Sunday August 15, 2004

A new dimension to Nothing

A few days ago I was in the office when a friend came up to me chuckling.

"Does the 5 second rule apply?!", he said, referring to my piece on Stephen Hawking's tea cup.

My friend's comment told me 2 things: 1. He read my entry from the evening before, and 2. He especially enjoyed that particular part.

This made me think a bit about blogs in general, and what role they play in giving others information or enjoyment. Actually, I found that I don't completely understand the blogging phenomenon, but here are some thoughts I have sorted out so far.

There are many sources of information on the Internet, including web sites, mail aliases and newsgroups, popup ads, and web logs. Each of these has a counterpart in the print world: books, magazines, newsletters, junk mail, and diaries.

Now, that's the part I want to focus on. The print equivalent of a web log is a diary.

Both a web log and a diary are a written record of things that individuals find important. Usually things going on in their personal lives that they wish to record exactly as they were experienced. Perhaps they will go back later and find trends in the way they deal with things. Perhaps they will never go back, but keep the written record for family members to look through and remember them by when they pass on. Maybe they will use their diary as the basis of their autobiography later in life.

The interesting difference is the amount of privacy associated with each. It is usually forbidden to look into someone's diary without their permission. They would probably never grant such permission. And what a breach of one's privacy should their diary be compromised, even accidentally!

The web log, on the other hand, makes it possible to write about anything and have your thoughts recorded and backed up. As a side effect of the business model, I suppose, the contents of a web log are there for all to see. I think people understand this to a degree and often refrain from entering their most private thoughts and events. But private thoughts and events often do get recorded in web logs.

Perhaps the compulsion of looking through someone else's diary is to get to know them better. See what they are going through. Find the face that they are hiding from their public world.

What I don't entirely understand is what is interesting about reading other people's web logs? If you want information about a specific topic, there are many topic-based information sources on the web. Web logs tend to have topics as well, though the topics jump around quite a bit because people like variety.

I suppose the answer is the same as that for diaries. People like to understand what makes other people tick. Kind of like building a geographically disparate community of folks that know each other well. Very well, indeed. Knowing the things others are working on, spending time on, thinking about, struggling with. Their interests and annoyances.

I like to think that people spend time doing things that actually mean something to them. Honestly, I haven't spent much time reading the web logs of others. I have read a few random ones. I have read a few from some of our more famous characters at Sun. I have read a few of our most popular ones. Still, I'm struggling to find out what devoted readers of blogs get from their investment. I'm hoping that you can help me in that area.

Back to my friend's comment and how you can help. Notice if you will, that I have added a new link on the right side of my page with the label "Remember This". This link takes you to a new page that shows the parts of my blog that others find most interesting. Whatever "interesting" means to them (helpful, thoughtful, clever, funny, painful, nonsensical, etc.). Things that drew my readers in and perhaps made them want to come back for more.

Currently it has only the one entry representing my friend's interest in a particular phrase in my Stephen Hawking entry. If you have a favorite passage from one of my entries, please send a comment. Include the passage that you enjoyed and the entry it came from and I will add it to the list or increment the value. I will keep this list sorted so the most generally interesting entries appear at the top. I really would value your feedback here. Don't hold back. You can vote as many times as you wish for as many passages, statements, etc. that you wish. No limit. I simply ask that you limit your comments to the parts that you actually enjoyed.

Others that visit my site will hopefully take a look at that sorted list and find a dimension of "Nothing" that cuts right to the core of why people visit my site in the first place. They will find it helpful, I expect. Maybe we can help each other understand blogging better. And through that, we can create entries that are more interesting, engaging, and entertaining for all.