Blogging

[I am on vacation the latter couple of weeks in July, so not much blogging happening.]
I was not registered for ALA at Chicago and only dipped in briefly to present on one panel. Afterwards, I continued congenial conversation in the bar in the Hilton, Kitty O’Shea’s (see the entry in Wikipedia for some background on the various names of Kitty O’Shea).
This meant that I turned up late for the OCLC Blog Saloon, er, I mean Salon, which was winding down as I arrived. I was interested to see Meredith’s note about the Salon, and about the state of blogging in general. I agree about the volume of interesting blog material, and have made similar comments in these pages recently, although I am less sure about what an ideal state would be like.
A while ago, I noted that I would be slowing down on the blogging front. This was largely because of the time commitment, the opportunity cost was a bit too high. However, as I did this, I also sensed that some of the heat had gone out of the blogosphere in general, and the library blogosphere in particular. The lists in my aggregator have visibly contracted.
Why? Walt, whom I was pleased to bump into at the salon, is probably right to suggest in the comments that some energy around notifications etc has moved to Twitter: “Twitter et al … have, in a way, strengthened essay-length blogging while weakening short-form blogging (maybe)-and essays have always been harder to do than quick notes”. I think that there has also been some professionalization, generally and to a limited extent in the library world, where some blogging activity is aligned with publishing or professional venues, or with a particular job (see the HBR set of ‘blogs’ for e.g. or blogs like TechCrunch or Ars Technica which are effectively magazines). Some of the more active Twitterers – and bloggers – have positions that make it easier to contribute.
Incidentally, as we wound up in Kitty O’Shea’s and my cheque arrived, I signed with my room number. The waiter returned. There was a problem: he was courteously concerned that a different name than mine was showing up when he entered the details, and again when he rechecked. I went out to the front desk to sort things out. The same thing happened, and furthermore they had no record of my even being at the hotel. Was I sure I was actually staying at the hotel, the patient staff member asked? I huffed and puffed about having already signed for a meal and having been there since the day before. Suddenly, I realized that no, I was not at this hotel, I was staying in the Hyatt down at the conference center. My companions in Kitty O’Shea’s kindly said that they would not spread my embarrassment, but I would not want to spoil a good story for them 😉
Hey – when you are only there for a day or two, moving between hotels, … anybody could make a mistake 😉
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• Blogging