus showing my orientation towards particular topics and making a decision about what kind of identity I want to present for DrJoolz.
Sometimes I have been reflective about my posts.

So I have worked hard to show myself as academic it seems; but in doing so I have been thinking academically, reflecting on my workand trying to get others to talk with me about the content of my posts. (And academics have often responded.)

I have also used my blog to plot political views during the general election; to put across academic and political views about what is on television; I have even taken the risk and made comments about the wedding of Prince Charles and Chinchilla and made less than respectful noises about the pope. I have therefore used my blog as SOCIAL and POLITICAL COMMENTARY.

I have told stories about me in pictures and in words. I have even told the world my feelings in a very uncharacteristic act of openess. This was a very strange thing to do. I have given lists which reflect my interests, my preferences. I have shown things about my family relationships and those with friends and colleagues. This posts were personal narratives. Showing myself in what I do and in in my depiction of relationships.

More on types of posts next time …

It is a long time since Guy last posted here and even longer since I have done anything on this blog.
At first I felt guilty about not keeping this going but then realised that a lot of what I was doing over on DrJoolz involved quite a bit of thinking about the proces of blogging.
This is a catch up post but also I will from now on try to post something here every few days so that I know things are fresh in my mind.

I have been thinking about how in some ways I have develped a DrJoolz persona who is a little bit different from my identity as a researcher at work, as a colleague, as someone at home with family relationships. Maybe on the blog I present myself as having some kind of coherence; some sort of joined upness. In writing about myself I am somehow writing myself.I am subject and object of the work; and interestingly because I am writing about blogging I sometimes do stuff soI can blog it.In this way the blog influences my life; it does not simply record aspects of it.
For example on the walk round Sheffield, I only went on that walk to get photos for my blog. Photos like this one.

In taking this walk, I looked at an area of where I live that I had never been to before - even though it is really near it was not part of my daily map.

I have found that using images has made me look around me for visual jokes, for quirky things; even wondering what might be interesting to someone who does not live in England. This is me thinking about audience as well as taking an interest in looking about me in a new way.

When I called this photo ‘Addiction’ I thought it was funny but also quite poignant.

So I think that blogging has made me do things I would not have done before and it makes me look about the world in new ways.

Originally uploaded by krissie p.

My blog is watching me, staring out from the screen at me, and just the other side through the darkness of the pupil, visitors peer in at me. Somehow, perhaps because these blogs are adrift in a sea of millions we can probably guess (or even hope) who may float by, but photo-sharing lets more light in. The visits are upfront. Complete strangers look in, comment and borrow images. I’ve had my eye on this one for about a week; it haunts me. Now on Blogtrax it has been levered out of Flickr space, appropriated, and repurposed in this meta-world.

Reading Don Leu (Handbook of Reading Research, Vol.3) made me think about how the publish-as-you-go literacy research that is at the heart of Blogtrax had a further rationale. Here’s Don:

Since literacy is so intimately related to the technologies of informtion and communication as well as the envisionments they inspire, rapidly changing technologies make it difficult, if not impossible to develop a consistent body of research within traditional forums before the technology on which it is based is replaced by an even newer technology. Unless this situation changes, and strategies for publishing research in traditional forums speed up their processes or new forums appear, it is likely that traditional research will play an increasingly less important role in our understanding of new technologies and new literacies.

I was thinking about writing in the public domain, and how mine is mostly hidden between the covers of books and journals in formats which assume a certain kind of readership and address relatively narrow concerns. I don’t think I have much else in the public domain (although there’s plenty of everyday writing for private, interpersonal or closed groups). So, blogging is another dimension altogether. And it’s not really about staring at a blank page, or breaking a long silence, but more like adding a piece to a kaleidoscope of ongoing patterns. Nevertheless there still is a sense in which you are sticking your neck out, gaining public space.

Dr Joolz said that to blog is to be brave. I chuckled at the time, thinking perhaps it was just her way of putting things, but on reflection she’s right. Sticking your neck out is brave (although the consequences are unlikely to be guillotining!. It’s particularly brave when you broach sensitive or new topics. Dr Joolz’s disclosure (15 March) is like that, I think. That’s brave and that’s going public in a really interesting way. I mean where else could you write something like that?

Middle Earth Duck Pond
Originally uploaded by BobJack.

My ephemeral digital posts lengthen with time, expanding with a confidence to say new things, and garnished with a certain recklessness. More involvement with an online community of bloggers, readers (both known and unknown), and Flickr-sharers is a causal factor, put together with an increase in blog consumption. So my/our blogs evolve, including this one, as we develop heteronymic works, discover new voices, new ideas and new skills.

Dr Joolz has talked about the kind of osmotic learning that takes place around blogging: a bit of html, the subtle art of tagging and so on. Recently, I’ve been wanting to index my posts but found the Blogger advice too dense. Easy to get lost in the hinterland of geek technology. Then I got into Blogstreet, attracted to the neighbourhood/proximity concept, but I find I’m out of my depth there too. And most recently of all I’ve been looking at RSS feeds but can’t quite grasp how they work, or even if I’d have the time or energy to engage with them.

Is this technological hinterland a place to colonise, or is it best left alone if all you’re interested in is the writing? The trouble is the writing itself and the technology to write subtley infuse one another. Perhaps, to be lost in the hinterland is to wish for a map.