Another interesting blog post, with several threads of good-looking conversations to follow, that I don’t have time to read now: Chutry writes about how blogs are a kind of writing to the moment (like epistolary novels) and how that might work in relation to research blogging. What does it mean to write research to the moment rather than writing to a database or a notebook for later editing? This is a really old post, June 2003, which I happened on following a trail of links and trackbacks, and I only just realised it was two years old. I like that two year old posts can be just as visible as new ones.
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Matt
… until the author moves their server, hmmm?
Jose Angel
Well, luckily, old posts remain visible. Otherwise the moment might dwindle away into the moment (e.g. last hour’s post as no longer relevant, because here we’re living at the cutting edge of the present….) As a literature teacher, I tend to believe in the staying power of texts. Not all, of course, and not all the time, but blog posts are not an exception. So write to the moment, but the moment may be a keyhole opening up to a larger view.
Chuck
I’ve enjoyed watching some of my research ideas change over the course of several months, and archives are a big part of that. It’s also fascinating to see ideas recontextualized by other bloggers weeks (or even two years, in this case) later. Interesting to revisit some of these thoughts from many months ago.
Jill
It was interesting to me to realise that it was two years old AFTER first imagining it was quite new.
Oh, and yes, changing servers. Cough. I wrote this nice redirect that made all the old links work, but then I fixed it, thinking I was making it better, and I brooke it completely and can’t make it work again. That sucks and I promise to figure it out at some point…
Francois Lachance
Dr. Jill, I’m curious. By what series of pointers and links did you alight upon that particular Chutry Experiment entry? If you have the inclination and the time, a write up, please.
Jill
I can’t quite remember, FranÁois – oh, look, I managed to follow the path backwards for a while.
1. I think I clicked a link off the blogroll of Profgrrrl or New Kid or someone, anyway, I arrived at a blog I don’t think I’ve read before called World Enough and Time.
2. The newest post there that day quoted a post by George Williams (whose blog I do read quite often though not daily) and I liked the quote: “Getting stuck in the imagined narrative trajectory of your life can be intensely counterproductive. Author your way out of it and into another.” So I followed the link.
3. I didn’t notice while reading it, but that post, which introduces the “writing to the moment” idea, was from April 9, 2003. I read it with interest and looked at the comments. The first was a trackback from Chutry (who’s blog I also often read) that mentioned something Anne Galloway (whose blog I follow regularly for periods and then not for periods but I always seem to come back) had written about using blogs as research tools, and a student just asked me if I had any references to ideas about research blogging, so I followed the link.
4. That brought me to Chutry’s post, which I then blogged. I thought of also linking to George’s post but didn’t.
So there’s the trajectory for you. I wonder whether I was more likely to follow those particular links for already knowing the people who’d written. Well, not known, I’ve never met any of them, but I’m familiar with their blogs. Except the first one.