Jason Van Anden
Since 2004
Works in Brooklyn, New York United States of America

ARTBASE (2)
BIO
Jason Van Anden is a new media activist, artist, inventor and robot maker. His creations are exhibited internationally, receiving recognition in the art, science, technology and gaming communities. More about Jason and his work can be found at his website www.smileproject.com.
Discussions (224) Opportunities (1) Events (4) Jobs (0)
DISCUSSION

Re: Blog vs Board (re: Blogging Survey)


I agree with Francis that 'experiments are cool'. But experiments should be recognized as just that; a trial (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=experiment).

Questioning whether blogging strengthens or weakens an online community is my attempt to follow Dyske's suggestion '... start your own with specific designs that encourage desired behaviors.' without having to build it myself.

Jason Van Anden

DISCUSSION

Re: Blog vs Board (re: Blogging Survey)


The comments have been enlightening. To summarize, blogs serve different purposes not achieved by paritipating in a community message board: Ego (1 - Lee Wells) and protecting fellow message board participants from topics not necessarily appropriate for discussion (2 - Dyske Suematsu). Each raises an interesting question:

1.) Eyeballs == Ego Fuel:
Does the typical individual's blog draw more traffic than Rhizome?

2.) Raw == 'Enter at Your Own Risk':
Do the levels of Rhizome's board distillation
(Raw as opposed to Digest, etc...) poorly protect the membership from inappropriate topics of discussion?

Jason Van Anden

DISCUSSION

Re: Blog vs Board (re: Blogging Survey)


RSS feeds might solve the problem, (1: below) if everyone has their own blog. As Dyske points out (2:below), this is not trivial. To be worthy of community interest, it needs to be well maintained and promoted.

If the community accepts that Rhizome Raw is like a community blog, the end result would be one rich site instead of many competing, poorly maintained and promoted sites.

Dyske also point out (3: below) "As for the lack of interesting discussions on this list: There are things you can do to encourage interesting discussions too." I have tried to do this, and I suspect that it takes some practice. I have not enagaged in an online forum such as Rhizome before. Perhaps this is why I have such high expectations for it's potential.

Jason Van Anden

1 - Geert Deekers
>Tracking decentralized posts outside of rhizome, but within the rhizome
>community could be facilitated -- just thinking aloud here folks -- by
>implementing rss feeds. Joining the rhizome community with your blog
>would then be as easy as posting your rss address to some specialized
>rhizome page. Or does this already exist?

2 - Dyske Suematsu
> Minor differences in user interface, system architecture, graphic
> design, theme, the personality of the organizers, etc. can influence
> the behaviors of the members significantly. I currently manage several
> discussion boards and I am always surprised by how differently people
> behave because of these subtle differences.

3 - Dyske Suematsu
>As for the lack of interesting discussions on this list: There are things you can do to >encourage interesting discussions too.

DISCUSSION

Re: even better than the [ethe]real thing


Ditto.

I had just submitted a commentary complaining about the recent lack of member participation, and questioning wether the trend towards blogs was the reason. Then I came across this gem, and felt a bit better.

Jason Van Anden

marc garrett wrote:

> Very enjoyable read - best stuff i've read on here for a long time,
> loads to chew on :-)
>
> thanx
>
> marc
>
> > even better than the [ethe]real thing:
> > a response to Alex Galloway's "Protocol"
> >

DISCUSSION

Blog vs Board (re: Blogging Survey)


I am a fairly new member to the Rhizome community. When I first discovered Rhizome, I was excited to find a forum of artists with common interests and concerns, and looked forward to the discussions that would take place, and that I could take place in. Since I joined a few months ago, there have only been a few sustained threads, while the archives are filled with lively and fascinating discussion. What happened?

The recent survey requesting community interest in a blog service via Rhizome has caused me to wonder if this is because of some trend; moving away from boards, and towards blogs. If so, I wonder what the ramifications of this may be. In some ways, blogs and boards are the similar, they both enable ongoing, two way communication. The clear difference is that a blog is run by it's moderator, which changes the dynamic, a lot.

If everyone runs their own blog, everyone is a moderator, and system becomes decentralized. This requires more effort by the blog owner and his/her audience. The person running the blog needs to keep things interesting enough to keep people visiting, the audience needs to keep track of many blogs instead of one.

At the time that I discovered Rhizome, I also discovered a lot of other on-line resources influenced by it. After doing an unscientific cost/benefits analysis, I decided that the service that Rhizome provides as a centralized and democratic community was the best one, and decided to become a member. Personally, this meant that I devote some of my time (and ego) for the greater good of the group, by posting my opinions and reactions to topics of interest, in one place.

I believe that a socialist-democracy (the ideal of Rhizome) is a much better way for this community to thrive than anarchy (fractured, poorly maintained blogs). In order for this to happen, I think that members need to deliberately devote their resources to the good of the board than their own blogs.

Given that we all have a finite amount of time to devote to our art, our day-jobs, and so on, I am interested in why members feel it is better to blog than to participate in a board.

Best Regards,
Jason Van Anden

Rachel Greene wrote:

>
> > From: Kevin McGarry <Kevin@rhizome.org>
> > Date: July 1, 2004 5:57:38 PM EDT
> > To: <netartnewslist@rhizome.org>
> > Subject: + + Rhizome.org blogging survey (please participate) + +
> >
> > Hello Net Art News Reader,
> >
> > We are conducting a simple, 4-question survey regarding blogs to
> > collect
> > data for a possible forthcoming addition to Rhizome.org. We value
> your
> > opinions about arts writing and your support for online
> publication,
> > so who
> > better to take our questions on blogging to but you?
> >
> > Please, if you have a moment, visit the URL below and complete the
> > survey -
> > it should only take about 10 seconds -
> >
> > http://rhizome.org/survey/
> >
> > Thanks and all the best from Rhizome.org Staff
> >
> > Kevin McGarry
> >