Holy crikey! John Palfrey's linked to me from his weblog (nobody ever links to me so this is pretty noteworthy).
He also adds some thoughts on the Weblogs at Harvard project:
a) that we begin with a principle that we seek to advance the use of technology in a teaching and learning environment; b) that we want to make blogging technology easily accessible to members of the Harvard community to see what they do with it; c) that we see some benefits out there in this technology for free exchange of ideas, friendship, collaboration, possibly even *democracy* (careful, yup, I know) -- could be semiotic democracy; d) and that we want to stay flexible enough to adapt as the interests of creators and readers and listeners and watchers change. And maybe even have some fun in the process.
In addition, he has some thoughts on the current sketchiness (or 'fuzziness' for those who like that word better) of the project. One of the things I like about this project currently is that it is going forward with fuzziness attached. Things can be discussed to death. Anticipating objections can, in my experience, become like self-fulfilling prophecies and can easily suck the life out of the project and more importantly suck the energy out of the people who are enthusiastic about the project.
I wrote up some additional thoughts yesterday after reading summaries from Donna Wentworth and others about the live blogging meeting on Tuesday. Among other things, I wrote this:
And finally, there is a piece of the discussion that is inevitably about how to suck this back into a ‘process’ instead of a ‘thing that actually happens.’ You can see this when the talk turns to rules and principles and whether people will use it or not and what they’ll be worrying about when they do. Some of this is important (and some of it really isn’t). What I’d like to see with Weblogs at Harvard is what they appear to be doing, going forward, implementing things, letting it disrupt and adjusting as it does.
There's also an 'About' page up now at the Weblogs at Harvard site, which says in part:
Welcome. This is the place where we point to the developments in the developing World O'Weblogs at Harvard University. You won't find any biting commentary here, or insightful ideas, or even logical breakthoughs, our job is to help you do that, and help spread the word about your accomplishments. We're studying weblogs and evangelizing them. We're excited about how this technology might be used in all the activities of the university, for faculty, administration, students, alumni, staff.Posted by dcoates at February 14, 2003 10:59 AM