For the record: This is a lecture review, not a review of the man who did it.
So, we went to the lecture about blogs. Or as the official title said “Blog – the tool of web-presence of an individual” (next to my “Blogging” title, it sounds omnious).
Nudo.nu, the author of the lecture, and me clearly does not come from the same academic background. He tends to see things in a more artistic and fashionable way, while my lecture decides to dig deeper and explain things from a more sociology-based point of view. Which is perfectly OK, since the lecture would shed some additional light to this subject and add a more broader comprehension of it.
He did make some interesting points. He spoke about web 2.0, about all those applications that support it (flickr, Last.fm…) and about the different usages of those application by the population. He talked about fanzines and the way they morphed into blogs (did you know that boing boing! was originally a fanzine? I did not).
And then the lecture got tricky. Personally, I think the lecture concentrated way too much time on flickr-related applications and way too little time on the actual phenomenon, generating web-presence with the tool of a blog. Which is not a mistake, except that in my opinion, it does not really fit the title of the lecture.
Couple of things however really irritated me:
1. “Let`s me check what my next slide is” – annoying, since the lecturer appears ignorant of its own lecture and has to check what his other self wrote a day ago.
2. “Well, you can google that” – erm, it`s related to your lecture. At least think of something.
3. “I think there are no bad sides to blogging” – yeah, tell that to the people who got fired over their blogs. Just an example.
All in all, if the “powers that be” decide to repeat his lecture, he really should
a) Look into the blogosphere from a broader point of view
b) Check out the slovenian blogosphere
c) Goggle more 😉
As for me, the lecture did satisfy some of my curiosity. The origins of blogs and some details about web 2.0. 2/5.
As it happens, I am the “power at be” in this case, so I feel compeled to answer.
We don’t repeat lectures. Most of them are recorded and are or will be available online, but so far we felt absolutely no need to repeat one. I don’t see this changing in forseeable future, since there’s no shortage of topics and themes we’d like to explore first.
I’ve never seen a lecture which couldn’t be improved, but I certainly wouldn’t give Ozren a low rating like you did. I was very satisfied but at the end it’s every visitor’s right to make their own mind. To be honest though, if he followed your advice, he wouldn’t get invited.
I don’t think we’re ready for the kind of talk you’d like. First, Spletne urice are foremost about meeting people and discussions. 2 hour talk kills any chance of that. Second, I don’t think blogosphere (at least in Slovenia) is mature enough to have an interesting sociological talk about it. You can get fired for practically anything worth doing and if this is the the worst downside we can think of, then I’d say there’s still too little of introspection going on. Third, the purpose of our talks is not mutual ego-patting. I fail to see what was missed by not concentrating on slovenian blogosphere.
Personally, I don’t mind being told to google for things I obviously can. I’m sure it might, if my motivations were different. Communicating what we are trying to do is something we organizers could and should improve the future.
Flickr, Last.fm and other applications mentioned are in my opinion about the same thing, but I admit it could be made more obvious. I kind of expected most people won’t “get” it, which is too bad.
At the end I’d just like to thank Ozren again for his talk and thank you for your review.
Hey.
I think you are mistaken about the slovenian blogosphere not being mature enough. Personally I think that you have to start monitoring an occurence when it`s new and fresh and not when it gets old and stale and too big to start monitoring. Maturity has nothing to do with age (in this case). The only thing that changes with age is that the different ideas and ways of usage get blended into less different ideas and less ways of usage. This has nothing to do with ego-patting (I don`t even know where did you come up with that idea – maybe from Ozren himself when he introduced his blog and his wife`s blog and…) but more with explaining and broadening your audience`s horizons. If the point is just to irritate people with talking mostly about everything and nothing, then I apologize…
My point I was trying to make was that people were apparently expecting something different, otherwise there would not be any questions in the end. And I think we can both agree that telling your audience to go google for the question they asked is not really professional.
In my opinion you failed to bring this topic closer to your audience by not focusing on the slovenian blogosphere. People want to know if their neighbours are using this “thing”. People are curious about their own surroundings and find a certain topic much more interesting if they can relate to it.
Saying that you expected something to happen and then regretting it is a silly thing. Why did not you do something? And not that I find the concept of web 2.0 boring or not compelling enough, it`s just that the concept is getting such crummy representation that people are left baffled and confused. Presentation is everything in this case.
As for repeating… blogs were already debated on POT. Almost a year ago. So please, do not think that I am offended because I was not invited. It was interesting to see a different approach to the subject. I did learn some new things.
Here`s to more events. The subject is interesting enough and it deserves the attention. Of both the explorers and the audience.
I think your comment illustrates best what the problem is. Our expectations of, well, more or less everything are completely different.
I’ll skip the part about slovenian blogosphere. I have neither the time nor interest to discuss why I see its state completely different than you. Especially since I doubt it would change anyones mind.
I think talk which doesn’t produce a plethora of questions is a failed talk, but I would be disinclined to judge it solely on the quantity of raised questions.
I don’t think it’s unprofessional to tell your audience to Google something especially at the event aimed at people who are at least very interested hobbyist if not someone who works with web professionally. Which is where the problem lies.
Spletne urice are not POT or any other project in Kiberpipa and have neither the same goals nor target audience. We might get talks with similar titles, but have mostly different expectations. Everybody is welcome to attend, but it doesn’t mean that we also try to cater to everyone.
Spletne urice were started to create a place, where people who have a deep interest in web and its development can meet, discuss and share their experiences and knowledge. Talks are just a vehicle for that and it’s great if you can learn something, but this is not the only or even the most important metric for selection of our talks.
Our lecturers may try to sell an idea in which they believe in and they are completely free to do so. But it’s not what we as a project are trying to do.
Anyway, you can find and learn more about us at http://web.zen.si
Btw, I expected it after it happened, not before and that’s what informal discussion that usually follows is for. That is if you don’t leave immediately.
I don’t think it’s unprofessional to tell your audience to Google something especially at the event aimed at people who are at least very interested hobbyist if not someone who works with web professionally. Which is where the problem lies. – that describes your audience but what does it say about your lecturer? I am too lazy to do it? I did not have time to prepare? Fuck it, you do it? All three or something else?
Learning is not the most important thing? Then what is? Beer afterwards? I find this funny because in my opinion exchanging information and knowledge is also part of a learning process.
I expected it after it happened… – ahem. How can you expect something that has already happened? I mean, in my opinion the whole point of expecting something is to do so before the thing you were expecting actually happens. If you are expecting something that has already happened, you`re not doing very much.
What you are saying is that the whole point of the lecture is the debate that follows. Which is something I do no agree with. The after-debate in my opinion is meant to enhance or clarify the lecture itself, and not to be the “main event of the evening”. This definition renders the after-debate unnecessary sometimes. If people got what they came for with the lecture itself, fuck it. We can all go home. If people are intrigued by the lecture and want to know more or ask specific questions, here comes the after-debate. And if people leave right after the lecture, the lecture itself did not give them what they were looking for and it would be pointless to involve in the after-debate. If the foreplay sucks, why bother with having sex at all?
To check the fundamental difference of these lectures you simply have to check the blogs of the both authors. School lecture files versus Funky Diva.
I didn’t catch Ozren’s lecture yet (I hope to have a recording soon), but I have had a pleasure to hear an audio of Domen’s lecture from Kibla in MB. It wasn’t bad, the technical part was good actually (although web 2.0 wasn’t covered good). I found it to dry & way too long. There was a certain dramaturgy behid it, but after 20 mins passed, I had a feeling that everybody felt asleep (including the presenter). There were also some minor inquiry lacks that can be forgiven, maybe Google wasn’t used often enough inbetween.
On your above thread I sense two very different approaches to blogs. Opening up questions is better than establishing sorts of dogmas IMO. It seems to me Kiberpipa is doing remarkably good job in establishing an open platform for cybercluture.
And speaking about maturity of si.blogs: Domen, your lecture hasn’t even been discussed here, remember the ban & scuffle?
Clovek, ki ne zna sam niti svojega lastnega bloga urejat, se po mojem skromnem mnenju ne bi smel tako strasno repencit nad drugimi.
Which one of the three?
Well, guys, it is Domen’s blog and Ozie is his competiton, as Domen put it himself. So you just can not expect Domen to say ‘Ozi’s was better’ or even at the same level.
As I attended the lecture I did find it a little boring at some point when he stepped into the flickr trap – but I’d probably find any lecture boring after being killed by powerpoint at leat 1000 and 1 times in the past 10 years.
The greater value of the event for me lies in the socializing part. I think very few of the attendees were blog-illiterates to such extent that the whole lecture would seem completely and totally interesting to them.
Btw, you can find a short analysis of the Delo.si/blog site at Hapax Legomena (http://tritecomment.blogspot.com/).
At the end – i just want to say Hi! to all those who support me 😉
killed by powerpoint… engrave that…