Home » Archive » The present future of conversations
, written by Jeremy. Read the commentary.
Kottke writes:
“… can we have a discussion about where technology and user experience on the web are headed without using any of the following words or concepts:
Ajax, web services, weblogs, Google, del.icio.us, Flickr, folksonomy, tags, hacks, podcasting, wikis, bottom-up, RSS, citizen journalism, mobile, TiVo, the Long Tail, and convergence.
That all seems like the present and past, not the future, no? … What else is out there? Anything?”
103 comments ensued generating a very interesting conversation … well, a kind of conversation, more like many monologues at once.
It was just this sort of phenomena that prompted a real conversation between Dave Pollard and I. When we first started talking we were trying to understand how to better leverage all the great, individual thinking being done on blogs because what Kottke hosted wasn’t a conversation at all. It was nearly 80 people carrying on their own conversations with themselves while others watched. That’s not a conversation — that’s philosophical voyeurism spiced with a hint of insanity.
Since our first chat Dave’s put up a set of guidelines for what might become real conversations through blogs. And while the whole thing is worthwhile, I think there are some highlights to bring out. First, he’s deliberately steered us away from the usual format of blogs (no links, no graphics, and only people invited to participate). Second, it actually involves discussion (actual voices, slightly edited for palatability, etc.). Finally, the people need to be knowledgeable or clever — most blogs with 103 comments usually float a lot of dead wood.
So, to Kottke’s list of over-played words I would add “conversation”. And to the ideas that form the future, I would also add the same.
Update:
After kottke picked this up, Will Femia of Clicked on MSNBC grabbed it and said:
“We learned a similar lesson with our chat rooms and message boards; most people were going there to say their piece, not listen to others and discuss. Providing a forum is not the same as conducting a conversation. If the future is able to come up with a new way to conduct conversation it’ll be a bigger revolution than most people realize. Most of our media right now, even when there are guests representing “both sides” consist of nothing more than single perspectives presented in series.”
So, what are we going to do about it?
Unquestionable
Better for the effort
Written by Sam on
Good observation. Perhaps we can take some cues from the classical rhetoricians…
The Wikipedia discussion pages are often filled with fascinating debate. It’s interesting to note that while the discussions are not supposed to be focused on the topic of the article but content of the article itself, I often learn more about the topic from the discussions than from the article. Take the discussion on the Intelligent Design article for example. Interesting stuff.