Proposals for the Computers and Writing conference are due tomorrow, and I don’t have a proposal together yet and I’m undecided as to whether or not I should propose something. Oh, I’ll be going to the conference, of course; but because it is so local– just across town, really– it isn’t going to cost me anything more than registration. I’m sorta/kinda already involved in the planning, and I’m also sorta/kinda involved in the “unconference” discussions that have been going on about an alternative to the online conference. And I need another conference presentation on my CV like I need another hole in my head. So it might be interesting to go to the conference just to, you know, go.
So I’m on the fence here.
But while I was contemplating what to propose (or not propose), I decided that it might be interesting to throw out there something on the end of blogging. The title I have in my head right now is “Blogs are Dead: Yes, No, Maybe, Other,” or maybe just “Blogs are Dead: Yes, No, Other.” I have some sense of what I would say about that in a 15 or so minute presentation, and it might actually motivate me to do something with my mostly abandoned “Blogs as Writerly Spaces” project.
And then I thought that maybe this would be a fine roundtable sort of presentation that was more of a debate and made up of as many current and former bloggers interested in C&W that I could muster. I’m imagining something like a 75 minute panel where each participant would have as much time as possible to talk given the need to leave at least 20-30 minutes for discussion. In other words, if it’s three participants, everyone gets 15 minutes; if it’s 10, everyone gets four and a half minutes; it it’s some number in between 1 and 10, then the time will be somewhere between 15 and four and a half.
So, I emailed a half dozen or so people who have blogs I read occasionally. I got back some answers rather quickly, though most of these folks are already committed in one fashion or another. So then I thought “hey, why not throw up a blog post that tries to drum up some interest quickly?”
And so I wrote this post. Which, I should point out, I’m also sharing with the world via the tech-rhet mailing list, Twitter, and Facebook, which I suppose speaks to why I personally think the answer to the question about the death of blogging is both complicated and interesting.
In any event, if you are reading this now, if you do (or you used to) keep a blog, and if you were thinking about going to C&W this year, then it seems to me there’s a chance that you too might be interested in participating in this. If so, add a comment and/or send me an email, skrause at emich dot edu. We need to get this together very soon though!
Hi Steve, I am interested. I use both blogging and a ning with teachers and pre-service teachers, and some of the students also use blogging in their own teaching. I can approach the topic from a variety of angles. You won’t be able to get into the ning with the URL provided, but you can get to the blogspot blog. I like using the ning from the vantage point that students can engage at a deeper level and they “run the show.”