!about blogtalk

Back then in the summer of 2002, I remember, I had a certain feeling or better a certainty that emerged out of a very simple but effective daily practice and experience. After only 3 months of using a piece of software that was built to create a weblog I knew that the network I tapped into is going to change my view of the world that I live in. At that time I was heading the Center for New Media at the Danube University of Krems and somehow peripherally, partly due to my job description, I was drawn into that enormous learning network. It started off as a simple practice of collecting links to sources on the web thus becoming an information-filter for others. Within a couple of weeks I became part of a network of like-minded people on a global scale. Via reading their blogs - via RSS - I started participating in an ongoing chat that dealt with all the topics I was interested in from my professional point of view. This conversational style increased or even sparked off my daily dose of learning. I never learned that much before. And I still do that. Not only do I learn on a factual level but I also get to know the people that are closely linked to this pieces of microcontent that are published all across the world and - at least for me - interwoven via RSS.

After 2 months of usage that certainty made it evident for me that with blogs and the related networks we do have a very powerful personal publishing tool available that will augment our personal scope of networking as a base for learning enourmously. I was quite certain that this will not only effect the private usage but even more the organizational usage of it. Since then I am most interested in transfering the lessons learned in the open web into the professional and organizational context.

So in 2002 after a brief introspection I decided to organize a conference on that topic and together with Max Scheugl the first draft of BlogTalk - the first international conference on weblogs - was created. It turned out to be a huge success and had a successor in 2004, thanks to Markus Toyfl for helping to design it, and eventually turned for its third edition - that was conceived and organized together with Jan Schmidt - into a more general conference on social software - a practice and phenomenon that took shape already in late 2002.

The conference and the people that dropped by - from all over the world - to either present their visions, research, projects and ideas or to listen and to talk to each other represent what you could call a gathering of lead users that sought and are still looking for innovation - on several sometimes contradictional levels. We all - and I dare to claim that - are still looking for better ways to communicate and relate to each other be it for the exchange of knowledge or the exchange of experiences. And finally we are all aware that it is about connecting with like-minded people. A connectedness that primarily benefits us personally and on a second level it somehow creates what you might call a collective awareness and value that surpasses what we were used to accept as the boundaries of human intellect.

That might be entirely conventional from an anthropological perspective. Human beings are here for conversations as a prime base for anything else that can come to one’s mind. After all we humans represent and create networks of conversational animals. To imporve on that by shifting it to the virtual realm makes it a relevant aspect for me: it is where the virtual becomes indistinguisghable from the real.

During the last years I had the change to participate in a paradigm shift. On the one hand the web is clearly an effect and cause of what is termed globalization on the other hand it has a lot to do with innovation. And I am extrmely happy about that latter part. Experiencing innovation, even being part of it is exciting in itself and challenging on the the other hand. Just think of transfering your experiences into a world that does not participate in that innovation. A world that by the very virtue of not being part of the innovation is creating that notion of innovation at the same time. Just think of translating that for them and it becomes quite clear what is at stake. I realized - mediated through the conference and its aftereffects - that language and images are the relevant membranes that separate innovation from its acceptance. And if something truely new is here to stay than you first need to find the right words (metahphors) for it.

Hence, a new media evolved from being a mere instrument for doing a lot of things better and faster into a phenomenon that now constantly creates new concepts of how to make use of it. Concepts that by far transcend the simulation of existing media. The last 5 years were the most exciting ones and I have to thank the the people that build the web that connected me to that pieces and people.

Thus please go ahead and consult this volume as a representation of what the conference BlogTalk and its related conversations were about.

Thomas N. Burg, March 2007

Permalink • • • Comments are closed