Into the Blogosphere

Laura Gurak, Smiljana Antonijevic, Laurie Johnson, Clancy Ratliff, and Jessica Reyman
University of Minnesota

Into the Blogosphere, a collaborative article, is quite literaly that, a plundge into the world of blogging and the "blogosphere." Blogs, originally "weblogs" (a name coined by blogging pioneer Jorn Barger about his online journal Robot Wisdom), are many things. Blogs are a versatile venue for commentary and discussion between bloggers (those who interact with blogs and regularly post on one or many) and blogs are beholden to the whims and fancies of the bloggers. Blogs are rarely defined by the content as Gurak supposes and blogs are limited only by the direction of those participating. This logically leads one to assume that blogs can be anything, but only regarding content is this true.

Initially in Gurak's article there is a comment about blogger "enthusiasts" and there foward thought that all voices can be heard on the blogosphere. That there is no limit to the voices that may be represented on the interenet, to this point I must amend. While it is true that the possibility of voices is there, the liklihood and power is questionable at best. Those without knowledge of or access to the internet are not likely candidates for bloggers, that is, those without means or the capacity to use the interenet will remain voiceless on the interent. While voices can be heard, whether they will or not is more pertinent to the conversation. Gurak acknowledges this criticism, but I believe that it bares repeting to establish that what we are talking about is not an "egalitarian" venue for communication, but an educated group of only eleven percent (at best) of those online (2004).

Another component to this article that was interesting to me was, "the new cultural practices of online communication," that Gurak asserts is the social ramifications of blogging. Gurak understands, as others, that the blogosphere both is and represents a paradigm shift in the way that people discuss and argue, or simply rhetoric. The idea stands as an important one and Gurak offers some examples of this sharing, combining, and collecting of "ownership, authorship, and legitimacy," at the end of the article when many individuals respond, much as they would on a blog. And indeed this article operates as a blog where others can comment on either the article or other comments made, which acts both as an effective demonstration and in itself lends to the articles meaning.

My final, possibly most "important" thought on this article would be in regards to "the value of blogging in composition pedagogy." The idea of "facilitating a more collaborative environment and supportive sense of community," is an interesting one. It reminded me of something-- Our class, blackboard discussions, a novel idea. But I would go beyond what Charles Lowe and Terra Williams assert and suggest that these environs allow for our writing to be displayed, openly refuted by tangible people that have counter arguments, differeing opinions. Our academic discourse or discourse in general are constantly tested from multiple angles and allows an author to manage discursive thought more readily.

Into the Blogosphere is really the realization of discourse in high-speed.