The Value of Blogging
I can't help but notice that those who criticize blogging are generally not familiar with the variety of bloggers and the range of blog quality.A useful counterpoint is provided by Brad DeLong, a Berkeley economist who maintains a frequently updated blog that addresses both economic and political topics. Last summer, he published an eloquent brief in favor of his style of blogging in the Chronicle of Higher Education. You can read the full text of "The Invisible College" here. An excerpt:
I would like a larger college, an invisible college, of more people to talk to, pointing me to more interesting things. People whose views and opinions I can react to, and who will react to my reasoned and well-thought-out opinions, and to my unreasoned and off-the-cuff ones as well. It would be really nice to have Paul Krugman three doors down, so I could bump into him occasionally and ask, "Hey, Paul, what do you think of .. ." Aggressive younger people interested in public policy and public finance would be excellent. Berkeley is deficient in not having enough right-wingers; a healthy college has a well-diversified intellectual portfolio. The political scientists are too far away to run into by accident — somebody like Dan Drezner would be nice to have around (even if he does get incidence wrong sometimes).
Over the past three years, with the arrival of Web logging, I have been able to add such people to those I bump into — in a virtual sense — every week. My invisible college is paradise squared, for an academic at least.
Labels: Knowledge management, Web 2.0
posted by Karen Nelson @ 11:14 PM
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