blogsisential crisis

April 16th, 2007

Here I am shoveling through a wall of wet snow at an ugodly hour this morning so I could drive to the airport and NOT fly to Pittsburgh. My flight from Burlington was delayed so long that I wasn’t going to get there in time to speak tonight, if at all. So I came home.

We’re going to reschedule my visit to Carnegie Mellon for some time in the next month–I’ll keep you posted.

I haven’t been ignoring the recent flap here about my Open Thread idea. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I’m still working on a coherent response, and will post it soon. In one way, there’s not a lot to say. It was a flawed solution to an ill-defined problem. Many commenters had a strong reaction against it. It’s gone.

But reading your ensuing discussion about the nature of blogs and online communities, I realized that I’ve never had a very clear idea about the purpose of this one, or what my relationship is to it. That’s what I’m trying to formulate.

Coming to Pittsburgh

April 14th, 2007

In case you’re in the neighborhood, I’m speaking at Carnegie Mellon on Monday night. If I get there. I keep hearing about a Nor’easter that’s supposed to hit Sunday and Monday. I don’t know what will happen if my flight is cancelled. Will they postpone my gig or just forget about it?

women and children first

April 13th, 2007

Hey, go buy some books from Women and Children First and help one of the last women’s bookstores in the country to stay open. Here’s Linda and Ann, the owners. How can you resist? Here’s an article about how the store’s struggling and needs more support. They have a good website, I just ordered a couple books I’ve been wanting.