Mike, I think we seem to be moving to a set of tools that will centralize these spaces for better manageability (as you indicated, current disadvantages are related to conversation fracturing and complications in facilitation). Personal Learning environments may be examples of such spaces – applications that allow you to interact, track and control through a single “space”.

That’s a very interesting observation about items that are pushed you way. I hadn’t made the connection before but I do the same thing. For some reason having something sent to you inspires a greater sense of responsibility than RSS. So I tend to read the Daily straight away as well.

As far as getting people engaged in course blogs goes, that’s a tricky one. I do have some thoughts on that though.

In his TED talk, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales talked about the idea of cultivating a “social concept of cooperation”, which basically encourages open dialogue and collaboration between participants and working towards a shared goal – even when disagreements arise.

In a blog network sense I wonder if it’s a matter of cultivating a sort of “blogging nature”, where active discussion and sharing of thoughts and information is the key; and basically people see blogs as communication and conversation tools as much as a writing tool.

In this sense I think leaving comments is really important because above and beyond the potential for discussion they provide, they’re also a really effective way to inspire people to write more and to comment on other people’s blogs.

When I’m trying to find my place in a new group of people leaving comments is typically one of the first ways I try and meet people. Certainly I can read their blogs for an idea of who they are; but until I leave a comment they have no way of knowing who I am.

So really it requires action on the part of the individual. Rather than me sitting around waiting for people to come to my blog it’s better to go to theirs first.

I do think a daily blog digest could help point people in the direction of others with whom they might make healthy connections, but at the end of the day it’s also a matter of saying hello I think.

Thanks for the comment – it was very thought provoking

Cheers,

Mike

How to get more people engaged in (course) blog networks? An interesting format might be to have rotating responsibility in a course for a “daily” type of mail out. When it’s your turn you review and comment on the entries for that day, then send it out. Then it’s passed on the the next person. I think overall it would be useful to find ways for the participants to get involved in reading and commenting on blog posts.

I guess I can only speak personally here since everyone’s experiences are different – hence the Personal aspect of PLN’s – but in my case I absolutely think Twitter helps connect people. I’ve had some tremendously valuable conversations that way which have helped make conceptual linkages with other ideas floating around in my head.

Along those lines, I’m not even sure I’d say Twitter “fills the gaps” so much as serves as another means of communicating with people in your learning network. In this case it’s virtually synchronous communication in the same vein as instant messaging, and therefore provides a way to get virtually immediate responses from people.

Blogs on the other hand are a more considered way to communicate – but in my case there’s a distinct value to both of them

Cheers,

Mike

Actually, what I was wondering is whether Twitter is filling in the gaps, so to speak -does it contribute to the network between blogs. Eg I see you have written a post & visit your blog, which is how I ‘discover’ you. And then say, we start linking up via our blogs. Would that have happened without Twitter. I’m not sure that is making any sense, but can you see what I’m thinking?

Good thoughts!

Actually for that matter would Twitter qualify as a blog network? Some people do refer to it as “micro-blogging” after all. We almost need to define – or re-define -what the definition of “blog” is these days.

For example, Stephen Downes said in his Educause article on Educational Blogging that all you need to have a blog is a description field. If this is true then it really expands the possibilities for what qualifies as a blog, since most things have a description field these days.

For example:

- YouTube videos
- Seesmic posts
- traditional blog posts
- Twitter posts
- Flickr Images
- FriendFeed streams
- Disqus comments

Where do we draw the line I wonder? Or do we even need to?

This is making my head spin

Cheers,

Mike