SXSW and Question of the Week

In class yesterday, I perhaps mistakenly conflated the various South by Southwest (SXSW) events. In truth, as you'll see if you click on the link, there are three related events: the Film conference and festival, which takes place March 13-22; the Interactive festival, which overlaps with the early part of the week; and the Music and Media conference, which gets started tomorrow. (You can access the report on the publishing meltdown here.)

All this leads to the Question of the Week:

What can publishing learn from developments in music, film, and new media?

If you have been missing blog posts -- and some of you have, in a big way -- I'd like you to try to catch up now. Use this question, if you want, as an opportunity to explore the tech/publishing relationship. There are plenty of blogs on the right that explore that question in some detail.

Question of the Week: How do you manage your blog voice?

First I want to thank George for suggesting that I prompt students with a question each week. This seems like a great idea. Thinking about my distractedness in class yesterday brings to mind a general principle of life:

We are always on view.

It's tempting to think that we can just be ourselves in social, professional, and academic settings, but it's just not so. We are always on stage, always on display, always potentially being scrutinized. (Facebook candor provides an endless set of lessons on this issue.) By its presence and accessibility, this blog is a public document. We all, students and instructor, continue to build public presences through our postings and comments. Potential employers and professional references might very well chance on this blog.

This leads to my question of the week:

How do you manage your blog voice?

I don't want this question to limit topics: feel free to avoid it. But if you're stuck, this might be a place to start.

On the whole, the blog posts have had the feel of "weekly responses," resembling the kind of informal responses that might be submitted individually in a traditional class. Here's a reading; here's my response. Here's another reading; here's another response. As such, a number of them have the informality (one might say carelessness) of private writings, with little attention to formatting or style. There's nothing necessarily wrong with this approach: it's one way to proceed. And I'm not going to urge you to be more dialogical again -- you know where I stand. What I'd like this question to generate, rather, is a conversation about blogging versus "private" forms such as diaries. Informality can be a kind of voice, including inattention to error. However, if such informality is not deliberate, it runs the risk of mistaking a blog for a private forum.

Respond, or not, as you wish.