709 Final Project (Post 1/5)

“The blogosphere is the imagined public sphere, the space inhabited by all of the public digital bodies.” –Danah Boyd

In this series of posts, I want to explore the definition of “community” in blog networks. Many questions abound about how to define blog communities, or whether or not they exist. For example, a 2003 survey by the Perseus Development Company found that a significant proportion of blogs on the Web were inactive, and generated little, if any user interaction. Are blog communities defined only by activity or special interests? Are blogs that don’t receive comments or other forms of feedback not vitally contributing to the ways in which the “blogosphere” is developing? Given the sheer scope of the blogosphere, these are difficult questions to answer.

However, a closer look at these questions may reveal some important ways in which blog networks can be defined as communities. Specifically, I want to argue that blogging communities can be defined as dynamically changing groups of individuals who keep or read blogs at varying levels of participation. “Dynamic” can not only be seen in terms of participation, but also in the very medium of blogging itself. If this definition of community can be applied, it could have potent influence on the way the blogosphere will develop.

As a model to complement my research, I’ve analyzed a blog and conducted an interview with the blogger about her experiences. In June of 2007, Karen Cinpinski began blogging at playinthecity.com (PITC). PITC had previously been in existence for two years, and was originally conceptualized by visitmilwaukee.org as a tourism blog. Cinpinski writes from the perspective of “a person who has experienced [Milwaukee],” and is free to implement her own ideas, format, and content.

Little Fish in a Big Pond...(Post 2/5)

Previous to blogging for PITC, Cinpinski had kept her own blog for a short time for the sake of writing and getting her own opinions out on the Web. However, she was disappointed because there “wasn’t any interaction [with readers] on that site.” She was hoping to meet new people, receive comments on her posts, and generate dialogue with her readers. But she felt that blogs such as her own—personal and journal-like—too often are lost in the millions of blogs on the Web. As Lampa notes, filtering—through the small-scale work of individual bloggers with specific interests and large-scale work of news aggregation blogs—seems to separate active blog communities from more dormant, “diarist bloggers.” However, these diarist blogs are still published, and are available to the rest of blogging community. Although Cinpinski did not receive the kind of dialogue she wanted on her own blog, her comments and visits to other blogs became published interactions, a part of those communities. Thus, Lampa states that “an alternative explanation for the persistence of community is needed” to describe blogging communities.

This alternative can be seen in the ways Cinpinski approached the content of PITC. She was excited to find ways to include bloggers with a “lesser voice” in the blogosphere and wanted to provide “well-rounded” content that would attract a variety of visitors and keep them participating in the communities surrounding PITC. For example, she began noticing that readers who were interested in music events would come back every month to read and comment on her concert previews, echoing Halavais’ notion of blogs as a “popular and accessible form of public discourse,” as well as a “source of public opinion and deliberation.” On the other hand, some readers would make a single visit or comment, and then would never be heard from again. However, Lampa points out that even brief contacts “should not be marginalized,” because including them as active members will “strengthen the image of community” and will encourage them to return and participate.

Different blogging practices—such as making a single comment or interacting on a daily basis—contribute, according to Schmidt, to “social networks of varying density.” Thus, blogging communities can be seen as dynamic because “members” constantly have varying roles of participation and interaction, much like a citizen who casts a single vote at election time compared to a citizen who is politically active year-round. Because a single comment can be viewed indefinitely, it holds the potential for future interactions and discussions.

The Main "Nodes"... (Post 3/5)

In addition to sporadic participation from those on the periphery of the PITC blogging community, Cinpinski has also noticed increases in the core of her regular readership. She attributes the growth to “linking and commenting.” For example, when Cinpinski visits the blogs of her readers, she will leave comments, and they will do likewise. She explains it as a “give and take” process:

“When you talk about community, it’s interesting because the former blogger [of PITC] set up her own network of people, and they still read, and I added my own, and now everyone is linked to each other.”

A study by Nardi establishes blogging as “social activity, a form of social communication in which blogger and audience are intimately related through the writing and reading of blogs.” PITC is an excellent representation of this idea because of the interaction that Cinpinski and her regular readers engage in. She notes: “I try to get people to comment. The purpose of a blog to me is to put opinions out there and be honest, get responses from other people, and form a dialogue with your readers. Then these readers speak to other [bloggers].” Likewise, Blanchard argues that “a sense of community may develop and be shared between [interactive blogs]” because it will “decrease the dependency of the virtual community on any one blog author and increase the chances of viability for the virtual blog community as a whole.”

As Cinpinski previously mentioned, she wanted to increase the strength of her core readership, hoping that it would be a gateway for interaction and communication with all corners of the blogosphere. Bloggers who regularly interact with other bloggers actively attempt to build communities through networks of links and discussion, further adding to the varied dynamics of participation.

Making it Easy for Everyone...(Post 4/5)

It is important not to forget that the blog medium is also key to developing a dynamic community of readers. In contrast to printed mediums, blogs allow users easy access from all over the Web. According to Boyd, “blogs differ from static Web pages because they capture ongoing expressions, not the edits of a static creation,” and “allow people to extend themselves into a networked digital environment that is often thought to be disembodying.” Since blogs can be shared “asynchronously with a conceptualized audience,” writers and readers can share ideas and interests without the constraints of physical space. This further supports the notion of the dynamic nature of blog communities. A single comment can be responded to a year from when it was posted, or active discussions with hundreds of comments can occur during the course of an afternoon.

Looking to the Future...(Post 5/5)

Blog communities are certainly comprised of dynamic blogger and reader populations. In Cinpinski’s case, she has been able to experience blogging communities as a member of the periphery (through her personal blog), as well as a member of the “highly interactive” (through PITC). However, at both levels of participation, she was part of the dynamic communities that are increasingly networking themselves across the Web. Enhanced by the digital medium of the blog, being part of a community in this sense no longer requires residing in a certain area. A community member can interact everyday or stop by once a year, and can choose to be part of one community, or many. As blogging popularity grows, it will be interesting to watch how the peripheral members further interact with the more “populated” and interactive nodes of the blogosphere. If higher and more intense levels of interaction are encouraged throughout the blogosphere, perhaps the notions of community will expand even further.

Works Cited

Transcript of Cinpinski Interview

Transcript of Interview with Karen Cinpinski - April 13, 2008

Why did you start your blog?

Play In The City was started in May 2005, and it started with a different blogger. She wrote up until May 2007, and I took over in June that year. It was conceptualized by Visit Milwaukee, who wanted it to be a primarily a tourist site, but also a way for locals trying to figure out something to do in Milwaukee. It was a way for them to talk about events that are going on and to publicize the city. Also, they wanted to have a blogger as a third person so it has credibility. On my site you don’t know its related to Visit Milwaukee at all. There’s no reference, so they don’t think I’m biased. They let me speak my mind and write my own thing. They want it to be a way for locals and tourists to look at the site and find out what’s going on and they actually see a person who has experienced it.

How do you determine content?

It’s mostly up to me. I’m pretty well-rounded in terms of content. The blogger that used to write, she focused on a lot of the same things. I talk about sports and concerts, for example. It’s pretty well-rounded, but if there’s a specific event--art museum with the a photo exhibit, for example--they will tell me to go to that. Overall, it’s mostly me and my ideas, but they have a little bit of say.

What were your goals and expectations when you started running the blog?

I was new to the blogosphere. I tried doing my own site and I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea what to expect. In this case, I acquired a site rather than set up my own. When I set up my own I just wanted to write and get my opinions out there, but I didn’t get comments. I was expecting more feedback, but there’s so many blogs out there, so people don’t find it. I was expecting to meet people, but there wasn’t any interaction on that site. Fast forward to Play in the City--it was already established and there was a readership, so it was weird stepping in to that. I was going into it blindly. The columns were the same, but I changed the content in the columns. It is a site for tourism so I made different sections…sections for concert venues, links to sports that the previous blogger didn’t have.

How has your blog grown since you began running it?

Since taking over, comments have increased and hits have increased by about 200 per day. I’ve been personally marketing the site. When you write, its helpful to link and to use specific words, especially in your heading and the title. It helps to be specific to what you’re writing, so in searches, it will pop up more.

Have you seen a growth of “community” through linking and reader interaction?

Linking each other and commenting definitely contribute to that. I go to certain sites and comment and they comment on mine. It’s kind of a give-and-take type thing. Every blog I’ve read has had links to what they like. And if they link you then you link them. When you talk about community, it’s interesting because the former blogger set up her own network of people, and they still read, and I added my own, and now everyone is linked to each other. I thought that was interesting because I’ll go on one site and I’ll be linked, but so is the other one I read. Mostly bloggers read blogs regularly, so there’s networking. With Typepad, you can track where comments come from. Most hits come from Google. As far as comments, I have 2 regular readers who comment on every post. I do a concert preview every month, so those who are into that always come back at that time to check it out and leave responses. I have people who search me and like what I write but sometimes they don’t come back. I anticipated dialogue and comments. Everywhere I’ve gone, like corporate blogs, I’ve seen that.

What major limitations of printed media does the blog medium overcome?

The difference between print and blogging is that there’s no editor when you blog. It allows you to write what you want, with your own style and subject matter. With blogging, people are more inclined to come back because it’s easier access. It reaches more people because it’s over the web. In print you can’t have that. I think the overall structure is different from print. There’s so many different kinds of writing styles in blogs compared to print.

What do you think is the most important factor for a successful blog?

I think interaction, at least for mine, because we have companies behind it. If you have hits and readership it’s important. I try to get people to comment. The purpose of a blog to me is to put opinions out there and be honest, get responses from other people, and form a dialogue with your readers. Then these readers speak to others.

Does your blog reflect your personality or your reader’s personality?

Both, because people who like my writing and personality will come back and read. And if they don’t, they probably won’t read it regularly. The former blogger and I wrote very differently, and I’ve had new people come and start reading mine because they like my style over hers, and at the same time I’ve lost a few readers because they prefer her style.

Works Cited

Blanchard, A. (2003). Blogs as virtual communities: Identifying a sense of community. In L.J. Gurak, S. Antonijevic, L. Johnson, C. Ratliff, & J. Reyman (Eds.), Into the blogosphere: Rhetoric, community, and culture of weblogs. Retrieved May 5, 2008 from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogs_as_virtual.html

Boyd, D. (2006). A blogger's blog: Exploring the definition of a medium. Reconstruction: Studies in contemporary culture. Vol. 6.4. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from http://reconstruction.eserver.org/064/boyd.shtml

Lampa, G (2004). Imagining the blogosphere: An introduction to the imagined community of instant publishing. In L.J. Gurak, S. Antonijevic, L. Johnson, C. Ratliff, & J. Reyman (Eds.), Into the blogosphere: Rhetoric, community, and culture of weblogs. Retrieved May 5, 2008 from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/imagining_the_blogosphere.html

Halavais, A. "Blogs and the 'social weather'." Internet Research Conference 3.0: Net/Work/Theory. Maastricht, Netherlands, October 2002.

Nardi, B. et al. "Blogging as social activity, or would you let 900 million people read your diary?" Proceedings of the 2004 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Chicago, IL, November 6-10, 2004.

Perseus Development Corp. (2003). The blogging iceberg. Perseusdevelopment.com.

Schmidt, J. (2007). Blogging practices: An analytical framework. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), article 13. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/schmidt.html